Day Two at Asia’s first India Non Fiction Festival
~ Communication expert Mr. Gautam Kiyawat launching the book by Mr. Vijay Santhanam at the Non-Fiction Festival ~
The second day was riding the wave of euphoria from the first, promising to be full of interesting and rewarding sessions as well as top notch non-fiction literary personalities.
The culture room of the Nehru Centre was energized with a session on ‘Bold Workouts.
Real Goals’, with fitness guru, writer and author Ms. Madhuri Ruia, speaking about the need for a workout for the purpose of wellness, avoiding sickness and the need for various health checkups to deal with the modern sedentary lifestyle. Whereas, in the harmony room, a parallel session was taking place on ‘The Diet Doctor: the scientifically proven way to lose weight’ by clinical nutritionist, diet consultant and bestselling author, Ms. Ishi Khosla confidently addressing the baggage which comes with excess weight, while practicing medical nutritional therapy.
Early on in the afternoon, there took place the launch of author and Professor
Vijay Santhanam’s inspirational book ‘A Stroke of Luck’ by Mr. Gautam
Kiyawat, CEO Madison Media and Mr. Radhakrishnan Sriniwasan, RK, Neo Sports, recounting the harrowing experience of Mr. Vijay’s ordeal, on not taking things for granted and to be prepared to do what is necessary to become healthy. During ‘Bold Professionals to Entrepreneurs’, Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay deputy managing editor, Mint and bestselling author engaged in a passionate conversation with Mr. Paresh Sukthankar, ED, HDFC Bank, Mr. Nirmal Jain, Founder and CMD, IIFL and Mr. Rasesh Shah, Cofounder and Chairman, Edelweiss talking about their initial days and the challenges they have faced while recounting humbling experiences that have helped in the building of successful institutions.
An informative session on the ‘Myths and Facts about Homeopathy’ by Dr. Mukesh Batra speaking about the benefits of homeopathy stating that it may be perceived as slow but it is not true as it is quick to cure acute problems and is a very good form of modern science.
An exhaustive session on ‘The role of individuals, government and corporates
in promoting philanthropy’ took place with an active participation from Mr. Indrajit Gupta, founding Editor, Forbes India with Dr. Lalit Kumar, Adviser, Voluntary Action and Youth Affairs at Planning Commission, Government of India, Mr. Matthew Spacie, Founder Magic Bus, Ms. Shaheen Mistry, Founder Teach For India as well as Mr. K Ram Kumar, ED, ICICI Bank who discussed about the various philanthropic programmes that they have created & their journey towards achieving them. They discussed the tipping point of philanthropy which is not when an individual is making a certain amount of money but when he/she is connected to a cause.
A breathtaking session with India’s top Gay activists, titled ‘Being Queer: Boldly Out Of The Closet’ wherein authors and Icons debunked the myths and taboos on the subject.
Present at this event were Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil, chairperson and Co-founder of Lakshya Trust, Professor R Raj Rao, writer and teacher of literature, Mr. Ashok Row Kavi the founder of Bombay Dost, Mr. Roy Wadia, Executive Director of Heroes Project in Bombay along with writer director Mr. Sridhar Rangayan; keeping a good look over the proceedings was moderator, Ms. Shobhna Kumar, the publisher of Queer Ink. The panel talked about their childhood desires, their inner conflicts, finding acceptance and about not wanting to be boxed into a category for whatever work they do.
‘Legacy: the legacy we should leave behind for our children’ was a touching
sitting by author and journalist Ms. Sudha Menon in conversation with Master Chef and parent Mr. Sanjeev Kapoor, talking about the chef’s journey, his aspirations and desire to be different, learning throughout his journey and actualizing his dream of starting his own food channel. Being a parent involves everyday acts of great courage of the moral, ethical and the physical kind, the session on ‘Bold Parenting for Real Issues’ was a candid conversation on all the Taboos and Sex Education with Parenting Counselor and Writer Ms. Gouri Dange and Senior Consultant in Sexual Medicine and Counselor Dr Rajan Bhonsle talking about the need for sex education to teach a child to protect himself/ herself from sexual abuse.
As evening dawned, a sporty session on ‘Cricket: Then and Now’ took flight with Mr. Makarand Waingankar, cricket columnist and author of Yuvi and sports editor and author Mr. Clayton Murzello talking about the changes that have taken place in cricket journalism over the years, the lack of trust between cricketers and sports journalists as well as the issue of the cricket board stonewalling the press. Shortly, started an intriguing event titled ‘From Jugaad to Sytematic Innovation’ where Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan, co-author
of the book conversed with Mr. Indrajit Gupta, talking about the fact that India needs to change the way it looks at innovation from the policy and organizational level rather than leaving it up to chance.
‘We are like that only – Business Sutras’ a session on Indian management, market and society where Mythologist, writer and bestselling author Mr. Devdutt Pattanaik who started the session stating that business in India is not rational as it is subject to various personal and cultural norms. He took the charged up audience through visuals, using mythology as a reference point for a variety of business mantras.
Discussing in depth, their new book ‘IndiaNomix: making sense of modern
India’, Co-authors Mr. Vivek Dehejia and Ms. Rupa Subramanya were gladly joined by Mr. Kumaar Bagrodia. The final session of this exciting day packed with activities was a freewheeling chat with Rashmi Bansal the bestselling author, writer and person.Amidst the revelry, with over halfway of the festival underway, the approaching closing day consisting of spectacular sessions and inspiring speakers is not far from anyone’s mind. Day 3 kicks off with wellness and lifestyle sessions by Ms. Payal Gidwani Tiwari and Ms. Suman Agarwal, tasty discussions about Indian food by Mr. Kunal Vijayakar alongside Ms. Tara Deshpande, a non-fiction session with Mr. Rahul Bose conversing with Mr. Gregory David Roberts are among many who are slated to grace the coming Sunday.
Entry to the festival is free and will be on a first come first serve basis.
The partners of the India Non Fiction Festival consist of: Knowledge@Wharton, The American Center & Library, Harvard Business Review, Crossword Book Stores, IndiaSpend, Harper Collins, Sage, Jaico, Random House, Hachette, Penguin, Aiesec, Westland and the British Council.
