Times Litfest: Day 2

1. The Bloodied Line: Stories From Partition.
Gulzar, Govind Nihalani and Malika Ahluwalia

1. Past has a direct relationship to your present and your future. Partition Of India had a tremendous impact on lives. 

2. Trauma/pain  that one endured cannot be forgotten. One has to live with it forever.

3. You are from the place where you are born. Religion/Caste/Denominations will not change your identity of the place you belong to. 

4. Raise your level of consciousness by not abiding to prejudices and creating prejudices. 
Cause of effect of prejudices have stayed the same and will always stay the same. 


                                                     One Identity: 3 Different Names

2. Musing about everything

Gulzar and Pavan Varma 

1. Civilized dialogue has gone down. We tend to talk at each other is what is it is. 

2. Civilized dialogue (Talking to each other) has been lost in mainstream media.

3. Individual thoughts are altered to shape ones agenda

5. Modern Gandhi  Ke 3 Bandar:  

1. Modern Gandhi Ka Pehla  Bandar: Tum tumhari rai apne pas rakho

2.Modern Gandhi Ka Doosra Bandar: Hone do jo ho raha hai

3. Modern Gandhi Ka Teesra Bandar: Kaano me baahar ka awaaz andar na jaaye. 

3. The Paradoxical Prime Minister

 Shashi Tharoor

1. Rhetoric VS Reality

Rhetoric does not match Reality when it deals with reshaping an image and making it to appeal to masses. Compelling pictures/Branding Exercises are an attack on rationality. 

Reality deals with Practice what you preach (Ideology), Transparency and Accountability

4. How i made the desert blue

Rajendra Singh

1. 13 States and 327 Districts of India faces Drought. State Of Maharashtra faces drought in half of its districts. 

2. 70 % India faces extremely high water stress.

3. Drought is actually over the human brain in India.

4.  Gopalpura is a district within Rajasthan that was facing drought.  It took 24 years for the district to have a new leash over life. The techniques of climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation has changed the course of drought within the state. 

5. Use of indigenous knowledge within people and participation in rejuvenating old structures can put an end to a crisis. 

6. Concept Model has always made sense and will make sense Love Nature Respect Nature. God (Gaggan/Vayu/Bhoomi/Agni/Neer)

7. Water is climate. Climate is water. 

5. More Jobs Or More Jumla

Smriti Irani Vs Milind Deora

1. Civil Discourse:  Maintaining Civility amid Conflicting Ideas

2. Conflicting Ideas (Opinions/Interest) dealt with: Grass root challenges/Issues in the country, Health, Education, Ease of doing business, Statistics, NPA Loans, Sardar Vallabhai Patel Statue, Demonetization.

Left VS Right

Both feel that they are right

Fact Of The Matter: Country Is dead and both have an opinion

6.  If we forget our farmers, Who will feed us 

Varun Gandhi 

Only when people want to change they can change themselves. Political reform is the need of the hour. 

Eg: Patent Application/Approval in India takes 3 years compared to 6 months in the US. In the mean time a company in China gets the patent. 

Linking Of Academics To Industry

7. How to be one up on your brain

Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein

1. Human Brain: 100 Billion Neurons 100 Trillion Synapses. 

2. Consciousness is a brain process that man yet cannot understand. 

3. Consciousness is divided into two: Objectivity and Subjectivity

4. What is objectively happening (Daily Life) is because of subjectivity

5. Subjective Inner Experience is not the same.

6. Subjective Inner Experience: Morality is a product of the brain. What is moral for one is not necessarily moral for all. 

7. Homosexuality is a sin for few and not for many. 

8. Inorder to understand consciousness one has to understand individuals relationship to his/her conscious inner calling. 

9. The surest thing is you cannot be mistaken ones own individual consciousness.

10.Computation going on in ones brain cannot be answered. One can philosophically propose questions and Science can answer the questions by methodology.

Issac Newton accomplished it with a Philosophical  Question to a Scientific Methodology

8. Why do children want to die. 

Dr Zirak Marker

1. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in Children. 

2.  1 Million in the age group of (15-29) die by suicide every year. 

3.  1 dies by suicide every 40 seconds and 1 attempts suicide every 3 seconds. 

4.   Prefrontal Cortex: Cognitive Thinking (Consciousness/Abstract Reasoning).

5.   Limbic System: Emotional Thinking

6. Disorder in Thinking (Abstract/Emotion): Unhealthy Coping Mechanism/Loss of meaning in life/Pessimism/Loss Of Self Confidence/Neurochemical Imbalance

7. By knowing Mental Health First Aid one can spot behavioral changes: Withdrawal/High risk behavior/Mood Changes/