Day One at Asia’s first non-fiction festival - the India Non Fiction Festival saw interesting conversation and a book launch of MK Raghavendra by Mahesh Bhatt, Rahul Bose, Minissha Lamba.
“Our country does not have a strong enough political leader to even go up against an Italian housewife”, said Ms. Tavleen Singh at the Inaugural Session of the India Non Fiction Festival. Mr. R Jagannathan said, the theme of Be Bold Stay Real is wasted on Indians as we have to be bold and very real as the survival in our country is an effort for all of us, to which Mr. Kiran Karnik reiterated that in India we have no choice but to be bold and hence stay real while talking about the problem of social sustainability and Prof. Vivek Dahejia added that the country’s youth are bold but they are stymied by institutions which hold them back. During the session For Real, Blogging is Non-Fiction, India’s most popular blogger Ms. Malini Agarwal talked about her essentials of blogging; about respecting your reader, having fun with it and never posting what you would not read.
Being Bold With Our Digital Lives: Cool and interesting things you can do with your smartphone, social media and much more where Mr. Ankit Fadia had a fun filled though sometimes serious conversation with Mr. Suresh Venkat, talking about some fun tricks you can use for your electronic devices while talking about cyber crime and the question of privacy. Meena Menon and Harish Nambiar were engaged in an intense discussion with Mr. Naresh Fernandes on the topic ‘Politics, Communalism and the social fabric of India’ talking about the social fabric of the country in the aftermath of riots analyzing the polarizing opinions and actions of the people affected by it. During the session, Non Fiction for an informed electorate and better policy making: How Data Journalism can help Mr. Govindraj Ethiraj alongside Mr. Ajit Ranade talked about the need to know about important facts which will lead to the raising of pertinent questions which can lead to a discourse.