India Non-Fiction Literature Fest Season-3!!!

1019th BLOG POST -->>

         

          The third season of India Non-Fiction Fest again takes place at Nehru Center, Mumbai the way its first season took place. It was a wonderful three-day sessions comprising of 75+ speakers and many informative sessions. The speakers weren't as big names as the first season of the Fest had but the sessions were quite interesting if compared with the first season. Kumaar Bagrodia, the organizer of the India Non Fiction Fest was seen running here and there for all the three days and it showed the amount of hard work he was putting to make it sure that every thing goes well. The best part of the event that I appreciated personally is punctuality. Every session except Tisca Chopra's debut book launch started at time and ended accordingly too. Comparing this with the Season 1 that happened in June 2013, the hosts weren't as cool and fluent as they were in first season. 

DAY 1:

   The Festival started with the lamp lighting by Kiran Rao, Ajit Balakrishnan and Subroto Bagchi. And then their session about "India Our Time is now" begun. It was a thrilling session. The moderator Subroto Bagchi made people smile and laugh continuously. The question by a boy in audience regarding the argument "India vs Bharat" was well-answered by Kiran Rao and others. At 2 PM, the next event was the book launch of Minhaz Merchant's latest "The New Clash of Civilization". The pieces of book was read by Sabira Merchant. Also were present at the book launch- Islamic scholar, Zeenat Shaukat Ali and the Bestseller author, Amish Tripathi. Amish ended the session with a wonderful thought over Islam. From 4.15 was the session of Radhakrishnan Pillai where he discussed about his latest book "Chanakya's 7 Secrets of Leadership" with the co-author Mr. Sivanandan. After that a wonderful book launch of Hotelier Vithal Kamat's "Idlis, Orchid and Will Power" happened where he discussed how he used management tactics in his business which grew him from one hotel serving idlis to 500-600 restaurants worldwide. He was quite frank while discussing about his adventure which added flavours to the Day 1. These were the highlights of Day 1 otherwise there were many other sessions taking place simultaneously. 

Day 2:

       There were two sessions that begun simultaneously- One at Hall of Culture and another at Hall of Harmony. At the Hall of Culture, Anil Zankar, Aditya Seth, VS Kundu and Pankaj Butalia discussed about Non fiction through the camera lens. There were many unknown facts that were discussed during this session. On the other side, "Excuse Me Can We Have Our Country Back?" got launched by Fahad Samar and Anish Trivedi along with Suraj Sriram, the author of the book. A very interesting genre in Non-fiction, Mythology- on a whole was discussed by Ashwin Sanghi, Swami Shubh Vilas and Vinod Advani. Ashwin Sanghi, like every time, engaged the audiences very well with his speaking capabilities. "Elections 2014, Media and Women" were discussed in a session that had Uday Shankar, Somnath Batabyal, Nayana Kathpalia and R Jagannathan. On the other side, "Heroes Everywhere & Within" was discussed by Geeta Anand, Faith Johnston and Jerry Almeida. It was quite motivational and the young audiences learnt a lot. Many other sessions also took place along with these events.

Day 3:

        The last day of the Festival was celebrated on the National Republic Day. People were seen in the patriotic dresses and colors. It was a celebratory air around as all were waiting for many TV and movie personalities to come and give them a glance of them. It all started with Laxmi Dhaul's latest book launch which had Shruti Seth as chief guest. Then there was the most awaited book launch by the debutant authoress-cum-actress, Tisca Chopra. She had Imtiaz Ali with her to launch the book where they discussed how a struggler can make his way in Bollywood. It was one of the most interesting sessions of the Festival. Later on, Dr. Rajat Chauhan and Charles Assisi discussed about self confidence and personal achievements. It was one of the motivation sessions. "Chalo! Lets Go!" was a wonderfully funny session where Rishi Piparaiya, Tanushree Podder and Sunil Vaidyanathan discussed regarding the weird, funny and unique incidents that happened during their traveling experiences. The last session at the Hall of Harmony had Hussain Zaidi, Vaibhav Purandare and Harish Nambiar discussing about cities and crimes. It was a hardcore session where audiences were asking tough questions and the panelists were making it sure that they answer every question been thrown at them. 

          The Grand Finale of the Festival had Roadies fame, Raghu Ram for his first book's launch. This was the only session where audiences filled almost every seat and there were hell lot of people standing around. Everyone was smiling, screaming and shouting while they saw Raghu speak, stand and answer their question. He discussed about how he has different images in life and he can not be what he is on Roadies in real life and vice versa. His book received a warm applause and everyone made him feel special. With this, the great season of India Non Fiction Fest ended. Hope it comes back soon to Mumbai again. 

 Thanks.

 ABHILASH RUHELA - VEERU!!!