Students engage with the Times Lit Fest

On Saturday, 1st December, 2018, a group of students attended the Times Lit Fest held at the Indian Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road. Even though we were primarily there to attend the various talk sessions, we enjoyed exploring the book stalls there. The selection of books was vast and alluring.

The first session we attended was an interview of Mr. Karan Thapar conducted by Mr Shashi Tharoor. The two have been friends and hence the talk was full of friendly jibes and jokes. The topic of discussion was Mr. Thapar's new book titled, 'The Devil and his Advocate' where he has recorded his experiences as a notoriously straightforward interviewer and how this attitude of his got an entire political party to blacklist him! Mr. Thapar is infamous for his merciless style of interview and his blunt questions. His journalism has been inferred as heartless by many. Mr. Tharoor was an excellent interviewer and Mr. Thapar was definitely a journalist to the core. Needless to say, the session was vastly entertaining.

After the interview, we proceeded to the book stalls and took a break. The next session was a debate on the topic, #Metoo Movement. The debate was controversial and popular. Ms. Barkha Dutt, Ms. Tavleen Singh and Ms. Faye Dsouza were the key speakers. Ms. Singh vehemently opposed the movement whereas the other two speakers spoke in its favour. The audience applauded at every strong point made by the speakers who managed to keep the audience engaged through the session. The session was interesting and impressive.

Overall, it was a very interesting excursion. The event had many talented speakers and the only thing we regretted was that we could not stay there longer.

Vanya Nautiyal, XI-E.