Bengaluru and world through insightful books and writers

BENGALURU: Discussions about the city and the world beyond characterized Day 2 of the Times Litfest, presented by ACT Fibernet on Sunday. It was a day of star-spotting, stimulating discussion and spirited argument.
Among the speakers were musician T M Krishna, actor Rishi Kapoor, IT & BT minister Priyank Kharge, authors Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Anita Nair, siblings Vir Das and Trisha Das and fashion designer Wendell Rodericks.
The day started with questions close to home -will flyovers really help ease traf fic congestion in Bengaluru or will they cause more traffic snarls? It was the start of a discussion on the conflict between development and environment at the session on 'Our Earth' with Kharge, filmmaker Nikhil Advani and writer Ranjith Lal.
Kharge, the lone ranger defending the government's developmental policy, had to field a whole lot of questions when Advani opened up the floor. “I agree that diminishing green cover is of great concern, but development comes at a cost. Having said that there must be a fine balance between development and environment conservation. And that is exactly what my government is striving achieve,“ said Kharge.
When an audience member said Bengaluru was losing its tag of Garden City, Kharge said the new tag was the Most Dynamic City. “The city has transformed and the plan for development should match its needs,“ the minister said. At a session, Sutradhars: Exploring journeys between Real Life and Fiction, Indian American author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni taked about handling negative feedback. “I pay attention when it is about my writing, so I learn from it.“
Film also featured prominently in discussions on Sunday. “In the '80s, all you needed to make a film were Mr Bachchan's dates. You didn't need a script,“ said director Nikhil Advani at Real to Reel: Behind the scenes of a movie script, a session to lift the veil on the unglamorous, unknown side of filmmaking.“The last five to six years have seen a lot of contentdriven films. Writers today are getting their due,“ said writer Apurva Asrani.
Singer Ila Arun and poet Ramya performed to a packed house, bringing out the intersection of words, music and books. The panel on fashion with Wendell Rodericks, Prasad Bidapa, Shveta Jaishankar and Wasim Khan raised pertinent questions on sustainability and ethics in the industry and outside.