Speakers 2012
James Randi
THE CON-CATCHER He broke Houdini’s Guinness record by being in a sealed underwater casket for an hour and 44 minutes. He set another Guinness record for spending 55 minutes encased in a block of ice. He has bent spoons through ‘mind power’, escaped from a straightjacket while suspended upside-down over the Niagara Falls, and escaped Read More…
Jason Burke
THE INTREPID JOURNALIST He’s been called “one of the journalistic band of brothers whose job is to get to the trouble spots ahead of the TV crews and show the electronic media what it is all about.” Jason Burke has certainly lived up to that descriptor over and over. Currently the South Asia correspondent for Read More…
Javed Akhtar
THE PRAGMATIC POET Javed Akhtar is living proof that poetry runs in the blood. Tracing a lineage back to seven generations of renowned Urdu poets, Akhtar’s parents Jan Nisar Akhtar and Safia Akhtar were also the vanguard of the Progressive Writers Association. Born in Gwalior, Akhtar has lived in Lucknow, Aligarh, Bhopal and now Mumbai Read More…
Jayaprakash Narayan
THE VISIONARY VOICE When you have the exact same name as post-independence India’s most prominent political activist and founder of the Janata Party, it’s safe to assume your involvement in national politics might have been ordained without your realising it. Certainly, it turns out to be what JP Narayan is best suited for. An officer Read More…
Jonathan Fenby
THE CHINA MAN By all logic, a media career is the absolute last thing Jonathan Fenby should have wanted. After all, both his parents were journalists, and as any amateur psychologist would be quick to point out, that should spell rebellion from word go. Instead Jonathan went on to occupy some of the most respected Read More…
Kanwal Sibal
THE STRATEGIC SHARPSHOOTER Entering the Indian Foreign Service in 1966, Kanwal Sibal had a distinguished career as a diplomat that concluded when he retired as India’s foreign secretary in 2003. In his 37 years of service at the Ministry of External Affairs, he had held several key jobs, including ambassadorships in Paris (1998-2002), Cairo (1995-98) Read More…
KD SINGH
THE POET ENTREPRENEUR Dreamer and do-er are conventionally considered polar opposites. Where one imagines, the other executes; where one uses the strengths of the mind, the other rolls up his sleeves and gets on with it. Look at the trajectory of true achievers, though, and you find a consistent ability to fuse these seemingly conflicting Read More…
KT Ravindran
THE MILITANT ARCHITECT For those who remain to be convinced by the political importance of architecture, KT Ravindran is the person to meet. Professor and Head of Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture of New Delhi, his work focuses on the development of cities, and more specifically on the inclusion and conservation Read More…
Marcus du Sautoy
THE MAVERICK MATHEMATICIAN If your name is Marcus Peter Frances du Sautoy, the letters OBE appear after your name, you went to Oxford, and you play football and the trumpet in your spare time, one imagines the most taxing thing you’ve had to do in life would be to rue the downfall of the British empire with Read More…
