Speakers 2013
EVGENY MOROZOV
THE INTERNET COMBATANT In his epic takedown of TED in the New Republic last August, Evgeny Morozov serves up a memorable quote by I F Stone on Theodore White: “a writer who can be so universally admiring need never lunch alone.” If Morozov’s writings were critiqued on that standard, he’d rarely lunch at all. One of the Read More…
FARHAN AKHTAR
THE POET ACTOR That Farhan Akhtar should have the soul of a poet was predestined. Javed Akhtar’s son is the eighth generation of renowned Urdu poets; his grandparents Jan Nisar Akhtar and Safia Akhtar were the vanguard of the Progressive Writers Association of India. But it is with Farhan – director, screenplay writer, producer, actor, Read More…
FAROOQ ABDULLAH
THE TIGHTROPE WALKER Though dynastic politics is de rigeur in our democracy, few politicians in post-independence India have had to step into as large shoes in order to tread as tough a political terrain as Dr Farooq Abdullah has. Handed the mantle of the National Congress and the state of Jammu and Kashmir by his Read More…
GARRY KASPAROV
THE MAN EVEN COMPUTERS FEAR It was 1995, and on the 106th floor of the World Trade Centre in New York, the attention was on three men and a square black-and-white board. Mayor Rudy Guiliani made the first move in the World Chess Championship title fight between Vishwanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov, a match Kasparov, Read More…
GARY BASS
THE TRUTH-SEEKER His professional credentials may be seriously impressive, but they don’t prepare you for the fact that Gary Bass – professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University – has just made political revelations about India, Pakistan and the United States that shake the very foundation of our beliefs. In his new book Read More…
GOLSHIFTEH FARAHANI
THE UNTAMED REBEL Marjane Satrapi once described Golshifteh Farahani as Elizabeth Taylor at the peak of her career, “but smarter, funnier, more at ease with herself, and a better actor”. She was, possibly, understating the case. At six, she kicked off a career in acting with work in the theatre, a love that remains to Read More…
GOPAL SUBRAMANIAM
THE LAW’S MORAL COMPASS At 54, Gopal Subramaniam is among the most talented and distinguished lawyers of his generation. For two years beginning 2009, he served as the solicitor general of India but his standing in the legal fraternity derives not from his formal designation or status as a senior advocate at the Supreme Court Read More…
HAIFA ZANGANA
THE BRAVEHEART Haifa Zangana chose a path for herself when she was 16 years old, to become the conscience-keeper of her homeland, Iraq, and it’s a path that she has continued on for a lifetime. Writer and humanist, Zangana, the daughter of a Kurdish father and Iraqi mother, was born in Baghdad and followed the Read More…
HARISH IYER
THE UNSTOPPABLE SURVIVOR Named one of the most influential gay men in the world by The Guardian this year, 32-year-old Harish Iyer believes he was “set free” when his best friend told his entire college he was being sexually abused at home. Iyer, the son of a well-to-do doctor and a homemaker was raped between Read More…
