India Today Conclave: A View from the Side and on the India of Today

Witty, sharp, scathing comments, discussions and insights - best sum up the 2 days that were. The setup was out of this world and the hall packed.

Engaging? Yes.

Mesmerizing? Yes

Controversial? Hmm.

You see, we in India, we like to play it safe - safe can be pushed to its limit, Salman Rushdie's appearance being a case in point and well-worth the effort the team must have put in.

But somehow, we never go beyond. We try and try not to stretch the thinking of our being beyond the lowest common denominator.

Corruption - yes it comes up. Its safe and easy to discuss and lambast.

Sports, Bollywood - the heroes of our country, yes yes!

Freedom of speech - of course! Not talking about that at a Media conclave would be blasphemy!

Female safety - errr (women's reservation too is worth a mention if I may add but safety nah)

AFSPA - eh? what's that?

Binayak Sen came, he spoke for 10 maybe 15 minutes in over 900 minutes of talking (yes, I calculated it!). And the sad thing is, I am not sure if many heard him. In the heady cocktail of the who's who talking, an activist speaking about boring and obscure things in some remote state is a ready recipe for the yawns to make their grand entry and the "lets step out for a chat" networking to begin. But truth be told, there is a dark under-belly of India's existence, under the pallu of our secular democracy that is seething and writhing and unfortunately, teething.

We in India, we like to revel - in our bravery, self-congratulating ourselves on successfully playing to the gallery, but we never question ourselves. The conclave was clearly all for speaking out - against the government, the establishment, the Budget, but against accepted norms? No.

What is this India?

We love to scratch the surface, but fear to dig deep. We celebrate Modi, continue to do so. Who remembered 10 years of Godhra? LSR did but even Harsh Mander who came to speak to the students there sadly noted, "this is the only institution I think that even wants to remember Godhra"!

The big picture is lovely, bright and rosy. India is shining and I am sure India's creme-de-a-creme can only smile avuncularly when thinking about it. Its the small things that irk. #Missedopportunities #Hungry4more

A bit perturbed,

yours truly!