A Modest Start
While the morning saw a meandering crowd pulling in and out of the six venues, people seemed to have come together for the much-anticipated session with JLF’s “surprise” speaker, the Dalai Lama. Men and women in maroon robes were conspicuous by their presence. Despite protest threats by a number of organisations, the Dalai Lama swooped in gracefully and was effortlessly the star of the day. In a session titled “Kinships of Faith: Finding the Middle Way” with British-born author Pico Iyer, he talked everything — from applying the reality of science into his teachings, to corruption. “India has a long tradition of secularism, of multiple cultures and religions. While we should respect all religions, we should respect non-believers too,” he said.
The latter part of the day saw other engrossing sessions with speakers such as Elif Batuman, Javed Akhtar, Sharmila Tagore, Ameena Saiyid, Nadeem
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