‘Technology democratises entrepreneurship’ – 20 quotes from the Times LitFest 2015!
Entrepreneurship is becoming popular and even mainstream in India – witness how many literature festivals now feature panels and keynotes by entrepreneurs! (Read the earlier YourStory articles ‘India needs more entrepreneurs: Nandan Nilekani at the Times Literary Carnival’ and ‘10 success tips for entrepreneurs from the Bangalore LitFest’).
The second annual Times LitFest Bangalore wrapped up this past weekend with engaging talks by dozens of authors, columnists, digital publishers, entrepreneurs and film-makers. Over two dozen sessions were spread across two parallel tracks, making it hard sometimes for me to choose which panel to attend – but that is actually a good problem to have at a literature festival!
Here are some of the notable quotes I gathered from the LitFest on a wide range of topics such as entrepreneurship, creativity, humour, sex, music, Bollywood, culture, retail, social media, leadership, journalism and politics. We look forward to the next LitFests in Bangalore already!
“Technology democratises entrepreneurship.” – Richa Kar, Zivame.com
“Digital retail is the way of the future.” – Meena Ganesh, Portea Medical
“Physical mobility and digital mobility will transform retail in India.” – Damodar Mall, author, ‘SuperMarketWala’
“From books to kanda-batata, goods sales are moving online in India.” – Vivek Kaul, author, ‘Easy Money’
“Build your reputation from Day One. It is always a good time to be good.” – Narayana Murthy, Infosys
“Scale is important for a startup. Think big, but take one day at a time.” – Kunal Bahl, SnapDeal
“Behind the success of a great man lies a great secretary!” – Ramachandra Guha, author, ‘Makers of Modern India’
“Humour is an under-rated tool in management.” – Rubi Chakravarti, actress and comedian
“There is a difference between learning music and grasping music.” – Raghavendra Joshi, son of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi
“The movie ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ could not be made today – there would be too many protests!” – Sidharth Bhatia, author, ‘The Story of a Rocking Generation’
“To be proud of our 5,000 years of history we need to be aware of it in the first place.” – Rohan Murthy, Murthy Classical Library of India (MCLI)
“Big media in India is a broken model, it is driven by ads and can’t tell the truth.” – Arunava Sinha, Bengali-English translator
“Many IAS officers think a posting in the culture ministry or department is a punishment!” – Vikram Sampath, author, ‘Voice of the Veena’
“The language of sex itself is sexist.” – Shinie Anthony, author, ‘Barefoot and Pregnant’
“This book in not intended to be pornographic, but let me read it out loud and let’s see what happens!” – Radha Thomas, musician and author, ‘Men on my Mind’
“We are all journalists now.” – Rohini Nilekani, Arghyam
“Breaking news has broken down now. We are reducing TV to Twitter.” – Rajdeep Sardesai, CNN-IBN
“You acquire a new kind of intelligence when you stay away from instant news.” – Manu Joseph, author, ‘Serious Men’
“We don’t need to be Western to be modern.” – Manish Sabharwal, TeamLease Services
“We South Asians have sycophancy in our genes!” – Cyrus Broacha, comedian and author, ‘NetaGiri’
“A good story never ends.” – Ashok Banker, author, ‘Ramayana’ series
