378. Iron Lady, Velvet Glove?
BIC TALKS
Was Indira Gandhi a pragmatic nation-builder or an authoritarian disruptor or both? Historian Srinath Raghavan’s new book, Indira Gandhi: The Years That Transformed India, explores her complex legacy, from her central role in reshaping India’s political structure to the controversial imposition of the Emergency. In this conversation with constitutional scholar Arun Thiruvengadam, the session will explore the making and unmaking of democratic institutions, the long shadow of the Emergency, and the resonances of Indira’s era in the India of today. A Q&A with the audience will...
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377. Adolescence & Algorithms
BIC TALKS
The years between ages 10 and 19 are marked by intense physiological, psychological, and social change. Adding to the challenges of this already turbulent phase are mobile devices and social media. These platforms often exploit insecurities, creating echo chambers and negative feedback loops. While digital life can connect us, it also has the power to isolate. The TV series Adolescence highlights the potentially dangerous consequences of these overlapping forces. In this conversation, a panel of experts, drawing from both professional knowledge and lived experience, explores what...
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376. Queering Law
BIC TALKS
What would justice look like if it spoke in a queer voice? How might legal judgments shift if they were written through the lived experiences and realities of LGBTQIA+ individuals? In this session, we explore the bold and imaginative work of The Queer Judgments Project, an initiative that seeks to re-think, re-write, and re-invent legal judgments through queer and complementary perspectives. Emerging from a series of conversations among scholars, activists, and legal thinkers, the project asks a vital question: how could legal decisions involving sexual orientation, gender identity...
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375. First Movers in Second Life Start-Ups
BIC TALKS
When it comes to climate change and the environment, they are part of the problem and part of the solution – Plastics and Lithium-ion. We cannot ignore the role these materials play in today’s world. They have revolutionized many industries even while they have been the cause of negative ecological and social impacts. Mainly because their end-of-life management remains a significant global challenge. Is it possible to bring them into the circular economy in positive and equitable ways? This discussion is with three innovative companies that not just think so, they also walk...
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374. A Perfect Storm
BIC TALKS
What happens when a defiant chronicler and an idealist revolutionary converge in the playground that is India’s freedom struggle? Urdu newspaper Pratap, launched in pre-partition India, was a torchbearer against the British Raj. The man who publicly defended it against colonial censorship was none other than Jawaharlal Nehru. The pen picked up by freedom fighter Virendra, the paper’s editor and the founder’s son who once walked shoulder to shoulder with stalwarts like Bhagat Singh was equally fearless despite threats by the imperial government, Indira Gandhi’s Emergency...
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373. EMIs & Other Existential Crises
BIC TALKS
In this refreshingly jargon-free session, Lavanya Mohan, author of Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees, gets real about why personal finance often feels confusing, boring, or just plain overwhelming. From spending in your 20s to planning in your 40s, Lavanya’s approach is simple, meme-filled, and judgment-free. Whether you’re dealing with your first paycheck, lifestyle creep, or just trying to adult responsibly, this conversation covers how to spend smarter at every life stage—without spreadsheets or guilt. Lavanya will be in conversation with Dipika Jaikishan, Co-Founder and COO of...
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372. Uniformity or Justice?
BIC TALKS
The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) has long been at the heart of India’s constitutional and cultural tensions — hailed by some as a promise of equality, and critiqued by others as a tool of homogenisation. As the political momentum around the UCC gathers pace once again, with the recent Uttarakhand legislation in the news, this session revisits the debate from a constitutional, feminist, and social justice lens. What does “uniformity” mean in a deeply plural society? Can equality be achieved without erasing difference? How do we center the lived realities of women, religious minorities,...
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371. Gurudev and Bapu
BIC TALKS
Gurudev and Bapu explores the extraordinary exchange of letters and ideas between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, set against the backdrop of the Indian freedom struggle. Over 25 years, their correspondence reveals sharp differences on key issues—nationalism, civil disobedience, education—but also unwavering respect and affection between the two. Their dialogue reflects a time in India’s history marked by thoughtful disagreement and political maturity—offering insights into how principled dissent and mutual regard can coexist. Bangalore Little Theatre was honoured to...
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370. Chaturanga to Chess
BIC TALKS
From boasting of a lone International Master (IM) in Manuel Aaron in 1962, India has come a long way in the world of chess, particularly in the last two-and-half decades of the new Millennium. Today, India has 85 Grandmasters, including three women, 23 Woman Grand Masters, 140 International Masters and 42 Woman International Masters while the list of FIDE masters is growing by the day. In the top 10 of any category or age group, Indians figure so prominently that they are second only to the US and China in the men’s and women’s section respectively. The double-gold at the 2024 Olympiad and...
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369. Living with Many Loves
BIC TALKS
All Our Loves: Journeys with Polyamory in India is an eye-opening book on polyamory—the practice of being in love, with or without sexual intimacies with more than one person simultaneously, with the consent of all. For anyone who has ever dreamed of love, sex, and companionship beyond the limits of traditional monogamy, this groundbreaking exploration navigates the infinite possibilities that polyamory can offer within the complex realities in India. The discussion on the book will revolve around dispelling myths about the practice and understanding the skills necessary to live a...
info_outlineIn March 2020, when the world went into lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, poets and friends Marilyn Hacker and Karthika Nair—living mere miles from each other, but separated by circumstance, and spurred by this strange time—began a correspondence in verse.
‘Renga’, an ancient Japanese form of collaborative poetry, is comprised of alternating ‘Tanka’, beginning with the themes of ‘Toki’ and ‘Toza’: this season, this session. Here, from the “plague spring”, through a year in which seasons are marked by the waxing and waning of the virus, Hacker and Nair’s Renga charts the “differents and sames” of a now-shared experience.
Their poems witness a time of suspension in which some things, somehow, press on relentlessly, in which solidarity persists—even thrives—in the face of a strange new kind of isolation. Between “ten thousand, yes, minutes of Bones”, there’s cancer and chemotherapy and the aches of an ageing body. There is grief for the loss of friends nearby and concern for loved ones in the United States, Lebanon, and India. And there is a deep sense of shared humanity, where we all are “mere atoms of water, each captained by protons of hydrogen, hurtling earthward.”
At turns poignant and playful, the seasons and sessions of A Different Distance display the compassionate, collective wisdom of two women witnessing a singular moment in history.
Karthika Nair will be in conversation with Prem Panicker. An audience Q&A session will follow.
Presented by:
Contxt
In this episode of BIC Talks, Karthika Nair will be in conversation with Prem Panicker .This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in January 2025.
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