YOUTH WAVES
The First India Today Mind Rocks Youth Summit, Bhopal featured the who’s who of India’s cultural, political and business worlds, taking time out to inspire, encourage and exhort the attendees to dream big and make those dreams a reality
The 13th India Today Mind Rocks Summit had the who’s who of India’s cultural, political and business worlds exhorting young attendees to dream big
DREAM BIG AND FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS, give back to society, never stop learning and never stop questioning—this was some of the advice offered at the 13th edition of the India Today Mind Rocks Youth Summit, held on September 8 at Bhopal. Speakers included the who’s who of the political, art, business and sports worlds, including Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, actors Abhishek Bachchan and Bhumi Pednekar, director of Lipstick Under My Burkha Alankrita Shrivastava and cricketer-turned-MP Mohammad Azharuddin.
The event was inaugurated by India Today Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa, who encouraged the audience not to impose limits on what they wished to achieve. “The Internet is a great equaliser,” he said, “and the same information is available to everyone. A glorious future awaits you.”
The sessions at the summit included those on sports, politics and public service, among others. Speaking about India’s focus on the youth, chief minister Chouhan detailed some of the measures his government has taken to encourage entrepreneurship, such as startup loans. He exhorted them not to forget their responsibility to society and to get involved in community service. “Don’t become a job seeker,” he said. “Become a job provider.” The CM also spoke about his son Kartikeya, who has set up a flower shop in Bhopal. “Some people told me a CM’s son should start something big,” he said. “I told them there is no such thing as a small or big beginning.”
Abhishek Bachchan spoke about his passion for sports: “I believe sports is a great enabler,” he said, “and that it should be part of school curriculum as it teaches important life lessons. The most important thing it taught me was perseverance,” he said, adding that basketball is first among equals for him. Being the sport that he is, Abhishek also shook a leg with fans on stage. For her part, Bhumi Pednekar, fresh from the success of Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, gave conservative small-town Bhopal something to think about when she defended pre-marital sex. “A perfect relationship is 50 per cent
emotional and 50 per cent physical,” she said, adding that one should know their partner’s strengths and weaknesses before getting married. Bhumi also had the audience in splits when she said that going by the characters played by the leading men in her movies, she had pathetic taste in men.
At another session, minister Vishwas Sarang, stressing on the need for good people in politics, said, “If good people continue to head to MNCs, bad people will end up joining politics.” Sarang and his co-panelist, MLA Jaivardhan Singh, also said that while coming from a political family might give a young politician an initial advantage, it is hard work that matters from that point on. At the same session, Bhakti Sharma, the sarpanch of a village on the outskirts of Bhopal, defended reservation for women in politics, adding lightheartedly that the way women were excelling, it could be men that needed reservations in the future.
Recalling their journeys to their respective offices, minister Archana Chitnis and IPS officer Anuradha Shankar said that marriage is not an impediment for women who wish to achieve professional success. Shankar took the civil services exams while pregnant, and talked about the odds she had to overcome during her physical training at the IPS Academy. For her part, Chitnis said that it was the story of her father’s arrest during the Emergency that galvanised her to join politics.
When it came to sports, while speaking at a session titled ‘Is Virat the new Sachin?’, former India captain and current MP Mohammad Azharuddin said he wasn’t keen to compare the two cricket greats. “Virat is a big player,” he said, “and comparisons are difficult. Sachin had his own aura and so did Sunil Gavaskar. Virat has his own style too. I wouldn’t be surprised if he breaks all records.”
When it came to arts and culture, director Alankrita Shrivastava made the point that for most of modern India’s history, films have been made by men, and from male perspectives. “This has to change,” she said, adding “we have to start looking at female characters as ordinary women and not as stereotypes.” Speaking about her run-in with the censor board, Shrivastava made no bones about where she stood: “A free and democratic country doesn’t need a censor board. We should be open in terms of what we want to show to our audience.” Co-founder of Aisi Taisi Democracy, satirist Sanjay Rajoura brought the house down by taking on everyone from the prime minister down. “Comedy has a bright future. We should take inspiration from politicians, one of whom recently said that cows are the only animals that inhale oxygen and release oxygen too,” he said, when asked about the future of stand-up comics in India.