Day 2 - In The Presence of the Lord

Panel on Non-Fiction writing

VeJay our fabulous driver

Actor Ifran Khan 

Three Ambassadors discussing Pakistan

Who will rule the world?

In the presence of the Lord.

Today was a warmer than yesterday. All of the events are outdoors. In the morning and late afternoons the Rajasthan dessert blows cold. In the afternoon it gets up to the high 60’s. As soon as the sun sets (about 5pm) it quickly gets cold.

The first session was on Bollywood and its influence on India. The Bollywood star Ifran Khan was a guest speaker, if you saw Slumdog Millionaire, he was the Police Captain that was interviewing the prisoner. He is from Jaipur and is a hometown favorite. This was our first time this year to be in the presence of the Lord. Lord Meghnad Desai, has lived in England for 50 years and is member of the House of Lords. He is fat, smart, has white hair that billows around his head like a Brillo pad and loves to speak. In short, he is what every caricature of a British member of the House of Lords attempts to portray, plus he is a Desi. He has written many books on many subjects. He adores every word that comes out of his own mouth and about 10% of them are clever indeed.

By chance of the 42 available sessions today, of the 4 we went to, he was on 3 panels. We were truly in the presence of the Lord.

The second session was exceptionally good. It was entitled “Who Will Rule the World”. It was looking to the future and the inevitable decline of America. The assumption of course is that China will lead the world. The panel was comprised of a variety of people representing many views. The Chinese Author Xiaolu Guo, the author of “A Concise English Dictionary for Lovers” (which incidentally I had just loaned to Scott) and other books, was obviously representing China, while others represented South America, Europe, India and a different Chinese perspective.

This was a great session with one huge take-a-way for me. It is a thought experiment that a scholar of China proposed. Basically, no country has lifted as many people out of poverty as Communist China. China today offers retirement benefits and health care to its people. It is a model for the poor countries of the world of how to transform. Africa, much of Southeast Asia, etc. would all benefit greatly if they adopted the Chinese Model. The big problem is that it comes with people not having freedoms to dissent and choose their own representatives and express themselves. The thought experiment is: if the Chinese Communists Government could liberalize them selves to be truly democratic and grant the people real freedom wouldn’t that make that form of government a more desirable model than the western model? It was a stimulating panel. We loved the discussion.

The next panel was also great. It was composed of an Indian Ambassador who served as moderator. The two other members were the former Ambassador from Pakistan to the United States Husain Haqqani and the former Ambassador to India (Under George Bush the younger) Robert Blackwell. It was a fantastic lesson in geo-politics and the art of being a subtle Ambassador. Haqqani who has just written a book: Magnificent Delusions about the American – Pakistan relationship is what any American would want in a Pakistani. Reasonable, secular, accommodating. Blackwell, the American Ambassador, is brilliant, funny and a realist. Haqqani thinks there are moderates in Pakistan that must be supported to stop the extremist. Blackwell believes it is only going downhill, nothing good will come of Pakistan. The whole issue is disturbing and troubling especially since Nuclear Weapons on all three sides (Pakistan, India, US) are involved. What a mess!

The panel, however was great. There is so much I don’t know and understand about the issues it is great to hear two very learned men discuss it in reasonable terms no matter how differently they view it. Blackwell highly endorses Haqqani’s new book: “Magnificent Delusions”. I hope I have time to read it one day. It was clear that there were things about Pakistan that Haqqani couldn’t say, for fear of his life back home, and there were things that Blackwell wouldn’t address for fear of making the Indo-American relationship worse. Incidentally he thinks the State Department complete blew the issue with the Indian representative in New York City and Never should have let her been arrested. In the background we simply should have told the Indians to get her out of America. The US Governmental relationship with India (who should be a natural friend) is very bad, while on a personal level the two people like each other. Strange it is so out of kilter.

The afternoon panels were less stimulating to us, or maybe we were just drained by then. At any rate, it was back to our Haveli for Wine and diner. I did ask our new favorite author about World War II, Antony Beeber a question when I saw him at the haveli, which was why he disapproved yesterday when I said I was buying his book on Kindle rather than hardcopy. I found out that authors get paid less for Kindle sales then regular sales. They get 25% of the sale cost on a Kindle purchase vs. apparently more on a hardback. I would have thought they got charged the same. I informed him that on books like his that I really want to keep I buy two copies a hardcopy to keep and for the maps, and ebook for easy toting and late night reading. He gets double the money (or not quite double as he reminded me). He walked away happy.

One further factoid from the conference I hadn’t realized. Non-fiction outsells fiction by huge numbers. Cathy and I read (or at least we think) about 50% - 50% fiction and non-fiction. It will be interesting to check out, what the real breakdown between the two forms for us is.