The South Asian Arts Council collaborated with Teamwork Arts on Friday, June 27th to present Words on Water in the Eye on India program. The event featured two of India’s trending writers; Ravi Venkatesan and Rana Dasgupta.  Both authors through there literary works discover the fascinating and ever-changing modern India.  

The event opened with a introduction of the South Asian Arts Council by its founder Amit Dixit. Founded in Boston, the South Asian Arts Council is a pioneering organization working to share the rich heritage of South Asia with the modern global world. They connect communities through the arts, bringing the history and culture of this dynamic and diverse region to contemporary audiences. They also engage in political dialog bringing different stakeholders together to discuss issues of importance. 

The first conversation of the evening was a dialog between Rana Dasgupta, author of “Capital” and Prof Maya Jasnoff. Rana Dasgupta was born in Canterbury, England in 1971 and studied at Balliol College, Oxford and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After his studies he worked for an international marketing firm, which took him to London, Kuala Lumpur and then New York.

In 2001, he moved to Delhi to write. His first novel, Tokyo Cancelled, appeared in 2005 and was shortlisted for the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize. Solo (2009) won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. His latest book, Capital, is a non-fiction portrait of twenty-first century Delhi

Rana studies the movement of money in Delhi to understand the workings of this wonderful city. He strongly believes that while the 20th century belonged to Mumbai in India, Delhi is action point for the 21st century. In his conversation with Prof. Jasnoff, he outlined many of his experiences in the city and spoke of several interviews that allowed him to paint the recent history of Delhi in fine detail. “ One of the diagnoses I think the book makes about Delhi is that it has a very fragile idea of society. It’s a city of clans – internally, very mutually protective and supportive and very wary of the outsider. They may be family clans or other kinds of clans – based around an office, for example – and that gives a particular structure to the city” says Rana.  The book is certainly a must read for those who would like to learn about contemporary Delhi. 

 The second conversation was between Ravi Venkatesan and Prof Prithwiraj Choudhury of HBS. Ravi Venkatesan is the former Chairman of Microsoft India and currently Chairman of Social Venture Partners India, a network of engaged philanthropists addressing social problems through venture philanthropy. He is a Venture Partner at Unitus Seed Fund, a director on the boards of AB Volvo and Infosys Ltd. and Vice Chairman of a successful family business. Venkatesan is the author of a newly released and critically acclaimed book “Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere” published by Harvard Business Review Press.

Ravi Venkatesan was very optimistic about the future of India. He was particularly excited about the results of the elections which he felt could lead to good things for the country. He talked about companies that had succeeded and failed in India. He felt that in the 21st century India could not be ignored. While doing business in India needs a lot of patience he felt strongly that the results were well worth the while. 

 The program overall was very insightful and both books are worth a good read.