Action Points From The Atlas Meet In Delhi, Aug. 2009

This is following on from the previous blog post…

The participants of the Delhi meeting brainstormed a list of possible ideas for the ‘savor and study’ part of future meet ups. Here is the list –

1. Applying objectivism to issues of current relevance
2. Viewing other installments of the John Galt Speech video series on youtube
3. Discussing the objectivist ethics of rational self-interest and how it applies to specific circumstances (‘walking the talk’, as Geetika put it).
4. Discussing and countering socialist and other ‘anti-objectivist’ perspectives pertaining to life, philosophy and socio-economic factors. Also, perhaps, discussing criticisms of Ayn Rand and objectivism.
5. Talking about Ayn Rand’s fiction.
6. Discussing the ideas in objectivism that we found it hard to accept.
7. Discussions about free-market economics.
8. Discussing and understanding aspects of objectivist philosophy.
9. Presenting and talking about excerpts and lines from Ayn Rand’s novels.
10. Optimism vs Pessimism in India.

This is as far as we could go. Although there are a lot more ideas that could have come up in this list, even this much could provide enough sustenance for several future meetings. After the brainstorming, Vikram made an excellent suggestion –in subsequent meetings, individuals should take the responsibility to present a topic and their thoughts on it briefly. After this, it will be thrown open for comments, opinions, questions and argument. While every meeting need not necessarily follow this pattern, it is a very good suggestion to take forward as a general practice.

Barun, with his irresistible initiative, has already volunteered to present and lead the conversation for the following three topics:

1) Relevance of Objectivism in India, and the reasons for optimism
2) Environmentalism: The assault on man - looking at climate change / conservation / consumption
3) Rationality vs scientific rationalism - universal value vs specific valuation.

Let’s hope there are others who are just as forthcoming!

Report of the 2nd Atlas Meet in Delhi

The 2nd Atlas Meet in Delhi, the previous Saturday, was another stimulating evening of ideas! While the participation was almost completely different from last month, the group was larger in size, just as engaging and had a wide variety of people.

Apart from the usual suspects, Barun, Vikram and Amar, we had the following participants:

1. Dr. Gurmail Benipal, a professor at IIT Delhi.
2. & 3. Pavan Bagai, the COO at EXL Service, and his wife Geetika Bagai, both long time admirers of Ayn Rand.

4. Shivani Kaul, a Chartered Accountant by trade who’s been working closely with this initiative lately.
5. Kumar Anand, a recent Economics graduate who discovered Rand strictly outside his classroom.
6. Sunil Khetan, an entrepreneur who heads a company called the Ayn Rand International!
7. Ravi Shanker Kapoor, a journalist who’s fairly well-versed with Ayn Rand’s ideas.
8. Mr. VK Kharbanda, who’s completely new to Ayn Rand’s ideas but still found the prospect of this meeting engaging enough for a Saturday evening.
9. 10. & 11. And, finally, the feature of this evening – Rakhi, Manoj and Anupam, members of a theater group that recently performed Ayn Rand’s play, The Night of January 16^th, in Delhi.

There was also Rakhi’s unusually patient daughter who followed in the footsteps of Rohan, the little one from last time. This made 15 in all!

After the customary introductions, we began the evening by watching an interview of Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, where he talks about Capitalism and its moral basis. This led to several interesting conversations – the need for an ethical basis for capitalism, optimism vs pessimism in the Indian context, and why discussions on the political and economic aspects of Ayn Rand’s philosophy literally veer towards the free ‘market’ and business world and always seem to ignore other professions and trades such as art, teaching and non-profit work.

We followed this by brainstorming ideas that could make for intellectually stimulating discussions during future meetings. Several thoughts were shared, and after a bit of debate and discussion that yielded a tangible list, we moved on to the part where we discussed possible avenues of activism, i.e., spreading Ayn Rand’s ideas. This is where the inputs of Rakhi, Manoj and Anupam came in. They told us that they had staged the Night of January 16^th thrice in Delhi, and the theater was houseful each time! They showed us some video clips of their play, and we followed this up by discussing the possibility of hosting this play again, perhaps as part of a weekend ‘Ayn Rand festival’ some time in November and December. We also have the We The Living movie that we could screen during such an event.

Other ideas for activism were discussed as well, such as ways to actively promote Ayn Rand’s ideas in school and college campuses and translating excerpts from her books in regional languages. However, much like last time, all these ideas desperately require initiative, further thought and attention to detail from the participants, if they are to see the light of day.

By the time we finished, it was 8.40 pm. We had gone past our scheduled time by over an hour, but the three hours, in all, had left us with several thoughts to chew upon.

An update on the Monthly Atlas Meet...

As evidence of the growing interest in the Ayn Rand in India initiative, 12 people have already confirmed their participation in the Atlas meet in Delhi tomorrow. This is in spite of the fact that, for one reason or another, there are a few people from last time who won't be able to make it. Just goes to show that new people are streaming in steadily.

Of course, 12 needn't be a final number! We always have room for last minute entrants, so if you are interested, please mail us at info@aynrand.in. As a reminder, the details of the meeting are available here.

Agenda for the Delhi Meet

Hello,
The agenda for the monthly Atlas meet in Delhi has been finalized. Here it is:

5 to 5.15 pm: Welcome and introductions

5.15 to 6.15 pm - Session 1: Savour and Study
Video screening - Yaron Brook, president of Ayn Rand Institute, USA, interviewed at an university in Guatemala (10 min)
Discussion on relevance and implications in the India context

6.15 to 6.30 pm: Tea break

6.30 to 7.30 pm - Session 2: Spread and Sustain
Video clips of "Night of January 16", a play by Ayn Rand (10 min)
Discussion on the feasibility of the options and strategies brainstormed last time for reaching out to other admirers of Ayn Rand and promoting her ideas.

Please click here for complete details of the meeting.

2nd 'monthly Atlas meet' in Delhi

The wonderful participation that we had for the first session of the monthly Atlas meet in Delhi, has me really looking forward to the next one coming up on the 22nd of August! This time we should have even better participation, with new faces in our mix...

The venue remains the same as before (inlingua International School of Languages, N-12, South Ex - 1, New Delhi -49), as does the time (5 pm - 8 pm). In fact, according to a decision made in the previous session, the monthly meeting in Delhi will be scheduled for the fourth Saturday of every month - advance notice so that you can make early entries in your appointments diary! Watch this space for information about the agenda.

Please confirm your participation on info@anyrand.in, or contact me at amar@aynrand.in. For further details, please click here.