When we finally implemented the NED Talks a year back, we took a policy decision that we wouldn’t be speaking ourselves, and instead remain content with organising, producing and anchoring the event.
With a year of NED talks (where we collected over fifty NED fellows over six episodes) done, there were the interesting situation today where the Takshashila Institution, which I’m associated with an many of whose fellows have delivered NED Talks, organised an NED Talks-like event (they acknowledged it as such) as part of their year-ending bash.
So they requested me to speak at the event and I agreed to talk about the Ramayana and its connection with the current civil war in Syria. I essentially paraphrased what I’d written in this post on this blog, and argued that Europe and the US should back Russia in supporting Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
The event was streamed live on Youtube, and you can find my talk here:
See and enjoy (my talk starts around the 15 minute mark).
PS: I had consumed two glasses of wine before this talk which “lubricated” things and enabled me to talk without feeling self-conscious. I must say this method works fairly well for short talks.