A write up on the "Eleventh Annual National Conference on Science Fiction in Indian Literature" held mid last month

At Science Fiction in India.

A few quotes:

1. Dr Gajanand Purshottam Phondke: "There are two types of SF: Hardcore and Softcore. Science is central to hardcore SF whereas softcore SF deals with the implausibly possible."
   
   Suggested readings: “My Sister’s Keeper” and “Change of Heart”.
2. Dr Arvind Dubey: "Hindi SF is divided into Proto, Pulp and Pseudo SF. Proto SF contains scientific anecdotes and gadgets described in mythology. While pulp sf is printed on papers of cheap quality and has a tinge of so called cheap literature as well and popularized in pocket book forms. Pseudo SF, on the other hand, looks like SF but is not based on scientific principles."
3. Dr R B Ghooi, quoting stuff from a session in another conference, tells us of one of the ways of "solving" population pressure on earth's resources: Through the "use of chemical substances and biological solution of reducing the size of human beings to 60 grams. This would ensure the consumption of food going down by one thousand times."