Anthology of Humorous Sanskrit Verses

A collection of over 200 verse translations from different Sanskrit anthologies. Translated by A.N.D. Haksar (Penguin Classics, New Delhi:2022)

Discussants: Prof. Ramesh Chandra Bhardwaj, Vice-Chancellor, Maharshi Valmiki Sanskrit University; Prof. Balram Shukla, Professor, Department of Sanskrit, University of Delhi; Prof. Sujata Tripathi, Professor, Dept. of Vyakaran, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University; and Amb. A.N.D. Haksar, former Diplomat and author of the book

Chair: Dr. Sachidanand Joshi, Member Secretary, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts
 

Á Nous la liberté (France) | Click here to watch
(97 min; 1931; b/w; French with English subtitles)
Director: René Clair

Recipient of the Audience Referendum Award, Most Amusing Film, Venice Film Festival 1932; Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Kinema Junpo Awards 1933; and NBR Award for Top Foreign Film, National Board of Film Review, USA 1932

 An engrossing satire on modern society’s belief in the new industrialization age, showing the Machine was not mankind’s salvation. It is the classic film that inspired Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936). The heady film of French director Rene Clair impressed with its startling images of mass production on the assembly line and humans acting like robots in a factory setting. Its leftist radical politics was delivered with an easy going breeziness and its intermingling of song throughout made it feel uniquely like an operetta.

https://archive.org/details/a-nous-la-liberte

Horizon: Why do We Dream? (UK) | Click here to watch
(58 min; 2008; English)
Director: Charles Coleville

Horizon uncovers the secret world of our dreams. In a series of cutting-edge experiments and personal stories, we go in search of the science behind this most enduring mystery and ask: where do dreams come from? Do they have meaning? And ultimately, why do we dream? What the film reveals is that much of what we thought we knew no longer stands true. Dreams are not simply wild imaginings but play a significant part in all our lives as they have an impact on our memories, the ability to learn, and our mental health. Most surprisingly, we find nightmares, too, are beneficial and may even explain the survival of our species.

https://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Why%20Do%20We%20Dream

Virunga (UK) | Click here to watch

(100 min; 2014; English)
Director: Orlando von Einsiedel

Multiple award winner including Festival Prize, Budapest International Documentary Film Festival 2015; Jury Award, Con Science Award, Docville 2014; Documentary Award for Best Cinema Documentary, The Grierson Trust British Documentary Award 2015; Audience Award, International Selection & WWF Award for Best Documentary Film, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival 2015; among others

In the forested depths of eastern Congo lies Virunga National Park, one of the most bio-diverse places in the world and home to the last of the mountain gorillas. In this wild, but enchanted environment, a small and embattled team of park rangers - including an ex-child soldier turned ranger, a carer of orphan gorillas and a Belgian conservationist - protect this UNESCO world heritage site from armed militia, poachers and the dark forces struggling to control Congo's rich natural resources. When the newly formed M23 rebel group declares war in May 2012, a new conflict threatens the lives and stability of everyone and everything they've worked so hard to protect.

https://www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Virunga

An eight-part BBC series in which British art historian Dr Gus Casely-Hayford explores the pre-colonial history of some of Africa's most important kingdoms.

Episode 8: Bunyoro & Buganda (60 min) | Click here to watch
Director: Sarah Howitt

Casely-Hayford travels to Uganda to explore the rise and fall of two great kingdoms. For centuries Bunyoro was the region's dominant power, using history and mythology to make a claim on the land. But its position was challenged by the rapid rise of Buganda, a neighbouring kingdom that had once been a collection of cultivators on the shores of Lake Victoria. Casely-Hayford goes in search of the fascinating reasons for the dramatic reversal of fortunes, and how one kingdom used the arrival of Europeans to its own advantage.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xr4rwt
 

(110 min; 1969; English)
Director: Robert Snyder

Documentary on Henry Miller, the well-known American novelist. Miller generously reveals how he saw his era, his peers and himself. He recalls his painful youth and his struggle to survive as a writer; talks about art, dreams, and all the allure of Paris; reads passages from his works and enjoys himself with friends, including Lawrence Durrell, Anais Nin, Alfred Perles, Brassai, and Jakob Gimpel. What emerges in this insightful documentary is Miller's charm, his gentleness and his lust for life. Henry Miller's books include Sexus, Plexus, Nexus, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, and The Colossus of Maroussi.

Curator: Rajiv Mehrotra

Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times (90 min; 2021)
A film by Louie Psihoyos & Peggy Callahan

The film gives unprecedented access to the unlikely friendship of two international Nobel Peace Prize laureates and global leaders who transcend religion: His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Featuring never-before-seen footage shot over 5 days at the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, the film invites viewers to join these luminaries as they share their hard-won wisdom about a wide range of issues from love, karma, guilt, and forgiveness, to joy, faith, meditation, and reincarnation. Offering neuroscience-backed wisdom to help each of us live with more joy under any circumstance, the film is an antidote for our times

(Collaboration: The Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama)  

On popular demand, the above film screened on 5 July 2022 at IIC will be available online until 11.55 pm on 21 July 2022 and can be accessed on the following link:

 https://watch.showandtell.film/watch/missionjoy-furhhdl2.
 

Seminar on Emergence of the Modern Indian Classic

10.00 am to 11 am: Inaugural Session

Welcome: K.N. Shrivastava, Director IIC

Opening Remarks: Sudha Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, IIC-International Research Division

Inaugural Remarks: Shyam Saran, President IIC

Introduction of the Concept: Sukrita Paul Kumar, Literary critics and former Aruna Asaf Ali Chair, University of Delhi

On Modern Indian Writer in Translation: Ganesh Devy, Literary critic, activist and Chairperson, People’s Linguistic Survey of India

11 am to 12 noon: Session 1A

Speakers: Supriya Chaudhuri, Professor Emerita, Jadavpur University; and Simi Malhotra, Chair, Dept. of English, Jamia Millia Islamia

Chair: G.J.V. Prasad, formerly Professor of English, Jawaharlal Nehru University

12 noon to 1.30 pm: Session 1 B

Speaker: Saikat Majumdar, novelist and critic, Professor, Ashoka University

A dialogue between Ipshita Chanda, Professor, Dept. of Comparative Literature, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad; and Sachin Ketkar, Professor, Dept. of English, M.S. University, Vadodara

Chair: Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharya, former Editor, Indian Literature, Sahitya Akademi and Literary Consultant

2.15 pm: Session 1 C: “Avishkar”: Readings and Music

(Courtesy: Sahitya Akademi)

Chair: Sukrita Paul Kumar

2.25 pm: Dramatised Readings by Syeda Hameed, former Member, Planning Commission of India and translator

2.40 pm: Sufi Music presented by Madan Gopal Singh, singer, lyricist and film theorist

3.25 pm – Concluding Remarks: Chandana Dutta, Academic, translator and Editor

In the first of a new bi-monthly series on ‘The Modern Indian Writer in Translation’, speakers will discuss the intense creative churning in the era immediately after 1947, when Indian writers were caught between the euphoria of Independence and the turmoil of Partition. U.R. Ananthamurthy, Krishna Sobti, O.V. Vijayan, Indira Goswami, Mahasweta Devi and many others produced iconic works that reflect, question and define the times. Is the time now ripe to examine and reaffirm the status of ‘classic’ for their works? What makes for their continued appeal? These and other questions will be probed in the discussion.

Organised by the IIC-International Research Division in collaboration with Sahitya Akademi

Registration link

Gandhi’s Ascetic Activism: Renunciation and Social Action

By Veena R. Howard (State University of New York: 2014)

Speakers: Prof. Anjoo Sharan Upadhyaya, Distinguished Professor, MIT, World Peace University, School of Public Policy, Pune; Prof. Makarand Paranjape, Centre for English Studies, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. Ramdas Lamb, Dept. of Religion, University of Hawaii; and Prof. Madhu Jain, Founding Member, Tantra Foundation

Chair: Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India

(Collaboration: The Tantra Foundation Library)

Vivan Sundaram, artist will speak on: ‘Diverge’. 

In the lecture, the artist will share key images from various series of works across 50 years of his career. These images contextualize major turning points that have shaped his artistic enquiry.

Vivan Sundaram is a prolific contemporary artist, engaging with everything from drawings, paintings, photographs to installation art. His works actively engage with social and political history, and question complex ideas such as memory, history, and problems of identity. His multidimensional projects often involve audience participation to push art beyond its traditional boundaries.

He has exhibited in various Biennials across the world as well as several important exhibitions in Tate Modern, London; International Centre for Photography, New York; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and the Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, among others.

Zoom Registration: https://zoom.us/j/88417434471

Meeting ID: 884 1743 4471

(Collaboration: J.D. Centre of Art)