Director: David Wallace

A four-part BBC series, written and presented by Michael Wood

Michael Wood retraces Alexander the Great’s amazing journey from Greece to India, searching for the truth behind the legend and experiencing the tremendous scale of his achievements.

Using the ancient historians as his guides, Wood follows Alexander’s journey as closely as possible, crossing deserts and rivers, from Turkey to war-torn Afghanistan. As the journey progresses, he recreates the drama of Alexanders epic marches and bloody battles. All along the way he finds proof of the survival of the legends surrounding Alexander, a leader whose life has excited the world’s imagination for the 2,000 years.

Episode I: Son of God (60 min)
Alexander sets off from his native Macedonia on a war of revenge against the Persian empire. He crosses the Dardenelles into Turkey, where he was welcomed as a liberator by the Greek cities along the coast. At Issus, Alexander defeats the Persian king, Darius and turned south, through Lebanon, Israel and Gaza to reach Egypt. There, the oracle of Siwa declared him Son of God.

Albert Einstein: Still a Revolutionary (USA) | (80 min; 2020; English) | Click here to watch
Director: Julia Newman

Albert Einstein, the most famous scientist of all time, was a world renowned celebrity, greeted like a rock star when he appeared in public. An anti-war firebrand, Einstein also spoke out on issues ranging from women's rights and racism to immigration and nuclear arms control. Using a wealth of rarely-seen archival footage, correspondence, and new and illuminating interviews, Julia Newman's documentary Albert Einstein: Still a Revolutionary makes the case that Einstein's example of social and political activism is as important today as are his brilliant, ground-breaking theories.

Lecture-demonstration by Dr. Alka Tyagi and Sanya Tyagi

Dr. Alka Tyagi and Sanya Tyagi who have trained at Bihar School of Yoga, will share the tools that can be integrated in our routine to retain health and well-being during these critical times when we are fighting against a Pandemic. Yogic techniques have proven to prevent and alleviate illnesses and suffering of people in their daily life. Some of these techniques have been helpful in the wake of the Covid-19 illness and symptoms.
  
This programme has been organized on the occasion of International Yoga Day on 21st June 2021

Welcome Address: Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, Research & Information System for Developing Countries (RIS)
Remarks by Shri N.N. Vohra, President, IIC
Speaker: Shri Mahesh Kumar Jain, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
Special Remarks: Shri Ashok Bhattacharya, Executive Director, Business Standard Group
Chair: Dr. Rakesh Mohan, former Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India and Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Progress

(Collaboration: Research & Information System for Developing Countries)

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

Dancing Towards The $5 Trillion Economy on a Holistic Beat
by Aruna Sharma (Indra Publishing House, Bhopal: 2020)

Discussants: Shri Dhanendra Kumar, IAS (Retd.) & Former Executive Director, The World Bank, Washington; Ms Priti Sudan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, GOI & Member WHO's Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response; Shri Amber Timblo, Business Person, Goa Miner; Shri T. K. Arun, Former Editor, The Economic Times; and Dr. Aruna Sharma, IAS (Retd.), author of the book 

Chair: Prof.  Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS
 

Poetry Reading Poets – Yatish Kumar from Kolkata; Anamika Anu from Trivandrum; and Veeru Sonkar from Kanpur

Moderator: Ashok Vajpeyi 

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

Links:

fLive@RazaFoundation
YouTube@The Raza Foundation

Afghanistan Post US Withdrawal

Panelists: Dr. Arian Sharifi, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Afghan Foreign Minister and former Director, National Threat Assessment of NSC Kabul; Mr. Rahimullah Yusufzai, Resident Editor, The News International, Peshawar, Pakistan; and Shri Vishal Chandra, Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi 

Chair: Maj. Gen. Ashok K. Mehta (retd.)

Afghanistan is on the cusp of a monumental change. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, three decades later, USA and Nato troops will leave Afghanistan unconditionally by 11 September without any reassuring mechanisms to ensure that Afghanistan can preserve the gains of two decades of democracy and its security forces can withstand Taliban's military assaults. The future of the Doha peace process and credibility of the UN-led regional approach are also up in the air. Who will fill the power vacuum? How will Pakistan, Afghanistan and India secure their national interests are some of the many questions.

Reflections on Mughal Art and Culture: The Indian Woman in Persianate Literary Cultures
Edited by Roda Ahluwalia (Niyogi Books, New Delhi: 2021)

Discussants: Dr. Sunil Sharma, Professor of Persianate & Comparative Literature, Boston University; and Ms. Roda Ahluwalia, independent scholar, South Asian Art and Editor of the Book

Moderator: Ms Mrinalini Sil, Ph. D. Research Scholar, Visual Arts, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and an Inlaks Scholar

Thirteen eminent scholars offer fresh insights into the splendid world of Mughal India. Themes as diverse as portraits of royal women, sub-imperial patronage of temples, word-image relationship, the lapidiary arts and the Imperial Library of the Mughals, a reconsideration of Mughal garden typologies, murals painted on architectural surfaces, the textile culture of the city of Burhanpur, etc.

A series of films to celebrate the centenary year of Luis García Berlanga (1921-2010), arguably one of the greatest Spanish film directors of his time and an arch-satirist of Spanish society. Remarkably, much of his best and most cutting work were made under the scrutiny of a censorious dictatorship. The online film series revisits four ground-breaking films that played a significant role in his career and evolution as a filmmaker. Organised in collaboration with Cervantes Institute, New Delhi; Filmoteca de la AECID, ICAA; Filmoteca Española, AC/E; and Academia del Cine, Spain.

The films will be screened every Friday in June 2021 for a duration of 48 hours. Vimeo links of the films will be posted on the IIC website (www.iicdelhi.in) and sent by email.

Plácido (Spain) | (85 min; 1961; b/w;Spanish with English subtitles)

Director: Luis García Berlanga

Recipient of the CEC Award for Best Film & Best Director, Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain 1962; Prize of the National Syndicate of Spectacle for Best Supporting Actor & Best Film, National Syndicate of Spectacle, Spain 1961; and Sant Jordi for Best Film, Best Spanish Actor & Best Spanish Director, Sant Jordi Awards 1962.This corrosive Christmas story by Rafael Azcon and Luis García Berlanga, recounts the adventures of a motorbike-car driver, hired in a sordid advertising promotion campaign called 'sit a poor man at your table' charity initiative. The townsfolk can bid in a charity auction to have a second-rank starlet attend their Christmas meal, but are expected to also take a homeless or infirm person as well. The script is scathing in its depiction of petty hypocrisies but also exceptionally funny. 

https://cultura.cervantes.es/nuevadelhi/en/pl%c3%a1cido/143737