The Arab Spring that Was and Wasn’t 

By K.P. Fabian (ICWA & Macmillan Education, New Delhi: 2022)

Discussants: Amb. T.C. A. Raghavan, former diplomat and Director General, Indian Council for World Affairs; Amb. Talmiz Ahmad, former diplomat, Visiting Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and author; and Amb. K.P. Fabian, author of the book

Chair: Prof. Gulshan Dietl
 

Panelists: Amb. Rajiv Bhatia, Distinguished Fellow, Foreign Studies Programme at Gateway House, author of Indo-Myanmar Relations and former Indian Ambassador to Myanmar and Mexico and High Commissioner to Kenya, South Africa and Lesotho; Shri Kallol Bhattacharjee, Senior Assistant Editor, The Hindu, author of The Great Game in Afghanistan: Rajiv Gandhi, Gen. Zia and the Unending War; and Mr. Jaffarullah, Founding Member, Rohingya Human Rights Initiative who is presently a teacher at The National Institute of Open Schooling

Chair: Amb. K.P. Fabian, Distinguished Fellow, Symbiosis University and former diplomat

Myanmar is experiencing a time of trouble following the coup d’état carried out by the military on 1^st February 2021 after the party it supported lost the election to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi whose party won the election. Since then the military has used brutal violence to put down resistance to its regime. So far, the international community, including the UN Security Council has failed to assist Myanmar in restoring democracy

Vocal recital by Astha Goswami, disciple of Pt. Arun Bhaduri and Smt Girija Devi
Accompanied by Atual Shankar, Athar Hussain and Kaushik Mitra

Astha has evolved her own unique style of Padavali Gaayan which incorporates the rich intricacies of Khayal gayaki. Her repertoire includes a rich and rare compositions from the Braj region and songs of different seasons

(Collaboration: Guild for Service)
 

Speaker: Mr. Ravi Seethapathy, Executive Chairman, Biosirus Inc., Ontario, Canada and Advisor & WG Chair, India Smart Grid Forum

(Collaboration: Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute; and India Smart Grid Forum)
 

Panel discussion on The Home and Beyond: The World of the Amateur Photographer

Panelists: Sabeena Gadihoke, Professor, Video & TV Production, AJK Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia; Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Art Historian and Honorary Professor, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta; Mallika Leuzinger, historian based at the German Historical Institute, London; Suryanandinin Narain, Assistant Professor, Visual Studies, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Uma Chakravarti, feminist historian, filmmaker and archivist

(Collaboration: CREA; Jadunath Bhavan, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata; and with the support of PhotoSouthAsia, MurthyNAYAK Foundation)
 

A Conversation on Agyeya’s biography

Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya
(Penguin Random House, India)

The author Akshaya Mukul in conversation with Ashok Vajpeyi

Followed by
A Musical Rendition of Some Poems of Agyeya
By Vidya Shah

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)
 

Discussion on the World Health Organisation report

Panelists: Prof. R. Srinivasa Murthy, former Professor and Head, Psychiatry, NIMHANS, Bengaluru and Chief Editor, World Health Report, 2001; Prof. B.N. Gangadhar, former Professor, Head & Director, NIMHANS, Bengaluru, and Board of Governors, NMC; Prof. Pratima Murthy, Professor, Head & Director, NIMHANS, Bengaluru; Prof. Atul Ambekar, Professor of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence: WHO, Geneva, Strategic Advisory Group, UN; and Dr. Koushik Sinha Deb, Additional Professor, Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Digital Psychiatry, mHealth and eHealth; and Dr. Andrea Bruni, advisor, Mental Health, SERO, WHO, New Delhi

Moderator: Dr. Sudhir Khandelwal, Senior Consultant in Psychiatry, Holy Family Hospital, New Delhi and formerly Head, Dept. of Psychiatry and Chief, National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi

The World Health Report 2022 is an important document on the status of mental health in the world, disability caused by mental illnesses and substance and alcohol abuse, governmental and public response etc. 

Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari/Japan) | Click here to watch

(96 min; 1953; b/w; Japanese with English subtitles)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Recipient of Top 10 Film Award for Best Film, Cahiers du Cinéma, 1959; Mainichi Film Concours 1954 awards for Best Art Direction & Best Sound Recording; Pasinetti Award & Silver Lion, Venice Film Festival 1953

Kenji Mizoguchi’s breakthrough film that brought him international attention and an Oscar nomination. The film is a stunning period film set in the war torn 16th century Japan. A tale of ambition, family, love, and war set in the midst of the Japanese Civil Wars - two brothers, one consumed by greed, the other by envy. In a time when the land is savaged by marauding armies, they risk their families and their lives to pursue their obsessions. The heroes are rough-hewn and consumed by ambition, but the film style is elegant and mysterious.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6uaqdr

(75 min; 1987; German/English and with English subtitles)
Directors: Alan Lewens, Alastair Mitchell

A DW Classical Music documentary

Maria Callas, nicknamed 'La Divina', was arguably the most famous soprano of the 20th century. The music documentary Maria Callas: Life and Art looks at the great singer as a person, pays tribute to her vocal artistry and her talent for distinctive portrayal of dramatic roles. 

The biographical film, produced and directed by Alan Lewens and Alastair Mitchell, was released in 1987 – ten years after Callas’ death. In extensive interviews, friends and companions describe how they saw her, and the diva herself even has her say in archive footage. And in between there are rare original excerpts from her breath taking singing performances. In this way, the film creates a portrait of the legendary singer, who was torn between private and artistic ambitions. Maria Callas (1923 - 1977) was frenetically acclaimed and even revered as a goddess by many, while others criticized her harshly for her less-than-perfect singing. This documentary pays tribute to the life and art of the soprano beyond clichés and judgements. 

Series director: Adrian Pennink
Recipient of the International Emmy 2008 for Best Documentary 

A six-part documentary presented by Niall Ferguson. Based on his book The Ascent of Money: The Financial History of the World, the film examines the long history of money, credit, and banking. Throughout the series, Niall Ferguson examines the origins of the pillars of the world’s financial systems, and how behind every great historical phenomenon – empires and republics, wars and revolutions – there lies a financial secret.

Episode 4: Risky Business (48 min)
Niall Ferguson looks at the origins of modern insurance in the early 19th century and to the birth of the welfare state in post-war Japan.