The Only Son (Netherlands) | Click here to watch
(78 min; 2013; English and with subtitles)
Director: Simonka de Jong

The Only Son is the story about the challenges of keeping Dolpo’s ancient culture alive as the area becomes less isolated. The film is primarily shot in Karang, a village at 13,000 feet in Upper Dolpo, one of the most remote areas of Nepal. 

The film centres on Pema’s parents’ expectation that Pema will return to Dolpo, Nepal, when he completes his education, marry a Dolpapa woman, and manage the family’s land. As the only son, this is his role in Dolpo’s traditional culture. Pema is torn between his duty to the family and his desire to live the modern life that he now prefers. 

https://www.documentarytube.com/videos/documentary-on-arranged-marriage…
 

Dangerous Knowledge (UK) | Click here to watch
(89 in; 2007; English)
Director: David Malone

A two-part documentary about four of the most brilliant mathematicians of all time, Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing, their genius, their tragic madness and their ultimate suicides.

Dangerous Knowledge: The Enigma (44 min)
Kurt Gödel, the introverted confidant of Einstein, proved that there would always be problems which were outside human logic. His life ended in a sanatorium where he starved himself to death. Finally, Alan Turing, the great Bletchley Park code breaker, father of computer science and homosexual, died trying to prove that some things are fundamentally unprovable.
 

Joseph Haydn: Libertine & His Master’s Servant (Germany) 
(54 min; 2009; English and with subtitles)
Director: Nele Münchmeyer
A DW film

Nele Münchmeyer's documentary throws light upon Haydn as the ingenious composer and as the private person – the "Libertine" in his private life and the "Servant" as the Kapellmeister of Esterházys'.

Haydn's lifetime saw a series of striking changes in musical style. At the time of his birth and childhood baroque traditions still prevailed. By the end of his life the apparent stability of the classical style was being challenged, notably by Beethoven. Haydn did not simply live through this long development; he was a central part of it.

The film includes excerpts from highly acclaimed performances of Haydn works. Amongst them are: the opera, Armida with the German Soprano Annette Dasch, Arias from Haydn performed by the Freiburger Barockorchester and the Baritone Thomas Quasthoff, performances of Die Schöpfung and Die Jahreszeiten conducted by Roger Norrington.

 Conan Doyle and the Realm of the Faeries (UK) | Click here to watch
(75 min; 2007; English)
Director: Philip Gardiner

Ever since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first introduced him to readers back in 1887, Sherlock Holmes has fascinated fans of mystery fiction worldwide, and in this documentary filmmaker Phillip Gardiner explores the mind of both the author and the enduring characters he created. In exploring the life of Doyle, Gardiner uncovers a bizarre mystery of his own, one that seems almost stranger than the wildly imaginative fiction he penned for the written page. A tormented author with ominous ties to secret societies, the man who gave birth to Holmes, Moriarty, and Watson is almost as great a mystery as The Hound of the Baskervilles.

IIC will be serving the special bakery items from 12th to 15th February 2022. These items shall be served in addition to the regular take away/dine in menu.

Take away services with prior booking will be available from 1100 hrs to 2100 hrs. Last order can be placed at 2030 hrs.

Kindly Place order at: 011-24609359, 24609449, 24609472 
 

Kanwal Wali
Secretary

India’s Foreign Policy in the Post Covid: International Relations through the Eyes of Indian Diplomats

By Surendra Kumar (Wisdom Tree, New Delhi: 2021)

Discussants: Shri Shyam Saran, Life Trustee, IIC and former Foreign Secretary; Amb. Jayant Prasad, former Director General, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses and former Ambassador to Afghanistan, Algeria & Nepal; Amb. Manjeev Puri, Distinguished Fellow, Earth Science and Climate Change, TERI and former Ambassador to the European Union & Nepal; Amb. Gurjit Singh, Chair, the CII Business Task Force on Trilateral Cooperation in Africa and former Ambassador to Germany, Indonesia, ASEAN, Ethiopia & the African Union; Ms Suhasini Haider, National Editor and Diplomatic Affairs Editor, The Hindu; and Dr. Manoj Joshi, senior journalist and Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation

Moderator: Amb. Surendra Kumar, former Dean, Foreign Service Institute and Editor of the book

Registration link

Day & Date: Saturday and Sunday (12th and 13th February)

Venue:  India International Centre, Fountain Lawn / Rose Garden

From the land of maach (fish) and bhaat (rice), we bring you a cuisine that is rich in taste and boasts a splendid culinary heritage.  Bengali cuisine’s blend of sweet and spicy flavours generally involves a hot palette, using a large number of herbs, spices and roots that create dishes with layers of flavours and regional variations. This weekend, savour robust curries with the distinctive flavours of mustard oil, poppy seeds and turmeric, and a variety of authentically flavoured vegetables and dal. Mustard fish and kosha mangsho are must-haves for non-vegetarians. Dessert aficionados can round off their meal with komola kheer and kanchagolla. IIC will be serving the special Bengali menu from 11th to 13th February 2022. These items shall be served in addition to the regular take away/dine in menu.

Take away services with prior booking will be available from 1100 hrs to 2100 hrs. Last order can be placed at 2030 hrs.

Kindly Place order at: 011-24609359, 24609449, 24609472 or WhatsApp at 9910333937

Kanwal Wali
Secretary
 

The Library Open House Meeting will be held under the Chairmanship of Dr. Ashis Nandy on Friday, 18^th February 2022 at 4 pm in the Main Dining Hall. 

Members of IIC are requested to attend the same.

Suggestions are welcome from Members which may reach the Chief Librarian by 15^th February 2022 at cl@iicdelhi.in. 

Preceding the meeting, tea will be served at PD Hall between 3.30 pm and 4 pm.

All Members are advised to follow the COVID-19 pandemic safety protocol at the IIC premises.

Kanwal Wali
Secretary, IIC

Please click here for signed copy

To:    All Members
          Members’ Notice Board

Emerging from the Partition: Afterlives of Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Yogesh Snehi, Assistant Professor, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University, Delhi and author of Spatializing Popular Sufi Shrines in Punjab: Dreams, Memories, Territoriality (co-published by Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla and Routledge, Delhi 2019)

Chair: Prof. Partho Datta, Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University

A large plethora of sacred spaces associated with Muslim piety or popular veneration in (Indian) Punjab were abandoned during Partition. These sacred spaces consisted of mosques, dargahs, khanqahs, takiyas or pirkhanas. One of the immediate repercussions of this tragedy was a break in ritual practice. While spaces like mosques came to disuse, the same wasn’t true for Sufi saint shrines. This lecture aims to evolve a discussion on complex ways in which Sufi saint shrines emerged from Partition. This presentation will share some narratives of the afterlives of Sufi saint shrines in Punjab.