The Future of Afghanistan – Post US Withdrawal
Panelists: Mr. Faheem Dashty, Chairman, Afghan Journalists Union, Kabul; Ms Farkhunda Zehra Naderi, Member, High Council for National Reconciliation, Afghanistan; and Mr. Mushahid Hussain, Chairman Senate Defence Committee, Pakistan 

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

The Taliban seems headed towards imposing a military solution in Afghanistan triggered off by the hasty and irresponsible withdrawal of US and NATO forces. The virtual collapse of Afghan National Security Forces after the Taliban offensive on 1st May has come as a big surprise. The Taliban have reportedly captured nearly 200 of the country’s 419 districts including trade and transit points on borders with Pakistan, Tajikistan and Iran. Afghanistan’s future seems to be returning to the dark past under the Taliban with Kabul’s mentors, failing the Afghans in preserving the two-decade old gains. 

Opportunities and Challenges of Exporting Processed Food from India
Speaker: Shri Hemant Malik, Divisional Chief Executive of Foods Business, ITC

Chair: Shri Siraj Hussain, Visiting Senior Fellow, ICRIER

There have been several reports about the enormous potential of export of processed food products from India but this vision has not materialized so far and India continues to be an insignificant player in the export of processed food items. The lecture will address some of the challenges that the country faces from becoming a major hub for producing processed food
 

A talk by Snehanshu Mukherjee, architect, educator and writer, Adjunct Professor, Indian Institute of Art & Design, New Delhi

Followed by a dialogue with Srinivas Murthy, architect and Founder, Architecture and Design Foundation (India)

Moderator: Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, Conservation Architect, author and Visiting Faculty, School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi

The second in the bi-monthly series structured around dialogues that endeavor to present the role of architecture in contributing positively to society and to culture. Conceptualised by Anisha Shekhar Mukherji, the series, through interactions with practitioners and scholars, intends to engage with a wide variety of people – professionals and lay persons alike.

With his singular and unwavering style, Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu (1903-1963) disregarded the established rules of cinema and created a visual language all his own. Precise compositions, contemplative pacing, low camera angles, and elliptical storytelling are just some of the signature techniques the great filmmaker used to evoke a sense of melancholy and poetry in everyday existence. The three films that Ozu made between 1949 and 1953 constitute his most enduring achievement. Dubbed the “Noriko Trilogy” after the name of the female protagonist in all three films, the films (Late Spring, Early Summer, Tokyo Story) co-star the two most familiar members of Ozu’s longstanding stock company: Chishu Ryu (1904–1993), the director’s favourite actor; and Setsuko Hara (1920–2015), who plays Noriko in all three parts of the trilogy. 

Tokyo Story (Tokyo Monogatari/Japan)| (134 min;1953; b&w; Japanese/ English subtitles)|( Click here to watch )
Directed by Yasujiro Ozu 
With Setsuko Hara and Chishu Ryu

A profoundly stirring evocation of elemental humanity and universal heartbreak, Tokyo Story is the crowning achievement of the unparalleled Yasujiro Ozu. The film, which follows an aging couple’s journey to visit their grown children in bustling postwar Tokyo, surveys the rich and complex world of family life with the director’s customary delicacy and incisive perspective on social mores. Featuring lovely performances from Ozu regulars Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara, Tokyo Story plumbs and deepens the director’s recurring theme of generational conflict, creating what is without question one of cinema’s mightiest masterpieces.

A three-part BBC series. Historian Bettany Hughes travels to India, Greece and China on the trail of three giants of ancient philosophy - Buddha, Socrates and Confucius. All three philosophers lived between the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, during a period of unprecedented and intense intellectual development.Trailblazers whose radical ideas signalled a key change in human consciousness, each embodied the shift from a reliance on the supernatural, as the sole way to explain humankind’s place in the cosmos, to one where rational argument and logical reasoning offered new, exciting possibilities.Drawing on archaeology and expert opinion, Bettany Hughes follows in the footsteps of these great figures, in her quest to unpack their philosophy in the context of their age. She reveals how, even though their ideas came about two and a half thousand years ago, their thinking still shapes, and continues to provide solutions to, our own lives.

Genius of the Ancient World:Episode 2- Socrates | (59:13 min; 2015; English)

In the second Episode, Bettany Hughes investigates the revolutionary ideas of Socrates. Socrates was born in Athens during a creative, yet extremely tumultuous period of Greek history.Athens had given birth to democracy, and become a hotbed of new philosophical ideas. Socrates would become, arguably, it’s most vocal and charismatic thinker.He set about scrutinizing, and working through, the key moral issues of his day. His technique, a systematic form of question and answer 'the Socratic method', was delivered with such a dazzling irony, that he became a celebrity in his day.Yet, by challenging tradition and convention, he also made enemies. Eventually he was put on trial, found guilty, and sentenced to drink deadly hemlock. 
 

Mozart: Great Mass in C minor, K. 427 | (59 min) | ( Click here to watch )
Considered one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s greatest works, the Great Mass was composed in Vienna in 1782 and 1783. This large-scale work, a missa solemnis (Solemn Mass), is scored for two soprano soloists, a tenor and a bass.

Video recording of a concert presented by Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on 18th March 2016 with Kiera Duffy (soprano); Emöke Barath (soprano); John Mark Ainsley (tenor) and Leon Kosavic (bass baritone)

Conductor: Nathalie Stutzmann 
Bergen Philharmonic Choir; Edvard Grieg Choir; and Collegium Musicum Choir
Chorus Master: Håkon Matti Skrede

Kew: The Garden that Changed the World | (60 min; 2011; English) | ( Click here to watch )
A BBC 2 production

In 2009 the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew celebrated their 250th anniversary, Dan Cruickshank, well-known British art historian and television presenter, unearths some of the surprising stories that shaped the famous gardens. His travels take him from the royal gardens to the corridors of power and the outposts of Empire as he pieces together Kew's story, uncovering tales of bravery, high adventure, passion and drama.

Screening of a short documentary film Not Just Milk and Sugar (16 min)
Written and directed by Divya Cowasji
Produced by Ministry of Minority Affairs, Govt. of India

With Boman Irani as narrator and protagonist, the film is an accessible inquiry into the Zoroastrian faith, its basic teachings, uniqueness, and myths. Through a bedtime story told by a grandfather to his grandson.

Followed by
In Conversation
Well-known actor, voice artist and photographer, Boman Irani in conversation with Dr. Shernaz Cama

Zoom recording of the programme held on 9 July 2021. 

(Collaboration: Jiyo Parsi; and Parzor Foundation)

An exhibition of photographs by Mala Mukerjee from Kolkata .The photographer presents a mix of colour and abstract compositions-a play with light, exploring the limits of form, colour and texture. 

MALA MUKERJEE

A graduate in Applied Art & Design Studies in Photography from the London Guildhall University, Mala Mukerjee’s work has been exhibited in all major cities of India as well as in Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Greece, Indonesia and in London, Oxford and Cambridge (UK). In 1993, Mala was amongst the prize winners in "Our Big City" Competition organized by The Evening Standard and Carlton Television, London. In 1997 she was nominated for the Leopold Godowsky Jr. colour photography award.She has received awards for excellence from the Owen Rowley Art Foundation in London, the Academy of Visual Medium in New Delhi, the 2nd China International Digital Photography exhibition in Beijing, and Honorary Fellowship of the Bangladesh Photographic Society. BLINK, an art publication by the Phaidon Press, London, featured her in 2002 among the top 100 Photographers of the world.

As the Chairperson of the International Photography Museum and Gallery Alliance (IPMGA), headquartered in China, she organized a major International photographic festival and workshop in Kolkata in 2014.Mala’s work has been featured in many books and periodicals in India, China, Germany, Australia, the UK and the USA. She has jointly authored three books on Kolkata’s heritage entitled “Colonial Calcutta“(Bloomsbury, 2012), “Where God’s Reside: Sacred Places of Kolkata“ (Niogi Books, 2018) and “Adda : the College Street Coffee House”(Notion Press, 2020).
 

THE ARTIST ON HER WORK

Those of you who are familiar with my work will know that my quest has always been to capture the fleeting footprints of light on objects, no matter how ordinary they may be. The works on display on this show are a continuation of that search.If I were to look back on my long innings as a photographer, I will admit I am most comfortable when I am in a position to let my imagination ramble free and take me to wherever they will. I enjoy playing with light and exploring the limits of form, colour and texture. The end-product sometimes surprises me, for light is a master painter. Objects get transformed by its magical touch. I try to capture those moments for you. This exhibition has a mix of colour and abstract compositions. Every work has a special place in my memory, an association of joy and happiness, if you will. It is this joy that I want to share with you.I will be happy to provide details of any work should you wish to know them. Just drop a word on my email.                                                                           
                                            
My association with the IIC, New Delhi, goes back many years. I had my first solo show here in 1998, followed by two more in the intervening years. I am deeply grateful to IIC, New Delhi, for enabling me to present my work to you once again.
                                                                                                                                               

MALA MUKERJEE

E-mail: malamukerjee@gmail.com