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
 

(90 min; 1986; English)
Director: Christopher Ralling

Narrated by Olivier Todd

Recipient of the International Emmy for Best Documentary Film 1986.This documentary profiles the life and career of legendary entertainer Josephine Baker who migrated to France where she was a major artist from 1927 until her death in 1974. With rare archival footage, photographs, and interviews the film follows Baker from her time in St. Louis to her life in France. Chasing a Rainbow: The Life of Josephine Baker is also a commentary on race relations across the world in the 1920s.

(102 min; 2005; English)
Director: Timothy Copestake

Bettany Hughes, historian and author traces the story of the mysterious and misunderstood Moors, the Islamic society that ruled in Spain for 700 years, but whose legacy was virtually erased from Western history. In 711 AD, a tribe of newly converted Muslims from North Africa crossed the straits of Gibraltar and invaded Spain. Known as The Moors, they went on to build a rich and powerful society. Its capital, Cordoba, was the largest and most civilised city in Europe, with hospitals, libraries and a public infrastructure. Amongst the many things that were introduced to Europe by Muslims at this time were: a huge body of classical Greek texts that had been lost to the rest of Europe for centuries (kick-starting the Renaissance); mathematics and the numbers we use today; advanced astronomy and medical practices; fine dining; the concept of romantic love; and paper.
 

Sitar Recital | Click here to watch
By Suhel Saeed Khan from Dilli Gharana, disciple of Ustad Saeed Zafar Khan
Accompanied by Akbar Latif on the tabla

The artist will present two Ragas- Bageshree and Raga Rageshree 

Hindustani Vocal Recital | Click here to watch
By Shri Subhasish Bhawal from Kolkata, disciple of Pandit Amaresh Chandra Chawdhury, Samaresh Chawdhury, Ramashreya Jha, Ulhas Kashalkar

The artist will present a unique style which will reflect a bend of beautiful musical compositions knitted in a classical background.

(46:08 min; 2014; English)
Interviewer: Marc-Christoph Wagner

Video recording of an interview with Salman Rushdie, celebrated Indian-born British writer. Rushdie talks about his early love for reading, his Indian childhood and his father, who told stories to him instead of reading them out loud; his early attempts at writing,  about the years of hiding, his relationship to his son and how reading and literature helped him through those dark years. Rushdie ends by reflecting about his autobiographical book Joseph Anton: A Memoir.

Aap kya Sandesh Laya

An exhibition presenting a selection of Sandesh (Bengali: Shondesh) covers, illustrated by Satyajit Ray. Sandesh (meaning both information as well as sweetmeat), is the iconic Bengali children’s magazine started by Ray’s grandfather, Upendrakishore Raychaudhury in 1913. A prolific illustrator, as Editor of the magazine, Ray painted and designed each of the covers apart from contributing his own stories, creating riddles, puzzles, and editing and illustrating other contributors’ works 

Satyajit Ray and Sandesh

Satyajit Ray was a multifaceted genius who will be remembered as much for his graphic designing and illustrations as for his storytelling prowess.  He was a great artist first, well before he made his name as a filmmaker. He designed book covers, film posters, illustrated children’s books and had a mastery over calligraphy and typography creating numerous new fonts in Bengali and four Roman fonts, receiving an award for designing the typeface for Ray Roman. Ray’s artistic work reflects a sophisticated experimentation with various artistic styles and traditions, both local and foreign, without compromising on aesthetic or authenticity. Throughout his career, sketching, graphic design and calligraphy merged seamlessly with his filmmaking. 

In 1961, Satyajit Ray relaunched the children’s magazine Sandesh that was originally founded by his grandfather. To make the magazine more appealing to children, Ray created all the illustrations including the covers. The cover designs incorporated colourful geometric and floral patterns in saturated primary colours with lines and textures similar to wood block printing. Often using different folk motifs, motifs from traditional day-to-day rangolis (in Bengal, alpana) or the pattachitra style of narrative painting. Experimenting with creative illustrations, he created four comic strips for Sandesh. However, these comic strips were ‘silent’, the characters did not converse with each other, leaving the narrative to the readers imagination. Constantly experimenting, using ink and pen, pencil, watercolours and ordinary poster paint in different stylisations, Ray’s illustrations are striking in the way they marry playfulness with strong lines. For readers, every cover of Sandesh was a constant source of surprise and delight, as with each issue, Ray played around with the word ‘Sandesh’ using different calligraphic and typographical styles.  

Since the time of its publication, Sandesh was usually printed in the standard size of 7.5 inches x 9.5 inches. However, for a few years from 1970 to 1973, Ray experimented with a new size as an innovation to try and inspire a child’s imagination. For these three years, Sandesh was published as a bimonthly magazine and for the first time in the history of juvenile periodicals in the large format of 13 inches x 10 inches. In subsequent years, the magazine reverted back to the original size.

Since Satyajit Ray’s passing in 1992, Sandesh continues to be published with his son Sandip Ray at the helm and is now also available online. The covers remain those created and designed by Satyajit Ray during his lifetime.