Release of the Winter 2019 & Spring 2020 Special issue of the IIC Quarterly,  The Crisis of Climate Change
Edited by Ravi Agarwal and Omita Goyal

Introduction: Dr. Karan Singh, Chairman, IIC Editorial Board

Followed by a panel discussion
SPEAKERS: Nagraj Adve who works and writes on the science, impacts and politics of global warming. His booklet, Global Warming in the Indian Context: An Introductory Overview (2019) has been translated into Hindi, Kannada, and Tamil; and Ruchira Talukdar, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia 

Moderator: Ravi Agarwal, Founder-Director, Toxics Link and established artist, writer, and curator

This collection seeks to not only outline the specific conditions and responses to  climate change in India, but also takes an unusual ground-up approach of including voices of those who are researching landscapes and observing changes in them, across disciplines and practices.

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Dutch Children’s Film Festival 2020
A weekly screening of four award winning children’s films organized in collaboration with Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, New Delhi to celebrate National Children’s Day. Screenings will be held every Saturday and Sunday in November 2020. A link to the film is given below; the film can be accessed for a period of 36 hours from Saturday 9 am to Sunday 11:55 pm. The password for each film will be communicated by email to all members

Saturday 14th to Sunday 15th November 2020
Dummie the Mummie (Dummie de Mummie)
(80 min; 2014; Dutch with English subtitles)
Director: Pim van Hoeve

Recipient of the Golden Film Award, Golden and Platin Film, Netherlands 2014

The magic of friendship can break even the strongest curse…

Shy eleven-year-old Gus's life is changed irrevocably when he finds an Egyptian mummy in his bed. An actual mummy of an actual young Egyptian prince, brought to life by a lightning bolt that struck his enchanted golden scarab, just as he was being transported to a nearby museum. Darwishi Uratum Msamaki Minkab Ishaq Eboni, or Dummie for short, is almost the exact opposite of Gus: an unrestrained daredevil who knows no fear or pain and is up for anything. An unlikely friendship is born.

Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1334885020176289

Adil Writer, ceramic artist, painter and architect in conversation with Shernaz Cama

Organised in collaboration with Parzor Foundation and Jiyo Parsi

A Journey through Shehr-i-Kashmir, the historic city of Srinagar 
(47 min)
Illustrated lecture by Shri M. Saleem Beg, Convenor, INTACH, Jammu & Kashmir

Saleem Beg presents a comprehensive lecture, illustrated with maps and photographs on the history and architecture of Srinagar. With 500 years of living tradition, Srinagar is a riverine city with the Jhelum and other waterways and canals bisecting it. The talk traces the historicity of the city through its architecture

Video recording of a talk for IIC online programmes

129 min; 2020; Hindi/English and with subtitles

Director: Japna Tulsi

Recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award (Debut Filmmaker), Druk International Film Festival, Bhutan 2020; Best Documentary Film, Indus Valley International Film Festival 2020; Award of Recognition, Impact Docs Award (Documentary Feature), USA 2020; among others

Documentary on the life of Baba Neem Karoli Maharaj (1900-1973), also known as Maharajji. 

Click here to View
Password: RamRamRam

Screening of NHK documentary films on Japan’s history, literature, art, culture and heritage. Organised with the support of NHK World and Embassy of Japan, New Delhi 

Aichi – Heartland of Japan’s Craft Traditions (Click to View)
(27 minutes; 2019; English and with subtitles)

Part of the series Cycle Around Japan, the documentary follows Michael Rice, a long term resident of Japan to explore Aichi Prefecture in Central Japan and its time honoured craft tradition, history and culture. Starting in Nagoya, one of Japan's biggest cities, he discovers a fermented soybean seasoning called Hama natto. Rice meets a potter who continues to practise a 200 year tradition of pottery called Tokoname-yaki teapots made from the rich soil found in the area and makers of inkstones carved from mountain rocks.

An exhibition of photographs taken over a period of twenty years in Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh by Kishore Thukral

Imagine a remote valley high up in the western Indian Himalayas, abutting Tibet. A valley that at various times in history has been part of the Tibetan realm. A valley one hundred per cent Buddhist. A valley abounding in fossils of maritime inhabitants of the prehistoric Tethys Sea. A valley with a stunning moonscape. A valley that is a world within a world. A world they call SPITI. 

Says Kim, the eponymous protagonist of Rudyard Kipling’s classic, “…Surely the Gods live here …This is no place for men …”

Spiti derives its name from a combination of two local words – bi (hidden) and ti (water/river/valley), though some believe it is rooted in chiti (paradise). Be that as it may, sandwiched between perennially snow-capped mountains, the valley has only recently started to garner the attention of the Indian traveller. The approach to it is not easy – the narrow, rough road leading to it takes one through canyons, across streams, beneath overhangs and over high mountain-passes.

Tibet is barely a day’s walk away. Little wonder then that Vajrayana Buddhism has flourished in Spiti for over a thousand years, a period that also saw the founding of magnificent monasteries such as Tabo, Dangkhar, Ghungri, Tangyud and Key, and smaller temples like the Ser Khang in Lhalung.

The mystique of the land is palpable. Spiti’s history is for the most part unrecorded, yet it boasts a priceless heritage, and a landscape that presents a frame wherever you turn your camera.

Kishore Thukral has trekked, photographed and researched extensively in the western Himalayas, especially the remote valley of Spiti in Himachal Pradesh. He is the author of Spiti through Legend and Lore (Mosaic Books, New Delhi, 2006), a book that documents the legends and folklore of the valley both in text and in photographs.

He was instrumental in setting up 'Dangkhar Initiative', a project for the restoration of the ancient Dangkhar monastery in Spiti. Through his efforts Dangkhar was recognized by the World Monuments Fund in 2006-07 as one of the hundred most endangered historical sites in the world.

Kishore has also authored The Chronicler’s Daughter (Ravi Dayal Publisher, Delhi, 2002). Sharanam Gachhami: an Album of Awakening (Full Circle, New Delhi, 2011), and Ephemera… (Mosaic Books, New Delhi, 2015). In Hindi he has written short stories, and plays for mentally challenged children and young adults. He has translated and written several songs, including one for the award winning film, I am Kalam.

Kishore has to his credit a number of photography exhibitions and illustrated lectures on Spiti, Dangkhar and Vajrayana Buddhist art. He is presently working on a handbook on Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhist iconography.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, and a former Executive Director of the International Buddhist Confederation.

By profession Kishore is a Financial Advisor.

For more information on the exhibition and Kishore Thukral, contact: kishore.thukral@gmail.com