Meet the Author

MadhuTandan in conversation with Jyoti Karan Singh

 

Madhu Tandan is the author of three books: Faith and Fire: A Way Within, based on her 7 year stay in a Himalayan monastery. Dreams and Beyond: Finding Your Way In The Dark, explores the multiplicity of the dreaming mind from the perspectives of science, psychology, paranormal and transpersonal paradigms; and Hemis a novel set in Ladakh where Ajay stranded by the floods seeks shelter in a remote monastery in the Hemis Sanctuary and where he meets its charismatic abbot, a man unlike any other. The book explores love and sexuality against an unusual backdrop of spiritual practices

 

A KUTIYATTAM PERFORMANCE – SURPANAKHANKAM FROM SAKTIBHADRA’S ASCHARYACHUDAMANI: 16 TO 21 AUGUST 2018

Performances by Nepathaya, Kerala led by Margi Madhu Chakyar and Dr. Indu G. 

Introduction by Prof. David Shulman 

 

A complete performance of Kutiyattam each evening at 6:30 pm. Details of each evening’s episode with simultaneous explanatory slide projection; and cast details will be distributed before the performance

 

One of the oldest forms of theatre in India, the last living tradition of Sanskrit drama in performance. Kutiyattam has miraculously survived in Kerala, first as a temple art, but today it is performed on the secular stage as well. 

Kutiyattam has a spectacular theatrical language which unfolds multiple layers of meaning of the text, conveyed through gestures, powerful facial expressions, and an elaborate, slowly evolving mode of enactment. In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed Kutiyattam as a ‘Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. 

 

Kutiyattam is a tradition fighting for its life, especially for the opportunity to perform full-scale, unabridged masterpieces spread out over several nights. Only such complete performances can convey the deep expressive force of these magnificent texts, which slowly build up to an unimaginable climax on the final night. 

 

This performance is based on Aranyakanda of the Ramayana. It depicts Surpanakhankam, the second act of Saktibhadra’s Sanskrit play Ascharyachudamani

 

(Collaboration: Sahapedia; Parekh Institute of Indian Thought, CSDS; and Seher)

 

CREEDS OF OUR TIMES

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

Sacred Journeys with Bruce Feiler (120 min; 2014; dvd; English)

A film presented by Bruce Feiler

 

Biblical scholar, Bruce Feiler takes viewers on some of the most celebrated, challenging and spectacular religious pilgrimages on earth. In this landmark six-part series, we travel with American pilgrims looking to transform their lives as they visit places deeply meaningful to their faith. And our cameras gain privileged access to places rarely seen by viewers before

 

(Collaboration: The Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness The Dalai Lama) 

 

Flight of the Ibis (60 min; dvd; 2014; English)

Film on the 2014 production of the play written by Alan Roland, playwright/librettist, visual artist and psychoanalyst who has written three books on the psychology of Indians and Japanese.  A musical, mystical and psychological drama, Flight of the Ibis is a powerful and imaginative exploration of the spiritual underpinnings of the Umayyad Caliphate in 10th century Cordoba, Spain, the most culturally advanced country in medieval Europe, with remarkable interfaith harmony

 

Prof. Alan Roland will introduce the film

 

Screening will be followed by a discussion

Long Shadow of Joblessness in the High Noon of Growth

Is jobless growth intrinsic to the market-led growth model? What indeed is the truth about growth and job-creation in India? What are the pathways to secure both growth and jobs?

 

These questions will be debated by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Jayati Ghosh, Renana Jhabvala and Atul Sood

 

This is the inaugural debate in a series of Policy and Inclusion Conversations, a collaboration between the Centre for Equity Studies, the India International Centre and The Wire

 

Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture 2018

 

Religion, Religiosity and the World Order

Speaker: Shri M. Hamid Ansari, former Vice President of India

 

Chair: Ambassador G. Parthasarathy

 

(Collaboration: Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust)

DELHI MATTERS

 

Higher Education in the Delhi Region – Are Things getting Better?

Panelists: Dr. Chintamani Mahapatra, Rector (Pro-Vice Chancellor), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Professor, School of International Studies, JNU; Dr. Pratibha Jolly, Principal, Miranda House, University of Delhi. Miranda House was ranked number 1 college in India 2 years consecutively; and Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder of Indian School of Business, Ashoka University and the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women

 

Moderator: Dr. Virender Chouhan, Chairman of the Executive Committee of NAAC and member of EC, National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF)

 

Coordinator: Smt. Shailaja Chandra

A Tale of Two Cities: Hampi and Newtown

A photographic study of urban memory

An exhibition of photographs by Rajib De from Kolkata

 

Preview on Thursday, 9 August 2018 at 18:30

 

This exhibition of photographs provides the visual binary of a great Indian city of the sleeping past and a future city waking into shape

 

India and the World: 10 Years after Lifting of Nuclear Strictures
 

Panelists: Ambassador Shyam Saran; and Dr. Jaishankar

 

Chair: Cmde. C. Uday Bhaskar