DELHI MATTERS: TALKS & DISCUSSIONS

 

Delhi and NCR. How’s Life?

Lead presentation by Pallavi Aiyar, award winning Indian journalist and author, most recently of “Choked! Everything You Were Afraid to Know About Air Pollution”. Pallavi will speak on How Beijing Reduced Air Pollution And How Delhi Can Do It

 

Speakers: Keshav Chandra, Environment & Forest Secretary and CEO of Jal Board, Government of Delhi who will speak on Status of Delhi’s Air, Water & Sewerage;  and Jagan Shah, Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs who will speak on Making Cities That Are Worth Living And Leaving Behind for Future Generations

 

Chair: Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, ICRIER and former Chairperson of the High Powered Expert Committee on Urban Infrastructure and Services

 

Beyond Boundaries: Peace is My Dream

A concert by Nirupama Rao (vocal) accompanied by Soundarie David Rodrigo (piano) 

 

The concert is organised on the occasion on the release of their CD, Peace is My Dream by Peninsula Studios and Universal Music and the programme will include some songs from the CD

 

Annapurna – Land of Lhobas, Khampas and Gurungs

Vignettes from a recent trek to Upper Mustang and Annapurna Base Camp

 

Illustrated lecture by Sudha Mahalingam, intrepid traveller and prolific writer ever in quest of the extraordinary, the exceptional and the exotic who trekked to Lo Manthang and Annapurna Base Camp along with two other Indian women

Chair: Ms. Latha Jishu

 

FILMS ON WILDLIFE AND ENVIRONMENT

 

Chilika Banks – Stories from India’s Largest Coastal Lake 1970-2007

(60 min; dvd; English)

Director: Akanksha Joshi

 

 

Recipient of the Best Film Award- Livelihood, 5th CMS Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife Film Festival 2009; and First Prize, Jeevika: South Asia Livelihood Documentary Film Festival 2008

 

In a canvas spread over four decades, a banyan tree on the banks of the lake Chilika silently whispers tales of the lake and her fisher folk. From the times when there was no export bazaar to the time when there may be no lake

 

(Collaboration: World Wide Fund for Nature-India)

 

 

 

Hindi Kavita aur Urdu Shayari ki Beech ki Ghat ti Dooriyan (Diminishing Differences Between Hindi and Urdu Poetry)

Speaker: Bal Swaroop Rahi, well-known writer, journalist and dramatist

 

Chair: Shri B. L. Gaur

 

(Collaboration: The Poetry Society, India)

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

 

Strategic Vision 2030: Security and Development of Andaman & Nicobar Islands

By P.K. Roy and Aspi Cowasji (New Delhi: Vij Books, 2017) who will introduce the book

 

Panellists: Ambassador Gautam Mukhopadhyaya, former Indian Ambassador to Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar; and Shri Nitin A. Gokhle, journalist, author and media trainer & researcher

 

Chair: Shri Shakti Sinha, Director, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library

 

MUSIC APPRECIATION PROMOTION

 

Nilina's Song: The Music of Naina Devi

We celebrate Naina Devi and her music in this, her centenary year. The importance of music, and very particularly forms such as thumri, chaiti, kajri, barahmasa, is discussed with some excerpts from recordings to highlight ? the quality of her voice and exposition style. There will also be detailed references to her life and the extraordinary social and musical paths it followed 

 

Illustrated lecture by AshaRani Mathur, writer and music lover and has been fortunate enough to work in both fields. She has written and edited books on a variety of topics, and was the Producer, for seven years, for the record label Music Today

 

Chair: Partha Chatterjee, music and art critic

BEYOND BORDERS – IIC-NFI LECTURE SERIES

 

The  Impossible Dream? Decolonising the History of Borders

Speaker: Prof. Indrani Chatterjee, Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin. A prominent historian of colonial South Asia who has researched, worked, and taught on three continents

 

Introduction: Dr. Monica Bannerjee, Director, NFI

Moderator: Kishalay Bhattacharjee, Associate Professor, O. P. Jindal Global University, Sonepat

 

(Collaboration: National Foundation for India)

 

Cultural Distance and Public Understanding of Science: 25 years of study at Kumbh Mela

Speaker: Dr. Gauhar Raza, scientist formerly with the NISCAIR.  He has been attending the Kumbh Mela for 25 years to do a survey on understanding of science among common people. Apart from pioneering work in the field of Public Understanding of Science, he has active collaborations in South Africa, Brazil, Paris, etc. He is also a recognised Urdu poet

 

(Collaboration: SAHAS)

CREEDS OF OUR TIMES

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

The Razor’s Edge (145 min; 1946; dvd; English)

A film directed by John Byrum 

 

With Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney

 

Nominated for the Best Picture Award at the Oscars, and is a recipient of the Oscar Award for Best Supporting Actor 1947; and Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actor & Best Supporting Actress, Golden Globes, USA 1947

 

Based on the renowned novelist W. Somerset Maugham’s best-seller, The Razor's Edge tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life and questions society’s values

 

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