With Songmi Han, co-author with Casey Lartigue of Greenlight to Freedom: A North Korean Daughter’s Search for Her Mother & Herself; Casey Lartigue Jr., advocate and activist based in South Korea where he is co-founder and Chairman, Freedom Speakers International; Eunkoo Lee, expert and advocate for North Korean Human Rights and co-founder and Chairperson, Freedom Speakers International; and Chanyang Ju, Freedom Speakers International

The two speakers, Songmi Han and Chanyang Ju will discuss living in North Korea and their lives there. The story of survival, resilience, and the pursuit of freedom against all odds. The evening will also include a special musical performance by Ju on the traditional Korean flute

(Collaboration: Korean Cultural Centre India)
 

Hindustani Vocal Recital
By Dr Kaustuv Kanti Ganguli from UAE, disciple of Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty
 

Anemone Morning and other poems
By Gopal Lahiri (PENPRINTS Publications: 2024)

Discussants: Dr. Payal Nagpal, Professor, Dept. of English, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi; Shri Mohammad Jamshed, author, poet and former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal; Ms Satbir Chadha, novelist and poet; and Shri Gopal Lahiri, poet, Editor, critic, translator and author of the book

Chair: Prof. Malashri Lal, author and Convener, English Board, Sahitya Akademi

Leading lady of Indian cinema, Sharmila Tagore
In conversation with Sujata Prasad and Oroon Das

(Collaboration: Ahad Anhad)

An exhibition of prints, paintings, and sculptures
By Arpan Sadhukhan from Kolkata

Inauguration by Ms. Uma Nair, well-known art critic and curator on Tuesday, 23 July 2024 at 18:30

(Collaboration: Purushottam Public Trust)
 

Speaker: Amb. Ruchira Kamboj, Former Permanent Representative/Ambassador of India to the United Nations, New York

Chair: Amb. Syed Akbaruddin, Dean, Kautilya School of Public Policy, Hyderabad and former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations
 

Speakers: Kavita Bundelkhandi, co-founder and Editor-in-Chief, Khabar Lahariya and the first Dalit member of the Editor’s Guild of India who is a non-conformist of many parts who stumbled into motherhood; Pooja Pande, writer, author and editor, TED speaker and co-CEO, Chambal Media who has deconstructed the institution of motherhood in India in her book Momspeak; and Vandana Sharma, practicing advocate who qualifies as a mother and advocate at about the same time 

Chair: Richa Jha, children’s author and the publisher of Pickle Yolk Books

In literature, films, performative spaces, popular media and in our everyday lives, we now have portrayals and real-life role models of mothers who do not shy away from putting themselves first, even at the cost of being labelled as ‘bad’ mothers. By living on their own terms, or by not making motherhood the focus of their existence, they challenge the conventional views that have long since reduced women to the all-loving, all-sacrificing and rule-bound gendered identity and role.

The conversation will explore how mothers today are breaking the classic mothering moulds
 

Poetics of Absence
An illustrated presentation by Navtej Singh Johar

The speaker will share his love for the thumri, ghazal, kafi and padam, all genres of amorous songs that address the absence of a fictitious god-lover. Using abhinaya, he will illustrate the poetic dynamics that may operate between the “real-self” and its “fictitious-other” for the purpose of aesthetic satisfaction (rasa) that can be said to be unique to the subcontinent.

Navtej Singh Johar is a dancer-choreographer, yoga practitioner, scholar and social activist. His work within all fields of his varied interests remains consistently body-centric.  It twines practice with critical theory and social action while it traverses freely between the traditional and the contemporary.  Johar teaches Dance Studies at Ashoka University, India, and is the founder-director of Studio Abhyas, New Delhi where he teaches two practices that he has devised over the years, the BARPS Method of Asana and Abhyas Somtics,  the two being inspired by the concepts of sukh and rasa that are central to Yoga and Indian poetics respectively
 

Deviations

Panel discussion with Ravi Agarwal, artist, photographer, environmental campaigner, writer, curator; Manisha Parekh, artist; and Vibha Galhotra, conceptual artist who’s work includes large-scale installations, sculptures, drawings, films that explore themes of ecological and environmental concerns (tbc)

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

A House of Bamboo- Mud and Thatch
Illustrated lecture by Nengcha Lhouvum and Gautam Mukhopadhaya

Discussants: Savyasaachi, Anthropologist, Professor and former Head, Dept. of Sociology, Jamia Millia Islamia; and Snehanshu Mukherjee, architect, educator and writer, Adjunct Professor, Indian Institute of Art & Design, New Delhi

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

Nengcha Lhouvum served as India’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Serbia and Indonesia from 2005-2013. She drew from her childhood to build a traditional mud hut with a contemporary touch in the hills of Manipur. Gautam Mukhopadhaya served as Indian Ambassador to Syria, Afghanistan and Myanmar from 2006-16.  

With a shared interest in building with natural and local materials: mud, stone, bamboo and thatch, the talk is the outcome of that interest.