From Quetta to Delhi: A Partition Story

Memories Revived Through Music 

Release of the book by Reena Nanda (New Delhi: Bloomsbury, 2018)

 

Speakers: Narayani Gupta, historian; and Parvati Sharma, novelist and short story writer

 

Followed by a Concert

By Pamela Singh, Punjabi singer and actor with Neelam Mansingh’s The Company, Chandigarh

 

The partition of the Punjab in 1947 was not just the loss of a physical space but of the culture and ethos it embodied. Multilingual with multiple identities, it was a pluralist culture in which bhajans, shabads, sufi kafis and qawwalis were equally popular with people of all religions. There was an invisible cost of Partition besides the loss of life and property. It was the destruction of the psychic equilibrium of the displaced population, the ‘refugees’. This is the story of one such woman, Shakunt Nanda, who coped with mental distress by escaping into memories of the part, mourning the loss of the old Punjabiyat, remembering the old songs which will be presented by Pamela Singh

 

 

Two talks by Prof. Sitta von Reden, Historian of Ancient Greece, University of Freiburg, Germany. She is author of Exchange in Ancient Greece (1995); Money in Ptolemaic Egypt (2007) and Money in Classical Antiquity (2010)

 

On 15 February at 18:30 in Conference Room I 
Alexander the Great in India: Towards a Transcultural Understanding of Cultural Encounter 

Alexander’s campaigns in India and the ethno-geographical literature that ensued tend to serve as treasure troves for Greek perceptions of cultural difference and otherness in the Hellenistic period. However, recent debates in the wider context of globalization theory have made us rethink cultural entities and the idea of their clash or encounter

 

Chair: Prof. Anil Bhatti, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University
 

Courtesan's Legacy 

Manijiri Chaturvedi relives the lost songs and dance of the courtesan

Introduction by Pran Nevile

 

(Collaboration: K.L. Saigal Memorial Circle)

DELHI MATTERS

 

Getting Anywhere? Mobility in Delhi & NCR  – Traffic, Transport and Commuting 

Roundtable Discussion with 

 

Ms Varsha Joshi, Commissioner Transport Government of Delhi: Policies, Regulations and Status of Public Transport: Buses, 3 wheelers and privately owned vehicles - Über,Ola and electric rickshaws 

   

Mr.  Dependra Pathak, Special Commissioner (Traffic ) Delhi Police: How technology is being used to control traffic – Achievements & Challenges 

 

Mr Rohit Kumar Singh, Member, National Highway Authority of India: NHAI’s plans and progress on building Highways in Delhi and the NCR 

 

Dr. O.P.  Agarwal, International Urban Transport Expert and former Global Adviser in World Bank will moderate and present experience of high performing transport systems in world cities 

 

There will also be a short presentation of what Delhi Metro has achieved along with what to expect in 2018-19 

 

Coordinator: Smt Shailaja Chandra

Louis Kahn’s Tiger City (117 min; 2017; Blu-ray; English)

Film by Sundaram Tagore who will introduce the screening

 

Screening will be followed by a discussion

 

A rough-cut of the film on the architect Louis Kahn and his famous parliamentary complex in Bangladesh, Sher-e-Bangla Nagor, also known as the Tiger City. A worldwide quest to more than fourteen countries to find out how this Estonian-born American architect built such a daringly modern and monumental complex in a culturally rich but economically shattered country. How did he win such a high-profile commission ten thousand miles from his home in Philadelphia? What force of will enabled him to design a capital complex on the tabula rasa of the rice paddies of Bangladesh?

 

 

Western Concepts and Indian Realities

A Café Exposition: Reliving Van Gogh

Three leading artists pay homage to Vincent van Gogh 

Conceptualised and curated by Rekha Mody

 

Artists: Seema Kohli, Indian artist whose work reveal a claiming of feminine subjectivities through paintings, sculptures, performance videos and drawings 

 

Tayeba Begum Lipi who lives and works in Dhaka on prints, paintings, installations and videos.  A co-founder of Britto Arts Trust, Bangladesh’s first artist-run alternative arts platform

 

Mahbubur Rahman, a pioneer in Bangladesh of cross-media approach

 

Inauguration on Monday, 12 February 2018 at 17:00

 

During the exhibition there will be a Potato Eaters Party at 15:30 everyday

 

(Collaboration: Habiart Foundation)

 

Concert – Lute Recital

By Emilio Bezzi from Italy 

 

(Collaboration: Italian Embassy Cultural Centre; and Delhi Music Society)

BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

 

A Memoir of Pre-Partition Punjab: Ruchi Ram Sahani, 1863-1948

Edited by Neera Burra (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2017)

 

Panelists: Prof. Mridula Mukherjee, former Director Nehru Memorial Museum & Library; Prof. Salil Misra, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Ambedkar University; and Prof. Gursharan Kaur Aurora, formerly Professor at Sikkim Manipal University

 

Chair: Ambassador T.C. A. Raghavan, former High Commissioner of India to Pakistan