To Celebrate World Environment Day 2018

 

Awareness Workshop on Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals: Beating Plastic Pollution

 

(Collaboration: The Climate Change Research Institute)

Romancing Nature – An Evening of Tagore Songs

By Kamalini Mukherji, leading exponent of Rabindra Sangeet

 

(Collaboration: Seher)

SUMMER SONATA – A FESTIVAL OF OPERA AND BALLET FILMS

This year the festival presents operas, ballets, a ballet biography and choral works

Curated and introduced by Dr. R.P. Jain

 

Jacques Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann 

(150 min; 1981; dvd; English subtitles)

The Royal Opera, Covent Garden

Conductor: Georges Pretre

 

With Placido Domingo (Hoffmann), Luciana Serra (Olympia), Agnes Balsta (Giulietta), Ileana Cotrubas (Antonia)

 

Offenbach’s ‘fantastic’ grand opera, The Tales of Hoffmann (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), is based on tales by the German writer, E.T.A. Hoffmann. In a tavern in Nuremberg, the drunken poet, Hoffmann, is lamenting his failed love life, and how it’s all caused by his rival, the Councillor Lindorf. He tells his fellow-drinkers about his three past loves, three personifications of the same woman – Olympia, the ‘daughter’ of an inventor, who turns out to be a doll; a courtesan, Giulietta, who is under the spell of a sorcerer; Antonia, a sick girl who is lured into singing herself to death by the evil Dr. Miracle. An opera about an artist’s hopes and disappointments, in a fantasy world that is both romantic yet grotesque

 

Panchsheel: Principles and National Interests in Foreign Policy

Speaker: Ambassador Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, former Indian Ambassador to China and currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change and also member, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Geneva. Author of War and Diplomacy in Kashmir

Chair: Ambassador Ashok Kantha

 

Contrary to popular belief, the archival record shows that the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, or Panchsheel, were formulated by China, not India. Their roots lie in Chinese foreign policy, not Indian philosophy. China has regularly proposed sets of “principles” to guide bilateral and multilateral negotiations in diverse fields. We need a clearer understanding of this diplomatic tool

 

(Collaboration: Institute of Chinese Studies)

TO MARK WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2018

 

The Sixth Edition of the Dialogue to Develop a Vision of the Environment of Delhi – 2025

Speakers: Shri P.K. Tripathi, former Chief Secretary of Delhi; Prof. Sanghamitra Sheel Acharya, Professor, Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. R.B. Singh, Professor, Department of Geography, University of Delhi; and Dr. R. Gopinath, IFS, Assistant Inspector General of Forests, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change

 

Moderator: Shri Dinesh C. Sharma, Managing Editor, India Science Wire

 

(Collaboration: The Green Circle of Delhi)

Poetry Reading from Banaras and the Other

By Ashwini Kumar, poet, author and Professor of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

 

Followed by a panel discussion on

Remembering and Reclaiming Banaras: A Poetic Voyage

Discussants: K. Satchidanandan, poet, critic and former Secretary, Sahitya Akademi; Sukrita Paul Kumar, poet, academic and former Chairperson, Aruna Asaf Ali Chair, University of Delhi; and Manglesh Dabral, poet, editor and translator

 

Chair: Jatin Das, eminent artist who will also release the Odiya translation of the book

 

(Collaboration: The Poetry Society, India)

 

Saat Hindustani Indradhanush ke Saat Rang: Celebrating Abbas and Bachchan

 

Saat Hindustani (144 min; 1969; dvd; Hindi)

Directed, Produced and Written by Khwaja Ahmed Abbas

 

With Utpal Dutt, Jalal Agha, Anwar Ali, Shahnaz and others

 

Recipient of the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration; and National film Award for Best Lyrics

The film will be introduced by Begum Zakia Zaheer, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas Memorial Trust

 

Saat Hindustani portrays the story of seven Indians who attempt to liberate Goa from the Portuguese colonial rule. The film marks Amitabh Bachchan’s debut in films

 

(Collaboration: Khwaja Ahmed Abbas Memorial Trust)

THE IIC BAITHAK

 

Hindustani Vocal  

By Nirali Kartik from Mumbai, disciple of Pt Sanjeev Abhyankar  

 

Accompanied by Amit Mishra on tabla and Vinay Mishra on harmonium