BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP

 

There’s Something in the Air: 70 Life Stories from India and Italy

Edited by Lorenzo Angeloni & Maria Elettra Verrone (New Delhi: Juggernaut Books, 2018)

 

Names of the panelists to be announced later

My Soul Flower 

Release of the book of poems by Dr.  Lavlin Thadani

 

Panelists: Shri H. K. Dua; Dr. H. K. Kaul; Shri Amit Khanna; Ms. Rene Ranchan and Shri Venkat Narayan

Chair: Shri Arif Mohammed Khan

 

Moderator: Shri Anurag Batra, Editor, Business World

 

The programme will close with a performance based on the poems of Dr. Lavlin Thadani

Compere: Vedant Thadani

 

(Collaboration: The Poetry Society, India)

Rape Law and Constructions of Sexuality

Discussion on the book by Madhu Mehra

 

Urvashi Butalia, Founder and CEO, Zubaan in discussion with Madhu Mehra, author, feminist lawyer and Executive Director, Partners for Law in Development; Farah Naqvi, writer and activist; Rebecca Mammen John, Senior Advocate, Delhi High Court; and Shohini Ghosh, Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia University, essayist, and documentary film-maker

 

FILMS ON WILDLIFE & ENVIRONMENT

 

An Island of Hope (26 min; 2010; dvd; English)

Director: Pankaj Butalia

 

The Chakmas are a tribal group that went to Pakistan when the Chittagong Hilly Tracts became part of what was then known as East Pakistan. In 1964, the setting up of the Kaptal Hydel Project uprooted 50,000 Chakmas from their traditional homelands. Most of them then crossed over to India where they were buffeted from one state to another. They ended up living in and around Changlang, a small part of Eastern Arunachal Pradesh. A few years ago, a small school was started in Diyun, Changlang, by a few young Chakma men. This school suddenly transformed the local environment and led to the local communities grudgingly accepting this ‘outsider’ immigrant community

 

A Dam Old Story (26 min; 2010; dvd; English)

Director: Tarini Manchanda

 

A film about Himachal Pradesh’s precious Renuka Valley – home to biodiverse forests, fertile lands and people who have been living and farming in India’s northern mountains for generations. This Valley lies in the submergence area of a dam project that is meant to supply water to Delhi. The film takes a look at the stakes for this dam and asks whether Delhi needs  this dam or Himachal’s water, at all. What can Delhi learn from the Renuka Valley?

 

(Collaboration: World Wide Fund for Nature-India)

 

(Collaboration: Gurukulam Foundation)

MUSIC APPRECIATION PROMOTION

 

Sarodists of Shahjahanpur Gharana

Her presentation will trace the origins of the gharana, its distinctive features of playing and the eminent maestros who have kept the unique style of this gharana alive 

 

Dr Chandrima Majumdar is a noted sarod player as well as a keen researcher belonging to the Shahjahanpur Gharana  

Twelve Great Short Stories from Bengal: Rabindranath to Samaresh Basu

A discussion on the book translated by Phalguni Matilal 

 

Panelists: Dr. Aruna Chakravarty, Author and Educationist; Shri Santosh Kumar, retired Ambassador

 

Chair: Shri Hiranmay Karlekar 

Concert of Classical Camerata

Presented by The Lyric Ensemble of Delhi founded by Situ Singh Buehler

Conductor: Madhav Rainer-Thapan

Piano and flute accompaniment 

 

Narrated by Sunit Tandon

 

A concert of soloists and chorus, presenting opera and lieder by Mozart, Schubert, Donizetti , Puccini and Verdi

 

The Military in Pakistan

Speaker: Shri Maroof Raza, Defence Analyst, Consultant & Strategic Affairs Expert for Times Now television. He is a regular commentator on news debates and anchors a weekend TV show on World Affairs – “Latitude”

 

Chair: Air Marshal Naresh Verma, Director, IIC

Creeds of Our Times

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

The Buddha: The Story of Siddhartha (120 min; 2010; dvd; English)

Director: David Grubin

Narrated by Richard Gere

 

Recipient of the ASIFA/East Award for Excellence in Design, ASIFA/East Animation Festival 2011

 

Two-thousand-five-hundred years ago in northern India, Prince Siddhartha left his palace where he had spent twenty-nine years indulging in pleasures. He was determined to comprehend the nature of human suffering. After a grueling spiritual quest that lasted six years, he at last attained enlightenment meditating under a fig tree. He became the Buddha, the “awakened one,” and devoted the rest of his life to teaching the way to enlightenment that he himself had found, giving birth to one of the world’s great religions

 

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