Challenges for India's Defence and Diplomacy in the 21st Century

Speaker: Ambassador Jayant Prasad, Director General of Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis 

 

Chair and Moderator:  Shri Vijay Naik, Convener, IAFAC  

 

(Collaboration:  Indian  Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents)

 

(30 mins; 2014; BluRay; English & with subtitles)

Directed & produced by Cathy Stevulak who will introduce the film with Leonard Hill, producer

Co- producer: Catherine Masud

 

Recipient of the Audience Choice Best Short Documentary Award, Gig Harbour Film Festival 2014; the Audience Choice Best Short Film Award, Friday Harbor Film Festival 2015; and Best Short Documentary Award, Female Eye Film Festival 2016

 

Followed by a discussion with

Speakers: Smt Gulshan Nanda, Ms Laila Tyabji and Ms Cathy Stevulak

Chair: Smt Ritu Sethi, Director, Craft Revival Trust

 

An intimate portrait of 85-year old Bengali artist, Surayia Rahman, who transforms the quilt-work tradition of kantha to create possibilities for a better life for her family and hundreds of destitute mothers in Bangladesh. Over three decades, as their art becomes prized possessions of connoisseurs around the world, Surayia Rahman and the artisans overcome their hardships with needle and thread, stitch by stitch. Threads takes us on a journey into the heart of an artist and illuminates an unconventional path to dignity and independence

 

(Collaboration: Delhi Crafts Council)

 

(28 min; 2016; dvd; English)

Screening of film and talk by Dr. Beheroze Shroff, Department of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Irvine 

Introduction: Dr. Lotika Varadarajan

 

Scholar of the Sidi communities in Gujarat, Beheroze Shroff has made five documentaries on contemporary Sidi culture and spiritual practice, which have been screened at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, the Max Planck Institute in Germany, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York and at the Nairobi and Zanzibar International Arts and Music Festivals, among others. She is currently co-editing a volume on the African presence in South Asia.

 

Sidis in Gujarat discuss their tradition of the fakir or itinerant holy man who goes through neighborhoods chanting, singing and blessing those who give alms. Older Sidis express anxieties about passing on this tradition, especially the playing of the malunga, a sacred musical instrument of Sidis

 

 

 

By Partho Sarothy from Kolkata, disciple of Ustad Dhyanesh Khan and Pt. Ravi Shankar and recipient of the Sanskriti – Pt. Vasant Thakar Memorial Fellowship  

 

Ashis Paul will accompany him on tabla

 

(Collaboration: Sanskriti Pratishthan)

 

 

 

 

 

Speaker: Shri Arvind Kumar, prominent writer, editor and translator who was the first Editor of Hindi Readers' Digest-Sarvottam and the Hindi film magazine Madhuri. He also served in Sarita and Caravan magazines. His biggest contribution to literature is the compilation of the Hindi Thesaurus and Dictionary titled Samantar Kosh. He has also translated several books from English to Hindi

 

(Collaboration: Indian Society for Authors)

 

 

 

 

Jatin Das and Prayag Shukla

 

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)

 

 

 

Speakers: Air Vice-Marshal (Retd.) Kapil Kak; Major General (Retd.) Ashok K Mehta; and Ambassador TCA Raghavan

 

Moderator: Dr. Dhananjay Tripathi, Department of International Relations, South Asian University

 

Exhibition in the Auditorium Foyer

Peace - an exhibition of letters, paintings, poems of students of India and Pakistan 

 

(Collaboration: Aaghaz e Dosti is a joint Indo-Pak Friendship Initiative of Mission Bhartiyam (India) and The

Catalyst of Peace (Pakistan)

 

 

By Yilian Cañizares, violinist and singer from Cuba based in Switzerland

With Daniel Stawinski on the piano

 

(Collaboration: Seher and Pro Helvetia Swiss Arts Council)

 

 

Curated by Rajiv Mehrotra

 

Awake: The Life of Yogananda (86 min; 2014; dvd; English)

Directors: Paola di Florio, Lisa Leeman

 

The film is an unconventional biography about Paramahansa Yogananda who authored “Autobiography of a Yogi”.  By personalising his own quest for enlightenment and sharing his struggles along the path, Yogananda made ancient Vedic teachings accessible to a modern audience, attracting many followers and inspiring millions to practice yoga today.  Filmed over three years and at 30 countries, the documentary examines the world of yoga, modern and ancient, east and west and explores why millions today have turned their attention inwards, bucking the limitations of the material world in pursuit of self-realisation

 

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

 

 

 

 

A discussion on the book edited by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and Yagati Chinna Rao 

 

Panelists: Prof. T.K. Oommen, Professor Emeritus, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Prof. Vijaya Ramaswamy, Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Prof. Shashi Bhushan Upadhya, School of Social Sciences, IGNOU

 

Chair: Professor Sukhdev Thorat

 

(Collaboration: Orient Blackswan)