Speaker: Ms Sathya Saran who will trace the changing perception of Indian beauty in cinema through the early days till the present. It will talk about some of the iconic beauties and the unique aspect of each that wooed the audience imagination. The presentation will also talk about the influences that changed perceptions and brought in a resultant change in the body shapes and looks of screen divas

 

 

Speaker: Dr. Sumanta Banerjee is a cultural historian who specializes in research into popular culture, particularly of the colonial period. His best known works include The Simmering Revolution: The Naxalite Uprising,The Thema Book of Naxalite Poetry, The Popular and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta  and Dangerous Outcast: The Prostitute in Nineteenth Century Bengal

 

Chair: Shri Hiranmay Karlekar

 

The decade of the 1950s was a crucial period in the history of Calcutta, charged with dramatic transitions and traumatic experiences in the quotidian existence of its citizens. Their economic, political and socio-cultural existential world changed under the impact of a number of historical developments

 

Prof. Dipankar Gupta, Shiv Nadar University & Director, Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory; Ms Amrita Bhalla, Dept. of English, Jesus and Mary College; and Ms. Mandira Ghosh , author will discuss In Search of Freedom: Journeys Through India and South – East Asia by Sagari Chhabra (NOIDA: HarperCollins, 2015)

 

Chair: Prof. Shyam B. Menon, Vice Chancellor, Ambedkar University

 

A discussion on the book, Gates of the Lord : A Tradition of Krishna Painting (Mapin India)

 

Panelists: Madhuvanti Ghose, Alsdorf Associate Curator of Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan and Islamic Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the curator of the exhibition, Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings; Kapil Sharma contemporary artist and designer who is inspired by the legacy of his forefathers in Nathdwara; and Nilima Sheikh, one of India's most respected artists  

 

Speaker: Shri Anand Sethi, electronics engineer, International Development Finance professional, itinerant traveller, writer/author on history of technology and military history

 

Chair: Ambassador K.V. Rajan, Convenor, India Discussion Group

 

Chief Guest: Prof Lokesh Chandra, President, ICCR

 

A fascinating and unusual travelogue covering the most important sites in Sri Lanka mentioned in most of the over 320 versions of the Ramayana. The presentation does not take a view or opinion, either for or against, of the historical and geographical authenticity of what is stated in the Ramayana 

 

Directed by Subasri Krishnan who will introduce the film

 

Screening will be followed by a discussion

 

On 18th February 1983, from 9 am to 3 pm, more than 2000 Muslims were killed in the town of Nellie and its surrounding villages in Assam. People’s homes were burnt down and their fields destroyed. Most of those who died were old people, women and children. Till date the Nellie massacre remains on the margins of India’s public history, and is virtually wiped out from the nation’s collective memory. The film revisits the massacre three decades later to explore ideas of violence, memory and justice. The film tries to understand how physical spaces that have witnessed the violence continue to mark people’s relationship to history and memory; and attempts to raise larger questions around collective memory – of what we choose to remember and why we choose to forget 

 

An exhibition of photographs by Amita Virmani from Delhi

 

Preview on Tuesday, 2 February 2016 at 18:30

 

Internet – Are we “logged” on or “hooked” on ?
 

 

Moderator: Dr. S.K. Khandelwal

 

Internet has become an integral part of life in current times. It has been unequivocally accepted as one of the most exciting inventions of the last few centuries. The debate surrounding Internet includes the issues such as ease and freedom of its access; its regulation; its impact on youth and social fabric of the society in general, among others. The discussion shall focus on some of the diverse and highly relevant issues related to Internet in modern times - net neutrality; impact of Internet on the youth; and ‘internet addiction’

 

 

 

A festival of films presenting the best films made by children from 30 schools in Delhi