Struggling with History, Living With Ashoka: My Encounter with Biography
Speaker: Dr. Nayanjot Lahiri, Professor, Department of History, University of Delhi
 
Chair: Dr. Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Vice Chancellor, Ashoka University
 
Nayanjot Lahiri will speak on the joys and challenges in crafting the biography of ancient India’s most extraordinary emperor which has recently been published as Ashoka in Ancient India (Permanent Black)

CANCELLED


With Pandit Kumar Gandharva bani exponent, Shri Bhuvanesh Komkali (Khayal)

Shri Bhuvanesh Komkali was born into a rich legacy of music, being the grandson of Pandit Kumar Gandharva and the son of Pandit Mukul Shivputra. At present, he continues to receive guidance from Vidushi Vasundhara Komkali  and Pandit Madhup Mudgal. Since the mehfil is being held on the auspicious day of guru purnima, Bhuvanesh will pay homage to Pandit Kumar Gandharva by singing ragas and bandishes created by him
 
Henceforth, the mehfil series will be dedicated to the cherished memory of Shri Suresh Neotia who always took a keen interest in supporting it

An exhibition of paintings by Phalguni Dasgupta, well known artist now based in Dehradun and formerly was with the College of Art in New Delhi
 
Inaugurationby Dr. Karan Singh  on Thursday, 30 July 2015 at 18:30

The Divine Mohras of Kullu
Speaker: Dr. Kirit Mankodi, archaeologist and author of The Queen’s Stepwell at Patan
 
Chair: Shri B.M. Pande

This illustrated talk is about the Devatas, or Mohras, worshipped in Himachal Pradesh. The Devatas are the divine busts made of either brass, silver, or even gold; they represent epic or pauranic gods, sages, and other heroes, around which the religious life of the present Kullu, Mandi and Shimla districts of this Himalayan State has revolved for many centuries

(83 min; 2013; HDV, SDV, VHS, Cell-phone; Kutchi, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi with English subtitles )
 
A film by CAMP (Shaina Anand and Ashok Sukumaran)
 
 A boat has many powers: to gather a society in its making, to distribute goods, to carry people and ideas across places that, it seems to us, are more different than ever before. From Gulf to Gulf to Gulf is a result of four years of dialogue, friendship and exchange between CAMP and a group of sailors from the Gulf of Kutch. Their travels, and those of co-seafarers from Pakistan and Southern Iran, through the Persian and Aden Gulfs show us a world cut into many pieces, not easily bridged by nostalgics or nationalists. Instead, we follow the physical crossings made by these groups of people who make and sail boats, and who also make videos, sometimes with songs married to them. 
 Awarded the Jury mention at Festival International de Cinema, Marseille and the New Views Prize, Olhar de Cinema, Curutiba, Opening Film Images Festival Toronto  

Directed by Pankaj Butalia

Produced by Films Division

Dr. Mushtaque Sadaf, Sahitya Akademi will briefly introduce the work of Nida Fazli; and Pankaj Butalia will introduce the film

Screening will be followed by a discussion

Nida Fazli is one of India’s well-known Urdu poets. Born in Gwalior from where his family left for Pakistan after the partition of India, Nida decided to stay behind and moved to Bombay to see if he could make his mark there as a poet. From the mid-seventies onwards, he has been recognised as one of the leading modernist voices in Urdu poetry. This film is a way to look at the man and his work

Between Nationalism and Internationalism: The Political Philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore
Speaker: Dr. Ramachandra Guha, historian and biographer

Speaker : Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan, Director UC Center for Global Digital Cultures and Associate Professor
Department of Information Studies and Design|Media Arts, University of California at Los Angeles

Chair: Dr. Githa Hariharan
 
This talk explores how digital technologies can be re-imagined in the shape of peoples and communities worldwide on the margins of political and social power. It considers these questions in terms of how political movements are formed and sustained, how heritage and identity are preserved and how technologies may shape labor and the environment. I share insights from my work that range from South America, the Middle East, and South Asia 

Illustrated lecture by Dr. Pravina Cooper, Lecturer, Comparative World Literature, California State University, Long Beach

Chair: Chair: Ms Aruna Vasudev
 
Shakespeare continues to be the most prolific and translatable screen writer of modern cinema. Dr. Cooper will examine the ideological implications of Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, Omkara and Maqbool; how and to what ends does Bhardwaj’s work align with the central moral dilemmas at the heart of Shakespeare’s Renaissance texts and to what extent does his work re-write them?

Clean and Green – Fuelling India’s Alternative Energy (52 min; dvd; English)
A film by Ajay Bedi & Vijay Bedi
 
Film courtesy: PSBT and Bedi Brothers Production
 
The film takes a critical look at why green energy solutions have not occupied mainstream policy and how to popularise these methods for economic scale. Travelling through the villages of Rajasthan to Bihar and the millennium city of Gurgaon, the film demonstrates how the sun, the wind, and all the natural elements can be harnessed to generate energy