Speakers: Dr Rakesh Lal, Professor of Psychiatry, AIIMS; Ms Tripti Tandon, Deputy Director, Lawyers' Collective; and Dr Rajiv Khosla, Consultant Gastroenterologist

 

Moderator: Prof S. K. Khandelwal, AIIMS

 

Alcohol has a long history of use and misuse throughout the recorded history. In some ancient cultures alcohol was worshipped, while in others its use was condemned. In contemporary societies, drinking alcoholic beverages is a common feature of social gathering, considered as social lubricant. It is a huge money spinner for the governments, yet the politicians keep on toying with the idea of banning alcohol use as a populist measure. Many believe alcohol to have beneficial health effects, yet even regular social drinking is fraught with severe psychosocial and health damage. The panel will also discuss why India must have a National Alcohol Policy

 

 

 

A Jazz Concert

By the Ehud Ettun Trio from Israel – Danile Schwarzwald on piano; Ehud Ettun on bass; and Nathan Blankett on percussions

 

 

 

 

Speaker: Shri Sudhir Dar, well-known cartoonist

 

 

An exhibition of Rajinder Puri’s cartoons

 

 

 

Inauguration by Shri Soli J. Sorabjee, President IIC on Tuesday, 3 May 2016 at 18:30

 

 

 

Rajinder Puri’s cartoons are in the ‘whiplash satire’ tradition of cartooning that grew in the West immediately after the end of World War II in 1945. Till Puri came along cartoons in the English Language Press were fairly gentle in their satire but Puri’s sharp, acerbic cartoons reminded newspaper readers that their elected representatives in the Legislative Assemblies and Parliament, regardless of their Party affiliations, were a shifty lot whose activities had to be closely monitored

 

 

 

As part of this exhibition, there will be a talk in the Annexe Lecture Room II on:

 

Friday, 6 May 2016 at 18:30

 

Memories of Rajinder

 

Speaker: Shri Sudhir Dar, well-known cartoonist  

Speaker: Shri Pran Nevile, author of the book of the same title published by HarperCollins

Discussant: Shri S.M.S. Chadha

 

Chair: Shri H.K. Dua

Discussion on Dalit Vision: Beyond Rhetoric, Decorative Politicos, Brahmanical Hegemony and Maharashtra
 

Panelists: Shri Subhash Gatade, journalist, thinker and activist; Prof. Vivek Kumar, Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University; Ms Anita Bharati, Dalit writer and activist; Prof. Y.S. Alone, Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University; and Dr. Harish Wankhede, Assistant Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University 

 

Chair: Prof. N. Sukumar, Professor of Political Science, University of Delhi

 

Maharashtra Sanskritikani Rannaniti Adhyayan Samiti; and Working group on Alternative Strategies

 

The Parsi Connection with China and Its Role in the Making of Modern India

 

Valedictory Address for Threads of Continuity

 

By Amitav Ghosh, well-known author

 

 

 

India and China have been exchanging goods, ideas and technologies for millennia – the Parsis played a vital role, not only in this trade but also in cultural exchanges as they were by far the most numerous of the subcontinental merchants who actually traveled to China with their goods and took to the seaborne China trade much earlier than the other merchant communities. The China trade led directly to the foundation of many important Parsi business houses, most significantly that of the Tatas. But the China trade also provided the Parsis with resources of another kind: what we might call cultural capital. In many ways the China trade was the crucible of modern Parsi experience. In this sense it was also a vital element in an enterprise in which the Parsis played an enormously important role: the shaping of modern India

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Legacy of Homi Jehangir Bhabha

 

Speaker: Prof. Spenta R. Wadia, Founding Director of International Centre for Theoretical Sciences, TIFR

 

 

 

The talk highlights some aspects of Homi Bhabha as a scientist and institution builder, some of his views on science, scientific excellence and the administration of scientific institutions

 

 

 

Followed by screening of a film

 

Homi Bhabha (50 min; dvd; English)

 

On the occasion of Homi Bhabha’s birth centenary in 2009, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) commissioned a film on his life and achievements. The film traces his early years in Bombay, his student days in Cambridge, his scientific work, his return to India leading up to the establishment of TIFR and the atomic energy establishment (now named after him). The narrative is mainly told by people who knew Bhabha well including M.G.K. Menon, B.V. Sreekantan, Govind Swarup, Obaid Siddiqui and others

 

 

The Story of the TIFR Art Collection
 

Illustrated lecture by Ms Oindrila Raychaudhuri, Chief Archivist, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai

 

 

 

The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, or TIFR, is known the world over as one of India’s premier institutions for scientific research. However, it is less known that TIFR is also home to a priceless collection of very high quality art, which makes it unique among scientific institutions anywhere in the world. This talk will first introduce Homi J. Bhabha, the founder of TIFR and describe how TIFR was founded. This will be followed by a brief introduction to Indian art, especially about the Bombay Progressives, whose works form a large part of the collection. The talk will close with the growth of the art collection