Palestine in India: A Writer’s Colloquium
Poetry Reading: “My Country: Distant as My Heart from Me”
Mourid Barghouti and Tamim Albarghouti read their poetry in a mesmerising jugalbandhi
From 16:00 to 17:30
“Stuck in Historical Amber?”
Susan Abulhawa and Sharif Elmusa speak about what it means to be “out of time, out of place”, to be never at home, and much else besides
A free-wheeling conversation with well-known book critic, Sunil Sethi
At 18:30
“Palestine: Nothing Makes Sense, Why Should I?”
Suad Amiry performs the tragi-comedy of her situation as a Palestinian under Occupation in the West Bank
Launch of the book My Damascus
Suad Amiry takes the reader by the hand and walks her through the city of her childhood, interleaving Damascus in history from the 1860s to the 2000s, with family history, of roughly the same period. A tour de force
Ahdaf Soueif is the mistress of ceremonies
Organised in collaboration with Women Unlimited
Organised in collaboration with Women Unlimited
Palestine in India: A Writer’s Colloquium
Counterfacts on the Ground
A discussion on living under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank, and on writing back to subvert suppression.
Laila El-Haddad and Adania Shibli talk to Raghu Karnad, and read from their work
From 16:30 to 17:30
Palestine in Publishing
A discussion on the challenge of publishing and selling Palestinian writing in, and outside, Palestine.
Michel Moushabeck, Interlink, USA; Mahmoud Muna, Educational Bookshop, Jerusalem; Sudhanva Deshpande, Leftword Books, New Delhi & Ritu Menon, Women Unlimited, New Delhi exchange experiences and views, talk about difficulties and how they overcome them, intelligently!
At 18.30
“The Blue Between Sky and Water”
Susan Abulhawa reads from her new book and discusses it with Githa Hariharan
(Organised in collaboration with Women Unlimited)
(Organised in collaboration with Women Unlimited)
The Kuwaiti Evacuation of 1990 and the Contemporary Narrative
Discussants: Shri Kamal Bakshi, former Ambassador and then Indian Ambassador to Iraq; Shri K.P. Fabian, former Ambassador and then Joint Secretary (Gulf), Ministry of External Affairs; Shri K.P. Singh, former Ambassador and then Indian Deputy Chief of Mission in Kuwait; and a senior representative from MEA
Moderator: Shri Suhas Borker
The evacuation of 176,000 Indian national from Kuwait and Iraq, mostly by air from Amman, following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq in August 1990 was the largest evacuation by air in history. What is the relationship between the historical and fictional narrative? What are its implications on the contemporary narrative?
(Collaboration: Jan Prasar)
(Collaboration: Jan Prasar)
(
The World of Recycle
A visual interpretation of the world of recycle and waste management
Curated by Aditya Arya
Artists: Cheena Kapoor; Manu Yadav; Monica Tiwari; Rahul Sharma; Saumya Khandelwal; Shweta Pandey; Sidhhartha Behl; Sreedeep; and Swarat Ghosh
Inauguration by Dr. Ashok Khosla, Founder President and Chairman, Development Alternatives on Friday, 1 April 2016 at 18:30
Inauguration by Dr. Ashok Khosla, Founder President and Chairman, Development Alternatives on Friday, 1 April 2016 at 18:30
Meet Boman Irani
An interaction with the well-known actor
Followed by
Concert
By Basha Ensemble from Iran who will present a concert of traditional folk songs of local seasonal celebrations – Navroze and Zartosht. The ensemble will play music pieces from the Dashti Collection, Isfahan Collection and Mahour Collection composed by Peyman Khazeni
Artists: Peyman Khazeni – composer, tar player and manager; Morteza Sanayel – ney; Rabeh Zand – qanun; Shayan Yazdizadeh – tonbak; Haniyeh Gholibeikian – vocals; and Astiaj Ziaei – Basha Ensemble music manager and setar
THREADS OF CONTINUITY – APRIL TO MAY 2016
A series of films, lectures and exhibitions focusing on the philosophy and ideals of Zoroastrianism in practice today affirming both tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the need to preserve it. The films, exhibitions and lectures will travel from the ruins of Persepolis to the present day, bringing to life an exuberant empire and its magnificence, its stories, its truths. What remains – is it only brick and mortar, is there a language, what are its beliefs, where are its people? The series is part of The Everlasting Flame International Programme and is organized in collaboration with Parzor Foundation, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Govt. of India, and UNESCO and with the support of Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Serum Institute
Theme: Parsi Entertainment and Culture
Ferrari ki Sawaari
(134 min; 2012; dvd; Hindi with English subtitles)
Director: Rajesh Mapuskar
Cricket, Ferrari and the adventures of a middle-class Parsi family, the film is a fun-filled story of small guys and their big dreams…and how these dreams turn into a mad comedy of errors
Bojangles to Ballanchine and Beyond: A Century of American Dance
A series of three lectures by Sharon Lowen, well-known exponent of Odissi who will provide a panoramic visual overview of 20th century American dance genres through film and video clips encompassing folk to Broadway, ballet to Pilobolos
Thursday 31st March
Broadway and Concert Dance
Mid-century transitions in Ballet and Modern
Monday 11th April
Abstract Expressionism
Post Modern, Dance Theatre and Contemporary Dance
A Rude Awakening: Germany, the Refugee Crisis, and the Question of Identity
Speaker; Dr. Alexander Goerlach, founder and publisher of the debate magazine, The European
Chair: Shri Ronen Sen, President FIGS
(Collaboration: Federation of Indo-German Societies in India; and Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, New Delhi)
Saving Mes Aynak (60 min; 2014; dvd; English & with subtitles)
CANCELLED
A film by Brent Huffman
A film by Brent Huffman
Introduction & Discussion: Shobita Punja, Art Historian and independent scholar; and William Dalrymple, Author and Historian
Multiple award winner including Grand Prize & Audience Award, Arkhalos Cultural Heritage and Archaeology Film Festival; Best Film, The Archaeological Channel International Film & Video Festival; Best Documentary, International One Hour Film Competition, Cinemambiente Environmental Film Festival, Turin, Italy; IDFA Honorary Award for 2015, IAFOR Documentary Film Award, The International Academic Forum, Kobe, Japan; among others
Saving Mes Aynak follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan from imminent demolition. A Chinese state-owned mining company is closing in on the ancient site, eager to harvest $100 billion dollars worth of copper buried directly beneath the archaeological ruins. The film examines the conflict between cultural preservation and economic opportunity through the lens of the Afghan archaeologists and local villagers who work and live near Mes Aynak
The Construction of the Hindu Identity in Medieval Western Bengal: The Role of Popular Cults
Speaker: Shri Jawhar Sircar, CEO, Prasar Bharati
Chair: Prof. Dipankar Gupta
The focus is on how only one of the 5 Divisions of Bengal (the western Rarh tract, i.e., modern West Bengal) became a Hindu majority region, while the 4 other Divisions of Bengal (including Bangladesh) had an overwhelming Muslim domination. Sircar has been analysing this from the early 1980s and had undertaken field researches for a project of historical anthropology, that was supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) which covered the 6 western districts of Bengal. His conclusions are that there were ‘three distinct phenomena’ that helped the revival and reconstruction of the Hindu identity, in the western part of Bengal, which he will narrate through slides, tables, statistics and maps, based on his monograph.”
Chair: Prof. Dipankar Gupta
The focus is on how only one of the 5 Divisions of Bengal (the western Rarh tract, i.e., modern West Bengal) became a Hindu majority region, while the 4 other Divisions of Bengal (including Bangladesh) had an overwhelming Muslim domination. Sircar has been analysing this from the early 1980s and had undertaken field researches for a project of historical anthropology, that was supported by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) which covered the 6 western districts of Bengal. His conclusions are that there were ‘three distinct phenomena’ that helped the revival and reconstruction of the Hindu identity, in the western part of Bengal, which he will narrate through slides, tables, statistics and maps, based on his monograph.”