Cherubs in the Mist (50 min; 2005; dvd; English)

A film by Naresh Bedi & Rajesh Bedi, Bedi Brothers

 

Made over two years, the film unravels the secretive life of this mysterious and little known Red Panda. Before this film was made, it was believed that these pandas were not found in India but only in China. But the pandas have survived in small pockets of Singalila National park and have been fighting a lonely battle for survival

 

Presentation of awards to young craftspersons – Pragati Batham, Maipuri, Uttar Pradesh for Tarkashi for metal wire work; Deepika Soni, Mahoba, Uttar Pradesh for traditional  brass ware; Samrat Fauzdar, Bankura, West Bengal for Ganjifa playing cards; Ramu Debnath, Sepahijala, Tripura for cane and bamboo basket ware; Tabassum  Afreen, Bidar, Karnataka for Bidri craft; and Bilquis Akhtar, Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir for Ari embroidery

 

Chief Guest:  Shri Ashoke Chatterjee, Advisor, Crafts Council of India

 

Awards to be distributed by Ms Syeda S. Hameed

 

There will be a display of craft made by the awardees

 

 

Lead presentation:  Shri S.M.S. Chadha, former Indian Ambassador to Argentina

 

Speakers: Professor S.P. Ganguly, Professor, JNU ; Mr. Pablo Cesar, director of an Indo-Argentinian film on Victoria Ocampo; and others

 

Chair: Dr. Karan Singh, MP

 

The brilliant and beautiful Victoria Ocampo passed away in January 1979.  In India, she is known solely through the prism of Tagore.  And there is much misunderstanding about the relationship.  This remarkable lady defied the skewed norms of the macho Argentine society of her time to become an eminent literary figure in the West.  In her late 80’s, she was finally admitted to Argentina’s Academy of letters, the first woman in Latin America to breach that barrier.  While in her 20’s she read and wrote about Gandhi and Tagore and in time became a major influence on the life of Tagore, inspiring much of his poetry in the last seventeen years of his life. This year marks her 125th birth anniversary

 

Dance Festival: Samvaad - conversations from Indian Mythology

 

Parwathi Lakshmi Vaadam

 

Bharatanatyam  by Arupa Lahiri from Delhi, disciple of Guru Chitra Visweswaran  

Kuchipudi  by T Reddilakshmi from Delhi, disciple of Gurus Jayarama Rao and Vanashree Rao

 

Dance Festival:  Samvaad - conversations from Indian Mythology

Concept and Execution: Usha RK

 

Krishna Satyabhama Vivaada

 

Bharatanatyam by Sathyanarayana Raju  from Bangalore, disciple of   Late Guru Narmada

Kuchipudi  by  Ajay Kumar from Vijayawada, disciple of  Guru Kala Krishna  and Guru Sri Vedantam  Satyanarayana  Sarma

 

Translocal Governance of Heritage

 

Speaker: Shri Aman Nath, a historian by education.  He has co-written/authored fourteen illustrated books on art, history, architecture, corporate biography and photography,  two of which have won National Awards 

 

Chair : Dr. Ratish Nanda, Aga Khan Trust for Culture in India

 

The lecture discusses how restoring ruined architectures would mean transporting a space which belonged to a past, back to itself – but with several differences. This process of conservation provides a new and relevant context to a heritage that was nearly ruined. It brings to many Indian villages, which are cosmologically wiser, the fruits of liberal education and a translocal exposure. This mixture of times past and present, of the rural and the urban, irons out the time warp and puts people more smoothly through the Indian time machine 

 

A Book Release With A Difference – launching an educational/motivational initiative with under-privileged children 

 

“Hullo! Hullo! This is The Sun Calling!/ Namaskar! Namaskar! Mein Suraj Bol Raha Hoon!” by Rami Chhabra

Book Release by Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan and release of Hindi translation by Rotarian Sudhir Mangla, Gov. Rotary Dist. 3011

 

Chief Guest:  Shri Jagmohan

Special Guest: Smt. Amila Singhvi

 

The programme includes felicitation of all who have contributed to make this initiative possible, a  5 minute play by Streebal Balak Bindu based on the book and the taking of the “I Am A Sunbeam/Main Hoon Ek Surya Kiron” pledge by several hundred children