An exhibition of photographs taken across India and in 18 other countries
By Benoy K. Behl and Eiichi Matsumoto
Inauguration on Saturday, 5th January, at 11:00

Saturday 5
SEMINAR HALLS - I, II & III, KAMALADEVI BLOCK, FROM 11:30 TO 18:00
Vehicle of the Thunderbolt
An international seminar

Inauguration by Dr Karan Singh, M.P., and Chairman, ICCR, at 11:30

Followed by film screening 
Forgotten Buddhist University of Muara Jambi
(30 min; dvd; English)
Director: Benoy K. Behl

Sunday 6
ROSE GARDEN FROM 11:00 TO 13:00
Buddhist Prayers and Cham Dances
Presented by lamas from Kye Monastery, Spiti

Film screenings
AUDITORIUM FROM 14:00 ONWARDS
The Story of Buddhism
As told through ancient sites and art heritage
Director: Benoy K. Behl

This is the first set of films that depicts the ancient Buddhist sites of India, and it also depicts many important Buddhist sites in other Asian countries

14:00  
Sacred Buddhist Dance

14:30  
Culture of Compassion - Buddhist Heritage of India and South-East Asia

15:15
Enchanted Ajanta

15:45
Beyond the Illusory World
On the making of stupas

16:45
The Journey Within
On early rock-cut caves in western India

17:15  
The Image of the Buddha

17:45  
Masterpieces of Buddhist Art
The second phase of Buddhist caves in western India

18:15
The Second Buddha
On Guru Padmasambhava, who established Buddhism across the Trans-Himalaya

The films will be introduced by Benoy K. Behl and there will be a discussion following the screenings

Speaker: Dr Ramin Jahanbegloo, well-known Iranian-Canadian philosopher

Chair: Prof P.R. Kumaraswamy, Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU

AN EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHS

Across The Crossfire - Women in the Conflict Zone

History has demonstrated, time and again, that women, even when they are not combatants themselves, have had to bear in large measure the grievous impacts of conflict and violence. These could range from injury and the loss of close family members to dispossession, displacement and the vulnerabilities and responsibilities that accompany such conditions.

It is against this backdrop that Women's Features Service (WFS) and Women Unlimited-Kali for Women, have brought out a book entitled "˜Across the Crossfire: Women in the Conflict Zone', to be released on December 5, 2012. This work, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is a compilation of narratives generated by WFS from various zones of conflict in India, written between 2009 and 2011. They focus on the discrete situations of women caught up in insurgencies, wars, riots, situations of civil disorder and natural calamities.

Riveting images from this compilation will be on display in the IIC quadrangle from December 4 to 10, 2012. From a landmine victim in Kashmir struggling to make ends meet to young tribal children living in an orphanage in Raipur, in insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh, to Assamese women who have been forced to call relief camps their home since the last 15 years to the dynamic women health workers, ASHAs, who are spreading a million smiles throughout conflict-prone Odisha, we capture the tragedies and hopes that mark times of conflict.

Christmas concert presented by the Canticle Choir

Singers: Beula Francis; Gracia Odile; Lavina Dutta Nag; Mercy Nimal, Shekinah Olive; Vanaja Gabriel; Nelson David; Nicodemus Samuel;S.S.K.Titus; judah Stephen; Simon; and Wilson Samuel

Pianist: Pramod Kingston

Speakers: Dr Magid Shihade, Faculty Member, Abu-Lughod Institute for International Studies, Birzeit University, Palestine; and Dr Sunaina Maira, Professor of Asian American Studies, University of California, Davis

Chair: Ms Seema Mustafa, Palestine Solidarity Committee, India

Elements of the Opera
Illustrated lecture by Shri Diganta Choudhury, voice teacher at the Delhi School of Music and Theme Music Institute

A personal response to the evolution of opera down the ages, with special reference to bel canto technique. The speaker will seek to understand the style and to see it in the light of an art form

GOLDEN JUBILEE LECTURES Origin of the Universe
Speaker: Prof Paul Davies, Regents' Professor and Director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Co-Director, ASU Cosmology Initiative, and Principal Investigator, Center for the Convergence of Physical Science and Cancer Biology, Arizona State University

Chair: Prof M.G.K. Menon, Life Trustee, IIC

Cosmologists agree that the universe as we know it began with a big bang about 13.7 billion years ago, but many questions remain. What, if anything, came before the Big Bang? Can a universe appear from nothing? Was the Big Bang also the origin of time and space? Can such an event ever be fully explained scientifically? This lecture will tackle such deep and important topics. It will also review the history of the universe from the first split second to the present epoch, as well as predict the ultimate fate of the cosmos