(95 min; 2012; dvd; English subtitles)
Director: Ajay Bhardwaj

The idea of Punjabiyat continues, in ways seen and unseen, to inhabit the average Punjabi's culture and consciousness. This is the universe that the film stumbles upon in the countryside of east Punjab"”where gods and gurus share space with lovers, singers and wrestlers. Yet there are other memories which have become a second skin"”of violence, separation and loss. And  accompanying this caravan of seekers and lovers are the ascetic non-believers in whom a yearning for love and harmony turns into poetry against war and aggression

"Close to a million people lost their lives and several million lost their homelands forever when India and Pakistan were partitioned. In the midst of the horror that Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs inflicted on each other there were also redeeming stories of the love that bound these communities together"”stories we cling to, so we may retain our faith in the human spirit.  "˜Milange Babey Ratan De Mele Te' is one such story. It is the story of how love survived a holocaust" (Arundhati Roy)

The director will introduce the film, and the screening will be followed by a discussion

Speaker: Prof Arjun Appadurai, Senior Fellow, Institute of Public Knowledge, and Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University

Chair: Dr Kapila Vatsyayan, Chairperson, IIC-Asia Project

Prof Appadurai's publications include Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger (2006), and Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization (1996)

Architectural visions of Australia's urban future

In "Now", photographer John Gollings presents stereoscopic views of Sydney, Kalgoorlie and other regions, with macro-scapes at 20,000 feet juxtaposed with close-range, "helicoptering" views of urban and architectural icons. "When" presents futuristic urban environments, set dramatically in a soundscape, conceived for the "Designs of Australia's Cities 2050 +" competition

Speaker: Prof Nirode Barooah, historian and biographer of Gopinath Bordoloi and Virendranath Chattopadhyaya

Chair: Shri Sanjoy Hazarika, Managing Trustee, C-nes

Speaking of Bardoloi, Assam's man of destiny, and his struggles to preserve the rights and dignity of the state and its people which often led him into confrontation with Jawaharlal Nehru and the centre, the speaker will reflect on what impact these issues of the recent past have had on the present challenges before the state and the region

Hits from musical theatre and opera

Presented by soloists of the Neemrana Vocal Ensemble under the guidance of Situ Singh Buehler, Christopher Daruwalla and Nadya Balyan

By Gagandeep Singh

The artist explores the possibilities of drawing as a means of expression in spaces vitual/physical and mental.  He will investigate the role of on-location drawing and the scope of drawing installawtion

A work in progress

Speaker: Dr Manu P. Sobti, Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Chair: Dr Arup Banerji, Associate Professor of History, University of Delhi

A talk on a unique borderland condition on the Silk Road on the Oxus river, combining fieldwork with close reading of archival sources from across the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, to unravel how conflict, reconciliation and interaction between medieval Arab and Persian communities created distinct urban forms along this geographically significant and politically critical divide

(120 min; dvd)

The environmental crisis facing the globe and the global initiatives needed to solve it are illustrated using problems faced by different countries. The film includes a computer analysis of potential climate change and presents the results of a questionnaire answered by over 7000 environmental NGOs worldwide