Judicial Reforms

Speaker: Justice J.S. Verma, former Chief Justice of India

Chair: Shri Soli J. Sorabjee, President, India International Centre

Participants: Shri B.G. Verghese, Centre for Policy Research; Prof Nandini Sundar, Dept. of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics; Shri E.N.  Rammohan, Member, National Security Council, and former Director-General, Border Security Force

Hon'ble Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Smt Meira Kumar, will release R. Venkataraman: A Centenary Tribute (New Delhi: Rupa Publications, 2012), and Dr Karan Singh, M.P. and President, ICCR, will release Reflections of a Statesman (New Delhi: National Book Trust, India)

Tributes by Shri Soli Sorabjee, President, India International Centre; Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor, West Bengal, and Shri Venkataraman's private secretary; Dr R.K. Pachauri, Director-General, TERI; Smt Lakshmi Venkataraman Venkatesan, Executive Vice-President, Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust

Thakur (112 min; dvd; English)
Director: Rajiv Mehrotra

Explores the challenge and the riddle presented by the great mystic who more than a century after his death continues to dominate secular Hindu consciousness. Sri Ramakrishna brought a new vitality not only to the practices, rituals and symbols of the Hindu heritage, but also to the celebration of divinity in diverse forms, and reinforced the underlying possibility of a real harmony between all religions.

The Art of Living and Dying: The Heart Essence of the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying 

Speaker: Sogyal Rinpoche

A glimpse of the Buddhist wisdom of Tibet and its vision of life and death

Odissi Recital

By Smt Bidya Das from Cuttack, disciple of Guru Kumkum Mohanty

Tarang: Fusion Music Concert
Led by Saraswati Rajagopalan (veena), Narendra Pal Tony (saxophone), Saeed Zafar Khan (sitar), Kailash Sharma (flute)

This Ensemble brings out aspects of Indian music which harmonize with Western, while retaining their elegance, grace and traditional character. The finer aspects are embellished by blending the technical intricacies, the tones and the colours of different instruments, which include the veena, flute, sitar, saxophone, guitar, keyboards, Indian percussion instruments and drums

FRONTIERS OF HISTORY

When is the Right of Secession Justified?

Speaker: Prof Neera Chandhoke, Department of Political Science, Delhi University, and author of Contested Secessions: Rights, Democracy, Self Determination and Kashmir  (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012)

Chair: Shri Srinath Raghavan, Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, Delhi

Delhi Durbar 1911

Speaker: Sunil Raman, co-author of Delhi Durbar 1911: The Complete Story (New Delhi: Roli Books, 2011)

Chair: Dr. Narayani Gupta, author of Delhi Between Two Empires (1981)

An illustrated talk that draws on unpublished official papers to unearth anecdotes and debates on the planning and execution of the Delhi Durbar, which cost the government one million pounds sterling

Broken Memory, Shining Dust (34 min; 2011; dvd)
Director: Nilosree Biswas

Broken Memory, Shining Dust is a humble and honest attempt to depict the extraordinary journey of Kashmiri women from loss, separation, pain, anger, helplessness to hope, faith, grit and determination thrown up by tragedies and the circumstances around them. The film is about "˜women in wait' for their loved ones who have gone missing in the conflict-ridden valley of Kashmir in the last two decades. Woven around the life of Parveena Ahanger, a Kashmiri mother, and other such women, the narrative of the film interweaves their memories of loss, pain, struggle, separation vented cathartically that  have formed into a resistance movement which in practicality revives their hope of tracing a clue about their missing family members. The film embarks on a narrative to share and sense their lives as they are now and were in the past, revealing hours and days of endless wait, grief, anger, resilience, devotion, resistance combined in a blanket of sisterhood and spirituality that has sprung from the time and space shared by these women.

Followed by a discussion with the filmmaker