Time of Monsters, Time of Possibilities: Reflections on an Interstitial Era

Speaker: Dr. Amitav Ghosh, well-known writer, recipient of the Jnanpith Award in 2018, the Erasmus Prize in 2024 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC

Ours is an era of multiple intersecting crises and transitions - of geopolitics, financial structures, and, perhaps most importantly, of environmental and ecological regimes that are slowly but surely pushing the planet towards catastrophe. And yet, the paradox of this interstitial era is that it has also made it possible to contemplate, and even embrace, possibilities that were denied or rejected during the age of high modernity. This lecture explores some of these paradoxes and possibilities. 
 

Illustrated lecture and discussion by Prof. Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, cultural historian, Professor of Global History, University of Sheffield, UK

Prof. Lambert-Hurley will speak about the intrepid Muslim women travellers, especially of the last centuries who travelled the world for adventure, exploration, pilgrimage and more 

(Collaboration: Zubaan Publishers)

Looking at Delhi

An exhibition of paintings in oil and mixed media
By M. Sanghapal from Lonar, Maharashtra

Preview on Friday, 10 January 2025 at 18:30 hours

Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence

Speaker: Mr. Amandeep Singh Gill, United Nations Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and Under-Secretary General

Chair: Shri Shyam Saran, President, IIC
 

Delhi: A Nature Journal
By Anuradha Kumar-Jain (Rupa Publications: 2024)

Discussants: Prof. (Dr.) Harinder M Sandhu, Associate Professor Department of Psychology, Mata Sundri College, Delhi University; Shri Atul Bagai, Former Country Head for United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), India Office and Dr. Anuradha Kumar-Jain, nature lover, writer and author of the book

Moderator: Shri Dibakar Ghosh, Editorial Director, Rupa Publications

Sitar Recital

By Shubhrodeep Pathak from Gurgaon, disciple of Vidushi Sahana Banerjee

At 19:00 
Hindustani Vocal Recital

By Swarali Panshikar Kulkarni from Mumbai, disciple of Pt. Shankar Abhyankar
 

Indian Soil in Revolution
(55 min; 2023; English)
Directed by Renuka George who will introduce the film

Screening will be followed by a discussion

In 2015, with the support of the state government of Andhra Pradesh, senior civil servant T. Vijay Kumar introduced natural agriculture on a large scale. The aim: to convert 6 million farmers to chemical-free agriculture. Through meetings with farmers and with T. Vijay Kumar, this film is an insight into the success of these new methods and the vision behind the world’s largest agroecological transition experiment
 

Tales of the Wild

An exhibition of wildlife photographs 
By Madhur Nangia

Inauguration by Dr. Latika Nath, conservation ecologist, photographer and author on Tuesday, 7th January 2025 at 18:30

Main Tum Hoon, Tum Main Ho! (Hindi/Hindustani; 50 min)

Human values, such as empathy, compassion, resilience, are vividly reflected in Hindi literature particularly in the context of the Partition of India in 1947. The traumatic division of the country left millions displaced, with families torn apart, and communities fractured by violence and distrust. Writers of the time portrayed the raw human emotions and the social chaos that accompanied this historic event.

A performance based on text - poetry, prose and anecdotes in the works of Punjabi writers such as Mohan Rakesh, Bhishm Sahani, Krishna Sobti, Agyeya, and Yashpal.

Dramatised readings and enactment by Alka Ranjan, Prof. Apoorvanand, Dr. Purwa Raza Haider and Yusra Naqvi

Concert – Piano for Four Hands

By Gioia Barbera and Federico Bucaioni from Italy

The artists will present compositions by W.A. Mozart; Franz Schubert; and S. Rachmaninov among others

(Collaboration: Delhi Music Society)