Coordinated by Smt Rani Khanam, well-known Kathak exponent, choreographer and disability management specialist

Chief Guest: Dr. Arshiya Sethi, independent scholar

Presentations by Sharbari Banerjee, art educator and musicologist; Mrinalini Sinha, Special Educator; and Rani Khanam

Moderator: Jayanti Ranganathan, Executive Editor, Hindustan and writer

The seminar will begin with a live demonstration and lecture-demonstration by artists with and without disabilities

(Collaboration: AAMAD Dance Centre)

Celebrating Time Travel: An Anthology of Poems of Poets’ Childhood Memories
Edited by Amarendra Khatua and Mandira Ghosh (Authorspress: 2024)

Discussants: Dr. Usha Mujoo Munshi, Chief Librarian, IIC; Dr. Amarendra Khatua, Former Secretary, MEA & DG, ICCR & Poet, Diplomat & Editor of the book; and Ms. Mandira Ghosh, poet, researcher, writer, and co-editor of the book

Chair: Ms Rajni Sekhri Sibal, Writer & Former IAS Officer

Readings

By Sharmistha Mohanty, writer and poet; and Najwan Darwish, poet from Palestine
 

Organised in collaboration with Almost Island Dialogues

Readings
By Anitha Thampi, critically acclaimed poet, essayist and translator; and David Herd, poet, critic and teacher from UK
 

I want to go to Haldwani and other poems
By Satbir Chadha (Authorspress; 2024)

Discussants: Ms. Mandira Ghosh, poet, researcher and writer; Ms. Rachna Joshi, poet and reviewer; and Ms Satbir Chadha, poet and author of the book

Chair: Shri K. Jayakumar, President, The Poetry Society (India) and former Chief Secretary, Govt. of Kerala

Displaced: Refugees, Trauma, and Integration within Nations

By Shaifali Sandhya (OUP, USA: 2024)

Discussants: Amb. Navtej Sarna, Author, Historian & Former Ambassador to USA; and Dr. Shaifali Sandhya, Psychologist & Author of the book

Moderator: Amir Singh Pasrich, President Oxford & Cambridge Society of India 

My Favourite Urdu Poems

With Leeladhar Mandloi; Om Nischal; Giridhar Rathi; and Asad Zaidi

(Collaboration: The Raza Foundation)
 

Anemone Morning and other poems
By Gopal Lahiri (PENPRINTS Publications: 2024)

Discussants: Dr. Payal Nagpal, Professor, Dept. of English, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi; Shri Mohammad Jamshed, author, poet and former Member, Central Administrative Tribunal; Ms Satbir Chadha, novelist and poet; and Shri Gopal Lahiri, poet, Editor, critic, translator and author of the book

Chair: Prof. Malashri Lal, author and Convener, English Board, Sahitya Akademi

Poetics of Absence
An illustrated presentation by Navtej Singh Johar

The speaker will share his love for the thumri, ghazal, kafi and padam, all genres of amorous songs that address the absence of a fictitious god-lover. Using abhinaya, he will illustrate the poetic dynamics that may operate between the “real-self” and its “fictitious-other” for the purpose of aesthetic satisfaction (rasa) that can be said to be unique to the subcontinent.

Navtej Singh Johar is a dancer-choreographer, yoga practitioner, scholar and social activist. His work within all fields of his varied interests remains consistently body-centric.  It twines practice with critical theory and social action while it traverses freely between the traditional and the contemporary.  Johar teaches Dance Studies at Ashoka University, India, and is the founder-director of Studio Abhyas, New Delhi where he teaches two practices that he has devised over the years, the BARPS Method of Asana and Abhyas Somtics,  the two being inspired by the concepts of sukh and rasa that are central to Yoga and Indian poetics respectively
 

She Storms the Norms

By Anisha Motwani & Priyadarshini Narendra (Rupa Publications India: 2024)

Discussants: Kanta Singh, Deputy Representative of UN Women India; Anisha Motwani, author of the book; and Priyadarshini Narendra, co-author of the book.

Moderator: Amb.K.P.Fabian, Professor, Symbiosis University, Pune