Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant:Dancer, choreographer, writer, scholar and cultural commentator

Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant Dancer, choreographer, writer, scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Ananda Shankar Jayant, with an acclaimed and intense body of artistic work, that spans rich mythologies and historical chronicles, searing commentary on gender issues, as well as secular & philosophical presentations, continues to stretch the outer realms of artistic endeavor, using the grammar, idiom and space-time construct of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi making it at once contemporary and communicative. Dancing with joy, Ananda, one of the renowned dancers of the country; imbues technique and grammar with a sparkling quality, bristling with life. Hailed as an intelligent and thinking dancer with contemporary sensibility, Ananda, with her grace, vivacity and inner luminescence draws the viewer into the inner spaces that she paints, leaving the audience deeply touched. A breathtaking performer, brilliant choreographer and erudite scholar, Ananda has polished her art to a fine pitch, where the rigor and intensity of training, deep dedication and commitment meets a finely tuned intellect, that blends with ease traditional structures with contemporary inputs. She was conferred with the prestigious Padmashri,in 2007 by His Excellency the President of India, Shri APJ Abdul Kalam in recognition of her distinguished service in the field of art. She was also conferred with the sought after title of Nritya – Choodamani by Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, the Kalaimamani from the Govt of Tamil Nadu and the award of Kalaratna from the Govt of Andhra Pradesh She is also a much sought after speaker on dance, art addressing social issues, classical arts in a contemporary society, gender issues, women studies, multi tasking, climate change and breast cancer. She brings her multi hued talents and strengths to this prestigious conference, seeking to bring together some of the leading lights of dance together to say DANCE MATTERS!.

Amrit Gangar an author, curator, film theoretician and historian,

Amrit Gangar

Amrit Gangar is a Mumbai-based author, curator, film theoretician and historian, working in the field of cinema for three decades; he has also worked on a number of feature films, documentaries, short films and video installations from Germany and other European countries. Besides curating several events for film festivals, galleries and universities at home and abroad, for the past eight years he has been engaged with his theoretical concept called Cinema of Prayoga and has presented it at various venues including the Tate Modern, London; Pompidou Centre, Paris and several other institutions in India and abroad. Recently he has been appointed as Consultant Curator for the upcoming National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai by the Government of India. He is also on the international advisory board of the journal Moving Image Review & Art Journal published from London. Gangar has authored and edited several books on cinema in English and Gujarati.

Source : DWIH New Delhi EoT! Ahmedabad Programe Brochure Print version

Cinema of Prayoga: A New Concept

Amrit Gangar has been been responsible for coining, developing and theorizing his new theoretical concept of 'Cinema of Prayoga' or 'Cinema Prayoga' that aims at substituting  and expanding the generally accepted Euro-American-centric term the 'Experimental Film' while celebrating the cinematographic idiom deeply located in the polyphony of Indian philosophy and cultural imagination, including the perception of 'time' and 'space'. Since his first public presentation of 'Cinema of Prayoga' at the Experimenta, Mumbai in 2005, he has been presenting it at various venues and fora in India and abroad.

                                                  

With Rehman the Music Director

Anand Gandhi: A person of multiple interests

Anand Gandhi

Anand Gandhi is a filmmaker, playwright and artist, deeply interested in philosophy, evolutionary psychology and sci-fi. His work in theatre, television and short cinema has won him several prestigious awards in the past decade. 

Ship of Theseus, his first feature, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was touted "the hidden gem of the year". The film has received accolades the world over. Gandhi is the only contemporary film-maker whose film has been short-listed by the Critic's Circle (UK), as being one of the 15 life-changing films of all time. 

He is now engaged in producing cutting edge, contemporary world cinema under his banner Recyclewala Films. 

Besides writing, directing and producing his films, Anand illustrates, writes songs, plays chess and attempts to invent new events as a magic enthusiast.

Anand Gandhi's writing career began in 2000 with the emergence of the daily soap opera genre in India. He wrote dialogue for the first eighty-two episodes of a popular show calledKyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. Kyunki... and Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii, for which he wrote screenplay, are the longest running TV shows in the history of Indian Television. He is often quoted for his disgust over the aesthetics of Indian television, including the shows he wrote for.^[2]

He moved away from his television career to write and direct highly acclaimed award-winning plays like Sugandhi, Pratyancha, Kshanotsav, Na and Janashtaru. Almost all his work has been produced for the alternative one-act theatre. He has written only one mainstream play, Chal Reverse Ma Jaiye. It achieved moderate success commercially and won the Transmedia Best Play award for 2005.

Ampashayya Naveen:

                                      Ampashayya Naveen

Ampashayya Naveen is the author of 30 novels and five volumes of short stories in Telugu. His path-breaking novel Ampashayya(1969, Tr.Bed of Thorns) is credited with introducing the 'stream of consciousness' technique to Telugu fiction. WhileAmpashayya, Mullapodalu(Thorn Bushes) andAntasravanti (Inner Stream) form the 'Ravi Trilogy', the 'Telangana Trilogy' comprisesKalarekhalu (Contours of time), Chedirina Swapnalu(Dreams Gone Sour), andBandhavyalu(Relationships). His work has been translated into Hindi, English, Tamil, Kannada and Marathi.
Naveen's Antasravanti won the Telugu University's Best Novel Award in 1994, and Kalarekhalu won the Central Sahitya Akademi Award in 2004. He was Senior Fellow, Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India (1997-98), and Writer in Residence, Sahitya Akademi (2009). Kakatiya University honoured him with Doctor of Letters (honoriscausa) in 2004, and in 2006 he visited the USA at the invitation of ATA (American Telugu Association).

Kalarekhalu

Kalarekhalu is a socio-autobiographical novel based on the Telangana struggle against the imperialist regime. The novel is unique in its picturization of the struggle of suppressed humanity. The author has successfully captured the sentiments of populace in the throes of liberating themselves. The novel adds magnificently to Indian fiction in Telugu.

                                                   

                          Ampashayya Naveen:Recent Photo

Amit Dasgupta: A diplomat and a writer

Amit Dasgupta

Amit Dasgupta was an Indian diplomat for over three decades and travelled extensively, on assignment, within India and abroad. This unique experience brought him in contact with different cultures and ways of seeing. Having retired from diplomatic service, he has now decided to become a fulltime writer, in both fiction and non-fiction, exploring ideas that are related to the meaning of life and the pursuit of happiness. He presently lives, with his wife, in Visakhapatnam, a quiet coastal city in southern India. They have one daughter. Regular, though inconclusive, discussions continue on getting a dog. He has edited The Divine Peacock: Understanding Contemporary India, The Perennial Tree, Telling Tales – Children's Literature in India, Salvaging the WTO, India for a Billion Reasons. His has also published fiction: The Lost Fragrance, and Indian by Choice. His latest book is Lessons from Ruslana: In Search of Alternative Thinking.

Lessons from Ruslana by Amit Dasgupta

A view
Human beings are taught from their very childhood on how they must think and behave. While most of us tend to conform, so that those around us might accept us, many others consciously choose to deviate. They are willing to think and see different, despite social pressures, including ostracism and other forms of punishment. The book explores the innumerable stories when ‘thinking different’ brought about not only change but rather, transformational change. The core inspiration behind the book is, quite simply, the basic question: How does this happen? But, more importantly, why does it happen in some cases and not in others?Drawing extensively from philosophy, social sciences, art, literature, culture, management sciences and inspirational biographies, this book takes the reader through a sweeping journey to unravel the mysteries behind the one question that bothers us all: Why am I unhappy, why do I fail and will I ever matter?Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

Aarti Vir and Hydrabad Literary Festival

                              Aarti Vir

Aarti Vir has been salt glazing for the last 11 years. After finishing a Master in Fine Arts at the Hyderabad Central University, she went on to train as a potter with Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith at Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry, 

                       Ray Meeker and Deborah Smith

Later was an Attachment student in the MA Ceramics program at the University of Wales Institute in Cardiff. She has several national and international exhibitions and shows to her credit including quite a few solo exhibitions in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai. She was awarded the S L Parasher Gold Medal for ranking first in Masters of Fine Arts Painting at the Hyderabad Central University in 1996. She was also a recipient of the Charles Wallace India Trust Arts Award in 2003-4.    

                     A scene from Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry: Credit Karl Shapiro

                                        University of Wales Institute in Cardiff. 

                                                  

Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar  was born in the city of Arrah in the Indian state of Bihar  17 March 1963. He grew up close to his birthplace in Patna  also in Bihar. There he spent his formative years at St.Michaels High School.In India, Kumar earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science from Hindu College Delhi University in 1984. He holds two master's degrees in Linguistics and Literature from Delhi University (1986) and Syracuse University (1988) respectively. In 1993, he received his doctoral degree from the Department of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota.. He lives with his family in Poughkeepsie New York.
His debut novel, Home Products, was published by Picador-India, and was short-listed for the Vodafone Crossword Book Award. This novel was also published in the US under the title Nobody Does the Right Thing.
A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm ATiny Bomb, was judged the ‘Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year’ at the Page Turner Literary Award. Kumar’s earlier non-fiction titles are Husband of a Fanatic, which was an ‘Editors’ Choice’ book on The New York Times list; Bombay-London-New York, included on the list of ‘Books of the Year’ in The New Statesman; and Passport Photos, winner of ‘Outstanding Book of the Year’ award from the Myers Program.

The Cover

Kumar has edited five critical anthologies. The publications in which his work has appeared include The Nation, The New Statesman, Boston Review, Critical Inquiry, Harper’s, Kenyon Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Guernica
Kumar serves on the advisory board of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop as well as the Norman Mailer Center.
He is Professor of English at Vassar College in upstate New York.

Amitava Kumar, 50, believes that his home town of Patna actually has three avatars - the elsewhere city that lives in the imagination of those who, like him, left it behind;the nowhere city, filthy and frantic, that is inhabited by those who cannot leave it;and the city of hope for those who come from poor districts. He attempts to capture the essence of the city in a short biography, quite unattractively titled 'A Matter of Rats'. But Kumar, who teaches English at Vassar College in the US, says he wanted to write not about rulers but about rats, both the four-legged as well as the two-legged variety.
From an interview:-
From Megasthenes' eulogies to its magnificence to Shiva Naipaul's description of it as the 'heart of darkness', how difficult was it to chronicle the history of Patna's fall?

We learn history and everything else through textbooks. The approach is serious and dull. It lacks imagination. From the day I became a writer, I have tried to oppose everything bad about textbooks. My history of Patna is a personal one. I'll go even further. I'll call it a flawed portrait of a flawed city. The answer to your question is that it wasn't difficult at all. Once I had accepted that my history of Patna would be a mix of memoir and research, the writing became more easy and pleasurable.

My guide here was a mantra I received from V S Naipaul who had written in Beyond Belief: "It was years before I saw that the most important thing about travel, for the writer, was the people he found himself among. " Any teacher of non-fiction will tell you that the trick is to write about ordinary things in a way that is vivid and attractive for the reader. That is why I wanted to write not about our rulers but about rats. Rats, both four-legged and two-legged.

Extract from Amitava Kumar’s book A Matter of Rats

I would not have turned to writing if I was able to draw. When I was thirteen or fourteen, and attending school in Patna, I had not yet given up my ambition to become an artist. My earliest models were rulers and saints from our past. The teacher would be delivering his dull lecture on ancient Indian history, and I would try to copy, over and over again, the illustration printed in the textbook.
The Buddha posed a difficulty. The illustration in the book must have been based on a statue in the Gandhara style. His shapely eyes, shut in serene meditation, were the easiest to outline, and above them, the long arched eyebrows in flight; ditto for the full, feminine lips. The trouble began with the intricate, knotted rings of hair; and, it was altogether impossible to draw the perfect circle of the halo around his head.
Pataliputra, which later became Patna, was mentioned very early in that textbook, certainly by page twenty. The city was founded in the sixth century BCE by Ajatshatru, a monarch who was probably a regicide and a patricide. Until he built the fort-city at the confluence of the Ganga and Sone rivers, it was just a village named Pataligram. Gautama Buddha visited Pataligram shortly before his death and, if guidebooks are to be believed, delivered a prophecy that a great city would rise there.

Postmortem

[A three minute fiction by Amitava Kumar]

The nurse left work at five o'clock.
She had seen the dead woman's husband sitting, near the entrance, under the yellow sign that Doctor Ahmed had hung some months ago. "While You Wait, Meditate." He was sitting with his arms crossed, elbows cupped in the palms of his hands and hadn't looked up when she passed him on her way out.
Just before lunch, a convoy had come from the Army camp. A dark-skinned soldier, holding a small rifle in his left hand, threw open the office door and announced the Colonel. Doctor Ahmed had automatically stood up.
The Colonel was plump. He looked calm and extremely clean, the way bullfrogs do, gleaming green and gold in the mud. He put his baton on the table and asked the nurse to leave the office.
When Doctor Ahmed rang his bell, the nurse went back in and was told to get his wife, Zakia, from their home on the top floor. Usually, he just called her on the phone. The nurse hurried up, carrying news of the Colonel.
Doctor Zakia was a pediatrician, good for offering women advice about breast-feeding, but she understood at once why she was to do the postmortem. The soldiers put the stretcher in the operating room and left. When the doctor removed the white sheet, she made a noise and began reciting the Fatiha in a high voice. It was difficult for her to continue the examination — she had a grown-up daughter.
Then the nurse was alone with the young woman for over four hours, cleaning her of the blood and the filth, and then stitching her up. The abdomen and thighs had turned green, but this was expected. There was a pronounced swelling of the tongue and lips.
The nurse wondered whether the body would last till the funeral. If there was a protest, it would take the entire day in the sun for the procession to reach the cemetery.
A year ago, a doctor in the north had revealed that the corpse brought to him was of a woman who had been gang-raped. This was a mistake. The Army put out the story that the woman used to come to the camp for customers and that her husband found out and had probably got her killed.
In the warm and stuffy room, the nurse realized that her teeth were chattering. She stopped and for a long while stared at the back of her gloved hands. Then she turned them over, as if she were praying, and studied the film of dark coagulated matter on her fingers.
There was no slippage and still it was hard work. Doctor Zakia would probably tell the family that the body had been washed thrice. The women would nevertheless insist on doing what was proper. How was she to save them? No one teaches you in nursing school to cover cigarette burns on the body or to stitch torn nipples.
When she finally stepped out of the room she was startled to see a dozen soldiers in the hallway. She met the eye of the one closest to her and flinched, but he was quiet, even shy, like a dog that has brought in a squirrel and dropped it on the carpet.
At six, she was sitting in front of the television in her tiny living room. And there she was, the young woman in her wedding photograph. The newsreader said the body had been found in a ditch after the woman had gone missing for 26 hours. She had been struck sometime at night by a speeding vehicle.
Courtesy: Many sources