april 2008 programmes

tuesday 1^st april
7.00 pm ‘Alice in Stevie Wonderland’ a concert by Micropixie, Cosmic Gypsy

 This is the musical story of Alice, one little Aliens mission to understand what it means to be human. San-Francisco based artist, Micropixie, Alien with extraOrdinary abilities, performs her most ambitious set to date with fellow Cosmic Gypsies, the New Delhi-based collective, Da-Saz.  (Lionel Dentan - keyboards, laptop; Gennady Lavrentiev - tabla, guitar & Sandro Marrioti - saxophone) They perform songs from MPX's debut release Alice in Stevie Wonderland. The performance is preceded by a screening of "My Beige Foot" a ‘micro-fillum’ which touches on concepts of nationality, identity, immigration & skin colour, made by MPX's human alter ego, Single Beige Female. Come catch this extra-terrestrial while she is still in Delhi before being beamed up by the Mothership to another part of the planet!
Made in Bombay, born and raised in the UK, and currently based in San Francisco, Micropixie  is a self-proclaimed Alien and a conceptual artist working with visual, verbal and sonic design, as well as the extra-terrestrial alter ego of writer-filmmaker-human, Single Beige Female.  Her music weaves sensuous electro-acoustic instrumentation with elaborate vocal textures as it narrates her epic story. 

saturday 5^th april  
7.00 pm "Sensuality and spirituality" in Indian classical dance – a Bharatanatyam performance by Priya Venkatraman 

The spiritual aspect of Indian classical dance is very well known. The pure temple dances of historic times and their subsequent degeneration to being linked with prostitution. Their regeneration in independent India has stressed almost exclusively the spiritual aspect. But even a cursory look at the past, the temple sculptures of Khajurao and Konarak, the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva where it is easy to concentrate on the very sensual poetry of love and almost forget the metaphorical divine as well as in the Sufi tradition especially in the poetry of Rumi where it is difficult to tell whether the poet is addressing his love for a woman or for the divine. The close connection between the sensual and the divine, always understressed is almost always present. Priya explores how the two actually coexist, how the presence of one does not preclude the other and how sensuality is present even in pure dance

Priya Venkataraman was initially under Smt. Saroja Vaidyanathan and then with  Smt. Kanaka Srinivasan and Smt. Leela Samson. She spent 12 years in the United States learning and teaching dance. She received two prestigious fellowships awarded by the Illinois arts council. She is an empanelled artist of the ICCR. She has collaborated with the US based modern dancer Sandra Schramel and musician Byron Wise in the modern dance production ‘Eyes Beneath the Night’. She has also performed in festivals in Delhi, Chennai and Mammallapuram as well as many places in the US.

sunday 6^th april
‘The Delhi Ring Railway - a Journey’ guided by Robinson 8.45 to 11.15 am at Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station

The Delhi Ring Railway (Delhi Parikrama Rail Seva) was introduced in 1975 as a single line diesel haul service and was a show piece during the 1982 Asian Games. 25 years later it is still one of Delhi’s undiscovered treasures.  Almost unused by the public there are only 12 trains a day in either direction.  This morning, Robinson guides you on a fascinating 2 hour 35 kms)  journey around some of the most interesting and unusual sights of the city. Even the most familiar looks fresh and new from this perspective.  

Starting at Hazrat Nizamuddin Station with immediate dramatic views of  Humayun’s tomb and Gurudwara Dumduma Sahib,  the journey winds its way past Connaught Place, New Delhi Station and straight into the walled city of Shahjahanabad. A longish stretch of the relatively unknown underbelly of Delhi running parallel to the Ring Road from Kirti Nagar to Naraina Vihar and  to Brar Square, probably the best maintained station on the route. The next section leads us into the beautiful rocky ridge area of Chankyapuri, via Sardar Patel Marg, and then to Safdarjang Airport and the Government Housing colonies of Sarojini and Sewa Nagar.

Robinson is an alumnus of St. Stephen's College, Delhi, a Theologian, Meditation Practitioner, Poet and an avid traveler of unusual journeys. He has an advanced certificate from Soon Bible Studies and papers on comparative religion. He is currently researching on the mystical and meditative aspects in various religious traditions. His book “Christianity: An Indian Theological perspective” awaits publication. He has a published poetry collection “Reminiscences: The Poetry of Communion”. Robinson also conducts walks on specific themes in Delhi like the Churches of Delhi, Dargahs of Delhi apart from the old city and Mehrauli.

Registration required. Limit - 30. Cost - Rs.100 per head.  Cheques payable to ‘Amarjit Bhagwant Singh Charitable Trust’ Tea & snacks will be provided.  Feel free to bring water and personal eats.

Meeting point: Outside Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station at Comesum Restaurant at 8.45 am.

monday 7^th april
7.00 pm Buddhist Aesthetics and the Spiritual in Contemporary Art Practice – an illustrated talk by Shakti Maira 

There is a growing interest in Buddhism and Indic and Asian art practices around the world. In this talk, Shakti Maira will attempt to distill the four defining characteristics of Buddhist aesthetics and art -  the core principles and values that can be communicated in a wide range of traditional and modern art imagery.

He will also suggest that these four aesthetic principles have relevance to contemporary art making in general and will raise key issues regarding the experience of inner beauty, access to an inner experiential reality that is beyond belief, dogma, discursive thinking and afflictive emotions, the potential in art to shift awareness into a larger flow of integration and connectedness, which in turn can stimulate that joyful feeling of spaciousness and timelessness, the purpose of art-making, and the attitudes and motivations of artists in making non-iconic spiritual art .  

He will argue that formalizing Buddhist aesthetics and bounding its art-making in formulaic or frozen definitions of perfectionism is against the spirit of Buddhism and its emphasis to ‘be lamps unto yourselves’, which were the Buddha’s final words and that for contemporary dharma art to have that special quality it must be made in the here-and-now, on the anvil of the artist’s life, based on what the artist sees, feels and thinks in a present state of consciousness.   

As an artist whose work is placed in the contemporary spiritual ‘Buddhist’ art frame, Shakti Maira will also share from his art-making journey and invite a conversation about spirituality in art-making. 

Shakti Maira is a noted artist and sculptor, and author of Towards Ananda: Rethinking Indian Art & Aesthetics (Penguin/Viking, 2006). He has had 24 one-person shows in India, the US and in Europe, and his work can be found at the National Gallery of Modern Art and in private collections around the world. He writes on art, aesthetics, culture and travel and is a columnist for Design Today magazine. He has prepared the UNESCO Asian Vision Statement for ‘Arts in Education: Learning Through the Arts’.

tuesday 8^th april
7.00 pm ‘Pakistan Before and After Benazir’ a talk by David Barsamian 

Much has happened in the world since David Barsamian spoke at The Attic 4 months ago. But neither Iraq or Afganistan ot the Us presidential elections have gripped the headlines as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the Pakistan elections. The invincible general seems no longer invincible and the permanency of the coalition is of great concern both to India and the world. David returns from a 3 week trip to Pakistan and brings us upto date with the latest in the politics and personalities of Islamabad.  

David  is a radio broadcaster and writer and director of Alternative Radio,  a syndicated weekly talk program heard on some 125 radio stations in various countries. His interviews and articles also appear regularly in The Progressive, The Nation, and Z Magazine. He is best known for his series of interviews with Noam Chomsky, which have been published in book form and translated into many languages, His other books include Confronting Empire (2000) (interviews with Eqbal Ahmad)

• Culture and Resistance (1994) (interviews with Edward Said)
• The Future of History (1999) (interviews with Howard Zinn)
• The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting (2001)
• The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile (2003) (interviews with Arundhati Roy)
• His latest books are ‘Targeting Iran’ and ‘What We Say Goes’ w/ Chomsky.

wednesday 9^th april
Dialogues of Faith Series  at The India International Centre
(Main Auditorium)
6.30 pm ‘Guru, Granth and Panth – An Approach to Sikhism’ – a talk by Prof. JPS Uberoi

A Sikh (from the Sanskrit shishya = disciple) is a believer in the teachings of the 10 Sikh gurus and the holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. Starting from Guru Nanak in the 15^th to Guru Gobind Singh in the 18^th century, Sikhism's traditions and teachings are distinctly associated with the history, society and culture of the Punjab. There are now about 23 million Sikhs around the world and are distinguishable in any major city with their colourful turbans.

The Guru Granth Sahib contains compositions and ideas from both the Muslim and Hindu traditions and is one of the most eclectic and inclusive holy scriptures in the world.

Prof. Uberoi, in his talk this evening, takes an approach to Sikhism that it is not a tradition, but a conjoint experiment of Guru, Granth and Panth (society). He explores some of the important concepts of Sikhism, the concept of ‘jap’- the name, the concept of martyrdom and the concept of ‘sangat’ (society). These three concepts lead to one of the distinguishing features of Sikhism. ‘Vernacularism’, a trait shared by the Lingayats, the Satnamis and the Roshanis. For the first time God understood languages other than Sanskrit, Arabic and Latin. This gave a unique democratic aspect to the Sikh religion with the result that Gurdwaras are open not only to all Sikhs but to all persons irrespective of religion.

Jit Singh Uberoi retired as Professor of Sociology, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, where he taught sociological theory and culture area studies. He has published a trilogy on the Sociology of Science, Science and Culture, The Other Mind of Europe, and The European Modernity; a monograph on the sociology of Sikhism, Religion, Civil Society and the State.

He was for sometime the Proctor, University of Delhi, the Director, Delhi School of Economics, and was long active in university reforms and civil liberties.  He received the Hogart prize, Royal Anthropological Institute, London, 1958, the Pranavananda Saraswati Award, University Grants Commission, New Delhi, 1996, and was a National Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research, 2002 to 2004.  He has been visiting professor in Britain and the U.S., France, Germany and Poland, the West Indies and Australia.  

thursday 10^th  april
7.00 pm ‘Reading Woody Allen’ The First City Theatre Readings. Off the Mantle#6
 by Neel Chaudhuri, Kriti Pant, Momo Ghosh , Malika Taneja

Having completed the fifth in our series of dramatic readings, The First City Theatre Foundation is delighted that Off the Mantle is now a permanent fixture in Delhi's theatre calendar. Following Pinter and Homer, we switch to lighter fare for the month of April, beginning with a selection of readings by filmmaker, philosopher and comic genius, Woody Allen. As prolific with his pen as he has been with his films, Allen, in his prose, displays a versatility and virtuosity with the written word and his special brand of humour, following the tradition of his hero Groucho Marx. We pick an eclectic selection of pieces where the subjects range from Death, to Socrates, and an imaginary Swedish playwright called Lovborg.

saturday 12^th april
6.30 pm Harpsichord Recital by Justin McCarthy

A Harpsichord is a keyboard musical instrument, producing sound by plucking a string when each key is pressed. It was widely used in the- baroque music of the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th centuries in most of the  countries in Europe.  Baroque music describes an era and a set of  styles of European classical music which were in widespread use after the Renaissance. Baroque also is used to describe the art and architecture of the period and in music saw the development of  diatonic tonality. During the period composers and performers used  more elaborate musical ornamentation, made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today and the music is associated with the composers  Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Harpsichord became less popular with the invention of the piano and disappeared from view for most of the 19^th century. In modern times it has been used in popular music by The Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Justin will be playing pieces from the French repertoire of the 17^th century and will also talk about the aesthetic and historical aspects of the music and the instruments.

 Justin McCarthy is both western musician and Indian dancer. He has lived in Delhi for the past 27 years and he teaches, performs and choreographs.

He studied music with Ruth Kuipers, Heather Halsted and Ruth Liebich and has performed extensively on piano and harpsichord in both solo and ensemble concerts.Justin studied Bharatanatyam with Mimi Janislawski, Lesandre Ayrey,Subbarayan Pillai and Leela Samson. He has been teaching dance at the Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra for two decades now.

monday 14^th  april
6.30 pm ‘Demystifying Digital Photography’ – a Talk & Workshop by Pradip Dalal             

Pradip Dalal a self  taught  photographer  will  hold  a  free  workshop  on  the art of digital imaging.  The workshop will show and demystify the digital technology, including lighting, camera angles and other simple techniques to improve your home photography and enhance almost any ordinary photograph.  “It is not the camera, but the cameraman who makes the photograph.” he says. Participants are encouraged to bring their own cameras and participate in the discussion and workshop.

monday 14^th to saturday 19^th april
11 am to 6 pm ‘Around the World with 35 Faces’ - Exhibition of Photographs by Pradip Dalal 

Louis Malle once stated that whether with a still or a motion picture camera, concentrate on the face. The Faces in this exhibition, from   Delhi, Calcutta, Pondicherry, New York, Cuba and Colombia show the influence of this advice on the photographer.  Whether sitting on the steps of a school in Havana or on a bench in a jewelry shop in Chandni Chowk, or capturing the faces of young cricketers winning a match at the Tennis Academy in Gargi College, various emotions are captured and powerful  images created. The simple uncluttered shot is the most effective.

   Pradip Dalal was an International Civil Servant with a passionate interest in photography. He was ‘hooked’ after seeing The Family of Man Photo Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1956 and influenced by the work of Cartier Bresson,  who did his photography using  "the velvet hand and the hawk's eye." And who never used a flash, a practice he saw as "impolite...like coming to a concert with a pistol in your hand."  Pradip is self taught through a large library of books and sincerely believes that “..if I can do it, anybody can”. He has produced two brochures one on Hong Kong and another on The Saroj Nalini NGO in Calcutta that assists battered women and provides  schooling and primary health care for their children. 

wednesday 16^th april
7.30 pm ‘The Cuisines of Delhi’ a talk by Sohail Hashmi & Rahul Verma

 “Tell me what you eat, and I’ll tell you who you are,” wrote renowned gastronome Brillat-Savarin in 1825. The Meaning of Food is an exploration of culture through food. What we consume, how we acquire it, who prepares it, who’s at the table, and who eats first is a form of communication that is rich with meaning.

Delhi not only has a rich history of kings and dynasties but also extremely interesting culinary traditions, Rajput, Arab, Afghan, Mongol (Mughal), English and the eat-well-drink-well Punjabi to name only the most recent.

Sohail will talk about the origin of some of our food and the antiquity (or lack) of the herbs, spices and vegetables used. He will tell us about ‘kayasth’ food, where do Kashmiri Pandits buy vegetables for their cuisine,  Braj, Marwari and  ‘Dilli’ vegetarian.  And will discuss with Rahul the best places to get a flavour of the interesting food joints that have cropped up in the capital, from Noida to Majnu ka Tilla.  Sohail will try to convince you of the erroneous use of the words ‘Mughlai’ and ‘Indian’ to describe our food and also explore how food is a defining elements of our identities. We also hope to learn about ‘chilli chiken’, India's contribution to Chinese cuisine and the secrets of ‘butter chiken’. 

Rahul Verma is the son of a Jat soldier turned Communist Revolutionary and a Bengali actress turned IPTA activist. He has been writing on food for the last 20 years and experimenting with it for at least 40 years. He is to be found in the pages of The Telegraph on Sundays and of The Hindu on Mondays. On the other days of the week he is mostly to be found in Chandni Chowk, trying out some Kababs or Bedmi Aloos. Occasionally, you can spot him at the chemist's, buyng digene....... 

Sohail Hashmi is a genuine ‘Dilliwalla’. He studied Geography and Regional Development, gave up academics to engage in unfashionable things like working in Delhi slums and with unorganised workers. He eventually drifted into the electronic media but had to start his own production house when every company he had joined folded up shortly after hiring him.

He currently runs ‘Leap Years’, a creative activity centre for children, takes people on history walks, and writes scripts for documentaries aside from writing a monthly column on lesser known monuments of Delhi for the Landscape Magazine. Eats everyday and spends all his free time in the kitchen.

friday 18th april
7 pm  Ashtapadis of the Gita Govinda and some Bengali Songs – A Music Recital by Mani Kuntalam Bhowmick. 

The Gita Govinda is a lyrical poem of 12 Chapters written by the Poet Jayadeva in the 12^th century. The verses are subdivided into verses of 8 lines, hence ‘Ashtapadi’. The work belongs to the medieval Vaishnavite period in Eastern India but such was its almost immediate popularity that it spread to the rest of India within a century. It bears testimony to the phenomenon of the underlying unity within the diversity of Indian culture. The outpouring of religious and erotic fervor typical of India is expressed in the devotional music to which the poem has been set, the temple dances which it has inspired and the diverse painting schools to which it has given rise.

Jayadeva married Padmavati the temple dancer of the Jagannath Puri temple and composed the poem specifically for dance performance during the night worship at the temple. It was so deftly made as to be sung to the beats of a dancer's foot movements and in describing the love of Radha and Krishna he showed his mastery of poetry, music and dance, his devotion to Vishnu, his understanding of the both the erotic and the divine and the intimate relationship between the two.

This evening Mani gives a rare musical concert of the music of Jayadeva’s poem without the dance, bringing out the flavour of the poem and the Raga to which each one is set. She will also sing some of her favourite Bengali  compositions from Rabindra Sangeet to folk tunes of the region.

wednesday 23rd april
7.00 pm ‘My Family and Other Animals’ The First City Theatre Fountation. Off the Mantle#7

The First City Theatre Foundation presents Gerald Durrell's classic, MY FAMILY AND OTHER ANIMALS as part of its series or dramatic readings, Off the Mantle. This reading is to be presented in collaboration with Youthreach, as part of their Festival of Consciousness. Durrell's autobiographical work focuses on his childhood years, spent on the Greek island of Corfu, interweaving humorous accounts of his family with a rich discussion of the fauna of the island.

thursday 24^th april
Dialogues of Faith Series  at The India International Centre
(Main Auditorium)
6.30 pm ‘Christianity: The Horizon Beyond Religion’ by The Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu

Christianity came to India in the First Century almost at the same time that it reached Europe. St. Thomas the Apostle converted the high caste Hindus in the Malabar region of Kerala. Later under the influence of the Antiochian tradition, the Nasranis, a unique Hebrew-Syriac-Christian community with Hindu customs came into being. French missionaries established Christian communities in Calicut, Mangalore, and Thane and St. Francis Xavier the Portuguese Jesuit established Christianty in Goa and the west coast. Beginning in the eighteenth century, Protestant missionaries began to work throughout India, leading to the growth of different Christian communities in the rest of India. During the twentieth century, the fastest growing Christian communities have been located in the northeast, among the Khasis, Mizos, Nagas, and other hill tribes. Today there are about 24 million Indian Christians forming a little over 2% of the population. 

The succulent irony of all religions is that their founders did not belong to them. Jesus was not a Christian, Prophet Mohammed was not a Muslim, Buddha was not a Buddhist and Lord Krishna had never heard of Hinduism.

Jesus preached the Kingdom of God, which transcends all religious, territorial, linguistic and ethnic categories. Everyone knows him as a healer of diseases. But he was fundamentally a healer of religion!  

Spirituality is predicated on liberation and growth, ‘life in all its fullness for all people,’ especially the lost and the least. Jesus came to ‘preach the good news to the poor,” but wherever the spiritual core of institutionalized Christianity was eroded, it condoned oppression, unleashed aggression and justified the suppression of truth.  

Dr. Thampu speaks this evening of some important aspects of the horizon beyond religion, in particular on:  

·      Welcoming and celebrating diversity, whereas religion revels in sameness.

            ·      Embracing the non-stereotypical, the unfamiliar and the not-yet. [The   

           Stranger, The Enemy, The Sinner, The Outcast.] Popular religiosity trades in   

           stereotypes, labels, stigmas, social stratifications and taboos. Organized religion

           does not know how to cope with the reality of new beginnings. Religiosity relapses

            into Judgmentalism.        

·     True spirituality is suspicious of all religious formulae, customs and rituals.

                   Biblical faith brings one under the “heretical imperative”, implying the duty to

                   ask and interrogate and a commitment to truth and justice.

                ·  The horizon beyond religion is the garden of a new humanity: articulated as a ‘new

              heaven and a new earth’. Its hallmark is ‘fruitfulness,’ an overflow of the self to  

              embrace the needs and the dreams of the neighbour.

The Rev. Dr. Valson Thampu, Principal of St. Stephens College, Delhi is an author, lecturer, theologian and minister of the Church of North India (CNI). He is also a member of the "Religion for social justice" forum and was, till recently, member, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. He addressed the World Council of Churches in Geneva on Models of interreligious dialogue’ in 2005 and lectures frequently on peace education, christianity and minority rights. He is an outspoken critic of institutionalized religion.   

monday 28th april
7.00 pm ‘Rosinante against the Grain: Graham Greene's Premonitions of the "New World Order’ – a talk by Gautam Chakrabarti

Graham Greene was an English novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer and critic whose works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene combined serious literary acclaim with wide popularity

In Monsignor Quixote (1982), Graham Greene underlines the possibilities, embedded deep within the strict political-ideological bipolarity of the Cold War, of a dialogue between the maverick vant garde of the "Left" and the "Right". In the novel, "the mechanism of institutionalized authority, whether political or religious, has seriously slackened, allowing the two protagonists, a communist and a Catholic priest, to share in the blessed community of the white human heart." The self-effacing Father Quixote is appointed "Monsignor" by the local Bishop. Zancas, the communist ex mayor whom Quixote has baptized "Sancho", is to accompany him on his journey to his old Seat ("Rosinante") in a story representative of the failure awaiting those who seek to underplay the rigid formulations of dogmatic socio-political frameworks. In this talk, the attempt will be to look at Greene as a prominent author who'd unequivocally resisted both American hegemony and Soviet homogeneity; and, primarily through his literary oeuvre defend the post-Cold-War betrayal of the cause of freedom and true democracy by the very forces that sought to champion it.

 In his defense of the deeply marginalized he even chose to defend the institutional reputation of the Vatican in spite of the many age-old certainties of Catholicism, being  personally unacceptable to him against the  big Statist entities of communism. His characters especially Fr. Quixote, seem to tap the possibilities latent in an individuals strength to defy and defeat institutional power.

Gautam Chakrabarti has studied English Literature in Jadavpur University and JNU; and is teaching at the Ram Lal Anand College, University of Delhi. He works on "Graham Greene and the Cold War"; and is also interested in Indic studies, with the historical evolution of Hindutva, its redefinition by certain elements in the Diaspora and subaltern socio-cultural tropes in Indian early modernity being primary engagements. He has been published and has participated in seminars and conferences on these subjects as well as lecturing in The University of Turku, Finland and the Moscow State University. He has extra-mural interests in Jewish history and Ethnomusicology; and is avidly interested in issues of human rights and "individual" freedom worldwide.

 wednesday 30^th april
7.00 pm ‘Open centres – From the shunya to the  spiralling matrix’– an illustrated talk by Giti Thadani

This audio-visual presentation is a poetic journey into the archetypal philosophies and cosmologies of the shaktic feminine through an interplay of visuals and texts.

These cosmologies have not been adequately researched.  One of its main architectural forms is that of an open circular roofless temple. The centre is left free as it embodies the adya shakti – primordial energy. Its main philosophy is the principle of movement enacting the passage from the zero state of the black hole to form, to being, to the one. The first form replicates itself in many ways through the element of water and reflection, through differentiation by light.  It creates its twin, which is both its shadow and mirror. 

This creates yet another dimension, that of the triad space or the opening of the third eye. The triangle and the motif of the three eyes is the symbol of the yoni as the water source that generates and receives back life. The triangle itself is in spiral movement. Its apex is constantly transforming.  The energy below can also be above. The balance inherent in the two states and their dynamic interchanging is embodied by the symbol of the intertwined double triangles or the six-pointed hexagonal star.

This movement of passage is represented by the number 7 and geometrically by the arc. The number 8 which is also the architectural basis of the dome roof or the symbol of the eight-petal lotus represents the completion of the circle.
9 or ‘nav’ also means renewal.  The dark space and the dark goddesses represent this process of the dissolving of form, the receiving back of life and renewal. 

The presentation seeks to bring out the complex philosophies of these numerologies through an exploration of images and new digital video compositions.      

Giti Thadani has given audio-visual presentations  on ‘Feminine Cosmologies and architectural space in shaktic temple sites’ at the Delhi School of Architecture, `Mythic and  Memoric Time’, ‘Politics and semantics of sexuality’ at Yale and others at the University of Verona, House of World Cultures, Berlin and the University of Philadelphia. She has also researched on New German Cinema and its historical contextualisation, The language of aesthetics in the work of Mani Kaul and Gender Constructions, fascism and the politics of body language. She has also been a Consultant for the  Film KHEL and has published two books ‘Sakhiyani’ and ‘Moebius Trip’. She speaks Sanskrit, Hindi, English, French, German, Hungarian & Italian.

thursday 1^st to saturday 3^rd may
11 am to 6.30 pm ‘Shaktic symbology, architecture & iconography’ – An exhibition of photographs by Giti Thadani.

In partnership with Shakti Trust