december 2007 programmes

saturday 1^st december  
6.30 pm “Anjali Laho Mor Sangeet e” – Take My Prayer Through Music – an Odissi dance performance by Sunanda Banerjee

thursday 6^th december
6.30 pm  – Three Punjabi Stories by Ramindra Ajit Singh

friday 7^th december
7.00 pm ‘Lunatic in my Head’ by Anjum Hasan – a book launch organized by Zubaan and Penguin Books India

saturday 8^th december
6.30 pm - A Bharatanatyam recital by Aditi Subramaniam

tuesday 11^th december
6.30 pm ‘The Other Christmas’ a talk by Robinson with music by Dr.R.P. Jain

friday 14^th december
6.30 pm ‘Pulling The Wheels Of The Chariot’ - a poetry performance by Promila Dixit Nag

saturday 15^th december
6.30 pm ‘How to demonize a country – Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran?’ a talk by David Barsamian

thursday 20^th december
7.00 pm ‘OFF THE MANTLE’ - a performance of selected readings from contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare, including
Charles Marowitz's JULIUS CAESAR and
Joe Calarco's SHAKESPEARE'S R&J.

saturday 29^th december
10.30am to 1.00 pm ‘OPENING THE SACRED VOICE- WOMEN'S
CHANT WORKSHOP’ conducted by Peru Frances

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saturday 1^st december  
6.30 pm “Anjali Laho Mor Sangeet e” – Take My Prayer Through
Music – an Odissi dance performance by Sunanda Banerjee

                     Anjali Laho Mor Sangeet e
                     Prodip shika shamo kanpiche pran mamo 
                     Tomahi sundara  bondite sangeet e sangeet e

                           A poem by Kazi Nazrul Islam

                     Take my prayer through music
                     My heart flickers like the flame of the lamp
                    While worshiping you through music

A young Bengali Hindu Indian girl begins her dance performance with an invocation using the poetry of a now dead Muslim Bangladeshi poet. Such are the syncretic traditions of the music and dance of the subcontinent. This piece has been chosen and choreographed by the dancer herself as part of her traditional classical Odissi dance performance. She will also interpret a pallavi (pure dance) and an abhinaya (interpretative piece) composed by the world famous Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. She has also composed an original item interpreting a champu based on an Oriya song by Baladev Rath. The champu is an unusual poetic structure based on a raga using an appropriate rhythm in which a poem has been composed using one letter of the alphabet and each word of the poem uses only that one letter.
Sunanda has been learning Odissi since the age of 8 from Guru Madhavi Mudgal. She is an Arts graduate from Delhi University as well as a graduate in Odissi dance from Gandharva Mahavidyala. She has performed at the Uday Shankar Ballet Festival in Jaipur, Qutab Festival in Delhi and the Konarak Festival in Bhuvaneshwar. She is a graded artist of Doordarshan.

thursday 6^th december

6.30 pm  - Three Punjabi Stories by Ramindra Ajit Singh

BUDHAPA BADA LANTI – IT’S TERRIBLE TO BE OLD.
This is the story of a widowed jeweler and his 2 sons. In his old age he meets in his shop a sympathetic lady, which begins an innocent but very sweet romance which fills the life of both people with meaning and love.

Read and enacted by Shumita Didi.

LIKAN HATH DIYAN -LINES ON THE HAND
Some children of the ‘mohalla’ play happily together everyday till the mother of one of the girls Basant says she is too grown up to play with the boys. Iqbal goes to her house but is rebuffed by the mother. Sadness, innocent love, tradition and reconciliation are the themes of this beautiful not a love story.

Couplets sung by Paramjit Singh, story read by Punita Singh. 

YADAAN MAHATMA DE NAAL – REMEMBERING BAPU
1939. Disturbances in the North West Frontier. Mahatma Gandhi goes to Abbotabad and stays at Ramindra’s family home. Personal reminiscences of Gandhiji’s stay. “She makes Gandhi’s idiosyncrasies and his mesmerizing influence over people, come alive. Vignettes of that visit feature people like Kasturba Gandhi, Abdul Gaffar Khan and Sushila Nayyar, and she writes with rare sensitivity of their eccentricities.” Especially the problem of procuring goats milk and keeping Gandhiji in the frugality and poverty that he was accustomed to.

Ramindra, like the other women in her family are an example to all of us. Her first novel Kanki (1999) written at the age of 78 and Kudrat de Nirale Rang(2007),her riaz in classical music, her two recent albums of Shabad Kirtan from the Gurbani and the creative sensitivity with which she writes creates the wonderful atmosphere of a disappearing Punjabi culture.

friday 7^th december
7.00 pm ‘Lunatic in my Head’ by Anjum Hasan – a book launch organized by Zubaan and Penguin Books India
Poetic, funny, tender and reflective, Lunatic in my Head is a moving portrait of a small town. And of three people joined to each other in an intricate web, determined to break out of their small-town destinies.
The author Anjum Hasan will be in conversation with novelist Siddhartha Deb author of Point of Return and Surface.

saturday 8^th december
6.30 pm - A Bharatanatyam recital by Aditi Subramaniam

The predominantly spiritual nature of Indian classical dance ensures the presence of Hindu gods and goddesses in the invocations and the expressive pieces of the dances. Rooted in classical literature, the epics (Ramayana and Mahabharata) and in poetry (Gita Govinda), most modern performances concentrate on the story of Radha and Krishna ignoring a vast body of literature.

Aditi has chosen as her theme some incidents from the Ramayana. The story of Rama has been sung by many divine poets in various languages, Valmiki, Tulsidas, Madhav Kambali of Assam, Kamban of Tamil Nadu and many composers have been inspired to sing the glory of Rama who was an embodiment of virtue, valour and character. The Tamil Ramayana by Kamban is considered to be a classical masterpiece and a lyric more than an epic.

In 'Niurai pai', Rama requests, Hanuman, to deliver his message to Sita, and reassure her  by narrating details from three instances, that only Rama and Sita were aware of.

'Sri Rama Chandra kripalu bhajuman', is a bhajan by Tulsidas, in complete praise of Lord Rama. Here in the bhajan, the Bhakt (or devotee) describes the beauty, unending compassion and courage of Rama, requesting him to wipe away all difficulties.

Aditi Subramaniam began her dance training under Rekha Chowdary in both Bharata Natyam and Indian folk dance at the age of five. She performed in numerous dance ballets including Sagar Manthan and Thirak Rahi Ganga, both in Delhi and Bombay. She continued her Bharata Natyam training under Chitra Chandrashekar and Manjari Chandrashekar, daughters of Guru C.V. Chandrashekar before joining Leela Samson in 2000. She performed her Arangetram in 2002 under Leela Samson's guidance, and has been performing with Spanda throughout India and abroad since August 2004.

Aditi has a Masters in clinical psychology from Delhi University. Her work and research interests incorporate her love for dance and passion for psychology, in the study and application of movement and dance as therapy for children with special needs.

tuesday 11^th december
6.30 pm ‘The Other Christmas’ a talk by Robinson with music by Dr. R.P. Jain

The Gregorian calendar in use in the Roman Catholic     Church and most of the western world celebrates Christmas on the 25^th of December. The Eastern Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar celebrating Christmas on the 6^th (in some cases 7^th) January. The 40 days preceding starting from November 15^th is a period of fasting and prayer. Unlike the Great Lent of Easter the Christmas Lent is more of an "ascetical" rather than "liturgical" nature. The commercialization and gift giving of December 25^th is absent. Instead there is a renewal of faith and the accepting of Jesus in your life. In the eastern churches, the nativity and adoration of the shepherds are celebrated on Christmas Eve, the Adoration of the Magi on Christmas day and the feast of the Epiphany (theophany in the orthodox church) is the day of the manifestation of God. The focus is on our soul, spiritual needs and the celebration of the new life.

The music that is associated with this period is both the rich liturgical music and chants of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Bach and Tchaikovsky and the Russian, Serbian and Greek versions of ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O come all ye faithful’.

Robinson will speak on this other Christmas. He is an alumnus of St. Stephen's college, Delhi, a Theologian, Meditation Practitioner and a Poet. 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.

Dr R.P. Jain will select and play Christmas music from the Eastern Orthodox Church to illustrate the talk. He graduated with a PhD from the University of Hamburg. He taught German language and literature for over 22 years in J.N.U. His interest in Western music grew imperceptibly, almost by osmosis from his earlier years in London to his stint in Germany where his interest in classical music was kindled. He lives a retired life in Delhi and is an active member of the Opera fraternity.

As per Attic tradition home- made Christmas cake and hot punch will be served.

friday 14^th december
6.30 pm ‘Pulling The Wheels Of The Chariot’– a poetry performance by Promila Dixit Nag

Performance poetry is poetry that is specifically composed for or during performance before an audience. It is spontaneous, topical and often very personal. It is not a poem on the printed page. It is the musical score of that poem performed on stage.   

Promila Dixit Nag a ‘peacewoman’ has recently reentered the stage as a performance poet, performing at the Brooklyn Ethical Culture Society, New York; the F8 Gallery in Kennebunkport, Maine; Pepe Ozan’s Gallery in San Francisco, and most recently at the Habitat Centre.

Ms. Dixit Nag works to draw her audiences into a vortex of nuanced passions so intimate and close to the bone it leaves them holding the mirrors she holds up. She calls her work ‘Pulling The Wheels of The Chariot’. In a stream of consciousness Promila’s poetry performances move dizzyingly, lyrically between the political and the personal, the constant living of other lives within the complex tangled web of one’s own.

She is co-director of a US based NGO, Big Medicine and co-producer of its media program Ain’t That Good News -for the Pacifica News Network, WBAI 99.5FM New York. She has organized several conferences including the USA Strategy Conference to organize fair trade as an antidote to corporate globalization, and the New York ‘Reframing 9-11’ conference. 

Pic: Jaya Peralta  

saturday 15^th december
6.30 pm ‘How to demonize a country – Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran?’ a talk by David Barsamian

The Taliban was first demonized and then a country destroyed. The “illegal and immoral” war in Iraq was preceded by a ‘manufactured  consent’, through a spoon fed media for an  imperialist war of aggression. Iran is now staring down the barrel of a gun to appease the insatiable appetite of the US Neo-cons for unending war. : “There is a structural relationship between media and state power. They are closely linked. Who are the media? Not just in the United States, but around the world, they’re a handful of corporations that dominate what people see, hear, and read.

I’ll just give you one example: the New York Times, this great liberal newspaper, had 70 editorials between September 11, 2001 and the attack on Iraq, March 20, 2003. In not one of those editorials was the UN Charter, the Nuremberg Tribunal, or any       aspect of International Law ever mentioned.”

 David Barsamian talks this evening about a wide range of subjects: Illegal wars and war crimes, the servility and sycophancy of journalism and his interviews with the cream of alternative voices – Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Eqbal Ahmed, Edward Said, Tariq Ali and Arundhati Roy.

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.
•  

thursday 20^th december
7.00 pm ‘OFF THE MANTLE’ - a performance of selected readings from contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare, including
Charles Marowitz's JULIUS CAESAR and
Joe Calarco's SHAKESPEARE'S R&J.

The First City Theatre Foundation launches a series of readings and
performances in collaboration with The Attic. Committed to developing a
calendar's worth of theatre, music and film related activity, the
Foundation expects the Attic readings to become a regular cultural
fixture in the forthcoming months. Following our launch this December,
we will host them on a fortnightly basis in early 2008 and graduate to
weekly gatherings in a few months. The Foundation undertakes to
introduce participants to some of the finest dramatic writing over the
past few years as well as revisions and innovative adaptations of
classical and popular texts. We will also invite other groups, writers
and poets to share their work with us, and present excerpts from the
original scripts-in-progress at the Foundation workshops.

saturday 29^th december
10.30am to 1.00 pm ‘OPENING THE SACRED VOICE- WOMEN'S
CHANT WORKSHOP’ conducted by Peru Frances

Chanting is a spiritual practice that is commonly practiced and often forms part of many religious rituals. Native American, Gregorian and Vedic chants are obvious examples and the concept of chanting Mantras is particularly significant in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions.  Japanese Shigin or 'chanted poetry', mirroring Zen principles is another interesting example.

Peru Frances conducts this workshop to explore The Divine Feminine through chanting. Reaching into a deep well of cultural and spiritual exploration, she merges the familiar with the unfamiliar, the ancient with the mystical. She will teach you to sing from deep in the belly, to discover the silence within, the authentic voice of the Divine Feminine. With ancient and simple chant, toning and breathing, open your voice, body and being, into the pure resonance of love.

Peru is an international singer/ chantress, world musician and teacher, based in New Zealand. She performs at Festivals in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, giving concerts at spiritual and sacred music festivals, concert halls and spaces of devotion. Peru does not sing to entertain, but to connect people to their love within, to nourish and awaken through her singing. She conducts workshops to teach chanting opening women to the essence of the feminine.

Although originally trained in jazz, her spiritual awakening directed her away from singing for entertainment to singing for devotion and healing. She is a potent voice of the Divine Feminine. (www.peruthesingingwoman.com) 

Registration required. Women only. Rs 300.

Contact Mina Vahie 23746050 or email mina@theatticdelhi.org