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march 06 programmes
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March
8th is International Women's Day commemorating
women coming together across boundaries
of all sorts. The Attic celebrates women's
creativity with not a day but a month of
programmes. Is there a particular woman's
way of being and seeing? Individual and
personal journeys through photography, literature,
poster art, film, activism, dance, music,
spirituality and healing open the door to
an unexplored world of possibilities. In
the Attic's intimate space explore the diversity
of women's works and lives as they lead
us from ethereal themes of eternal beauty
to the life of a domestic worker, show us
images of and by women, hear stories of
life and love at home and abroad and let
the meditative exploration of sound empower
and move you to a higher plane.
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wednesday
8th - 31st march
10.00 am
to 5.30 pm 'Photography Exhibition Saadiya
Kocharr'
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In
Chinese philosophy Yin and Yang are used
to describe feminine and masculine energy.
They are intertwined one being dependent
on the other and all of us containing aspects
of each. In Indian philosophy feminine energies
show a spiraling of consciousness to a higher
frequency and the reunion of self and soul
through the sacred geometry of creation.
Saadiya Kochar is a fine art photographer
who has been depicting the feminine energy
in all her works. Her current work titled
'zikr' is an ode to the self and the energy.is
depicted through women.whirling in Gurdjieff
dances and belly dancing. Most of this work
has been shot specially for our ‘Womens
Month'.
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saturday
11th march
6.30 pm 'In
the World But Not Of It' - A talk
by
Mandira Srivastava
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natural Sufi may be as common in the West
as in the East, and may come dressed as
a general, a merchant, a lawyer, a schoolmaster,
a housewife, anything. To be 'in the world,
but not of it, 'free from ambition, greed,
intellectual pride, blind obedience to custom,
or awe of persons higher in rank; that is
the Sufi ideal." (Robert Graves).
Mandira lives her life as an everyday Sufi,
and shares her point of view on the Sufi
life. She works with people using Reiki,
Crystals and Dance Meditation for healing
and self empowerment.
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monday
13th march
6.30 pm 'In
Quest of a Hindi literature in America'
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A
personal journey Readings of excerpts from
Amrita Pritam's Pinjjer ( skeleton ) and
Seema Khurana's 'Chhoti Si Rasoi (A small,little
kitchen)' and 'Adhhoora Anth (incomplete
ending)'
When was the last time you were told a story?
Come and recapture that sense of wonderment
as you listen to Seema Khurana's dramatic
reading of an excerpt from Amrita Pritam
and her own creative writing. She maps her
journey of becoming a creative Hindi Diaspora
writer living and working in America.
In this interactive evening Seema invites
you to discuss the experiences that become
stories. In stories, by and about women,
she questions if women have really changed
or is it just their circumstances that have
changed?
Seema Khurana teaches Hindi at Yale University.
She has been
in USA for almost three decades. She started
'Sandeshi', a project of nostalgia and passion,
giving voice to Hindi literature and bringing
it to life. This pioneering effort to create
Hindi books on tape began with a narration
of 'Pinjjer'. Amrita Pritam's writings have
been a constant companion, anchor and solace
from an unusual youth to the encounter with
her writings whose fine sensibility opened
a window and 'allowed' Seema to write. Seema
has published and presented her short stories.
poems and play in India and America.
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thursday
16th march
6.30 pm 'Poster
Women - A slide presentation and talk of posters
from the womens movement in India'
by
Urvashi Butalia
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Poster
Women is a unique project put together by
the feminist publishing house Zubaan. It
attempts to map a visual history of the
women's movement in India through its posters.
Focusing on the last 30-40 years, Zubaan
has worked closely with nearly 200 women's
groups all over the country to collect posters
used in various campaigns in the movement.
These include the campaigns against violence,
rape, dowry, the campaigns for increased
political participation, better health facilities
and so on. This project will not only create
an archive of women's history, but will
also illustrate the politics and aesthetics
of the movement.
PosterWomen opens at the Lalit Kala Akademi
on the 22nd of March 2006.
Urvashi Butalia is co founder of Kali for
Women the first feminist publishing house
in India and founder director of Zubaan
Books. She has combined her passion for
books and women in both publishing and in
her active involvement in the women's movement
in India. Her major work, "The Other
Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition
of India" has been published by Penguin
in India, Duke University Press in the US
and translated into six languages, and won
the Oral History Association Award 2000
as well as the Nikkei Asia Award 2003. Currently,
she is working on two major projects, one
on sexuality and the other on gender and
conflict.
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saturday
18th march
6.30 pm 'Young
Dancers Festival Koochipoodi'
by
Nandhini Nandhan
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Women in Tradition :
In her programme titled 'Women in Tradition',
Nandini Nandan explores the multiple moods
and movements of the Nayikas (heroines)
who constitute the popular subject matter
of Koochipoodi dance. The motifs range from
the celestial to the earthly.
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tuesday
21st march
6.30 pm 'Mantra
and The Metaphysical Significance of Shakti
the Goddess - An experiential talk and audio-visual
presentation' a talk
by
Shruti
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Indian
Spiritual Sadhana deliberates upon Shabda-sound,
word and language as emanations and embodiments
of Shakti, the feminine Creative Source
of the Universe, the Goddess as eternal
vibration in time and space. The Goddess
is experienced in many metaphysical and
physical forms, energies and symbols. These
energies are then experienced and absorbed
through various sensory inputs such as Mantric
seed sounds (Beeja mantras), physical symbols
such as mandalas, time-space cycles as the
Yugas and Societal diversities as the Chaturvarna
in Indian tradition.
This talk will be experiential with live
demos of Prakriti and Shakti Beeja Sounds
as well as ragas, their role in the healing
and inner transformation as well as the
larger role of Shakti consciousness in the
global future of Society.
Shruti, a Delhi Ratna award recipient, is
an educationist, faculty developer, orator,
documentary maker, Vedic Scholar, Sound
healer and Musician. She has been exploring
the growth of consciousness through Indian
spiritual Practices and the science of sound,and
its scientific applications in health and
the development of consciousness, through
clinical and experiential research. She
has given music concerts internationally,
and her Mantra and music CDs along with
her workshops continue to influence large
and multi-cultural audiences in India and
abroad. She works with Unesco, is India
Head of Infinity Foundation , has written
"Indian Philosophy at the University
of Hawaii and is presently writing a book
on the "Beeja Mantra".
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saturday
25th march
6.30 pm 'The
Creative Process - A workshop'
by
Komal Mathur
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The
physical, emotional and intellectual, the
entire being is part of a creative process
that we somehow manage to block. This workshop
is an experiential journey through the processes
of thinking, feeling and sensing. A widening
of perspective and perception! A cleaning
up of the senses… Coming closer to
the body in the here and now … being
available to the moment, to realize our
full creative potential and freeing our
creativity from linear thinking and programmed
expression.
Both Western psychological and Eastern spiritual
knowledge systems are brought together.
Komal Mathur, is a Counselor Therapist,
trained in the use Transactional Analysis
(TA) as a tool of analysis, problem solving
and growth . She combines TA with Reflexology,
Reiki, Crystal Healing, AuraSoma, the knowledge
and wisdom of the Chakra System, Breathwork,
bodywork, movement, Active Meditation as
an integrative process for healing and change.
She teaches Reiki , Osho meditation and
Gurdjieff sacred dances.
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tuesday
28th march
6.30 pm 'A
Life Less Ordinary - A talk and A 26 minute
documentary film about her'
by
Baby Halder
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In
2005, Baby Halder, a domestic worker, wrote
her life story. The book ,"Aloe Andhari"
(From Darkness to Light) published first
in Hindi and then in Bengali, will be pubished
by Zubaan under the title, A Life Less Ordinary.
Married when she was barely thirteen, a
mother at the age of fourteen, Baby was
subjected to terrible violence by her husband.
With nowhere to go - her mother had walked
out of the house with her younger brother
and her father had remarried twice - Baby
decided to leave when she could no longer
face the continuing violence and suffering.
With great difficulty she found her way
to Delhi and found work in the home of a
man who encouraged her to read, and then
to write. Aloe Andhari became an instant
bestseller and Baby acclaimed as an unusual
writer. She has now finished work on her
second book.
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friday 31st march
6.30 p.m SAMA……. Led by Akash Dharmaraj
Womens month culminates with an invitation to
view and use some ancient techniques, to enter
a state of centeredness, emptiness and
silence. Akash will use two different
techniques.
The Sufi way Zikr, remembrance, which will
take us through the different layers of our
being & bring us in touch with our inner self.
‘Sufism’ is neither a religion nor an
ideology, but a vast sky of a particular
quality of consciousness, an ocean of
remembrance… a merging with existence. We will
explore the beauty of Sufi poetry with
readings from Rumi. And experience music and
the dervish dances of Gurdjieff.
The evening will conclude with a ‘Sama’, the
Mevlevi Sufi ceremony that symbolizes the
union with existence, with whirling, a human
reflection of the cosmos, a movement where we
dissolve ourselves into existence, love and
wildness flowering into the experience of
meditation.
Akash Dharmaraj is a clinical Psychologist and
practicing Physiotherapist. Working with
people over the past thirty years she has
understood the depth of mind-body connections
and builds healing systems around individuals
and groups using ancient techniques and modern
clinical philosophy. She is a Reiki master, an
instructor in Gurdjieff sacred dances and
Fourth Way techniques. Her therapeutic
interventions include crystals, essential
oils, colours, meditations and traditional
chakra healing systems, music, movement and
dance.
She has recently established Akhaldans a
healing space for those who are seeking
wholeness, wellness and meaning in their
lives.
www.akhaldans.com
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