Untitled Document

wednesday 2^nd may
6.30 pm ‘Moonweavers – Chaand Ke Julaahe’ an Open Mic poetry session No. 4

saturday 5^th may
6.30 pm 'Khoj: a search for nuance’ a flute recital by Srinibas Satapathy

monday 7^th may
Lecture 1 – “Western”, “Civilization” and “Foundations”

saturday 12^th may
1-2 pm Food Meditation # 22 ” Food for a Small Planet” an interaction with Ritu Mathur

saturday 19^th may
6.30 pm “The Sitar of the Dilli Gharana” a performance by Suhel Saeed

thursday 24^th may
6.30 pm “Parenting Today” a talk & group discussion with Dr. Megha Hazuria Gore

saturday 26^th may
6.30 pm "Devotional Music: Filmi & Semi Classical” by Priya Kanungo.

================================================================================

wednesday 2^nd may
6.30 pm ‘Moonweavers – Chaand Ke Julaahe’ an Open Mic poetry session No. 4

Mics are used because chips are implanted at birth which make audiences pay more attention to amplified voices. But no way are they required. It’s perfectly cool to have an open mic without a mic. If poets complain (poets always complain), you can make one out of cardboard, or create a Surrealist mic out of thick air. (Bob Holman’s Take on Open Mic)

But not to worry guys, we’ll give you a rock solid, proper, real mic for this one. At Moonweavers- Chaand ke Julaahe, we prefer saying the word with all the force, vigour and self admiration that runs through our veins when we have a microphone in hand! On a more serious note, we are back at The Attic with our 4^th Poetry Open Mic of the year.

The rules are simple. The evening will begin directly with one self-composed poem read by the participants of the session. The poems could be in English, Hindi or Urdu. (or other language accompanied by a translation) You could read out poetic text, poetic drama, improvise something poetic on the spot, anything as long as it’s poetic in its essence. No standup comedy or long-winding stories please.

If time permits and all participants have had a chance to read, we can do subsequent rounds. Please arrive early and list your name for the readings.

The evening will end with a short innovative performance by the Moonweavers group – Rati, Paulomi, Rajesh, Harsh, Elsa and Vikas.

saturday 5^th may
6.30 pm 'Khoj: a search for nuance’ a flute recital by Srinibas Satapathy

The bansuri is not just a musical instrument, it has a great cultural and religious significance among Hindus and the land where Lord Krishna was born and spent his youth, are still alive with the Krishna- legend and still redolent with the music of his flute. Numerous common names reflect these epitaphs of Krishna - Venugopal, Bansilal, Murali and Muralidhar for example. ‘The Lila’ is the mosaic of music and dance of Krishna with the ‘gopis’ as a group and with Radha in particular.

In Indian mythology, painting, dance and music the flute is so intimately associated with Krishna and the ‘gopis’ that no flautist can bypass trying to recreate the haunting melodies with which Lord Krishna seduced the young girls of Brindavan. Much inner meaning has been given about the symbolism of this metaphor imitating the relationship between God and devotee, where the melody flowing from Krishna's flute is the call of the Divine, inviting all creatures to rejoin God in eternal bliss. It is also remarkable how the life force (pran, or literally "breath") is converted into a musical resonance (sur) using nothing but a transverse length of bamboo with 6 holes cut into it.

'Khoj' is an attempt to explore the immense vastness of classical Indian music through the medium of the bamboo flute. It is a quest for further and deeper understanding of Hindustani music through exploration and elaboration of it's various forms of 'raga vistaar'. The concert is a presentation of Hindustani ragas in the very traditional format, yet with a fresh and individual approach.

Srinibas Satapathy was fortunate to be exposed to Indian classical music through his father, Shri Jagannath Satapathy. He started his formal training in flute at the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, Bhubaneswar under the tutelage of Guru Prof. Mohini Mohan Pattanaik. There he completed his Masters in Music in 1998 and subsequently received advanced training from Pandit Rajendra Prasanna of Banaras Gharana in Delhi.

He received a National Scholarship from 1995-98 and was judged the best flute player in the Youth Festival in Gujarat as well as in the All India State Bank Competition.

Srinibas has performed with the most famous Odissi dancers - Late Guru Gangadhar Pradhan, Sonal Mansingh, Madhavi Mudgal, Bijoyini Satapathy, Surupa Sen, Aruna Mohanty, Ranjana Gauhar and Sujata Mohanty as an accompanist in most of the prestigious festivals around the world.

He is a soloist in his own right and has performed in the US and Belgium as well as in Festival of Young Musicians in Patna, the Annual Music Festival of Nrityagram in Bangalore, the Nalanda Festival, Bihar as well as in Kolkata and Orissa. Srinibas is a graded artiste (Classical Music) of the All India Radio. He has been a Guest Lecturer at the University of Culture, Bhubaneswar, Orissa. He has given lecture-demonstrations and workshops in various cities of United States of America. He has also composed music for dance productions.

The Foundations of Western Civilization – an education in 24 evenings. An Attic video presentation from The Great Courses taught by Prof. Thomas Noble, University of Norte Dame.

You can discover the essential nature, evolution, and perceptions of Western civilization from its humble beginnings in the great river valleys of Iraq and Egypt to the dawn of the modern world.

This series of 48 half hour lectures - 2 per evening on the 2^nd and 4^th Monday’s of every month will be introduced by an eminent professor/personality who will also answer questions. The events and the course are free. The title of each lecture is listed below.

These three seemingly simple words demand reflection. Where is the West? Who is Western? If civilization means cities, where do those come from? And when we look at history, how do we tell what is truly foundational from what may be merely famous? What is the difference between celebrity and distinction?

The earliest traces of civilization appeared in Sumer, in what is now southern Iraq. The Uruk period 3800 to 3200 B.C was tremendously creative with the invention of the wheel and plough: the planting of the first orchards of dates, figs and olives and most significant, cuneiform writing. Sumer became—along with Egypt—one of the two foundations of Western civilization.

As Sumer was the gift of the Tigris and Euphrates, so Egypt—a ribbon of fertile floodplain 750 miles long but not much more than 15 miles wide—has been called "the gift of the Nile." But the differences between Egypt and Mesopotamia tell us as much as the similarities. Quite simply, the first thing you need to know about Egypt: no Nile, no Egypt.

Two groups, speaking Semitic languages emerged after the Egyptians. The Phoenicians who created one of the first commercial empires the world had seen, anticipating the Athenians, Venetians and Dutch.

Much of Hebrew history is shrouded in legend. Israel was built by the descendants of Abraham. Moses arose as a leader who forged a people during the Exodus, a long process of departing from Egypt and reentering the “promised land’’. Judaism bequeathed to the West crucial religious ideas.

saturday 12^th may
1-2 pm Food Meditation # 22 ” Food for a Small Planet” an interaction with Ritu Mathur

We will break our silence after the food with an interactive session with Ritu Mathur who will talk to us about the different herbs and vegetables that one can easily grow in a small space and their use in our day to day cooking.

Ritu Mathur’s passion for plants led her to leave her job as Design head in a MNC to start Upavan, a venture to bring back your garden to your home however small. She designs concept balconies and terrace gardens to reflect your personality and lifestyle.

The food today includes kadhi, a dish made in many parts of India by combining ‘besan’ (gram flour) with soured yoghurt and cooking with various spices for a long time. (see recipes below)

We also introduce a heirloom variety of “red rice.” It is an unhulled or partially hulled rice which has a red husk, rather than the much more common brown. Like other unhulled rices, red rice has a nutty flavor, and a high nutritional value, thanks to the fact that the germ of the rice is left intact. In the West it is often labeled as “Bhutanese red rice”.

Participation is by registration on payment only. Call The Attic 23746050 or email: mina@theatticdelhi.org.

4 tsp Besan (chickpea flour)
1/2 inch Ginger and 2 green chilies chopped
Salt To Taste, Handful Coriander leaves
2 tsp Oil , 1 Pinch Turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp Jeera (Cumin seeds),1/4 tsp Rye (Mustard seeds )
Few Curry leaves, 1 Pinch Hing (Asafoetida )

• 3/4 cup Chickpea flour
• 1 medium Onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup Fenugreek leaves (methi), chopped
• 1“ piece Ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon Carom seeds (ajwain)
• 1 teaspoon Red chilli powder,1/4 teaspoon Baking powder
Salt to taste, Oil to deep fry

Mix all the pakora ingredients, except oil, adding about half a cup of water. Heat sufficient oil in a kadai (Indian wok), drop small portions of the besan mixture and deep fry till golden brown. Drain and place on an absorbent paper and set aside.Add to boiling kadhi for 5 minutes.

For Sindhi Kadhi
Add mixed vegetables (carrots, ladyfinger(bhindi), brinjal, drumsticks, bottle gourd (ghia))- 2 cups/200 gms in the boiling mixture. Also add 2 tblsp tamarind (imli) pulp.

For Uttarakhand Hill’s – Kumauni Kadhi (Jholi) use buttermilk instead of beaten curd.

Zubaan Talkies

Zubaan Talkies aspires to be a platform for articulating and nurturing feminist thought across various media and disciplines. Each Talkie will be a carefully curated event and will feature film screenings, slideshows of photography, open-mike sessions, performance art, panel discussions, play readings, stand-up comedy, workshops, readings and discussions.

The spirit behind Zubaan Talkies is to create an exchange of ideas related to feminist thought and to encourage those who are outside of the movement to participate and learn more about issues concerning women. Additionally, Zubaan Talkies also hopes to mentor emerging literary talent through a writing group for aspiring women writers.

Zubaan hopes to collaborate with other publishing houses, writers, artists and academics to create a vital space through which feminist issues become relevant to the public.

Premola Ghose's Tales of Historic Delhi traces the journey of a group of friendly animals across the historic and cultural splendours of Delhi. The book explains how different rulers across Delhi's history have attempted to stamp their claim on it by building and rebuilding the city in their own style and to their own ends. As the character of Dr. Kamala states: "...it's not even one city: it's lots of different cities built one on top of the other."

Through various extracts and pictures selected from the text, the children will be introduced to the story and to the many layers of the city built on top of each other, playing around with snippets of information and fiction that form the text. The children will then be asked to imagine themselves as future Kings of Delhi, and design a Delhi in the style that they would like it to be - replete with its structures, its monuments, its bazaars and of course their own palaces. The point of the session is for children to arrive at a deeper understanding of the city and also have fun playing around with Delhi to make it their own.

The workshop will be conducted by a facilitator from the Visual Arts stream who will get the children to visualize a city of their own and then render it in their own inimitable way using a variety of art materials geared to stimulating the imagination and encouraging spontaneous expression.

Thanks to a profusion of films and books for children that are centered on Extra-Terrestrial beings, we're fairly familiar with 'The Alien': A weird looking creature descending from a futuristic spaceship and bearing hi-tech gadgetry. Which is interesting because to an extra terrestrial we would seem to be a weird looking creature lacking even basic interstellar transport and wielding primitive gadgetry. In other words: to an alien, we're alien.

You can be alien without being an alien. Monideepa Sahu's Riddle of the Seventh Stoneshows puts us in the minds of two creatures who feel so alien that they might as well be aliens: it is a story of a rat and a spider who are suddenly transformed into a boy and a girl, and how they find it difficult to reconcile their new identities with their old ways.

This workshop focuses on Point of View as a means to exploring character. Children are encouraged to imagine themselves as different characters - from extra terrestrials to earthly animals to any weird beings that they want to be - and write short descriptive and narrative passages in the voice of their alien character. The children will read extracts from the novel and also from other stories about such sudden transformations, discuss their ideas on what it means to be 'alien' and also explore the concept of 'alien' as 'different'.

The workshop will be conducted by a facilitator from the literary field who will get the children to flex their creative muscles, invent characters and create original stories.

Participation by registration only. Call Akshat Nigam 9582590444 or email akshat@tpw.in to register. Payment to be paid in advance only either to The Attic 10 Regal Buildings, New Delhi 110001 or to Zubaan Books, 128-B, First Floor, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110049

saturday 19^th may
6.30 pm “The Sitar of the Dilli Gharana” a performance by Suhel Saeed

“Gharanas are families of musicians. Gharana members are linked by ties of blood, but, even in the past, and increasingly now, the gharana also includes disciples unrelated by blood to the core gharana family. As the word suggests, musical gharanas are families—'real' or forged. The ties between ustad and shagird, even in the absence of an actual blood-tie, are as those of parent and child.

There are several gharana traditions that exist today, each displaying a specific style of singing and of voice production. Each has its own marked characteristics, and growing out of these, its repertoire of preferred ragas and bandish-compositions that reflect the genius of the gharana's style. Among these is the Dilli gharana. Delhi has been for centuries, the centre of political power, and artistic patronage. Its glittering courts have been adorned by many great artists. Quite naturally, Delhi has been home to a rich gharana tradition.” - Vidya Rao in Celebrating Delhi (Penguin 2010)

Suhel Saeed is the son & disciple of sitar maestro Ustad Saeed Zafar Khan of the Delhi Gharana. Suhel was born in a home surrounded by stalwarts of the Delhi Gharana – the sursagar maestro Ustad Mamman Khan, vocalists Ustad’s Chand Khan, Usman Khan, Hilal Ahmed Khan, Nasir Ahmed Khan and Iqbal Ahmed Khan, the sarangi maestro Ustad Bundu Khan and the violin wizard Ustad Zahoor Ahmed and his grandfather Ustad Zafar Ahmed Khan sitar maestro

Suhel started learning sitar at the age of five and khayals and gats were his mother-tongue even before he learnt to speak. Naturally his style blends tantrakari ( instrumental virtuosity ) with flashes of Delhi Gharana gayaki (vocalism).

6.30 pm “Parenting Today” a talk & group discussion with Dr. Megha Hazuria Gore

Child development research shows that while each child is “pre-wired” with certain traits, temperament and abilities, it’s the interaction with their environment, especially their parents, which ultimately determines how these characteristics are manifested as they grow and develop into competent adults. Development is the result of “transactions” between the child and his/her environment.

sibling rivalry Each transaction results in new learning which results in the development of skills and traits. The right frequency, quality and intensity of interactions between children and their environment will result in each child reaching his or her full potential. In power and breadth of influence, no ‘transaction’ equals the influence of the family. Parents introduce children to the physical world through the opportunities offered for play and exploration of objects. The attachments children form with parents and siblings last a lifetime, and they serve as models for relationships in the wider world. Discipline and arguments with parents and siblings provide children with important lessons of compliance and cooperation. The home is a child’s first context for learning language, cognitive skills, and social and moral values of a specific culture.

Research has also shown that nurturing in the form of spending sufficient quality time with your child that is fun and enjoyable for parent and child leads to happy, healthy, successful kids. Kids also need structure. Parents are the key to helping children develop self-discipline and positive character traits.

This discussion aims to provide general insights into communication, discipline and different styles of parenting and the ‘parental fit’. We also hope this group discussion format will lead to a better understanding of the challenges and joys of parenthood.

Dr. Megha Hazuria Gore did her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University Of Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. and is a licensed clinical psychologist recognized by the Colorado Psychology Board. She now has a private practice in New Delhi.

She worked in the Denver Community Mental Health Program, a half way home for chronic mentally ill, the University counseling center and also in the Colorado Institute of Mental Health. As the head of the special education team and chief psychologist of an elementary school in Denver she worked with families of over 700 children.

She was the Coordinator of the Department of Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences at Max Healthcare for 4 years. Her primary areas of specialization are child, adolescent and family psychology.

She has dedicated a significant part of her work towards educational programs to provide research based and updated knowledge to students of psychology including developing courses and conducting workshops for psychology students. She has been involved in community education and teacher and parent training programs in the leading schools of Delhi and North India.

She is a consultant to The American Embassy & School and The British High Commission and has a regular column in “Parenting” magazine.

saturday 26^th may
6.30 pm "Devotional Music: Filmi & Semi Classical” by Priya Kanungo.

Both Indian film and classical music is rooted in the vast reservoir of folk, popular and devotional songs of the various ethnic, tribal and religious communities of India. The origin of Indian music was divine and ritualistic. It is only in the last few centuries that music is considered as entertainment. In the last 50 years Hindi and Tamil film music seems to have got as far away from its divine origins as is possible. Its popularity is however unquestioned and through the use of film clips contrasted with the semi classical rendering Priya Kanungo will attempt to bridge what was, the heights it developed into and what some of the great popular singers have done to make devotional songs simpler yet retaining their essence.

This evening Priya has chosen clips from ‘Meera’ sung by M S Subbulakshmi, ‘Pooran Bhakt’ with K.L Saigal, ‘Water’ & ‘Gandhi’ Lata Mangeshkar, ‘Baiju Bavra’ sung by Mohd. Rafi. She will present an extended version of the same songs and talk about the fertile interchange between various forms of Indian music.

Indian classical music seems to have become rigidly classified into ‘Hindustani’ and ‘Çarnatic’ and the vast range of devotional, religious, tribal and folk seem not to exist in this categorization. Just for the record classical music has the following traits

Priya Kanungo has had the privilege of training under Pandit Amarnath of the Indore Gharana, following which she briefly received musical guidance from Shrimati Shubha Mudgal. For many years after that, she was a disciple of Pandit Deepak Chatterjee, and currently, her gurus are the celebrated duo, Pandits Rajan and Sajan Misra of the Banaras Gharana.

Priya has an M.A., M.Phil, and Ph.D in Hindustani Vocal Music from Delhi University. She has been awarded the National Talent Scholarship by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. And in 2010, she taught an introductory course in Hindustani Music at Yale University, USA.

Apart from her interest in music, Priya has a degree in Commerce from Lady Shri Ram College, and has worked as a journalist with The Financial Express, The Economic Times, Business Standard and Hindustan Times.

For Uttarakhand Hill’s – Kumauni Kadhi (Jholi) use buttermilk instead of beaten curd.