Aathmika – born of soul

Happenings, Sep '13 (update 1)
Rudra Kishore Mandal and Pawan Dhall report on a debut painting exhibition by audio-visual journalist Amitabha Sengupta

Kolkata, September 8, 2013: ‘Aathmika – Born of Soul’, a six days long exhibition of paintings by audio-visual journalist Amitabha Sengupta, concluded at the G. C. Laha Centenary Fine Arts Gallery yesterday. Part tribute to womanhood, part expression of a long cherished desire to take up fashion and other arts, the painting exhibition was a debut effort by the artist and was inaugurated on September 2 by Odissi exponent and social activist Alokananda Roy. The paintings were also available for purchase.

Perspectives

Vartanama, Sep '13
By Pawan Dhall

Similar or gently differing, radical or dissenting ones – perspectives are what dialogues are about. A meaningful dialogue is one that helps different priorities to be expressed – with as little hesitation as possible or fear of disagreement. In that sense dialogue may also include diatribe, but surely with checks and balances so as not to derail the dialogue itself. It needs a generous dose of mutual respect between the dialoguing parties – of the kind that says “I may disagree with you, but I will fight with my life (or, at least fight till I explode with rage) for your right to disagree with me”.

Sarita Bai and her child

Insight, Sep '13
By Md. Gulrez

In the year 2007, I was based in interior tribal villages of Madhya Pradesh working with an NGO on community development. My work involved interaction with women, organizing them to form self help groups (SHGs) and promotion of livelihood initiatives.

It must have been around the time I had received confirmation in my job after a yearlong intense induction programme. Instead of feeling high, I was a bit depressed as all the six others who had started with me either left or were asked to leave. Lonely, I tried to engross myself in work. A usual day’s schedule involved getting up early in the morning and rushing to the villages to monitor progress on agricultural and horticultural interventions, attending a few SHG meetings, getting back to the office to do desk work, having lunch, and returning to the villages in the evening to attend more SHG meetings.

Do genderless names break the gender barrier?

My Story, Sep '13
By Sukhdeep Singh

We all have multiple identities – a national identity, regional identity, religious identity, sexual identity and gender identity. All of these are identities that we learn to identify ourselves with. Some identities accrue to us purely because of social conditioning, like national or religious. But some have the potential to break free of the conditioning to become self-assertions, like gender and sexual identities. However, we probably develop the strongest sense of identity with our names.

More . . . of what?

Poetry, Sep '13
By owais

More power.

More fame.

More money.

Yes,

I want more of these.

And more.

Why do I want

more and more

of more and more?

Is not

this hole in my soul

unfillable?

Is not,

‘more’

a desire to arrive

at the most?

And, is not the most

Unachievable

by a mere human?

Where is

my perspective?

Why don’t I want

the one thing

which I must want more of

if I want to arrive

at my destination

as opposed

to a way-station?

Perspective.

owais calls himself the ‘sucker for love’ – for knowingly, he not only trusts, but lives on that rainbow which does not actually exist.

Source: First published in http://owaisvasundhara.blogspot.in/2010/12/poem-more-of-what.html, December 30, 2010

'Rwituparno Ghosh'

Theatre, Sep '13
By Pawan Dhall

Rituparno Ghosh (1963-2013), the late filmmaker with a deft insight into women’s issues and who in the last few years before his untimely demise became increasingly expressive about his own sexuality through the films he acted in and interaction with the media continues to inspire other artistic efforts. On August 12, 2013, Dumdum Shabdomugdho Naatyakendra premiered their new play Rwituparno Ghosh (scripted and directed by Rakesh Ghosh, language Bengali, 55 minutes) named eponymously after the filmmaker at Muktangan auditorium in South Kolkata.

Photo credit:  Dumdum Shabdomugdho Naatyakendra

Reflections of intimacy . . .

Clickhappy! Sep '13
By Anupam Hazra, Paramita Banerjee, Rudra Kishore Mandal, Vahista Dastoor and Pawan Dhall

In friendship across ages,

Photograph Vahista Dastoor