25 October,2016 10:21 AM IST | | Team mid-day
The city — sliced, diced and served with a dash of sauce
The day the nation split
It's an idea whose time should have come decades ago, but until yesterday India had no museum dedicated to the biggest, and perhaps the bloodiest, migration in human history - the 1947 Partition.
That changed with the soft launch and curtain raiser of the Partition Museum in Amritsar's Town Hall last evening. Initiated by The Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust, the idea gained support soon after it was floated last year with contributions from Soni Razdan, Alia Bhatt and Kunal Kapoor among others.
The effort is crowd-funded and a lot of what will be seen and heard here will be crowd-sourced too, as the museum is still open to recording oral histories and archiving other material of historic importance from Partition-affected families. We recently heard that Gulzar recorded some soul-stirring poetry for the museum.
With academic advisors like the London School of Economics' South Asia Centre, and patrons like Kuldip Nayar, Ashis Nandy, Shyam Benegal and Prasoon Joshi, we are sure this initiative will be a great success.
Kabir by the Ganges
Kabir is most likely to be one of the most revered of saints in India. His dohas find relevance and expression often in today's times.
Neeraj Arya's Kabir Cafe at an earlier performance
For three days this November, the Darbhanga and Assi ghats of Varanasi, which is also his birthplace, will reverberate with the soulful words of the 15th century mystic-poet. The Mahindra Kabira Festival, set to take place from November 4 to 6, will feature heritage walks, literature sessions, food and yoga apart from music and poetry.
Leading exponents of the Benares gharana and Folk musical traditions, luminaries of Sufi, dadra, thumri, khayal gayaki styles and ghazals, along with the maestros of pakhawaj and tabla, will perform against the incomparable backdrop of the ghats of Varanasi. The experience will be amplified with afternoon literature sessions on a terrace overlooking the Ganga, by the likes of Amish Tripathi and Javed Akhtar.
In sync, are we?
Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Farhan Akhtar and Shraddha Kapoor, at the trailor launch of their film share the stage with Ehsaan Noorani (right) in Bandra last evening.
Superpoze to spin at Magnetic Fields
One of the stars of the French Electronic Dance Music scene, Superpoze, is set to make his India debut at the Magnetic Fields in December. He will be on the South Stage along with Israeli Neo-Soul act Buttering Trip.
On the other hand, Hamburg beat-maker and Techno innovator Helena Hauff has also been added to the elite list. But one of the main acts will be BLOT, who closed the event last year with a six-hour set.
The Desert Disco will showcase a selection of styles from Reggae to Dub. Among the Indians in the carnival, all eyes will be on singer-songwriter Prateek Kuhad. Will you be there?
A happy ride
The Salaam Bombay Academy of the Arts that works with the children from Mumbai's slums will soon reinvent Bollywood's classic musical comedy Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi on stage.
Children from The Salaam Bombay Academy of the Arts at a rehearsal
The children will present the film in a new avatar complete with special effects and a combination of audio, video and stage act. While rehearsals are in progress, the show will open on November 4 and will take place at YB Chavan Centre and Rangsharda Auditorium.
A decade of literature
The âgreatest literary show on earth', the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) completes turns 10. To celebrate, they've decided to announce 10 speakers every week for 10 weeks, starting Tuesday at 6 pm, under #10Speakers10Weeks.
Mark Haddon. Pic/AFP
The first 10 names include author and poet Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni returning to JLF after six years, Indonesian TV scriptwriter by trade Eka Kurniawan, Kannada writer and Padma Shri SL Bhyrappa, Lebanese-American essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, English playwright and two-time Academy Award nominee Sir David Hare, Australian writer Richard Flanagan. Making their debut at JLF are Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist Alice Walker, author Alan Hollinghurst, British novelist Mark Haddon, and NoViolet Bulawayo, the first African woman on the shortlist for the 2013 Man Booker Prize.
