The Abilities Mela 2006

Promoting inclusive oppurtunities for the differently abled people

A unique endeavour of NGO's, Corporates, students and artisans demonstrating skills, creativity and information for promoting inclusive oppurtunities and celebrating abilities.

Several organisations and networks would be showcasing a wide range of products from handicrafts, paper products, textiles, garments, etc. designed by special artisans and the differently abled.

Come with friends and family and help the cause of disability.

Entry Free.

Date: 1-2 April 2006
Time: 10:30 A.M. To 8:00 P.M.
Venue: The Blind Relief Association Campus, Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg (Near Oberoi Hotel), New Delhi - 110003

Ph: 24361376, 29840485

Friday's At Nigah -- The Undergrad -- Friday, 24th March -- 6:30pm

Friday's at Nigah

presents

The Undergrad
A film about when drag kings met an Dustin Hoffman classic.

check out: www.nigahmedia.com

Friday, 24th March 630pm
Saheli Office D 106-108 Defence Colony Market
Above Deez Biryani, across the Nirulas

Come one, Come all!

New York Below The Belt

Click on the image for details

Dastangoi: A Presentation of the Lost Form of Storytelling

The Sea of Eloquence – An Evening of Dastan-e-Amir Hamza
March 27, 2006 at 7:00 pm, Amaltas Hall (Auditorium Block), India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi

The oral narration of Dastan-e-Amir Hamza was a popular past time in most parts of Central, Western and South Asia and North Africa since medieval times. Originally composed in Persian, the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza describes the battles of Amir Hamza, the Prophet Muhammad’s Uncle, against infidels, sorcerers and other pretenders to divinity.

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza was singularly successful in entertaining a whole range of people, from the commoners at chauks and nukkads to the elites in their palaces; it was performed at the steps of the Jama Masjid where Dastangos gathered. While their neglect as literature is inexcusable, they have been wholly obliterated from the canon of performing arts. As anecdotes of Mir Baqar Ali, the last known Dastango of Delhi, testify, their performances required an exceptional command over rhetoric, delivery, mimicry, ventriloquism and spontaneous composition.

The present performance of Dastangoi builds upon some recent shows that were enthusiastically received in the Capital. The performance consisted of portions of the best-known daftar, or chapter, of the 46 volume Dastan-e-Amir Hamza, the Tilism Hoshruba, the ‘Enchantment that Steals away the Senses’, which is itself in seven volumes.

The performances have come about as a result of a collaboration between S.R. Faruqi, the foremost living authority on these Dastans and the only person to possess a full set of all the 46 volumes, and the performers. Faced with neglect and systematic devaluation we now have very scanty evidence for the way in which these Dastans were compiled and performed. Even basic things such as movements, gesticulation, stage setting are wholly unknown. The current performance is therefore merely an exploration of an Art form which, astonishingly in a culture where poetry was regarded as the supreme art, was considered by some to be of a higher order than poetry itself. Dastangos were supposed to be a repository not just of language, common speech as well as literary, but also of social mores, craftsmanship, and all other forms of knowledge.

The Dastangos of old performed in an oral culture where memory, sound and directness were much prized. As modern actors we neither have skills to memorize whole daftars, nor the inventiveness to do spontaneous and extempore improvisations which are the hallmark of oral performances.

Mahmood Farooqui
New Delhi

Mahmood Farooqui is a self-trained actor and performer whose most recent foray into acting consisted of a role in Mahesh Dattani’s English film, Mango Soufflé. Initiated into theatre as a schoolboy, and as stage manager, by Mohan Maharishi, former director of the National School of Drama, he directed several plays at school and college, and prepared for the final entrance workshop of the NSD, before founding his own amateur theatre group called Dastak Theatre. After completing his M Phil in Indian History, Mahmood went to Mumbai and performed in IPTA’s Aakhri Shama and the Company Theatre’s Hindustani presentation of Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead. Earlier this year, he was given a Fellowship by Sarai, CSDS to work on the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza.

Danish Husain has done theatre with the best names in the country - Habib Tanvir, M.S. Sathyu, Barry John, Rajinder Nath, Sabina Mehta Jaitley, Aziz Quraishi, et al in a wide variety of roles. His latest assignments include a play called Raja by Rabindra Nath Tagore and a movie, Losing Gemma, by Granada Productions for a British TV Channel called ITV. He’ll also be performing at Bonn Theatre Festival in May 2006 as part of Habib Tanvir’s Agra Bazaar troupe. Besides being an accomplished actor Danish is a poet and a writer, whose work has been published across a cross-section of media, including Tehelka and other journals. He is a member of few collaborative blogs and a writer's group called Wriyaz supported by the British Council. Danish holds a Master's degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics and an MBA from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi.

What A Drag! - Delhi, 21st March 06

Nigah - Queering Perspectives & Khoj - International Artists' Association

invite you to

An evening withDiane TorrPerformer, Writer, Gender Transformer and Drag King Ambassador to the World!

on Tuesday, 21st March, 2006at 6.30 PM

at Khoj Studios, S-17 Khirki Extension, New Delhi

For more information, visit us at http://www.nigahmedia.com

Mexican Film Festival

Film Club Screenings

Venue: India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road
Time: 7pm

Schedule:
March 18: La Perdicion De Los Hombres (106 minutes)
March 19: Principio Y Fin (183 minutes)
March 20: El Colonel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba (118 minutes)
March 21: Asi Es La Vida (98 minutes)
March 22: La Reina Da La Noche (117 minutes)

All movies directed by Arturo Ripstein

Tickets/Passes: No clue/Leave a message if you know.

Spirit To Soul

Habitat World presents 'Spirit To Soul' - A tribute commemorating the life and music of legendary Sitar maestro - Ustad Vilayat Khan. Zila Khan his daughter presents an evening of classical bandishes composed by Ustad Vilayat Khan which were taught only to Zila Khan . A short film on his music and life will be screened.

Date: March 13th
Time: 7pm
Venue: Habitat World

Tickets/Passes: No clue. Leave a message if you know.

The Holi Camp

Red Earth presents

The Holi Camp [ click here for image version]

Abhimanue VG, Ashim Ghosh, Bindu Mehra, Binoy Varghese, Brinda Miller, Gogi Saroj Pal, Gurmeet Singh, Hari Nair, Jatin Das, Julius Macwan, Kanchan Chander, Lalit Sharma, Manil Gupta, Merlyn Mollykutty, Pratul Dash, Sheetal Gattani, Spandan Bannerjee, Ved Nayar and Yogesh Rawal

Curated by Himanshu Verma

Date: 13-16 March 2006
Venue: Global Arts Village; MG Road, Utsav Mandir, Ghitorni, ND 30

Display of Works
18-19 March, 11 am to 7 pm
Academy of Fine Arts and Literature; 4/6, Siri Fort Institutional Area, ND 49

Please join us for a reception at the Academy on
Friday 17 March, 6.30-8.30 pm

UPDATE (from Red Earth):

The Holi Camp has been a fun-filled, exciting, and rewarding experience for us and the artists participating in the camp, and some beautiful works have come out of it. The display of works has been extended and the show is now on view till 26 March 2006, 11 am to 7 pm, Sundays Open, at Arpana Caur's Gallery, The Academy of Fine Arts and Literature, 4/6 Siri Fort Institutional Area, New Delhi 110049.

The show features works by Abhimanue VG, Ashim Ghosh, Bindu Mehra, Binoy Varghese, Brinda Miller, Gogi Saroj Pal, Gurmeet Singh, Hari Nair, Jatin Das, Julius Macwan, Kanchan Chander, Lalit Sharma, Manil Gupta, Pratul Dash, Sheetal Gattani, Spandan Bannerjee, Ved Nayar and Yogesh Rawal.

The works from the show that are for sale have been uploaded on our website, and can be viewed here