In Laos, Sahai Inferred It As a Probable Precursor for Angkor Vat

Price Re. 1/- -Ihe _@ Inula - I dl-arvInternatlona centre Volume XXX No. 3 May- June 2016 The Irish Rebellion FILM India Premiere of The 1916 Irish Rebellion INTRODUCTION by HE. Mr. Brian Mc Elduff SPEAKERS:Professor Briona Nic Dhiarmada; Dr. Conor Mulvagh COLLABORATlON: Embassy of Ireland 6 May 2016 n 6 May. 2016. the IIC hosted the India premiere of the documentary film. The 19/6 Irish Rebellion, a landmark examination of an event O that shaped the face of Irish history. Narrated by Liam Neeson, the film tells the story of the dramatic events that took place in Dublin during the week of Easter. 1916. when a small group of rebels stood against the might of the British Empire. Using rarely seen and difficult to obtain archival footage of the events. audio files that allow the audience to listen to the leaders of the rebellion. and interviews with leading international experts. the documentary is stunning in how it draws several threads together. The film introduces Ireland as it was in the days of the Empire. and how the earliest seeds of rebellion were sown in the field of culture. not politics. and the role that women played at a time when even the suffragette movement had just moved past its fledgling phase. It also reveals the untold story of the role Irish Americans played in the lead-up to the rebellion. supporting them from the other side of the Atlantic. Although it proved to be a military defeat. the Easter Rising served as the first battleground against the machinery of the British Empire. inspiring further struggles not merely in Ireland alone. but across the world. The documentary traces its influence as it spreads all the way to India. and the screening of the film in the centenary year of the uprising gains a special significance. - LAKSHMI MENON A Festival of Vietnamese Films FILM FESTIVAL A festival of films from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was held at the IIC in May. Vietnamese films reflect the culture of the country and its experience of war - first with the French and then with the United States of America in the 20th century. The Vietnamese people have suffered, endured, cared and shared everything together. Its cinema is that of hard won emotions, though the making is, for most part, spontaneous. When the Tenth Month Comes? (B/w; 1984; Director: Dang Nhat Minh) is about a woman who has to maintain a charade of well-being to keep her ailing father-in-law alive. Her husband has died in the war. The film is made with remarkable veracity, with feeling but no sentimentality. The Children of the Village (Colour; 2014; Director: Nguyen Duc Viet) is a tale of painful reconciliation between villagers and the son of a headman who collaborated with the Americans during the war. It is poignant because every incident appears to be rooted in reality and treated with humanity and understanding. Story ofPao/Pao's Story (Colour; 2005; Director: Ngo Quang Han) is a tender, beautiful film about a young woman Pao who goes out in search of her biological mother, discovers many secrets on the way but comes out a better person. It is a non- judgemental, compassionate work. Yellow Flowers on Green Grass (Colour; Director: Victor Vu) is a tough, intelligent film about sibling rivalry in childhood. Sadness and happiness coexist, albeit uneasily. - PARTHA CHATTERJEE What is Education? QUARTERLY RELEASE IIC Quarterly Journal Release by Dr. Karan Singh, Education at the Crossroads, edited by Apoorvanand and Omita Goya/ 18 May 2016 Dr. Karan Singh deftly summed up the critical core of the book which asks the question, 'What is Education?' - the problem of outreach, content, methodology, funding, and its transformation through technology. The metaphor 'crossroads' was differently interpreted by the panellists. Prof. Krishna Kumar believed that a systemic look at education reveals the problems encountered at each stage. Secondary education has not quite made the expected progress, and higher education--responsible for knowledge creation and its discourse, maintaining a culture of ideas and freedom--was entirely the wrong road travelled. Prof. Anita Rampal pointed out that education today needed to adjust to the fast-changing world, unlike its earlier function as an agent of social change. She deplored the ossified hierarchies and presence of corporate managers in education, the practice of social apartheid in schools, policies that promoted a minimalistic quality of education sans critical thinking and creativity, and the pressure for education in English. Prof. Geetha Nambissan was critical of the reduction of education to a skill-based one-the justification being that it addressed parental choices-and the powerful advocacy in favour of the private sector. Prof. Shyam Menon pointed out the unhealthy nexus between political forces and private initiatives in higher education for profit-a clear example of crony-capitalism. He condemned the unimaginative implementation of uniformity and standardisation as antithetical to the conception of the university system as a community of self-governing scholars. Prof. Apoorvanand looked back over 70 years of educational policies implemented towards establishing a secular nation. - RITU SINGH 2 Art and Philosophy EXHIBITION The dignified silence of appreciation is the central point of peace of a village. It is the unseen love which appears as the soft touch. The inhabitants love their environment and life style in all its aspects. They love the animals who live there. They give up their negativity, only enjoy the positive revelry under the tree that is the centre of attraction. The darkness reveals the deep delved feelings of an artist, a musician, a dancer in action and points to his thinking with the colours of emotion. Rasa is the culminating factor close to the unseen Atma The whole cycle of birth, death and rebirth comes to existence; a child is born, he grows up. Builds his own life with all the variety of celebration and maybe death also helps man to be closer to the sublime Rasa and experience Anand. Jiva and Jagat is the supreme reality that can only be felt - no explanations can suffice. These paintings are an expression of such trials and errors of life reaching out to a supreme celebration. The world of a tribal is where the woman is the immediate background of the thinking process. They enjoy the everyday variety of life in their experience. The variety of colours can be enjoyed in black and white. Happiness vibrates in their symbolic dance forms. Animals enjoy freedom at the same time. Alpana designs from Bengal and Bandhini sarees of Rajasthan have the same abandon. We cannot forget the rangoli design. A tribal believes in disciplined unified thinking, the teacher incharge accompanying the students is commendable. What will be the outcome of the flavour, after going through the disciplines of life. It is an interesting combination, man is not alone. It is a wonderful combination of Triguna, Satya Rajas and Tamas; it is transformation through art. - ASHOKA TRIKHA EXHIBITION Transformation through Art, Worli Paintings by students of Nutan Madhyamic VKlyalaya, Cantonment Board School, Ahmednagar Cantonment, Maharashtra 18 to 24 May 2016 Collecting Matchboxes EXHIBITION Matchbox Labels and the Stories they Tell 28 May to 3 June 2016 Gautam Hemmady, a self-proclaimed 'professional procrastinator' one day decided to go for a walk and see how many different matchboxes he could collect. The first walk yielded a variety of 10-12 matchboxes, which spurred him on to his second walk of the day, resulting in a further acquisition of eight boxes! Thus a collector was born. So, we've all collected matchboxes at some point jn our lives, mainly as memorabilia of hotels or places that we've visited. But this exhibition was not like anything I had seen before. Apparently, India did not produce matchboxes for the longest time. These were manufactured in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and even Japan! The imagery was fantastic. The labels ranged from gods and goddesses, to courtesans, to royalty, even sketches of historical monuments were used to embellish the matchbox. Apart from being decorative, the ever ingenious entrepreneur has used these matchboxes to advertise an amazing array of products .... ranging from face creams, Brook Bond tea, guns, and even ploughs! Independence resulted in a huge number of matchboxes advertising patriotic fervour where national icons like maps, the flag, Ashoka chakra and many more were used. So much has been written about oleographs and the popular art forms that have been depicted in them. Matchboxes are equally a source of similar data and give insights into specific historical periods whether political, historical or cultural. This collection is only four years old. But it definitely tickles the mind and opens a whole new door to a hitherto almost unknown space. And just so that you know, the hobby of collecting different match-related items - matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchcovers, matchsafes - is called Phillumeny. I did not know that. Did you? - POONAM SAHI 3 China's Parsi Connection VALEDICTORY ADDRESS The title was promising, the hall full, the lecture mesmerising. Amitav Ghosh, known for his skillful weaving of fact and fiction, gave an expectedly nuanced Valedictory Address to the IIC PARZOR Everlasting Flame programme that had hosted exhibitions, performances, and talks at the IGNCA, the National Museum, and the NGMA. Ghosh's talk was a wise, witty, whirlwind tour of Parsi (and other!) fortunes facilitated by the opium trade. Illustrations -

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