From dak at sarai.net Fri Jan 2 16:47:56 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 16:47:56 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] January 2004 Message-ID: <200401021647.56570.dak@sarai.net> CONTENTS: January 2004 14th The Delhi Seminar Series: The Economic Basis for Politicized Societies in East Delhi 27th Media Publics & Practices Seminar Series: The Humane Workplaces of the New Economy and Their Hidden Costs 28th The Delhi Seminar Series: Raj, Samaj or Pani Film @ Sarai: Focus on the Documentary 2nd Swingpfennig / Deutschmark, dir. Margit Czenki 9th Komplizinnen/Accomplices, dir. Margit Czenki Film @ Sarai: Ab Dilli Dur Kahan? 16th Monsoon Wedding 23rd Chashme Baddoor 30th Ab Dilli Dur Nahin Sarai @ WSF, Mumbai Announcement: Sarai CSDS Independent Fellowships 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Friends, Sarai wishes all of you a very Happy New Year. In the first newsletter this year we also announce the list of the Sarai-CSDS Short Term Independent Fellowships for 2004. Please scroll down below for details. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TALK @ SARAI URBAN CULTURES & POLITICS: THE DELHI SEMINAR SERIES January 14, 2004, 3:30 pm Neighbourhood as Factor: The Economic Basis for Politicized Societies in East Delhi Solomon Benjamin, Independent Scholar January 28, 2004, 3:30 pm Raj, Samaj or Pani Anupam Mishra, Gandhi Peace Foundation -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEDIA PUBLICS AND PRACTICES SEMINAR SERIES January 27, 2004, 3:30 pm No-Collar: The Humane Workplaces of the New Economy and Their Hidden Costs Andrew Ross, Professor of American Studies, New York University --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY January 2, 2004, 4:30 pm Swingpfennig / Deutschmark (1993), 92 minutes Directed by Margit Czenki Swingpfennig / Deutschmark is a roadmovie "on foot" through St. Pauli, a snapshot into the subcultural life of Hamburg's red-light district. The filmcollage has ten leading characters, all musicians or young people with a punk background. The film follows their everyday of "living against" the resurrected nationalism in post-unification Germany, as well as their excavations in the local history of a St. Pauli woman-painter, the Chinese community and a tatooist in the St. Pauli of the Nazi time. The film's title refers to the history of the "Swing-Youth", young people who responded to the fascist cult of discipline and militarism - with a hedonistic lifestyle, with listening to swing-music and flashing Anglo-American style of dress in the midst of the Nazi-Regime. January 9, 2004, 4:30 pm Komplizinnen/Accomplices (1987), 114 minutes Directed by Margit Czenki Barbara has just been sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for bank robbery. She spends two years in solitary confinement, refusing all the while to submit to the rules and regulations. Yet there are hitches in the bureaucratic prison machine, spaces and cracks between the bars and walls, which allow Barbara to emerge from her isolation and come into secret contact with the other prisoners. One day they join hands to defend themselves against the prison administration, and the situation takes a critical turn... Accomplices tells in virtuos images and subjective soundscapes a complex mosaic of prison life as a mirror-image of society's condition. Margit Czenki is a filmmaker and artist based in Hamburg. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FILM @ SARAI: AB DILLI DUR KAHAN? Delhi. The city of durbars, dhabas and djinns! We at Sarai thought that this month's curation could be devoted to Delhi, the city that we live in and know so intimately in all its colours, confusions, clamour and chaos, its sounds and silences, through the interactions and non-interactions of this rapidly expanding global city. At the mention of Delhi the first visual that came to mind was Nutan and Dev Anand singing on the steps of the Qutb Minar in a Romeo-Juliet styled Tere Ghar Ke Saamne, followed by flashes of India Gate, Red Fort and Pragati Maidan used as iconic backdrop in many films; Amitabh and Rekha walking through Lodhi Gardens in Silsila; the sparkling Kajol in Chandni Chowk (Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham); Sridevi in Chandni.... But where was the distinct flavour of Delhi in all of this? If Mumbai is the city of nukkads, mills, local trains and gangsters and Calcutta of poverty, chaos, babus and rickshawpullers; if Mumbai can turn the common man into a star - or a don - and Calcutta can shatter that dream, what is it that Delhi can do or say on the silver screen? Some more brainstorming and the delightful Ms Chamko (Deepti Naval in Chashme Baddoor) popped up in our memories... and then Monsoon Wedding, New Delhi Times, The Householder, Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, Trishul, Sparsh, Dil Se, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones, Ab Dilli Dur Nahin, Mirza Ghalib... not enough to give Bombay and Calcutta a run for their money but still there - perhaps a little lost among the djinns of the hundreds of films churned out each year. So why is it that the Delhi is so rarely seen and heard on the silver screen? Is it because there's no Dollywood to match Bollywood and Tollywood? Or is it that the city throws up few possibilities of dramatic tension or has little cinematic character? Memories of TV serials of the 80s and 90s come flooding back - Humlog, Buniyad... Unfazed we decided to go ahead, choose from whatever little was available and explore the filmic representation of the city that otherwise occupies central space on the national media. Through the three films in this series, each from a different era, we hope to explore the changing ideas and images of Delhi as constructed by Hindi cinema within the national imaginary of the metropolis. January 16, 2004, 4:30 pm Monsoon Wedding (2001), 114 minutes Directed by Mira Nair The official website of Monsoon Wedding describes the film as, "a love song to the city of Delhi and a portrait of modern, cosmopolitan India. Two-thirds of Monsoon Wedding was shot in an affluent farm-house on the city's outskirts, the rest in locations in both the old and new cities: the exteriors of old Mughal Delhi and the gaudy charm of the wedding sari-shops of Karol Bagh juxtaposed with the chic ateliers of the city's established designer culture and its posh corporate world. Monsoon Wedding is an exuberant family drama set in a Punjabi family where ancient tradition and dot-com modernity combine in unique harmony. As the romantic monsoon rains loom, the extended Verma family reunites from around the globe for a last-minute arranged marriage in New Delhi. The film traces five intersecting stories, each navigating different aspects of love as they cross boundaries of class, continent and morality." January 23, 2004, 4:30 pm Chashme Buddoor (1981), 135 minutes Directed by Sai Paranjpye In Chashme Baddoor Sai Paranjpye spins a comic romantic tale set in a middle class colony of Delhi in the early eighties. Deepti Naval looks every inch the girl-next-door and is at her lustrous best as Ms Chamko oozing the false sincerity of a sales girl grabbing at the smallest chance to sell her ware, "Chamko. Kapdon ke liye behtareen sabun. Azmaiye baar baar. Lagatar. Chamko." Jomo the film fanatic (Ravi Baswani), self-styled poet Omi (Rakesh Bedi), and bookworm Siddharth (Farooque Shaikh), share a barsaati (terrace room) in Delhi. Typical bachelors they lead a happy carefree life, chasing women, puffing cigarettes and running into never-ending debts with Lalan Mia (Saeed Jaffrey), the local paanwalla. Until Neha (Deepti Naval), the girl next door whom Omi and Jomo have been trying to woo, enters the bachelors' pad to sell Chamko washing powder. And thus unravels a hilarious homespun comedy of commotion, misunderstandings, misadventures, sexual tensions with a kidnapping, chase-sequence and gunplay thrown in. January 30, 2004, 4:30 pm Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957), 126 minutes Directed by Amar Kumar In Ab Dilli Dur Nahin Delhi is the ultimate destination where the hapless, innocent villager journeys to seek justice and the nation is delivered of all evil. The village-city duality seen in many films of the time is blurred here. Unlike the Bombay and Calcutta in the cinema of the fifties and the sixties, the city here is not shown as harsh, unforgiving (Jagte Raho, Boot Polish etc); neither does it offer the possibility of livelihood and freedom from poverty; instead we see a vibrant street culture and street-smart urchins who have mastered the art of survival in an unequal world - where the innocent new entrant (Rattan) fumbling his way through this perplexing expanse that he doesn't fully grasp, draws the good out of almost everyone he comes in contact with and emerges untainted and victorious. Hariram, a poor laborer, and his son, Rattan, are devastated when his wife dies. In a fit of drunken rage Hariram threatens to kill Bhola Seth, the village moneylender. When Bhola Seth is killed, Hariram is convicted and sent to Delhi to await his death sentence. Rattan journeys to Delhi to meet with Pandit Nehru and hand over a crucial letter that can acquit his father of the murder. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SARAI @ WORLD SOCIAL FORUM, MUMBAI Panel discussion: Crisis Media of the Millennium January 20, 2004, 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm Venue to be announced shortly Speakers: Ravi Sundaram, Sarai-CSDS (Chair) Toby Miller, New York University Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Sarai-CSDS Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum A Bookstall, at the WSF venue, will also sell our publications, and take advance orders for Sarai Reader 04. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All programmes are at the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi -110054, unless otherwise mentioned. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENT: SARAI CSDS INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIPS 2004 We are happy to announce the list of Sarai/CSDS Short Term Independent Fellowships for the year 2004. This time we received two hundred and twenty proposals in English and Hindi from all over the country. We were delighted by the number of high quality proposals that came in response to our advertisement. Of these a total of forty nine proposals were finally selected for support. Given the large number of good proposals and our desire to encourage younger scholars and practitioners we have decided to maximize the awardees by distributing the total grant outlay amongst a larger number of candidates. This has resulted in the awarding of some partial grants, which we hope will encourage an interesting and diverse body of research and practice. We congratulate all the awardees and thank all those who responded so enthusiastically to the call for proposals. The projects that were awarded are: 1 Understanding the Patenting of Traditional Knowledge Aarathi Chellappa, Bangalore 2 Fire That Evoked Warmth : Emergence of lesbian activism in Kolkata Abir Neogy, Kolkata 3 Imagined Geographies: Geographical knowledge of self and others in everyday life, the case of Ahmedabad Aparajita De, Surat 4 Livelihood Through Play, Play by Design Avinash Kumar & Surya Sen, New Delhi 5 Veydh Aveydh: Tambu Mein Dawakhana Balvinder Singh & Sanjay Sharma, New Delhi 6 Shrinking Public Spaces in a City of Bunkers Basharat Peer, Srinagar 7 The Forgotten Empire: The Madan Theatres Pvt. Ltd Biren Das Sharma, Kolkata 8 Ek Hi Patri Par Daudti Nyay Aur Anyay Gadi: Tees Hazari Chander Nigam, Delhi 9 The Need for Anonymous Notice Boards in Universities in Bangalore: An empirical study Deanne Uyangoda & Abhayraj Naik, Bangalore 10 Workers in the Jharia Coalfield, Family- Time / Work, Survivalities and Mining Capitalism: 1920's - 1970's Dhiraj Kumar.Nite, New Delhi 11 Indlinux Translations G Karunakar, Mumbai 12 Aanadhekrit Shahar Mein Andolan Inderjeet Sharma, New Delhi 13 Mediation Through Radio: The Calcutta radio station and the changing life of the city (1927 - 1957) Indira Biswas, Kolkata 14 Early Cinema and Rise of a New Form of Advertising Indrani Majumder, Kolkata 15 Urban Mentalities: Chennai's roadside temples Kalpagam Uma Maheswaran, Chennai 16 The Evolution of Jamshedpur Kalyan Kumar, New Delhi 17 Internet Censorship in India: Is it necessary and does it work? Ketan Tanna, Mumbai 18 Bhojpuri Cinema Ka Vikas: Ek Padratal Lal Bahadur Ojha, New Delhi 19 Pani Ki Kahani Lalit Batra, New Delhi 20 Looking At The Glasses Darkly: Revisiting Calcutta film studios Madhuja Mukherjee, Kolkata 21 Dilli Ke Kabristanhen Aur Shamshanhen Ka Vishleshanatmak Rekheinkan Md. Abdul Khaliq, Delhi 22 A Childhood Beyond The Red Light ... ( a scrap book project) Miriam Chandy Menacherry, Mumbai 23 A Study of Hazrat Nizumuddin Basti Mohammad Pasha & Seemi Pasha, New Delhi 24 Digitalisation of Popular Image-Production in Contemporary Urban Indian Contexts Nancy Adajania, Mumbai 25 Jazz Goes To Bollywood Naresh Fernandes, Mumbai 26 Community Ecological Mapping Nilanjan Bhattacharya, Kolkata 27 Economy of Meaning and Meaning of Economy: A re-invoation of Calcutta based Journal Annya Artha Nirmal Kanti Saha, Kolkata 28 Eco-Source Poonam Bir Kasturi, Bangalore 29 In Search of the 'Uncommon' Woman Preeti Sampat, New Delhi 30 Freedom of Expression and the Limits of the Law of Contempt Promod Nair, Bangalore 31 Delhi in Urdu Newspapers (1837-1876) Rizvanual Haque, New Delhi 32 Rozmarra Ke Kaamon Ke Badalte Daam Rohini Patkar, New Delhi 33 Tactical City: Tenali Rama and other stories of Mumbai's urbanism Rupali Gupte, Mumbai 34 Composition of Surat: A study in urban cultural confluence and conflicts Rutul B. Joshi, Surat 35 Dilli Ke Madrasaen Ki Ek Jhalak Salahuddin & Shahabuddin, New Delhi 36 Relocating 'Krittibas' (1953-2003): A critical study of the history of a' Little' magazine in urgan Bengal Sandipan Chakrabarty, Kolkata 37 Hashiye Par Padhe Nagarik Sanjay Joshi, Ghaziabad 38 A Study of Recorded Indian Music and Exploration of Preservation and Rendition in the Public Domain Sanjoy Ghosh, New Delhi 39 Localisation Initiative and Impact on ICT4D Efforts Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay, Kolkata 40 Rituals of Protest on the City Street: Delhi in public demonstration Saswata Ghosh, New Delhi 41 Locally Produced Media and Associated Practices in Jamia Nagar and Satellite Colonies Shakeb Ahmed, New Delhi 42 Muhurrum Procession Shireen Mirza, Bangalore 43 P2P News Distribution Network Soumava Das, Kolkata 44 Call Centre Workers in Delhi Taha Mehmod & Iram Ghufran, New Delhi 45 Socialist Wives: Stories of Women and Movements from 1950s Taran Nishat Khan, Aligarh 46 Mangta: An interactive guide to fear and loathing in Shillong Tarun Bhartiya, Shillong 47 The Children of Bhopal Railway Station Vikas Singh, Bhopal 48 Syncretism in the Popular Art of Muslim Religious Posters in North India: Iconic devotion in an iconoclastic religion Yousuf Saeed, New Delhi 49 Women in Trains: An examination of a nuance of physical space in city life Zainab Bawa, Mumbai ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all this month. For those of you visiting the WSF do keep a lookout for our stall and the panel discussion on the 20th afternoon. Cheers, Ranita The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net From dak at sarai.net Wed Jan 7 13:09:08 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2004 13:09:08 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Invitation to Seminar Message-ID: <200401071309.08230.dak@sarai.net> Dear Friends, Sarai is happy to invite you to one more talk under the Media Publics & Practices Seminar Series on IS DEMOCRACY DEAD IN THE UNITED STATES? by Robert Jensen, Associate Professor of Journalism, University of Texas, Austin. on January 12, 2004, 3:30 pm at the Seminar Room, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 54. Robert Jensen is author of 'Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream' and co-editor with David S. Allen of 'Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression'. He is involved in a number of activist groups working against U.S. military and economic domination of the rest of the world. Cheers, Ranita The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net From dak at sarai.net Mon Jan 12 23:29:53 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 23:29:53 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Sarai at WSF Mumbai Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.2.20040112231611.00b20168@pop3.norton.antivirus> The Sarai Panel, World Social Forum Mumbai Crisis Media for the Millennium : a workshop Tuesday 20th January, 5-8pm, Venue: B 53 Theme: this workshop engages critically with contemporary media empires production of a permanent crisis and war: for increased surveillance and info-war, for intellectual 'property', and for managing with a situation that refuses to be managed. Less about media manipulation than the conditions of production and the series of constant effects that the media empires produce, the workshop opens a debate on new critiques of the media. Speakers Ravi Sundaram, Sarai-CSDS Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Sarai-CSDS Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum The Sarai-CSDS Stall ! Location: 428, B Wing The Sarai Stall will have on sale the last 3 Sarai Readers and various free flyers. We will also take orders for the next Reader 04, to be released next month. From dak at sarai.net Sun Jan 25 17:46:13 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 17:46:13 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Media Publics and Practices: Tuesday 27th Jan. Seminar Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.2.20040125174439.01c63148@pop3.norton.antivirus> MEDIA PUBLICS AND PRACTICES SEMINAR SERIES Tuesday, January 27, 2004, 3:30 pm "No-Collar: The Humane Workplaces of the New Economy and Their Hidden Costs" By Andrew Ross Andrew Ross is Professor of American Studies, New York University. His publications include The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Value in Disney's New Town (Ballantine, 1999). Real Love In Pursuit of Cultural Justice (NYU Press, 1998) and Strange Weather Culture, Science and Technology in the Age of Limits (Verso, 1991). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: