From dak at sarai.net Wed Feb 3 18:05:43 2010 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:05:43 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Ten Years of Sarai Message-ID: <4B696D9F.9050105@sarai.net> *Newsletter- February 2010 * *TEN YEARS OF SARAI * Dear Readers, The Sarai Programme at CSDS will be a decade old in February, 2010. To commemorate this, we have programmes planned for the second week of February, with the final event on 12 February 2010. On 8, 9 and 10 February 2010 we have an Asian Video Art Festival curated by Tim Crowley. On 9 February, we have a Dastangoi performance. On 12 February, we will present a day long event, with an exhibition, book launches, talks, projects, and discussions. The detailed programme schedule is given below. Warmly Mitoo Das Programme Coordinator ******************* *Ten Years of Sarai- Sub Events * 8th, 9th and 10th February 2010 *Asian Video Art Touring Festival "25 Reasons We Still Need Superman"* - Tim Crowley Venue: Seminar Room, CSDS Time: 4pm (daily) 9th February *Dastangoi Performance * - Mahmood Farooqui/ Danish Husain Venue: CSDS Lawns Time: 6 pm ******************* 12th February *Ten Years of Sarai- Main Event * *Opening Introduction: A Decade Later* Venue: Sarai Interface Zone Time: 2:00 pm *Tinker.Solder.Tap* Amitabh Kumar/ Bhagwati Prasad will present the graphic novel. Discussant: Lawrence Liang and Pao Collective Venue: Sarai Interface Zone Time: 2:15 pm *Tea* *City as Studio* The City as Studio process. Presentations of Sarai City Studio Associate Fellows City as Studio digital platform goes public. Venue: Sarai Interface Zone Time: 3:15 pm *The City as Studio Exhibition Series* Presentation of a year long exhibition design. Venue: Sarai Interface Zone Time: 4:00 pm *Tea* (CSDS Lawns) *Launch of /Trickster City/* (Penguin, India) Readings by the authors and the translator. Venue: CSDS Lawns Time: 4:15 pm *Tea* *Welcome * Shail Mayaram, Director, CSDS Venue: Seminar Room Time: 5.30 pm *Release of the Hindi Translation of /Disenchanted Night: The Industrialization of Light in the Nineteenth Century/* (/*Betilism Raat*/) (Vani Prakashan) Readings by Sanjay Sharma and introduction to translation programme by Ravikant, editor of the series. Venue: Seminar Room Time: 5:45 pm *Launch of /Sarai Reader 08: Fear/* (Sarai-CSDS) Venue: Seminar Room Time: 6.15 pm /*The Melodramatic Public: Film Form and Spectatorship in Indian Cinema*/ (Permanent Black, Ranikhet, and Palgrave, London) Ravi Vasudevan introduces his forthcoming book, with image and short excerpts. Venue: Seminar Room Time: 6.30 pm /*Pirate Modernity: Media Urbanism in Delhi*/ (Routledge, London, New York, Delhi) Ravi Sundaram introduces his new book with image and short excerpts. Venue: Seminar Room Time: 6:40 pm /*Seepage*/ (Sternberg, Berlin/ New York) Raqs Media Collective introduces their new book, with image and short excerpts. Venue: Seminar Room Time: 6:50 pm /*BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies*/ (Sage, India) Introduction to a new journal on film and cultural studies by Ravi Vasudevan. Venue: Seminar room Time: 7:00 pm *Ashis Nandy on Sarai's Decade* Venue: Seminar Room Time: 7:15 pm *Looking Forward* Venue: Seminar Room Time: 7:45 pm *Refreshments* 8:00 pm onwards ******************* Tim Crowley is an independent curator from the United Kingdom and is presently curating a travelling video art show all over Asia. After completing a successful stint in China, he will now be showcasing his video show in India, starting off with Delhi at Sarai. Mahmood Farooqui is a writer, actor and a Dastango. He single-handedly revived the lost art form of storytelling "Dastangoi." Farooqui also contributes opinion pieces to India's leading newspapers and magazines. He has just completed a book on the 1857 uprising in Delhi. He has also directed a 30-minute documentary on Habib Tanvir, titled Dancing at 80: Habib Tanvir's Naya Theatre. Danish Husain is a leading theatre artist and has worked with some of the best names in Indian theatre. Since 2006, Husain has collaborated with his friend Mahmood Farooqui to revive the lost form of storytelling, Dastangoi. In addition to his work as an actor and performer, Husain is also a poet. His work has been published in Indian, Canadian and South African literary journals. ******************* * [[END OF NEWSLETTER]]* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dak at sarai.net Thu Feb 4 15:30:29 2010 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:30:29 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Launch of Trickster City Message-ID: <4B6A9ABD.1060009@sarai.net> *The launch of Trickster City * at *CSDS Lawns, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi* on *12th February, 2010*, at *4.15 PM* The authors and the translator will introduce the book. (The book is available at the Penguin Stall at the World Book Fair, Delhi.) *TRICKSTER CITY *(Penguin, India, 2010) *Authors * Azra Tabassum, Jaanu Nagar, Lakhmi Chand Kohli, Rakesh Khairalia, Yashoda Singh, Kiran Verma, Suraj Rai, Neelofar, Kulwinder Kaur, Shamsher Ali, Babli Rai, Ankur Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Love Anand, Nasreen, Rabiya Quraishy, Sunita Nishad, Saifuddin, Arish Qureshi, Tripan Kumar *Translated by Shveta Sarda* Trickster City is an extraordinary composite of writings on the city of Delhi. They were written over a period of two years by a group of twenty young people who live in different places in the city of Delhi, and who have, over the last several years, sustained among themselves and with others around them, a relationship of writing and conversing about the city. This book chronicles the difficult period of loss of home and livelihood in the city through urban eviction, encounters with the agencies of the state, love stories gone awry, the fragility of relationships, and the sustained effort to build life in anticipation of beauty and pleasure. The writers draw from experiences, events and biographies, part fictive, part documentary, to inscribe an image of the city that is rarely available. There is a yearning in their writings for the expression of the poetic and allegorical alongside the harshness of everyday existence. Trickster City is an aphoristic and playful meander by writers in search of a new language that expresses the profound uncertainties and delicately realised joys of life in the city. All the writers are are in their twenties, and live in neighbourhoods across the city, including LNJP colony in Central Delhi, Dakshinpuri in South Delhi and Sawda-Ghevra, a new resettlement colony at the northern frontier of the city. They have been associated for different durations with the Cybermohalla labs set by up Ankur Society for Alternatives in Education and Sarai--CSDS in different neighbourhoods in Delhi. The translator Shveta Sarda works in Sarai-CSDS since 2001. *ADVANCE PRAISE for Trickster City* Trickster City is a groundbreaking collection of writings about the South Asian city, its authors so free in their intelligence and imagination that they put conventional, pious analysis to shame---and demonstrate, ultimately, that even the most pressing material circumstances can never constrain the kind of intelligence that lives in them. ---*Rana Dasgupta* The thumbnail sketches, vignettes, stories and testimonies here invoke an urban landscape that is only partly outside us. The chaos, uncertainties and contradictions are us, as we negotiate the city as an overwhelming, inescapable inner reality in twenty-first century India. The Trickster City may well be a lovable but impossible part of our selves. ---*Ashis Nandy* Trickster City is the gentle, compassionate anti-dote to the mass of mail-fisted representations of the 'under-class' that has become so popular these days. The writers that make up this collection are almost amazing in their restraint, their ability to distil that perfect moment that conjures up the times they live in. Story after story evokes the ways in which people keep love alive while a kind of terror, the terror of being poor in a cruel city, lurks offstage, just a midnight knock away. If you put your ear to this book you will be able to hear people breathing, if you touch it, you will be able to feel their fragile, but furious pulse. If you read this book, you will be greatly rewarded. ---*Arundhati Roy* This book is a reflection of the experiences, thoughts, ideas and aspirations of the underbelly of the metropolis. These writings have precision of thought and an optimistic determination, which looks at the future with hope, courage and patience. The portrayal of modest experience is matter of fact and the insights have a wisdom that only experience can bring and no amount of education or knowledge can impart. ---*Krishna Sobti* Trickster City can be purchased online from the Penguin site. Link: http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/Bookdetail.aspx?bookId=3893 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *[[END OF NEWSLETTER]]* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dak at sarai.net Wed Feb 17 18:08:10 2010 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:08:10 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] The Image of the City Message-ID: <4B7BE332.7010702@sarai.net> *The Delhi Urban Platform* invites you for its Opening session: "*The Image of the City*" *CSDS library 29 Rajpur Road Civil Lines 19th February 2010 4:00 P.M.* *Ravi Sundaram Narayani Gupta Amita Baviskar AGK Menon Awadhendra Sharan Gautam Bhan* The inaugural event of the *Delhi Urban Platform* is an open discussion on the city of Delhi, and possible future conversations. The Delhi Platform is a networked constellation of events and discussions on various themes that affect the city of Delhi. The Platform is a collaborative process involving diverse institutions and individuals, who have a stake in the futures of the city. The Platform was begun as a response to the lack of a critical public discussion on Delhi's urbanity and urban life. Tracing its history back almost a millennia, standing on the ruins of older and new empires, Delhi's urban heritage is unmatched in the subcontinent. Yet Delhi's 20th century has been one where the city has increasingly lost its urban imagination. This is a process that some trace back to the defeat of 1857, the slow marginalization of the Old city and ultimately, the trauma of Partition in 1947. Delhi often appeares as a curious paradox - a historic city, but without a consciousness of itself, without an identity. In the last decade, however, Delhi's residents have become acutely aware of the crises of the city's urbanism. Urban debates are now the flesh of Delhi's life, the headlines to our morning coffee. We have witnessed public quarrels over infrastructure, pollution, speeding buses, displacement of the poor, heritage, sealing, the list goes on... An urban discourse has emerged, as witnessed in rapid interest in reporting on the city in papers and media, and scores of online platforms on Delhi. This public debate is raw, confused, provocative, often half-baked - but it is here to stay. The coming Commonwealth Games has put spotlight on all the city's problems, critical engagement with our present is more urgent than ever. Delhi deserves better. It is important to create new sites of critical, independent urban discourse -- that can provide open platforms on all themes affecting the city. The Delhi Platform is thus intended as an open forum that travels to different parts of the city in the coming months, leading up to the Commonwealth Games and beyond the event. The platform is a collaboration between different institutions and individuals interested in Delhi's urbanism. The platforms will involve people from all walks of life: scholars, practitioners, activists, writers, artists, ordinary citizens in a critical conversation about Delhi's urban futures. The Platform website is under construction, and will be live by the end of this week. Visit: www.delhiurbanplatform.org The *Delhi Urban Platform* is on *Facebook* at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=304722899371&ref=mf -------------------------------- *[[END OF NEWSLETTER]]* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dak at sarai.net Mon Feb 22 12:09:16 2010 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:09:16 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Creative Commons Salon Delhi at Sarai Message-ID: <4B822694.7090309@sarai.net> *Creative Commons Salon Delhi Seminar Room, Sarai-CSDS 28 February 2010 2:00 pm-6:30 pm* Creative Common Salons are global, informal events focused on building a community of artists, developers, and creators of all kinds around Creative Commons licenses, standards, and technology. The first event took place in San Francisco in 2006 with the idea to replicate in other locations internationally. Since then salons have sprung up in cities around whether you're familiar with Creative Commons or are brand new to the concepts behind it, we encourage you to check out a salon near you. Come and be a part of Delhi's First Creative Common Salon on February 28th at Sarai, CSDS. The event's objective is to start the social collective of artists, developers and creators around the Creative Commons Licenses and standards. *SCHEDULE* 1.30 PM Organiser's Note + Introduction + Open House 2.00 PM Playback of Wireside Chat with Lawrence Lessig (Playback of 45 minute chat given by Mr. Lessig on February 25th 2009 with an additional 30 minutes of Q&A session) 3.30 PM Focussed Sessions on Software Freedom, Creative Commons and Licenses 5.00 PM Open House + Networking Sessions 6.00 PM Roadmap for future CC Salons Delhi. 6.30 PM Concluding Note *REGISTER ON* http://cc-salon-delhi.doattend.com/ Facebook Link http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=309733287987&ref=mf The organisers extend their thanks to Sarai for supporting them in this event. ------------------------------------ *[[END OF NEWSLETTER]]* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dak at sarai.net Tue Feb 23 20:51:57 2010 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:51:57 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Transport and the City Message-ID: <4B83F295.6090905@sarai.net> The *Delhi Urban Platform* invites you to: * Getting Around: Transport and the City* 4:00 P.M.,Friday, 26th February 2010 Room 413, Indian Social Institute, Lodi Road Transport is central to the life of all metropolises, and in the past few years, mobility and organisation and control of the street have been central motifs of debates on the city. With the highest number of private car ownership, the highest accident mortality rates of any city in India, how transport is to be organized has become a pressing and crucial question. From bitter fights over the introduction of CNG, to campaigns in the press against the introduction of the Bus Rapid Transit system, who controls and accesses the streets has animated vociferous and provocative debates. While the decreasing costs of cars means over a 1000 cars are added to Delhi's roads everyday, it is also true that almost 80% of people on Delhi's roads are cyclists, pedestrians and those who use buses. Add to this the fact that the street is the preserve not only of people getting from one place to the other, but also the site of livelihood for many, makes it a site of contestation and conflict. It is clear that any transport policy will have to take into account these conflicting visions, and a debate on transport is centrally a debate over the futures of the city. Join us for an open, and hopefully, animated conservation with: 1. AGK Menon - Introduction 2. Madhu Kishwar - Planning for Street Life 3. Romi Roy - The Vision of UTTIPEC and Guidelines for Street Design 4. Manit Rastogi - Nallahs as Urban Connectors 5. Sandeep Gandhi -A Bicycle Master Plan for Delhi 6. AGK Menon - A Traffic Management Plan for the MCD Civic Centre Precinct You can also view the invitation on Facebook at Sarai Events (http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=325296183706&ref=nf) ------------------------- *[[END OF NEWSLETTER]]* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: