Kathakar Festival 2019: Manoj Bajpayee, Imtiaz Ali and others to tell stories

The festival, launched in 2010 under the aegis of UNESCO as part of Ghummakkad Narain, is an ingenious literature festival that fondly remembers Thakur Vishva Narain Singh, the first Braille editor in India.

The theme of this year is using music as a medium to tell stories.

The Kathakar Festival, that begins this Friday, will bring together the old-world and traditional ways of storytelling from across the globe, which are increasingly diminishing. Spread over 17 sessions, the first day on October 11, will have Australian Aborigine Elders Larry Walsh and Ron Murray discussing stories of the indigenous people. The three-day festival, in its 12th edition, is being organised by the cultural forum Nivesh at the capital’s Sunder Nursery. The theme of this year is using music as a medium to tell stories.

The festival, launched in 2010 under the aegis of UNESCO as part of Ghummakkad Narain, is an ingenious literature festival that fondly remembers Thakur Vishva Narain Singh, the first Braille editor in India.

Keeping up with the theme of the festival, the evening sessions will take place at 16th-century heritage park complex adjacent to the magnificent Humayun’s tomb. The morning sessions will take place in different schools in Delhi — a move intended to make children aware of different genres of stories. The opening day will mark the attendance of actor Manoj Bajpayee, singer Mohit Chauhan among others. Theatre artist Danish Hussain’s self-directed adaptation of ‘Qissebazi: A Multilingual Storytelling Orbit’ will be performed, so will Kerala’s traditional Tholpavakoothu shadow theatre based on Tamil epic Kamba Ramayana. Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali too will be present and share his experiences.

Speaking about the festival, Shaguna Gahilote, one of the organisers, said, “This is the first time where we are bringing in storytellers from different parts of the globe. We are particularly excited about the indigenous artistes from Australia.” She also reasons Bajpayee’s presence in the festival. “He really belongs to his roots and is so visibly rooted. We want people to listen to him.”

The schedule of the festival looks like this

Friday, 11th October 2019
6:00 pm – Buddhist Chanting by Monks of Sherabling (Grammy Awardees, India)
6:20 pm – Aborigine folktales by Uncle Larry Walsh and Ron Murray (Australia)
7:00 pm – Kali – stories from ancient India by Emily Parish (UK)
7.45 pm – Light Bearer: Slavic myths by Emilia Raiter (Poland)
8:30 pm – Kissey Kahani aur Adakaari: Mohit Chauhan in conversation with
Manoj Bajpayee (India)

Saturday, 12th October 2019
5.30 pm – Traditional Polish Ballads by Emilia Raiter (Poland)
6.00 pm – Stories around the fire by Uncle Larry Walsh and Ron Murray
(Australia)
6:30 pm – Tales of Misers by Shaguna Gahilote (India)
7.00 pm – Polish Tales by Jerzy Szufa (Poland)
7.30 pm – Fire: A state of matter by Vergine Gulbenkian (UK)
8:00 pm – Storytellers in Conversation with Amrita Tripathi (India)
8:30 pm – Ramayana by Tholpavakoothu Kerala Shadow Puppetry (India)

Sunday, 13th October 2019
5:00 pm – Polish folktales by Jerzy Szufa (Poland)
5.30 pm – Folktales from Europe by Vergine Gulbenkian (UK)
6:00 pm – Qissebazi: Haryanvi folktales by Rashmi Mann & Ruchita Tahiliani
(India)
6:45 pm – Tales from Mahabharat by Emily Hennessey (UK)
7:30 pm – Qissebazi by Danish Husain (India)
8:30 pm – Kissey, Kahani aur Cinema with Imtiaz Ali (India)

Murder on the Orient Express -2017- movie review

 

Murder on the Orient Express

 movie-2017-  review

 

 

    by Priyanka Rathi

 

Murder on the Orient Express is a detective novel by Agatha Christie featuring the

                        Belgian Detective  Hercule Poirot.

 

The book was made into a movie in 1974 for the first time. This is the second time we have the movie made out of the famous novel.

On the Orient express, Samuel Ratchett (Jonny Depp)

is murdered. Hercule Poirot(Branagh), the famous detective of Agatha Christie is also on the Train.

Poirot investigates the murder and the motive behind it. In unravelling this mystery, Poirot a man who believes in perfection and seeks balance in everything discovers life is more than being just right and wrong.

Justice need not to be always definitive it can also be inconclusive.

The beauty of the movie lies in the translation of Agatha’s famous detective and the performances of all the characters in Movie.

There is no dull moment in the movie.

It is fast, entertaining and a great way to relive the era of detective fictions.

 

Unity In Diversity? @OFFICE

  

 WHERE  

IS 

UNITY IN DIVERSITY? @ OFFICE   

 

 

by  Priyanka Rathi

 

I really wonder how Difficult it would have been for Indian women hockey team coach

 in “chak de India”   to gear up players to play  and win for India when even in schools and offices we play for Individual class, boss/departments.

Every day you overhear conversations people asking about each other’s caste community, dividing them in the name of customs or something as silly as food they eat. How will the whole nation unite when even we are not united in our own home?

 

Someone is fighting over being a Delhite or Mumbaikar,  other one on which community has business acumen which does not.

The thing which surprises me the most is the offices and the goal diversities of the individuals working in these offices defying blatantly the one single universal goal established by the visionary of the company.

Each face is hiding an underlying goal of working first for themselves then for their department and if left with anything to give, then for the company.

We always talk about people leaving organizations, companies not growing. Lot of theories have been established, lot of methods are  invented but what we ignore is the mantra of “Unity” . Working for one goal, one mission and following it religiously.

We show PINK Slip to people for lot of reasons but we never question them for working on individual goals, targets and departments compromising the overall company’s goal.

 What will be the  organization’s culture which fuels on negative politics and  individual goals where each individual is riding on another’s back waiting for the right moment to stab,

source:123rf.com

where there is no true respect and feelings for each other exist, where each smiling face is hiding some ulterior motto hidden deep down the skin. This is a race towards nowhere.

    

I want to shout aloud to these people “I am Company’s resource not a department’s or individual’s”

 

There has to be an emergent organizational sense. The solution is an equitable work culture. A mind without fear. Distribute then concentrate should be the mantra.

In schools of Japan, kids are induced with the sense of collective team work. The worst situation in Indian system today  calls out  for such steps which can shape our young minds with the  sense of ‘We’ rather than ‘I’which may be in  later days lead to  a better society as a whole.

saying NO… THE ART OF LIBERATION

Priyanka Rathi

                                  saying  NO… THE ART OF LIBERATION

“No”, how often does we use this word, hardly, I guess.

Always caring for other’s feelings, always putting other’s emotions at front, always managing your time , your life to accommodate other’s need .

Even small requests of our friends, family and loved one’s we don’t deny.

We convince our self that our love to our dear one’s makes us say yes to all their demands and requests.

This is the only way to live the life, but have you ever realized saying “YES” to every demand is the root cause of our unhappiness and frustration in our life.

Saying “NO” can be liberating.

A “No” will make you feel bad at that instance when the words fell out of your mouth but gradually as they will start sinking in your mind and  body you will rejoice it. It gives you the freedom of not doing something which you really don’t want to do. The party you don’t want to go, the movie you hate to see.

It is good to think about people around us but thinking about your own good and choices is also important. Putting yourself in front of others is not selfish but an undeniable duty for yourself which we always ignore and end up unhappy.

And an unhappy soul cannot make people around them happy.      

PRIYANKA RATHI.