Category: Event

Categories
Event

Dan Brown’s coming to lecture in Mumbai

‘The Da Vinci Code’s bestselling author will present a lecture for fans at the NCPA in November. Registrations open today.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

He captured the world’s imagination with his edge-of-the-seat thrillers The Da Vinci Code, Angels And Demons and Inferno, and now, Mumbai will get to meet the author of these bestselling books, Dan Brown.

Dan is set to visit Mumbai and meet his fans in November 2014, at a lecture event organised by Crossword Bookstores. This will be Dan’s maiden visit to India, and he will be present for the Penguin Annual Lecture series. One of the most prestigious cultural events of the year, the Penguin Annual Lecture series features some of the world’s most respected leaders, thinkers and writers. It is the first annual lecture to be organised by a publishing house in India and has become one of the most prestigious cultural events on the calendar.

The five previous Penguin Annual Lectures have been delivered by journalist and writer Thomas Friedman in 2007, diplomat and writer Chris Patten in 2008, Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen in 2009, eminent historian Ramachandra Guha in 2010 and renowned spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2011.

Announcing the event yesterday, Kinjal Shah, CEO, Crossword said, “We are delighted to be hosting the lecture by Dan Brown. He is one of the finest international authors and we are happy that Crossword is one of the few bookstores to organise an event of this scale for his Indian readers.”

The lecture will be held at NCPA on Wednesday, November 12, 2014 at 7 pm. However, registration for tickets begins today, October 29, 2014 at Crossword Stores across Mumbai. 

(Picture courtesystatic.guim.co.uk)

Categories
Event

Mantralaya, Raj Bhavan join ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan’

Maharashtra Governor flags off national cleanliness drive in Maharashtra starting from two of its most prominent administrative buildings; more follow.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The Governor of Maharashtra Ch Vidyasagar Rao yesterday launched a cleanliness drive at Mantralaya and Raj Bhavan as part of the Swachcha Bharat Abhiyaan. The Governor was accompanied by Advisor Anil Baijal, Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya, Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte and others, who cleaned a part of the Mantralaya to mark the formal beginning of the campaign. The Governor, accompanied by his wife Vinodha, launched a similar drive involving his staff at Raj Bhavan.

Speaking to journalists at Raj Bhavan, the Governor announced the appointment of nine eminent personalities as honorary ambassadors for the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan in the State. They include renowned spiritual leader Shri Dattatreya Narayan aka Appasaheb Dharmadhikari, film actor Abhishek Bachchan, Nita Ambani, Rajashree Birla, singer Sunidhi Chauhan, popular Marathi actor Makrand Anaspure, ace shooter Anjali Bhagwat, Monika More (who lost both her arms in a train accident recently) and Tushar Gandhi.

The Governor said, “In his Independence Day Speech, the Hon’ble Prime Minister has laid considerable stress on making our cities, towns, villages, schools, temples and public places clean. He has also laid stress on sanitation and provision of separate toilets for girls in all schools.

“I do feel that a lot needs to be done, both in the city of Mumbai and in Maharashtra to emerge as the cleanest State in the country. Maharashtra has made pioneering efforts in the cleanliness campaign in the form of the Sant Gadge Baba Abhiyan. We have to give a major impetus to the campaign under the leadership of the Prime Minister. We have to focus on public places, beginning with Railway Stations, Hospitals, Offices, market places and so on. I am visiting the Sir JJ Hospital on October 18 as part of the campaign. Sensitising children is also a part of the campaign, and I have asked the Secretary of School Education to draw up a plan to create awareness among children about the Swachchata Abhiyaan.”

Categories
Event

This lit fest celebrates ‘Indianness’ in literature

‘Litomania’ will feature writers like Amish Tripathi and Ashwin Sanghi, among 50 best-selling authors; look out for debates, discussions and workshops.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Think WhyNot Group (TYN) has announced the launch of a unique lit fest – ‘Litomania – The October lit fest’. This lit fest claims its USP in its focus on “Indianness” of literature.

The fest will celebrate the renaissance of Indian writing with the presence of 50 top authors on one platform. It is selectively focussed only on best-selling Indian literature, to reflect the theme ‘What India is reading’.

Sangram Surve, CEO, Think WhyNot Group and Festival Director, Litomania says, “We have ensured that the fest features the top 20 per cent of authors that contribute to 80 per cent of the revenues in the Indian publishing industry. The fest will be an annual property and continue to bring readers and top authors together.”

The Advisory Board for the fest includes popular bestselling Indian writers, Amish Tripathi, Ashwin Sanghi and Ravi Subramanian and industry stalwart Sivaraman Balakrishnan.

The organisers decided to hold a literature fest along these lines because “there is no litfest dedicated purely to popular Indian writing. Indian authors have done exceedingly well in recent years. Indian readers have taken a fancy for Indian writing. The festival will provide a platform for readers to discover what motivates their favourite authors to write. The litfest will aim at nurturing reading, ideas and dialogue and will showcase the range and diversity of Indian literature,” says Sangram.  

At the fest, one can expect interactions with top Indian authors through genre-specific discussions, book launches, master classes, workshops and entertainment. The weekend will be interesting for children as well, with specialised workshops like ‘Publishing for Kids’ and a ‘Wildlife workshop’ to be organised, among others.

The Master Classes will be held on the themes ‘How to write a book and publish it’ by Ravi Subramanian, ‘Turning a book into a movie’ by publicist Caleb Franklin, ‘Bloody Good Luck’ by Ashwin Sanghi, ‘Supermarketwala’ by Retail doyen, Damodar Mall, a session by international trainer Priya Kumar, talk on the ‘The Journey Home’ by Radhanath Swami, session on ‘Beyond Pink’ with Sangeeta Mall and Meghna Pant, session with Prakash Iyer on ‘Unleashing the leader within’ and many more.

There will also be a culinary panel, a mythology panel, a thriller panel, a romance panel, a humour panel, a politics panel and a management panel, all featuring noted authors in those genres.

The Litomania fest will be held at We School, from October 10 to 12. 

Categories
Event

Masterchef Australia’s Sarah Todd is coming to Mumbai

One of the most popular contestants on this year’s edition of Masterchef Australia will visit Bandra on October 14. Register now.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

She is young, talented and extremely pretty. Besides, she featured in one of the most popular shows on Indian TV, Masterchef Australia. Sarah Todd is visiting Mumbai next week, and she will share cooking tips with a lucky few who wish to meet her.

The meetup will be held at Godrej Nature’s Basket, in association with Tourism Australia on October 14, 2014 at 4 pm. The model and chef will exhibit her formidable cooking skills live by whipping up some unique dishes using popular Australian ingredients.

Entry to the event is by registration only. Call 26425050 /26421122 to register for the event.

Categories
Event

Attend: Photo exhibition of Chitpur Road, Kolkata

21 German photographers got together to document, celebrate Kolkata’s Chitpur Road. Mumbaikars can see the results at Max Mueller Bhavan today.
by Galerie Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai

Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai will today present ‘Calcutta: Chitpur Road Neighborhoods’, a presentation of photographs by 21 German photographers, under the guidance of Peter Bialobrzeski. This body of work is unique in its methodology as its main aim was to develop a coherent, unified approach towards the subject. It challenged traditional ideas associated with originality and aimed at creating a more universal aesthetic of photography shared by these 21 photographers.  This reversal of thinking was in itself a challenge, and it was absolutely important to overcome it in order for the project to be a success. The participants worked in groups and took turns to direct the shoots. Their aim was to “A good picture a day”.  They worked under the collective name:  ‘A Kolkata Heritage Photo Project’, and are the joint authors of this body of work.

During the 19th century, Kolkata was one of the most economically affluent cities in India under the British, the city elites demonstrated their affluence by building huge palaces in a unique mix of traditional Moghul architecture with classical and Victorian elements. Today, the neighbourhoods around the historical axis of Chitpur road in North Kolkata, still exhibit the remnants of this architecture style. Though decaying as architecture monuments, they still house a vibrant community. The project aimed at capturing these two extremities of the area, without deviating from their set approach.

In 2008, Hatje Cantz published the book ‘Calcutta: Chitpur Road Neighborhoods’, based on this project. Though all the 21 photographers were students of Peter Bialobrzeski at the University of Arts Bremen in 2006, today they are all individual professional photographers. The Kolkata Heritage Project consists of Claudia Aguilar, Johanna Ahlert, Björn Behrens, Jörg Brüggemann, Tine Casper, Franziska von den Driesch, Anja Engelke, Tobias Gratz, Christian Güssow, Dörte Haupt, André Hemstedt, Manja Herrmann, Torben Höke, Britta Isenrath, Joanna Kosowska, Jørgen Kube, Pia Pollmanns, Silke Schmidt, Inga Seevers, Marion Üdema, Sandy Volz.  

The exhibition is a presentation of photographs by twenty one German photographers, under the guidance of Peter Bialobrzeski can be seen from October 1 to 31. The Mumbai presentation is designed by Tanvi Mishra and Kaushik Ramaswamy.

(Picture courtesy Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai)

Categories
Event

High Street Phoenix opens its doors for art

The South Mumbai mall is currently offering visitors the chance to look at various art installations crafted by six Indian artists.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Till the end of this month, you can walk into High Street Phoenix and get a first look at various art installations by various eminent and upcoming city artists. On from September 4, 2014, the installations will be available for viewing till the end of this month.

Mother & Child_Siddhesh ChavanFeatured artists are Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Gajanan Choukhande, Reha Shishodia, Nayanjeet T Nikam, Abhijit Salunkhe and Siddhesh Chavan. The centre piece of this art showcase is Choukhande’s ‘Creator’, located at Palladium Level 1, symbolising how the hand is the creator and facilitator of things. Shishodia and Nikam bring together the ‘Tree Of Life’, while upcoming artist Chavan captures the friendship between a mother and her child in the namesake artwork ‘Mother & Child’ (in pic on left). Apart from this, he is also showcasing two creations from his going back to childhood collection ‘Playground’ and ‘Joyride’. Salunkhe’s works, ‘Growth’ and ‘Fish Eye’ are cast in metal and reveal meticulous crafting.

The piece de resistance in this selection is internationally renowned Sanjay Kumar Srivastava’s ‘The Ultimate Rotation’ (in pic on right) which The Ultimate Rotation_Sanjay Kumar Srivastavapoignantly captures how the hand of time is intrinsic to our existence.

Speaking about the installation, Rajendra Kalkar, Senior Centre Director, High Street Phoenix  said, “High Street Phoenix and Palladium are the centrepieces of South Mumbai’s retail space and as such deserve to reflect their ethos of being a place where form meets function in spectacular fashion. By strategically placing art sculptures and installations in various spaces throughout the mall, we are looking at creating a pleasing aesthetic which will merge seamlessly with the rest of the ambience of high-end retail spaces by creating an extremely pleasing experience for shoppers.”

Head to High Street Phoenix till September 30 from 11 am to 10 pm daily. 

Exit mobile version