Lamakaan

The story centers around a village where people believe in superstitions and are easily influenced by rumors and false claims. A symbolic object—the “kundeti kommu” (ram’s horn)—becomes the focus of exaggerated belief and manipulation.

Certain characters take advantage of villagers’ ignorance for personal gain. As misunderstandings grow, conflicts arise. Eventually, truth and reason challenge blind faith, exposing hypocrisy and social foolishness.

Art and literature can be seen as extensions of the human mind. Very often they can reveal what lies within, sometimes visibly, and, sometimes, not quite so visibly. The movie club is (we hope) a fun way of looking deeper into the emotions, perceptions and thoughts that weave human relationships together or tear them apart. A movie may be treated as a true story or, alternatively, can be used as a tool to try and figure out what went on in the directors head when the movie was made. Either way, it’s a different way of understanding human behaviour and relationships. In the end, by looking deeper into another’s story, we hope, perchance, to understand ourselves better.

Shudrka Hyderabad pays homage to Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore on the occasion of his birth anniversary which falls on May 9 with a play titled “DWIKHONDITA” (SPLIT IN BETWEEN) based on excerpts from “GANDHARIR ABEDON” (Gandhari's Plea) and “KARNA KUNTI SANGBAD” (Dialogue Between Karna and Kunti).

Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s film ‘The Young Karl Marx’ traces the life of the great revolutionary and thinker Karl Marx in his 20s. These were the formative years of the development of Marx’s ideas, which later came to be known as Marxism; which not just brought revolution in human consciousness, but more importantly contributed in fundamental transformation of many societies in different parts of the world. The film covers important developments in Marx’s revolutionary life between 1843 to 1848 such as his exile from Germany along with his wife Jenny, his meeting with Frederick Engels in Paris and the beginning of a life-long inspirational friendship, his polemic with Proudhon, Marx and Engels working towards establishing the hegemony of his ideas in the Communist League in London, and finally their tireless effort to finalise the pathbreaking work “The Communist Manifesto”.

The screening will be followed by a discussion.
Entry is free.
Contact: 9971196111

Artists hold a unique power to shape minds and move hearts—now is the time to use that power for road safety. In Telangana, with over 7,600 lives lost annually in road accidents, and two-wheeler riders and pedestrians forming the majority of victims, the message is urgent and real.
Through paintings, street murals, digital art, and storytelling, you can turn silent statistics into powerful visual messages. A single artwork can remind a rider to wear a helmet or make a driver pause for a pedestrian.
Let your creativity become a voice for the voiceless. Use your art to inspire responsibility, spread awareness, and help save lives on our roads.

Sudha Parimala
Regional Manager Hyderabad Region
TGSRTC

Read A Kitaab is an unbiased community of Readers, Booklovers, writers and artists. We strive to provide the community an ecosystem with an online library, book discussions, author meet, book of the month, monthly meets, newsletters & much more...

Read A Kitaab is a calm & comfort space to be yourself, to discuss books and life with no bars on age/gender/ethnicity/political views etc.

This session is part of my ongoing personal research around body cues how the body stores, signals and expresses experiences beyond words.

While I come from a Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) practice, this is not a therapy session. It is a simple, guided movement space an introduction to sensing the politics of the body through movement under my own initiative THE ERA OF MOVEMENT

We’ll explore how control, conditioning and expression live in the body and how movement can become a way to notice, question and shift them.

No prior experience needed. Just a willingness to move and observe.

Dalit Christians: Faith, Resistance, and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice

This discussion brings together four women speakers from diverse professional and experiential backgrounds to critically engage with the historical and contemporary struggles of Dalit Christians in India. The event foregrounds lived experiences, structural discrimination, and the ongoing movement for dignity, equality, and constitutional justice, while situating these within an Ambedkarite framework. It creates a space to examine how caste continues to shape social, religious, and institutional realities despite conversion.

At the core of this issue lies a constitutional contradiction: while Dalit Christians continue to face caste-based discrimination, they are excluded from Scheduled Caste (SC) status and the associated affirmative action policies in education, employment, and political representation. This exclusion originates from the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, which restricts SC recognition to Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, effectively rendering Dalit Christians invisible within the legal framework of caste-based justice.

Recent developments have intensified this debate. A 2026 Supreme Court position reaffirmed that individuals who convert to Christianity lose SC status and cannot access reservation benefits, even if caste discrimination persists in their lived realities. This has renewed mobilisations, protests, and policy advocacy across the country, with Dalit Christian groups demanding inclusion in the SC category or alternative mechanisms to ensure equitable access to rights and opportunities.

Beyond the legal question, the issue raises deeper concerns about the nature of caste itself, whether it is confined to religion or operates as a broader socio-historical structure. The discussion will therefore explore caste within Christian communities, the political struggle for affirmative action, grassroots resistance, and the intersection of caste, gender, and faith. By bringing together perspectives from art, activism, scholarship, and community work, the event aims to reflect on what meaningful equality and dignity could look like for Dalit Christians today.

SPEAKERS:

Percy Kaki
A visual artist based in Hyderabad, Percy works across mediums exploring memory, gender, and marginalisation. She is part of the Yakshi Constitutional Values in Praxis programme, collaborating with marginalized women through art to engage with the Constitution. Her work has been exhibited at international and national platforms including Arles Photo Festival, Vanam Art Festival (Chennai), and Conflictorium (Ahmedabad). Her recent work focuses on community-based art practices centered on dignity, self-respect, and collective belonging.

Ravali Pidaparthi
A social entrepreneur and co-founder of Esther, Ravali works with young women graduates from marginalized castes in rural Telangana, supporting their transition into careers. With experience across institutions such as Teach For India, Indian School of Development Management, SRIJAN India, and Udhyam Vyapaar, her work lies at the intersection of caste and gender. She brings a strong commitment to building equitable systems and amplifying representation.

Sr. Manjula Devarapalli
A Carmelite nun and the National Secretary of the National Dalit Christian Watch (NDCW), Sr. Manjula has decades of grassroots experience working with Dalits and Adivasis. A lawyer and social worker, her work spans education, human rights, rural development, and advocacy for Dalit Christian rights within church and society. She has received multiple recognitions, including the Archbishop Oscar Romero Award and the Mother Teresa Award for her contributions to social justice.

Vennela Mocherla
A doctoral scholar in Sociology at the University of Hyderabad, Vennela’s research focuses on the lives, faith, and socio-political realities of Dalit Christians in Telugu regions. A former president of the Ambedkar Students’ Association (UoH), her academic work critically engages with religion, charisma, and neoliberalism, bringing a rigorous sociological lens to the discussion.

I am an educator planning to conduct a small children's reading activity called **“The Bookworm’s Haven.”** The purpose of this workshop is to encourage students to develop a healthy reading habit through interactive and engaging activities.

The session will be a 3-hour educational reading workshop for a small group of around 15–20 students (ages 8–13). During the workshop, students will participate in quiet reading, vocabulary-building activities, storytelling discussions, and a simple creative bookmark-making activity.

The program is designed to be **calm, educational, and interactive**, with no loud equipment or disturbances. The aim is to create a positive reading environment where children can explore books, learn new words, and build confidence in expressing their ideas.

We are looking for a quiet and safe space where children can sit comfortably and participate in this reading-based learning activity.

The Caretaker is a three-character play set in a cluttered room in West London. The story revolves around Aston, a quiet and mentally fragile man; his younger brother Mick, who is sharp and domineering; and Davies, an elderly homeless man whom Aston brings home out of kindness.

Aston offers Davies shelter and even the possibility of becoming the caretaker of the building. However, Davies is suspicious, manipulative, and obsessed with retrieving his identity papers from Sidcup. As the play unfolds, Davies attempts to turn the brothers against each other to secure his position. Power constantly shifts between the three men, revealing themes of isolation, identity, mental instability, and the struggle for control.

The play is known for Pinter’s distinctive style—minimalistic dialogue, meaningful pauses, and underlying tension. Though simple in plot, it powerfully explores loneliness, human vulnerability, and the complexity of communication.

An Evening of Manto
A powerful theatrical production based on the works of Saadat Hasan Manto.
Through sharp storytelling, dark satire, and haunting human moments, this production brings Manto’s world alive on stage. Exploring themes of identity, borders, morality, and the fragile truths of society, the performance reflects on questions that remain deeply relevant today.
Presented by a committed ensemble of actors, the evening promises an intense, thought-provoking, and emotionally resonant experience.
Raw. Relevant. Uncompromising.
Join us for a theatre experience that revisits Manto not as history — but as a voice that still speaks urgently to our times.

Performing Classical Dance (Bharatnatyam)

The story centers around a village where people believe in superstitions and are easily influenced by rumors and false claims. A symbolic object—the “kundeti kommu” (ram’s horn)—becomes the focus of exaggerated belief and manipulation.

Certain characters take advantage of villagers’ ignorance for personal gain. As misunderstandings grow, conflicts arise. Eventually, truth and reason challenge blind faith, exposing hypocrisy and social foolishness.

Art and literature can be seen as extensions of the human mind. Very often they can reveal what lies within, sometimes visibly, and, sometimes, not quite so visibly. The movie club is (we hope) a fun way of looking deeper into the emotions, perceptions and thoughts that weave human relationships together or tear them apart. A movie may be treated as a true story or, alternatively, can be used as a tool to try and figure out what went on in the directors head when the movie was made. Either way, it’s a different way of understanding human behaviour and relationships. In the end, by looking deeper into another’s story, we hope, perchance, to understand ourselves better.

Shudrka Hyderabad pays homage to Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore on the occasion of his birth anniversary which falls on May 9 with a play titled “DWIKHONDITA” (SPLIT IN BETWEEN) based on excerpts from “GANDHARIR ABEDON” (Gandhari's Plea) and “KARNA KUNTI SANGBAD” (Dialogue Between Karna and Kunti).

Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck’s film ‘The Young Karl Marx’ traces the life of the great revolutionary and thinker Karl Marx in his 20s. These were the formative years of the development of Marx’s ideas, which later came to be known as Marxism; which not just brought revolution in human consciousness, but more importantly contributed in fundamental transformation of many societies in different parts of the world. The film covers important developments in Marx’s revolutionary life between 1843 to 1848 such as his exile from Germany along with his wife Jenny, his meeting with Frederick Engels in Paris and the beginning of a life-long inspirational friendship, his polemic with Proudhon, Marx and Engels working towards establishing the hegemony of his ideas in the Communist League in London, and finally their tireless effort to finalise the pathbreaking work “The Communist Manifesto”.

The screening will be followed by a discussion.
Entry is free.
Contact: 9971196111

Artists hold a unique power to shape minds and move hearts—now is the time to use that power for road safety. In Telangana, with over 7,600 lives lost annually in road accidents, and two-wheeler riders and pedestrians forming the majority of victims, the message is urgent and real.
Through paintings, street murals, digital art, and storytelling, you can turn silent statistics into powerful visual messages. A single artwork can remind a rider to wear a helmet or make a driver pause for a pedestrian.
Let your creativity become a voice for the voiceless. Use your art to inspire responsibility, spread awareness, and help save lives on our roads.

Sudha Parimala
Regional Manager Hyderabad Region
TGSRTC

Read A Kitaab is an unbiased community of Readers, Booklovers, writers and artists. We strive to provide the community an ecosystem with an online library, book discussions, author meet, book of the month, monthly meets, newsletters & much more...

Read A Kitaab is a calm & comfort space to be yourself, to discuss books and life with no bars on age/gender/ethnicity/political views etc.

This session is part of my ongoing personal research around body cues how the body stores, signals and expresses experiences beyond words.

While I come from a Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) practice, this is not a therapy session. It is a simple, guided movement space an introduction to sensing the politics of the body through movement under my own initiative THE ERA OF MOVEMENT

We’ll explore how control, conditioning and expression live in the body and how movement can become a way to notice, question and shift them.

No prior experience needed. Just a willingness to move and observe.

Dalit Christians: Faith, Resistance, and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice

This discussion brings together four women speakers from diverse professional and experiential backgrounds to critically engage with the historical and contemporary struggles of Dalit Christians in India. The event foregrounds lived experiences, structural discrimination, and the ongoing movement for dignity, equality, and constitutional justice, while situating these within an Ambedkarite framework. It creates a space to examine how caste continues to shape social, religious, and institutional realities despite conversion.

At the core of this issue lies a constitutional contradiction: while Dalit Christians continue to face caste-based discrimination, they are excluded from Scheduled Caste (SC) status and the associated affirmative action policies in education, employment, and political representation. This exclusion originates from the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950, which restricts SC recognition to Hindus, Sikhs, and Buddhists, effectively rendering Dalit Christians invisible within the legal framework of caste-based justice.

Recent developments have intensified this debate. A 2026 Supreme Court position reaffirmed that individuals who convert to Christianity lose SC status and cannot access reservation benefits, even if caste discrimination persists in their lived realities. This has renewed mobilisations, protests, and policy advocacy across the country, with Dalit Christian groups demanding inclusion in the SC category or alternative mechanisms to ensure equitable access to rights and opportunities.

Beyond the legal question, the issue raises deeper concerns about the nature of caste itself, whether it is confined to religion or operates as a broader socio-historical structure. The discussion will therefore explore caste within Christian communities, the political struggle for affirmative action, grassroots resistance, and the intersection of caste, gender, and faith. By bringing together perspectives from art, activism, scholarship, and community work, the event aims to reflect on what meaningful equality and dignity could look like for Dalit Christians today.

SPEAKERS:

Percy Kaki
A visual artist based in Hyderabad, Percy works across mediums exploring memory, gender, and marginalisation. She is part of the Yakshi Constitutional Values in Praxis programme, collaborating with marginalized women through art to engage with the Constitution. Her work has been exhibited at international and national platforms including Arles Photo Festival, Vanam Art Festival (Chennai), and Conflictorium (Ahmedabad). Her recent work focuses on community-based art practices centered on dignity, self-respect, and collective belonging.

Ravali Pidaparthi
A social entrepreneur and co-founder of Esther, Ravali works with young women graduates from marginalized castes in rural Telangana, supporting their transition into careers. With experience across institutions such as Teach For India, Indian School of Development Management, SRIJAN India, and Udhyam Vyapaar, her work lies at the intersection of caste and gender. She brings a strong commitment to building equitable systems and amplifying representation.

Sr. Manjula Devarapalli
A Carmelite nun and the National Secretary of the National Dalit Christian Watch (NDCW), Sr. Manjula has decades of grassroots experience working with Dalits and Adivasis. A lawyer and social worker, her work spans education, human rights, rural development, and advocacy for Dalit Christian rights within church and society. She has received multiple recognitions, including the Archbishop Oscar Romero Award and the Mother Teresa Award for her contributions to social justice.

Vennela Mocherla
A doctoral scholar in Sociology at the University of Hyderabad, Vennela’s research focuses on the lives, faith, and socio-political realities of Dalit Christians in Telugu regions. A former president of the Ambedkar Students’ Association (UoH), her academic work critically engages with religion, charisma, and neoliberalism, bringing a rigorous sociological lens to the discussion.

I am an educator planning to conduct a small children's reading activity called **“The Bookworm’s Haven.”** The purpose of this workshop is to encourage students to develop a healthy reading habit through interactive and engaging activities.

The session will be a 3-hour educational reading workshop for a small group of around 15–20 students (ages 8–13). During the workshop, students will participate in quiet reading, vocabulary-building activities, storytelling discussions, and a simple creative bookmark-making activity.

The program is designed to be **calm, educational, and interactive**, with no loud equipment or disturbances. The aim is to create a positive reading environment where children can explore books, learn new words, and build confidence in expressing their ideas.

We are looking for a quiet and safe space where children can sit comfortably and participate in this reading-based learning activity.

The Caretaker is a three-character play set in a cluttered room in West London. The story revolves around Aston, a quiet and mentally fragile man; his younger brother Mick, who is sharp and domineering; and Davies, an elderly homeless man whom Aston brings home out of kindness.

Aston offers Davies shelter and even the possibility of becoming the caretaker of the building. However, Davies is suspicious, manipulative, and obsessed with retrieving his identity papers from Sidcup. As the play unfolds, Davies attempts to turn the brothers against each other to secure his position. Power constantly shifts between the three men, revealing themes of isolation, identity, mental instability, and the struggle for control.

The play is known for Pinter’s distinctive style—minimalistic dialogue, meaningful pauses, and underlying tension. Though simple in plot, it powerfully explores loneliness, human vulnerability, and the complexity of communication.

An Evening of Manto
A powerful theatrical production based on the works of Saadat Hasan Manto.
Through sharp storytelling, dark satire, and haunting human moments, this production brings Manto’s world alive on stage. Exploring themes of identity, borders, morality, and the fragile truths of society, the performance reflects on questions that remain deeply relevant today.
Presented by a committed ensemble of actors, the evening promises an intense, thought-provoking, and emotionally resonant experience.
Raw. Relevant. Uncompromising.
Join us for a theatre experience that revisits Manto not as history — but as a voice that still speaks urgently to our times.