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ABOUT THE BOOK Country Drive is a dialogue, a conversation, a meditation on lives lived, a journey across time and space between two poets, Sukrita and Yasmin Ladha who bring in their unique sensibilities to the subjects they tackle. Yet, their differences are undercut by their familiarity, their love for the country they were born, Kenya, and their travels to each others’ homelands, India and Canada. The result is a unique collection of poems, at once, illuminating, life-affirming and provocative.

ABOUT THE POETS SUKRITA is an honorary fellow of the International Writing Programme at the University of Iowa. A recipient of the Indo-Canadian Shastri Fellowship, in addition to many other fellowships and residencies, she has published extensively on Partition literature, cultural diversity and women’s literature. Her latest collection of poems is Dream Catcher (2015). Her poetry has been widely translated and she is herself a known translator.

YASMIN LADHA is a poet, novelist and an essayist from Alberta, Canada. Blue Sunflower Startle, a novel, her most recent work, was published by Freehand Books, in 2010.

Kahat Kabira: Songs of Kabir in Malwa tradition

Lamakaan invites one and all to an evening of Kabir Songs with Kaluram Bamaniya.

Kaluram Bamaniya belongs to a vibrant tradition of singing bhakti poets such as Kabir, Gorakhnath, Bananath and Meera in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. He comes from a family of farmers, but has taken to singing as a full time occupation himself. From the early age of 9, Kaluram started accompanying his father, grandfather and uncle on the manjiras. When he was 13 years old he ran away from home and went to Rajasthan, where he absorbed a wide repertoire of songs from an itinerant Mirasi singer Ram Niwas Rao for 1-2 years. For Kaluram, singing Kabir is not merely a profession, it’s a way of life. “You get a lot of power, you get fearless by singing Kabir,” he says. His impish wit adds colour to the direct simplicity and soulfulness of his songs.

While continuing to be part of the satsang tradition in Malwa, Kaluram and his troupe give many public performances all over India. He sings and plays the 5-stringed tambura and khadtaal and will be accompanied by: Ram Prasad Parmar on Harmonium, Devidas Bairagi – Dholak, Sajjan Singh Parmar – Nagnagaadi Uttam Singh Bamaniya – Manjira

ALL ARE WELCOME. OPEN TO DONATION.

Hatak is a story of a prostitute who in all facts is a human too and ultimately a woman. Just because she is available on a price she can is not dispensable. She has her shares of preferences and priorities. She portrays to be free but secretly wants to hide behind a man. She wants to hide behind a man but at the same time she can throw him away. She looks loud with a garish make up but she has a soft heart that has warm emotions. She is the one to whom the world bows down to but she also feels the pain of rejection.

The book is all about human emotions and life It depicts various shades of life through a story that travels through different generations . The crux of the novel is whatever we are seeking from our life also seeks us sooner or later.

About the author : Hina Alam . She is a education consultant , a blogger , a wife and a mother of two . The novel “Arithmetic of desires” is her first novel .

The Election season is here and with this season we see the political parties releasing poll manifestoes. These manifestoes promise stars and loaded with goodies and freebies. There are guidelines by the Election Commission of India on the concept of poll manifesto e.g. Election manifesto – concept and relevance A manifesto is generally defined as a published declaration of the intentions, motives or views of an individual, group, political party or government whosoever issues it. A manifesto usually comprises a previously published opinion or public consensus and/or promotes a new idea with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes for future. Oxford dictionary defines manifesto as a public declaration of the policy and aims of a group such as a political party. Thus an election manifesto is a published document containing a declaration of the ideology, intentions, views, policies and programmes of a political party. The Election Manifestos are generally drafted by the Political Parties keeping an eye on forthcoming elections and are generally published and well publicized.

As already stated above, the election manifesto normally contains the declared ideology of the political Party concerned in general and its policies and programmes for the Country/State and people at large. It, therefore, serves as a reference document or benchmark for the public at large for what a political party stands for. By comparing the ideologies, policies and programmes of the political parties, the electors can decide which party they should vote for to meet their expectations and aspirations.

How do the citizens look at the poll manifestoes? How the trends of poll manifestoes changed over the years in the country?

Join us for a discussion to talk about these broader issues related to poll manifestoes

Guest Speakers: (1) Prof Kancha Illiah: Kancha Ilaiah, who now refers to himself symbolically as Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, is an Indian political theorist, writer and activist for Dalit rights. He writes in both English and Telugu.

Among Ilaiah’s official appointments have been: Director, Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy (CSSEIP) at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad Member of National Research Committee constituted by the Ministry of Social Justice, New Delhi Member – Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi

(2) G. Ramulu: Ramulu is CPM Telangana State Secretariat member.

ALL ARE WELCOME!!!

A 68 – minute documentary titled ‘Boys Who Like Girls’ directed by Finnish filmmaker Inka Achte would be screened for the audience. The screening would be followed by an interaction with the gathered crowd. During the interaction, Harish Sadani and his team at Men Against Violence & Abuse – MAVA would deliberate on the prevailing toxic masculinity and male entitlement to privilege and power, which is at the core of gender discrimination and violence in society. Through powerful compelling stories of MAVAs work among adolescent boys and young men in interrogating Masculinity as depicted in the film, Harish and Altamash will stimulate the gathered audience on the various tools and methodologies used to engage boys and young men on gender issues. Citing examples of the organization’s journey in the past 25 years, insights would be provided on the out-of-the box methods used by the organization to reach out to young men and how these could be adapted by others including individuals wanting to work on Masculinities. The gathered crowd would be then stimulated on specifically discussing steps which every man and woman could take to engage men and boys into healthy conversations on contemporary gender topics and help promote gender equality and diversity.