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By Shanta Serbjeet Singh
will explore, investigate and
elucidate cultural news straight from the heart of imperial Delhi
e-mail: shanta.serbjeetsingh@gmail.com
This column will explore, investigate and elucidate cultural
news straight from the heart of imperial Delhi, its corridors of power,
its newly spruced up galleries of officialdom at the Shastri Bhavans and
the Azad Bhavans, from all those fiefdoms of policy-making where they first
take birth, are shaped and minted. It will also bring you details
of mega sarkari events such as festivals and special celebrations,
much before they happen, to empower the creative person.
The importance of culture as an arm
of diplomacy can best be illustrated by the fact that P Chidambram, our
erstwhile Finance Minister, doubled the budget of ICCR last year
without even being asked to do so - definitely a first of its kind! The
world of creativity is too important to India's health to be denied its
right to transparency. Mind you, it never was a strong point in
any
department of our civic life and certainly not a concern of the power
elite.With the media, the only watchdog that we had earlier,
having shut its
doors to serious cultural issues and replaced them with "entertainment,"
a euphemism for soft porn, it is now a free-for-all situation.
Those
of us who value our artistes and their contribution to the Idea of
India,
then, have to find alternate forums for having our voice heard.
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Reflections on beauty as an element of aesthetics
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Sangeet Natak Akademi's New General Council
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"Sastric Tradition in Indian Classical Dances"
Parkaya's 3rd edition marks coming of age of the 'thinking' dancer
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The Rolls Royce and Indian Royalty
Reborn…a modern look at an ancient thought
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In
God's own country
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Ending
2010 on a note of hope
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The
Long March Art Project
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The
Games they play
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Why
some art practices and usages evolved the way they did!
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Politics
touches even the 1000 year old Brihadeeswara Temple
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The
story of the Shehnai through the eyes of Rita Ganguli
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Attendance
male focus issue gets rousing Delhi launch
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Commonwealth
Games celebrates concept of 'Wheel of Life'
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Chinese
contemporary art on an upward swing
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The
12th APPAN festival in the Himalayas
(Re)Discovering
the line where culture meets life
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Rumi
on Wheels
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Of
festivals and politics
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Mass
production or produced by the masses?
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Of
Raja Ravi Varma's nubile maidens and apsaras of dance
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When
the arts do more than entertain: They heal!
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Karnad's
Broken Images explores crisis of identity
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Of
Butoh and Japanese aesthetics
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Saroj
Khan's Matak-Jhatak
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Heritage
preserved, heritage polluted
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Doordarshan
Archives, a national treasure, is rolling!
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Culture
with a new face
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Picasso
in the raw comes to town
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Merce
Cunningham remembered with Mahamrityunjaya
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SNA
expands the Awards canvas
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'Jiyo!'
Rajiv Sethi corporatizes crafts and heritage
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At
last - Gen Next sprouts new Kansens
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Renuka
and the King of Siam
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The
Sangeet Natak Akademi undergoes the rites of passage
- Responses
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