A lyrical tribute Music is the highest art and, to those who understand, is the highest worship — Swami Vivekananda. The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture hosts a music festival to mark the 145th birth anniversary of sur-yogi Swami Vivekananda. In Sanskrit, sur stands for divinity and musical tone. The sound emanating from the navel, heart and the throat pronounce ‘a-u-m’ which is the mighty alphabet, the very breath of all divinity. Both Western and Occidental philosophers assert that man is the microcosmic representation of the macrocosmic universe. Swami Vivekananda declared music to be the supreme form of worship since the essence of all music is ‘I am He’. A music festival to mark this great saint’s birth anniversary features performances by Uday Bhawalkar (dhrupad), Shahid Parvez (sitar) and Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla solo) from 9 am onwards, followed by Rajendra Gangani (Kathak dance) and Rashid Khan (vocal) at 2 pm, while in the concluding session (6 pm onwards), Dhruba Ghosh (sarangi) and Hariprasad Chaurasia (flute) will pay their musical tribute. Event: Music festival marking the 145th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda When: Today; 9 am onwards Where: Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall, Gol Park

PERFORMING ARTS

January 12 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 5.30 pm: Gitabitan Archive — a live concert by Soumitra, Srabani, Saheb, Sutapa, Probal and Barnali. Research & compilation: Dr Purnendu Bikash Sarkar. January 12 at Gyan Manch; 5.45 pm: Sousthabam presents an evening of Bharata Natyam, Kuchipudi and Odissi dances. January 13 at Uttam Mancha; 6 pm: Tabo Premosudarashe — a evening of Tagore song, reading and recitation. Participants: Debashis Chakraborty, Madhumita Basu and Sraboni Sen. January 13 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.30 pm: Sanskriti Sagar presents Amit Kumar & Party, a musical evening featuring Amit Kumar, Sumeet Kumar, Shoma Banerjee, Dhiren Sanghvi and Dr Shruti Vidhawan Agarwal. Till January 14 at Madhusudan Mancha: Ballygunge Maitreyee Music Circle, in association with Paschim Banga Rajya Sangeet Academy, presents the 10th Annual Sangeetacharya Radhika Mohan Maittreya Memorial Conference. Today: at 9.30 am: Arunabha Deb (sarod), Dalia Rahut (thumri) and Nayan Ghosh (tabla lahara); at 3 pm: Sumitra Guha (vocal), Debasish Chakraborty (guitar), Subhra Guha (vocal), Basant Kabra (sarod) and Ulhas Kashalkar (vocal). Tomorrow at 9.30 am: Malini Mukherjee (vocal), Purbayan Chatterjee (sitar) and Samar Saha (tabla lahara); at 3 pm: Anupama Bhagwat (sitar), Sandip Ghosh (vocal), Protyush Banerjee (sarod), Amiya Ranjan Bandyopadhyay (vocal) and Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (sarod).

BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

January 12 at Bijon Theatre; 4.30 pm: The members of Vivekananda Janmotsava Samiti presents the birthday celebration of Swami Vivekananda and the closing ceremony of Subarna Jayanti Samaroh. Speakers: Justice Shyamal Kumar Sen and Dr Hossainur Rahaman. Drama Nati Binodini will be staged by Calcutta High Court Advocates’ Drama Association. January 12 at Kala Kunj; 5 pm: Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari, Calcutta Branch hosts the 145th Swami Vivekananda Jayanti (Youth Day) celebration. Chief speaker: Swami Atmabodhananda. January 12 at 27/1A Alipore Road: Alipore Sarbojanin Durgotsab Committee and Netaji Subhas Club celebrate Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary with a morning rally (at 8 am), sit & draw contest (at 2 pm), and at 5.30 pm: felicitation to Russi Mody, R.P. Agarwall, Paritosh Sen, Amrik Singh Arora, Dr Pranab Biswas and Siddhartha Sinha, to be followed by drama Nati Binodini. January 13 at Rabindra Sadan; 9.30 am: Nabaneeta 70 — Children’s Detective hosts the 70th birthday celebration of Nabaneeta Dev Sen with songs, drama, dance and audio-play. January 13 at Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, 8 Shakespeare Sarani; 5.30 pm: Nalinikanta Gupta’s birth anniversary programme features reading and recitation by Dipak Mukherjee and Sukriti Lahari, and songs by Agnibeen Chattopadhyay.

DRAMA

January 12 & 13 at Padatik’s Buildwell Theatre; 7 pm: Theatrecian presents Edward Albee’s The Zoo Story. January 13 at Bijon Theatre; 6.30 pm: Sohan presents Helmet, directed by Anish Ghosh. January 13 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Bohurupee will stage its latest production, Aayna Harin. Direction: Tarapada Mukhopadhyay. January 13 at Tapan Theatre; 6.30 pm: Niva Arts and Lok-Krishti present Krishna Gahwar. Drama, direction & acting: Bratya Basu. January 13 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sansriti presents its latest production, Sorjo-pora Chai along with a short play based on Mahasweta Devi’s Tetri Kahani. Dir: Debesh Chattopadhyay. January 13 at Mukta Angan Rangalaya; 6.30 pm: Shouvanik will stage Fakka. Direction: Chandan Das.

art

Till January 12 at Angan Art Gallery, 11 Fern Place; 4 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Sikha Mandal. Till January 13 at Taj Bengal: An exhibition of paintings by Anindya Mukherjee. Till January 14 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #24752275; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of recent paintings by Kishore Chatterjee. Till January 16 at Academy of Fine Arts, West Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Paintings by Partho Dutta and Dolly Dutta. Till January 16 (except Sunday) at Kanvas Art Gallery, 53 Syed Amir Ali Avenue, Shivam Chambers, 2nd floor; 3 pm - 7 pm: A Figurative Show featuring the art works of Bijon Choudhary, Manoj Mitra, Gopal Sanyal, Sukanta Das, Dewashis Das, Subrata Das, Subrata Pal, Timir Brahma and Subhro Banerjee.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till February 3 (except Mondays) at Anant Art Gallery, 18-A Alipore Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Ramkinkar in Focus - Through the Eyes of Devi Prasad, an exhibition of photographs of Ramkinkar Baij’s works taken by Devi Prasad. A few of Ramkinkar’s paintings are also on view. Curated by Dr Naman Ahuja of the School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. Till February 9 (except Mondays) at Bose Pacia, Stephen Court, 18 Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: Ladies of Calcutta— an exhibition of photographs by Dayanita Singh.

WORKSHOP

January 12 & 13 at Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and Paschimbanga Natya Akademi, Tripti Mitra Auditorium; 4 pm onwards: Rang Roop hosts a discussion-cum-workshop on Coordination of different art forms in contemporary theatre. Speakers include Shuvaprasanna, Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, Mohit Chattopadhyay, Suvendu Maity, Navendu Sen, Bibhash Chakraborty, Arun Mukhopadhyay and Ananda Lal.

DRAMA FESTIVAL

January 13 at Rabindra Sadan, 6 pm onwards; January 14 at Academy of Fine Arts, 6 pm onwards & January 15 at Rabindra Sadan campus, 4 pm onwards: Rangakarmee, in collaboration with Sangeet Natak Akademi, presents Ekal Yatra Natyotsava 2008, a national festival of women’s solo performances. Jan. 13: A Process (Manipuri), Song of Lowino (Tamil) at 7 pm, and Kathaa Amrita Samaan (Bengali) at 8 pm.

DRAMATISED READING

January 12 at Calcutta Rowing Club lawns, Rabindra Sarobar; 8 pm: The Knights’ Stand, a tribute to Shakespeare’s tragic heroes through dramatised monologues and dialogues presented by Tamal Roychoudhury, Biplab Dasgupta, Jagannath Guha, Barun Chanda, Parambrata Chatterjee and Preeta Mullick. RJ Koushik will present the bilingual acts. Concept & direction: Sujoy Prosad Chatterjee.

TALK

January 12 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 5.45 pm: Swami Arunatmananda will speak on Mayer Katha. January 12 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 6 pm: Prof. Sankar Ghosh will speak on Kathay O Gaane Swamiji. January 12 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Paramatmananda will speak on Manovijnan O Atmatattwa.

READING

January 13 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 11 am: Professor P. Lal reads Sanjaya's report of a fierce clash between the armies of Karna and Yudhisthira, and the disastrous retreat of Karna's warriors pledged to capture Yudhisthira, in the 407th weekly session of his sloka-by-sloka English transcreation of Vyasa's Mahabharata.All those who wish events to be included in thiscolumn should write not less than a week ahead to: Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001; Fax: 2234-8244

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All those who wish events to be included in this column should write not less than a week ahead to:

Time out, The Telegraph, 6, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Calcutta-700 001;
Fax: 2234-8244