History of humiliation Amba, the eldest daughter of the king of Kashi in the Mahabharata, along with her sisters, were forcefully taken away from their swayamvara by Bhishma, to be married to Vichitravirya, the king of Hastinapura. However, Vichitravirya married only her sisters and rejected Amba since she had already given her heart to someone else. However, when Amba went to meet her lover, he spurned her out of shame and also to avoid the wrath of the mighty Bhishma at the swayamvara. Amba then returned to Bhishma and demanded that he marry her, but was yet again refused as he had already taken a vow of celibacy. Thus, for no fault of hers, Amba was shunned by everyone and constrained to stay unmarried all her life. She swore to take revenge against Bhishma. Born as Shikhandini (hermaphrodite) in her next life, she came face-to-face with Bhisma in the battle of Kurukshetra. Bhishma, on identifying Amba in Shikhandi, refused to take up arms against her and was eventually killed by Arjuna in that encounter. Amba finally got justice for being dishonoured in her past life. Bohurupee’s Birja Shulka reviews and re-examines this story of manipulation and exploitation of woman by man in the light of modern times. It shows how time and again a woman’s identity and dignity have been trampled upon by men in a male-dominated society. The play tries to seek from the epical tale an answer that will relieve society from the harmful consequences of inequality between the sexes. Direction: Tulika Das. Event: Play in Bengali, Birja Sulka, produced by Bohurupee When: Today at 6.30 pm Where: Madhusudan Mancha

art

Till March 28 at Studio 21, 17L Dover Terrace, #2486 6735; 11 am - 7 pm: Fractals — Works by Anital Gopal. Till April 18 (except Sundays and public holidays) at CIMA Gallery; Mondays (3 pm - 7 pm), Tuesdays - Saturdays: 2 pm - 7 pm: Through the Eye of a Needle — recent works by Shreyasi Chatterjee. Till March 29 at Photographers’ Gallery, 59A Southend Park, #98303 31556; 2 pm - 8 pm: Tulikatha - Songs of the Colours: The first solo exhibition of paintings by Krishnajit. Till March 29 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 4 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Abdul Hamid (a painting by him appears here), Amit Paul, Dipali Roy, Manas Biswas, Somnath Biswas, Subodh Mondal and Subuddha Ghosh. Till April 4 at Jamini Roy Gallery and Nandalal Bose Gallery, Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani; 11 am - 7 pm: The Limitless Luminosity of Lines — a solo exhibition of the works of the well-known painter from Bangladesh, Safiuddin Ahmed. Till April 4 Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road; 2 pm - 8 pm: Recent Works — an exhibition of paintings by Chandana Hore. Till April 5 at Tejas Art Gallery, 11 Mayfair Road, #40076042; 12.30 pm - 7.30 pm: Adekha Dekha — paintings by Dhiren Sasmal. Till March 27 at Academy of Fine Arts, New South-B Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of paintings by Subrata Ghosh. Till March 27 at Ganges Art, 33A Jatin Das Road, #2465 3212; 11 am - 7 pm: Joie de Vivre — an exhibition of the works of Dhaneshwar Shah and Sunanda Khajuria. Till March 28 at Gallery Nakshatra, 2/1 Outram Street, 2nd floor, #22892982; 11.30 am - 7.30 pm: Bronze sculptures by Tapas Sarkar. Till March 31 at Sculpture Gallery, C/26 Bapuji Nagar, Jadavpur, #24122907; 5 pm - 8 pm: Mother & Child — an exhibition of sculpture by Shanu Lahiri, Partha Pratim Deb, Shankar Ghosh, Tapas Sarkar, Asit Paul, Anil Sen, Subrata Biswas, Somnath Chakraborty, Kinkar Saha, Sudarshan Pal, Prabhat Majhi, Chandan Roy, Subrata Pal and Srilekha Sarkar. Till March 31 at Art Walk, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: Exhibition of Nina Das’ works. Till April 1 at Academy of Fine Arts, Central gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Inspiration — an exhibition of painting and sculpture. Till April 4 (except Sunday) at Aakriti Art Gallery, 1st floor, Orbit Enclave, 12/3A Hungerford Street, #22893027; 12 noon - 7 pm: Art Against Terrorism — featuring paintings and sculptures by renowned artists. Till April 7 (except Sunday) at Gandhara Art Gallery, 1B Gurusaday Dutta Road, Plat 5A (Palm Spring); 1 pm - 7 pm: Art Against Terrorism — featuring works by well-known artists. Till April 11 (except Sunday & holidays) at Gallery Eye on Art, 3 Pretoria Street, 2nd floor, #98310 62914; 12 noon - 8 pm: Diverse Dialogues — Contemporary expression on canvas by Debabrata Sarkar and Pradip Das. Till April 19 (except Monday) at Bose Pacia, 18n Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: The works of Hema Upadhyay.

DRAMA

Till March 29 at Bijon Theatre; 6.30 pm: All India Full Length Drama Competition organised by Sayak. Today: Kalyani Kalamandalam (Nadia) presents Paglir Danga, directed by Santanu Das. March 27 at Minerva; 6.30 pm: Purba-Paschim presents Tagore’s Chaturanga, directed by Bratya Basu.

PERFORMING ARTS

Till March 28 at Rabindra Sadan; 6.15 pm: Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, West Bengal State Music Academy, Information & Cultural Affairs, Government of West Bengal, and Anjika, Calcutta present Nritya Sangam, a festival of dance. Today: Gopika Varma (Mohiniyattam), Mahua Mukherjee (Gaudiya Nritya) and Sailaja (Kuchipudi). March 27 at Plush, 15 Shakespeare Sarani; 9 pm onwards: Featuring artistes BLOT: Basic love of things, Bouncing Minimal sounds, Gut Wrenching Techno, Mad AV Sampling, Immersive Visuals, Line Percussion. Call 9830122203 to get on guest list.

TALK

March 27 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Ramaranjan Mukherji will speak in Bengali on Bharatiya Nandantattva. March 27 - 29 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.30 pm: Sanskriti Sagar hosts a lecture in English by Jaya Row on Bhagavad Gita - Ch. VII. March 27 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra, DD-44 Salt Lake; 6.30 pm: Swami Amiteshananda will discuss Karmajeebane Vedanta. March 27 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Dr Sasanka Bhusan Bandyopadhyay will speak on Chandogya Upanishad.

SEMINAR

March 27 at Gorky Sadan; 6 pm: Gorky Sadan and People’s Little Theatre host a seminar, Gerasim Lebedev: The Pioneer of Modern Bengali Theatre. Speakers: Sova Sen and Ashok Mukhopadhyay.

EXHIBITION

March 27 (1 pm - 6 pm) & March 28 (11 am - 6 pm) at Victoria Institution premises, 28B APC Road, #23501959: Victoria Institution (College) Alumni Association hosts Basanta Mela. Till March 28 at Anusthan Bhavan, 132 Rashebhari Avenue, #9831093115: Sundari Silks, Chennai presents an exhibition of silk and cotton saris from the leading weavers of south India. Till March 28 at Central Cottage Industries Corporation of India Ltd, 7 Jawaharlal Nehru Road: An exhibition of gift items. Till March 28 at Finesse Gallery, 11/1B New Road; 11 am - 7 pm: A riot of colours: Cotton maheshwari/kota/tussar saris, hand-woven and block-printed from the looms of Madhya Pradesh, Bengal and Bihar. Till March 31 at 5/1 Anil Moitra Road, Ballygunge Place; 9.30 am - 6.30 pm: Weavers Studio presents a folksy summer collection of handloom saris, tangails, printed georgettes and crepes. Also, soft silks and cotton printed sets. Till March 31 at Gharoa Boutique, 1/57B Dover Place, #98301 92087; 4 pm - 7 pm: Exhibition of saris and mecklas.

FESTIVAL

Till April 3 at Sri Bajrang Vyayamgar, 199 Sarat Bose Road: Sri Anjaneya Swami Temple Association hosts Sri Rama Navami Celebrations. Today at 10 am: Sundara Kandam Parayanam; at 5 pm: Sahasranama Archana; and at 6.30 pm: Discourse on Sri Hanuman Chalisa in Hindi by Br. Pushkar Chaitanya.

FILM SHOW

March 27 at Nandan-III; 6 pm onwards: Films Division, Government of India and Nandan, West Bengal Film Centre jointly present Indian Folk Paintings on Celluloid — screening of six documentaries: Warli Paintings (by V.K. Wankhede) at 6 pm, Madhubani Paintings (by Debabrata Roy) at 6.20 pm, Kalamkari (by Homi D. Sethna) at 6.35 pm, Kalighat Paintings (by Purnendu Pattrea) at 6.45 pm, Chitakathi (by Mani Kaul) at 7 pm, and Songs, Colours & Market (by Joshy Joseph) at 7.20 pm.

POETRY

March 27 at Sahitya Akademi auditorium, Jeevan Tara, 23A/44X Diamond Harbour Road; 5.30 pm: An evening of Punjabi poetry. Reading by Manmohan, Neetu Arora, Surjeet Patar, Vanita and Jaswant Zafar. March 29 at Rooftop, 120 Lenin Sarani; 4 pm - 7 pm: Srijan hosts Springtime Poetry Adda, an open house poetry session in Bengali, English, Hindi and Urdu. Participants willing to read self-composed poems may send their entries to srijan2000@gmail.com or call Basant (98315 04751) or Anjana (9831005126) or Boudhayan (9330581722) for any other information.

QUIZ

March 29 at Spring Club (on EM Byepass near ITC Sonar): Adverb presents Love All (The Sports Quiz) from 11 am to 2 pm, and Showbiz (The Movie Quiz) from 5 pm to 8 pm. No Entry Fees. Three-member teams. Open to all.

STORY-TELLING

March 29 at Starmark, 3 Lord Sinha Road; 5 pm: As part of its Startrekkers programme for children, Starmark will hold its first story-telling session on the Mahabharata, with Mira and Daleep Kakkar of the Kathakars.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

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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