Talking fiction Zimbabwean-born British author and emeritus professor of medical law at the University of Edinburgh, Alexander McCall Smith has of late gained eminence as a fiction writer. He is the creator of the popular ‘The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series’, a series of novels about an amateur sleuth turned professional detective in Botswana. With its portraits of goodness, its sorrow over greed, and its profound love of Africa, the series has won the hearts of readers worldwide and been translated into many languages. He has also written a number of novels and picture-books for children as well as collections of short stories based on African tales handed down to him. McCall Smith’s ‘The Sunday Philosophy Club Series’ “celebrates kindness, in short supply in the world today”. His latest book in a series of 10 is Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (2009). At present, the author is writing Corduroy Mansions in 100 episodes, a serial novel for a media website. This afternoon, Starmark, in association with British Council, will host In Conversation with Alexander McCall Smith, an interactive session with the celebrated author. Event: An interactive session with British author Alexander McCall Smith When: Today at 4.30 pm Where: Starmark, South City Mall

art

Till January 28 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street; 3 pm - 7 pm: Paintings by Sanju Manna and Biswajit Paul. Till January 30 at Genesis Art Gallery, 8B Middleton Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: Symphony— paintings and sculptures by Asit Patnaik, Bhagat Singh, Gautam Mukherjee, Shyamal Mukherjee, Seema Kohli, Harish Kumar, Phalguni Dasgupta, Dhananjay Mukherjee, Gosto Kumar and others. Till January 30 at 1/42 Sahid Nagar, Dhakuria, #98311 23151; 4 pm - 8 pm: The Fragmented Traditions 2, an exhibition of Aloke Paul’s recent paintings. Till January 30 at Eye on Art Gallery, 3 Pretoria Street, Chandrakunj Building, 2nd floor; 12 noon - 8 pm: Art Fair — an exhibition of affordable artworks of Bijon Chowdhury, Dwijen Gupta, Manoj Mitra, Manoj Dutta, Partha Pratim Deb, Partha Bhattacharya, Shekhar Roy, Sekhar Kar, Shyamal Mukherjee, Subrata Chowdhury and others. Till January 31 at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G-7 Malalay Apartments, 3 Woodburn Park Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Small is Beautiful 3, an exhibition of miniature artworks by some of the greatest living legends along with some of the exciting new talents. Till January 31 at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, #24653212; 11 am - 7 pm: An exhibition of vitreous enamels by Amal Ghosh and linocut prints by Peter Daglish. Till January 31 at Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani, #2290 2274; 11 am - 7 pm: Galerie 88 presents recent works by K. Laxma Goud. Till January 31 at Shree Art Gallery, 11 Gurusaday Road, Kusum Apartment, Flat no. 61, #9903235566; 3 pm - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings, titled Festive Hues, featuring works by B.R. Panesar, Debabrata Chakrabarti, Dhiren Sasmal, Ratan Acharya, Samir Paul, Subrata Das, Sukanta Das, Soumitra Kar, Ritu Singh, Milanendu Mandal, Atin Mitra, Anirban Seth and others. Till February 1 at Samokal Art Gallery, 23 Gariahat Road, Golpark; 2 pm - 8 pm: Paintings and sculptures based on the novels of Ashapurna Devi on the occasion of her birth centenary. Till February 1 at 48/44 Swiss Park, Rabindra Sarovar Metro station, #2424 6534; 2 pm - 7 pm: Vibrant Ghats of Varanasi — an exhibition of paintings by Anirban Seth. Till February 1 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 3 pm - 8 pm: The 42nd Annual Exhibition 2009 featuring works by young and upcoming artists from all over India as well as works of senior eminent artists. Till February 3 at Aakriti Art Gallery, 1st floor Orbit Enclave, 12/3A Hungerford Street, #22893027; 12 noon - 7 pm: Paintings by Kazi Ghiyasuddin. Till February 10 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2460 4245/2461 3145; 10 am - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Khurshid Alam Saleem. Curated by Radhika Datta. Till February 14 (except Mondays) at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: Bose Pacia presents a group show, Analytical Engine. Curated by Heidi Fichtner. Till February 28 at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #65508418; 10.30 am - 7.30 pm: The Masters of Imagination — an exhibition of the works by Kartick Pyne, Atin Basak, Tapas Sardar, Prokash Karmakar, Suhas Roy, Sanatan Dinda, Sukanta Das, Bratin Khan, Aditya Basak, Sibsaday, Subroto Das and others.

TALK

January 28 at the Crystal Room, Taj Bengal; 5 pm: Sir James Alexander Mirriees will speak on Bad markets in crisis: Incentives for loans and investments. (By invitation only) January 28 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 5.30 pm: Swami Paripurnananda will speak on Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. January 28 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 6.10 pm: Discourse on Life and teachings of Srimat Swami Brahmanandaji Maharaj by Swami Aghorananda. January 28 at the Shivananda Hall, Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park; 6.15 pm: Swami Somatmananda will speak in Bengali on Sri Sri Mayer Katha. January 28 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Buddhatmananda will speak in Bengali on Bani O Bichar.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till January 31 at Calcutta Information Centre; 3 pm - 7 pm: Water: Painter of Life — an exhibition of photographs by Alain Dumas and Jayanta Guha of Quebec, Canada.

DRAMA

January 28 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Pratyay will stage its latest production, Nagmandal. Drama: Girish Karnad. Concept & direction: Tapas Singha. January 28 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Kalyani Kalamandalam presents Subhas Mukhopadhyay’s Paglir Danga. Direction: Shantanu Das. Till January 28 at Purbashree, Bharatiyam, EZCC, Salt Lake; 6 pm: The concluding evening of 11th Lok-Krishti Natyotsav 2009 features closing ceremony to be followed by the staging of Jaldas by Dhaka Padatik, Bangladesh. Direction: Nader Choudhury. January 29 at Academy of Fine Arts, 6.30 pm: Nehru Children’s Museum presents Saraswati Samipeshu, performed by its students. Direction: Rama Prasad Banik. January 29 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Nabamayukh Nattya Sangstha presents Gopichand, directed by Rishi Mukhopadhyay. January 31 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal, directed by Kunal Mukhopadhyay.

PERFORMING ARTS

January 28 at Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex, IB 201 Salt Lake; 5 pm: EZCC hosts a Loknritya Samaroh with colouful folk dances: Sambalpuri (Orissa), Manipuri (Manipur) and Bhangra (Punjab). January 28 at Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, 8 Shakespeare Sarani; 6.30 pm: Sharmila Roy Pommot will present a vocal rendition of poems, set to music by her. Poets whose works will feature this evening are Buddhadeva Bose, Bishnu Dey, Subhas Mukhopadhyay, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Shamsur Rehman, Tarapada Roy, Shankha Ghosh, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Nirmalendu Goon, Preeti Sanyal, Joy Goswami, Mallika Sengupta, Falguni Bhattacharya and Mandrakanta Sen. Till January 31 at Sree Thyagaraja Hall, P-530 Raja Basanta Roy Road: Rasika Ranjana Sabha’s 63rd annual music festival. Today at 6.15 pm: Dr Nithyasree Mahadevan (vocal) with Dr R. Hemalatha (violin), I. Sivakumar (mridangam) and K.S. Rangachari (kanjeera). January 29 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2460 4245; 6 pm: Tribute to Maihar from Jharkhand — a sitar-sarod jugalbandi by the Kedia Brothers, Mor Mukut (sitar) and Manoj Kumar (sarod) of Jharkhand. January 29 at Rabindra Sadan; 7 pm: Ranan presents Shunya Se, inspired by the concept of five elements in Indian thought and choreographed in Kathak. Concept & choreography: Debashree Bhattacharya and Vikram Iyengar. January 30 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.30 pm: Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts presents Azmaish..., the magic of traditional, world music and dance. Featuring Ustad Sabir Khan (tabla), Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya (santoor), Pandit Ramesh Mishra (sarangi), Pandit Chitresh Das (Kathak), Jason Samuels (Tap dance), Jayanta Banerjee (sitar), Arif Khan (tabla) and Theo Hill (piano). January 31 at Science City Auditorium; 6.30 pm: A jugalbandi featuring Hariharan (ghazal and thumri) and Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla). February 1 at Sisir Mancha; 6 pm: Uttara Dance Academy presents Nrityanjali featuring traditional dance items and Gangavataran. Direction: Kakoli Bose.

MEET

January 28 - February 2 at Rights Hall, Calcutta Book Fair; 12 noon - 8 pm: Scottish publishers’ meetings with Indian publishers.

READING

January 28 at K.P.Basu Memorial Hall, Jadapur University; 2.30 pm - 4 pm: Readings by Alexander McCall Smith; introduced by Prof. Ananda Lal; chaired by Susie Nicklin.

QUIZ

January 29 at Subhas Mela, Madhyamgram Choumatha; 2 pm onwards: Subhas Mela of Madhyamgram and Quiz Maniacs Society of Barasat host two school quiz contests. For details, call Pijush Nandi (98304 95857) or Partha Gupta (98303 18721).

EXHIBITION

Till January 28 at The Venue, 8B Lake Terrace, #2463 2291-3: Fabindia organises an exclusive saree exhibition. Till January 31 at Cottage Emporium, 7 Jawaharlal Nehru Road: Cottage hosts an exhibition of shawls procured from all over India.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