At the crossroads of cultures Prabuddha Dasgupta, the enfant terrible of modern Indian pictorial photography, grew up in the cultural chaos of post-colonial India. A self-taught photographer, Dasgupta broke the shackles of 200 years of Victorian morality imposed by the British colonialists with the publication of Women, a controversial collection of portraits and nudes of urban Indian women in 1996 (Viking Books). In the decade that followed, Dasgupta pursued a variety of photographic projects, while unapologetically straddling the two worlds of commissioned and artistic work, bringing to both, a bold, individualistic sensibility that quickly placed him in the ranks of major photographic talent in the country. Dasgupta's new book, Edge of Faith, published by Seagull Books, is a portrait of the Catholic community in Goa rarely seen before — a portrait of people torn between their fidelity to a history of Portuguese faith and culture and their post-Independence Indian identity. In addition, acclaimed travel-writer William Dalrymple provides an accompanying text that explores both the history of Goa’s Catholic past and its struggle to deal with its multi-cultural, multi-religious present. The Edge of Faith captures Catholic Goa in a haunting, but beautiful impasse — caught in a time warp between comforting nostalgia and a doubt-ridden, insecure future. Event: An exhibition of photographs by Prabuddha Dasgupta When: Till February 3; 2 pm - 8 pm Where: Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road

ART

Till February 6 at CIMA Gallery, Sunny Towers (2nd floor), 43 Asutosh Chowdhury Avenue, #2485 8717/8509: 2 pm - 7 pm: Nomadic Detours — recent works by Samir Aich. Till February 12 (except Sundays & public holidays) at Studio 21, 17L Dover Terrace, #2486 6735; Mondays: 3 pm - 7 pm, Tuesdays - Saturdays: 11 am - 7 pm: The Other Vision — works by Sambaran Das, Goutam Khamaru and Anup Mondal. February 2 at Gaganendra Pradarshashala, 1st floor’ 6 pm: Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will inaugurate the Annual Fine Arts Exhibition and Festival, organised by Rajya Charukala Parishad and EZCC. On this occasion, veteran artrists Kanchan Chakraborty and Narendra Chandra Dey Sarkar will be felicitated. The exhibition will be held at Gaganendra Pradarshashala (3rd floor) and Rabindra Sadan complex till Fenruary 10, 2 pm to 8 pm. February 2 - 4 at The Art Gallery, ITC Sonar, Calcutta; 11 am - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Kedar Mohan Naik. The works on display pay a tribute to Mother Nature. February 2 at The Halo Heritage Art Gallery, 26 Ritchie Road; 5.30 pm: Eminent artists Sunil Kumar Paul and Ganesh Haloi will inaugurate Passages, an exhibition of paintings by Sunil Chandra Pal. The show will continue till February 12, 3 pm to 8 pm. Till February 7 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 3 pm - 8 pm: Paintings and drawings by Abhijit Guha. Till February 10 at Art Walk, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: Paintings by Mohini Biswas and Dipankar Biswas. Till February 13 at Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani, #2290 2274: Search Within — an exhibition of the works of Benitha Perciyal K., Dimpy Menon, Parvathi Nayar, Prasannakumar N. and Siva M. Presented by Sanjay Tulsyan and Galerie 88. Till February 7 at Bose Pacia, Stephen’s Court, 18 Park Street, #4001 0148; 11 am - 7 pm: Pretty Ugly, an exhibition of the works by Nidhi Agarwal, Sutanu Chatterjee, Jogen Chowdhury, Samit Das, Jaya Ganguly, Shridhar Iyer, Rabin Mondal and Samir Roy. Curated by Romain Maitra. Till February 27 (Sundays by appointment) at Idiyas Gallery, 15 Dover Road, #65508418; 10.30 am - 6.30 pm: The Rapture of Form —an exhibition of paintings by Suhas Roy, Prakash Karmakar, Ramananda Bandyopadhyay, Aditya Basak, Bratin Khan, Gourango Beshai, Sibsaday Chaudhuri, Subrata Pal, Subrata Das, Samir Paul, Sukanta Das and others. February 4 at Rabindra Sadan; 6.30 pm: Durgadas Smrity Sangha will stage its new production, Amla-Madhur. Direction: Tirthankar Chattopadhyay.

PERFORMING ARTS

February 2 at Hall of Light, Sri Aurobindo Istitute of Culture, 3 Regent Park; 6 pm: A cultural programme to mark the 74th birth anniversary of Joya Mitter, features a play-reading session by Jagannath Basu and Urmimala Basu to be followed by Taal Bãdya by Anubrata Chatterjee and others. February 2 at Bharatiyam Cultural Multiplex, IB 201 Salt Lake City; 6 pm: EZCC will hold Prativa Utsav – music and dance performances featuring young, talented performing artistes who are Government of India scholarship holders: Mary Roy (Rabindrasangeet), Shayomita Dasgupta (Odissi) and Sourav Roy (Kathak). February 2 at Netaji Bhawan, 38/2 Lala Lajpat Rai Sarani (Elgin Road); 6.30 pm: Netaji Research Bureau presents a concert of songs of Rabindranath Tagore, Salil Chowdhury and Himangshu Dutta by ‘Byatikrami’ on Sisir Kumar Bose’s 90th birth anniversary. February 2 at Lincoln Room, American Center; 7 pm: A jazz performance by American singer Clare Michaud, with piano accompaniment by Pradyumna S. Manot. February 3 at Akar Prakar, P 238 Hindustan Park, #2464 2617; 5.30 pm: An evening of Hindustani classical music with artistes from Australia and India. Participants: Adrian Mcneil (sarod) with Bobby Singh (tabla); Subhankar Hazarika (sitar) with Debabrata Gupta (tabla); and Ravi Kiran (santoor) and Sandip Chatterjee (vocal) with Sanjoy Banerjee (tabla) and Apurba Mukherjee (tabla). February 4 & 5 (6.30 pm till midnight), February 6 (10 pm, night-long) & February 7 (6.30 pm, night-long) at Kala Mandir: Indo Occidental Symbiosis and Academy of Indian Culture present Spirit of the Spring, a festival of classical music and dance. Participants: Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain (shehnai), Malabika Mitra (Kathak) and Kishori Amonkar (vocal) on February 4; Bharati Amonkar (Odissi), Purbayan Chatterjee (sitar), and Pandit Rajan Misra and Pandit Sajan Misra (vocal) on February 5; Malabika Sen (Bharata Natyam), Ritesh and Rajnish Misra (vocal), Tejendra Narayan Majumdar (sarod), Madhumita Roy and Santosh Kumar (Kathak duet), and Ustad Rashid Khan and Shankar Mahadevan (vocal duet) on February 6; Suresh Talwalkar and Satyajit Talwalkar (tabla duet), Vyjayantimala Bali (Bharata Natyam), Girija Devi (vocal), Amaan Ali Khan and Ayaan Ali Khan (sarod duet), Moulik Shah and Ishira Parikh (Kathak duet), Ustad Shahid Parvez and Sakir Parvez (sitar duet), and Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty (vocal) on February 7.

DRAMA

February 2 at Tapan Theatre; 6.30 pm: Paikpara Akhor presents Jaan-e-Kalkatta. Direction: Bhadra Basu. February 2 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Rangapat presents Aurangzeb, with Debshankar Haldar in the title role. February 3 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Bratyajan presents Ruddha Sangeet. Drama & direction: Bratya Basu.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Till February 3 at Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road; 2 pm - 8 pm: Edge of Faith, an exhibition of photographs by Prabuddha Dasgupta.

TALK

February 2 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Pradyot Kumar Mukhopadhyay will speak in Bengali on Dharma, Darshan O Vijnan. February 2 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 6.25 pm: Discourse on Ramakrishna Punthi by Dr Bhupendra Nath Seal. February 2 at Bidhannagar Ramakrishna Vivekananda Kendra; 6.30 pm: Bimal Poddar will speak on Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita.

LITERATURE

February 2 at the 34th Calcutta Book Fair; 6.30 pm: Max Mueller Bhavan presents Leselust — showcasing the work of Nobel laureate Herta Müller. Excerpts from two of her short stories will be presented in Bengali, German and English by Subroto Saha.

FILM SHOW

Till February 3 at Nandan-II: British Council, Scottish Screen and Nandan host Scotland-Kolkata Cuts: A scelection of Scottish films by Brian Cox. Today: Whisky Galore! (at 3 pm), Tunes of Glory (at 4.30 pm) and Orphans (at 6.30 pm).

EQUESTRIAN

Till February 6 at Pat Williamson Grounds (centre of Race Course, Maidan); 8 am - 5 pm (lunch break: 12 noon - 2 pm): Fort William Riding & Polo Club (on behalf of Eastern Command), in association with Tollygunge Club, hosts an equestrian extravaganza — the National Equestrian Championship and 58th Calcutta Horse Show.

EXHIBITION

Till February 5 at Soumya’s Creation, 57/9 Ballygunge Circular Road; 12 noon - 5 pm: An exhibition of children’s casual clothes. Till February 6 at Weavers Studio, 5/1 Anil Moitra Road, Ballygunge Place; 10 am - 6.30 pm: Southern Splendour — an exhibition of Kanjeevarams, Uppadas, Venkatgiris, tribal sarees from the temple towns of south India. Till February 7 at British Council Pavilion, Calcutta Book Fair: Darwin Now — exhibiting the life and works of Charles Darwin to mark the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book, On the Origin of Species.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