Emergence of a new India India is one of the world’s oldest continuous civilisations; its various communities live in several centuries simultaneously, creating multiple and opposing narratives. In fact, the earlier version of a poor and spiritual country has now given way to that of a rich and materialistic one. But, a closer and more intimate exploration will sadly reveal the tawdry, the cruel, the melancholic side of life in India which is recently finding expression in popular cinema and in the visual fine arts. The three artists in Concepts & Ideas 2011 do not exactly plunge us into this universe. Instead, they make us do what good art is supposed to do — interpret, reveal and make us witnesses. Each of them sensitively examines a silent issue plaguing life and living in India. Sheba Chhachhi looks at the human effects and affect of rapid urbanisation and the relationship between myth and ecology. In her works, aesthetics goes together with advocating justice and equity and critiquing contemporary society. Anjum Singh’s sculptures express her perspectives on urban, metropolitan issues, the chaos, the garbage, the shattering disfigurement of a city, while continuing to be alluring for the consumer society. Praneet Soi engages with the questions of migration and displacements. He examines parallels that link his practice as a painter to a political approach to the subject matter. Event: An exhibition of artworks by Sheba Chhachhi, Anjum Singh and Praneet Soi When: Till March 9 (except Sunday); Monday (3 pm - 7 pm), Tuesday - Saturday (2 pm - 7 pm) Where: CIMA Gallery, Sunny Tower (2nd floor), 43 Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue, 2485 8717 / 2485 8509

ART

Till March 9 (except Sundays & holidays) at CIMA Gallery, Sunny Tower (2nd floor), 43 Ashutosh Chowdhury Avenue, 2485 8717 / 2485 8509; Mondays (3 pm - 7 pm), Tuesdays - Saturdays (2 pm - 7 pm): Concepts & Ideas 2011. Works by Sheba Chhachhi, Anjum Singh and Praneet Soi. Till March 31 (except Mondays) in the Portrait Gallery of Victoria Memorial; 10am - 5pm: To celebrate the birth centenary of Mother Teresa, Victoria Memorial Hall hosts twenty 20 Paintings, an exhibition of paintings on Mother by M.F. Husain and Sunita Kumar. Till March 5 at G.C. Laha Centenary Fine Arts Gallery, 7 Chittaranjan Avenue; 3 pm - 8 pm: Little Expressions, a group show by Contemporary Artist Circle. Participants: Asoke Dutta, Avisankar Mitra, Barun Deb, Sarbani Ganguly, Sanjay K Bhattacharya and Tapas Ghosal. Till March 5 at Society of Contemporary Artists Circle, 398 Jogendra Garden; 4 pm - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of recent paintings and drawings by Lali Das. Till March 6 at Taj Bengal, Promenade Lounge; 10 am - 11 pm: The third solo exhibition of paintings by Swapan Sarkar. Till March 6 at Sculpture Gallery, C/26 Bapuji Nagar, 24122907; 4 pm - 8 pm: Miniature bronze sculptures by Tapas Sarkar, Somnath Chakraborty, Chandan Roy and Subrata Pal. Till March 6 at Shree Art Gallery, 11 Gurusaday Road, Kusum Apartment, Flat no. 61; 3 pm - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Anil Yadav, Ashok Ganguly, Anindya Shankar Chakraborty, Ajita Sengupta, Ashis Mondal, Aditi Chakraborty Sadhu, Ashimava Dutta, Arun Samaddar, Deben Laha, Debabrata Chakraborty, Dipti Chakraborty, Jibon Biswas, Khokon Raut, Milanendu Mondal, Malay Chandan Saha, Nitya Kundu, Paresh Saha, Prabal Roy, Prasun Mollick, Pramathesh Chandra, Ranjan Sarkar, Ramprasad De, Ranadip Das, Samir Paul, Subrata Das, Sadhan Sengupta, Sarbani Ganguly, Suman Dey, Sukanta Das, Tanusree Ghosh, Tapash Sardar and Tanmoy Roychowdhury. Till March 7 (weekdays only) at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G-7 Malayalay, 3 Woodburn Park, 3058 4060/62; 12 noon - 6 pm: Creativity Unlimited, an exhibition of recent creations by upcoming and eminent artists. Participants: Anup Giri, Arup Ratan Choudhury, Arya Chandra Chowdhury, Asit Sarkar, Bappa Haldar, Dewashish Das, Dilip Choudhury, Dipak Kundu, Gopal Chowdhury, Joydeep Chatterjee, Mithun Dutta, Palash Halder, Rabin Mandal, Ranadip Das, Samir Paul, Sanjib Sen, Sasanka Ghosh, Sekhar Roy, Shyamal Mukherjee, Sk Jamirul Rahman, Subhamita Dinda, Subrata Das, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Sukanta Das, Supriyo Das, Suvra Chakraborty, Swapan Palley, Tanuj Sardar and Tapas Sardar. Till March 7 at Shilpo Kalpo Bhavan, near Beliaghata Bypass Connector; 2 pm - 8 pm: An art exhibition presented by Chitra-Angan Art School, LA Block, Salt Lake. Till March 8 at Government College of Art and Craft: Government College of Art and Craft, Calcutta presents an exhibition of Tagore’s original work, his letters and other documents, along with poems by eminent poets on him and the works of art by renowned artists based on Tagore’s thoughts. Till March 14 (except Sundays) at Ganges Art Gallery, 33A Jatin Das Road, 24653212; 11 am - 7 pm: Liberation, an exhibition of recent works by Shahabuddin Ahmed. Till March 15 at ECA Art Walk, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Kalyan Sundar Gupta, Dr Jakir Hossain, Gopinath Basu and Rana Roy. Till March 26 at Gallery Kolkata, 2nd floor, Duckback House, 41 Shakespeare Sarani, 22873377; 11 am - 7 pm: An exhibition of drawings, paintings and sculptures by Sunil Das. Till March 31 at St Thomas’ Chapel, Bishop’s College, 224 AJC Bose Road; 2 pm - 8 pm: The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, in association with Bishop’s College, Calcutta, presents The Last Supper, a series of reverse paintings on acrylic by Madhvi Parekh. Till March 31 (except Sundays) at Ahuja Museum for Arts, 26 Lee Road, 40034974, 22894745; 10.30 am - 7 pm: World Art – with a focus on France, an exhibition of paintings by artists from France, Argentina, Brazil, the UK, Congo, Italy, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Singapore and the US from the Museum’s collection.

DRAMA

March 3 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.30 pm: Sanskriti Sagar presents IPTA’s Anarkali, written by Imtiaz Ali and directed by Aziz Quraishi. March 3 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.45 pm: Sansriti will stage Phataru, directed by Debesh Chattopadhyay. March 3 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Natyaranga will stage Swapno Parash. Direction: Swapan Sengupta. March 4 at Madhusudan Mancha; 6.30 pm: Theatre Workshop will stage its latest production, Goenda Poabaro. Story: Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay. Direction: Kamal Manna.

pERFORMING ARTS

March 3 at Crossword Bookstore; 6.30 pm: Crossword celebrates International Women’s Day with readings from Tagore’s short story Streer Potro (Letter from a wife). The story, in form of a letter, depicts Mrinal’s entry into her husband’s family and her life there for 15 years. The letter ends with Mrinal’s realisation that she is liberated. In this presentation, noted theatre personality Dolly Basu reads Mrinal’s letter in first person interspersed with Dr Sudeshna Basu’s rendition of Tagore songs. March 3 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, 2461 3145; 6.30 pm: Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts presents Live in Concert: Rodney Branigan. Hosted by Calcutta Classical Guitar Society. March 3 at Calcutta School of Music; 6.30 pm: In collaboration with the Indo British Scholars Association, a piano recital by British composers and a concert by The Calcutta Chamber Orchestra. By invitation only. March 3 at Rabindra Sadan; 5.30 pm: Sangeet Parishad presents an evening of Rabindrasangeet and songs of Atulprasad, Rajanikanta and D.L. Roy by Neela Majumdar and Kumkum Bandyopadhyay. March 4 at Rabindra Sadan; 5.30 pm: A musical programme along with discussions to commemorate the birth centenary of Sangeetacharya Sukhendu Goswami. Participants: Buddhadev Dasgupta (sarod), Sandipan Samajpati (vocal), Asim Bhattacharya and Diptanil Bhattacharya (sarod), and Rimpa Shib (tabla lahara). organised by Sukhendu Goswami Birth Centenary Committee. March 4 at Kala Mandir; 6 pm: Maihar Music Lineage presents a flute recital by Pandit Nityanand Haldipur with Sanjoy Adhikari (tabla), and a sarod recital by Pandit Vasant Kabra with Subhankar Banerjee (tabla). March 4 at Tapan Theatre; 6 pm: A programme of recitation of poems by the students of Sisikshu and Chakratirtha. Direction: Bijoylakshmi Barman.

TALK

March 3 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, Abhedananda Memorial Lecture Hall; 7 pm: Br. Satyachaitanaya will speak on Swami Vivekananda Patrabali.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till March 3 at Seminar Hall of Howrah Distt. Library, Howrah Maidan: 43rd Howrah Colour Salon 2011. Till March 4 at Gaganendra Pradarshashala: Frames of India presents Fotography Utsav 2011. Till March 4 at the Multipurpose Hall of Aayakar Bhawan, 1st floor, P-7 Chowringhee Square; 1.30pm - 2pm & 6pm - 8pm: The members of Income Tax Photographic Circle present their sixth annual photography exhibition. Multimedia show each evening at 7.

EXHIBITION

Till March 4 at 16/2 Gariahat Road, 9830054718; 11 am - 9 pm: Joyita’s Selection presents Spring Summer Fete, which includes designer saris, dress material, ladies & gents kurtas and Kurtis, home linen, Lucknow chikan, costume jewellery and gift items. Till March 6 at 175 Block G, New Alipore, 40608060; 11 am - 7.30 pm, Sunday (12 noon - 6 pm): V Style Voyage, the fashion and lifestyle boutique, exhibits summer collections of designer tunics, dresses, kurtas from Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur and Hong Kong; made-to-order designer kidswear by Little Angels, artefacts, tablemats, bags, footwear and accessories.

WORKSHOP

March 3 at KB-25, Sector 3, 7th floor, Salt Lake; 2.30 pm: Icfai University, Tripura is organising a media workshop on Political Journalism. Speaker: Professor Indrani Raha, department of journalism & mass communication, Muralidhar Girls’ College, University of Calcutta. March 3 at Happy Hours, CD-69 Salt Lake, 9830227778; 11 am - 1 pm: Learn Bakedishes — spring vegetable lasagne, chilaquile pie, baked spinach and pepper ravioli, rice casserole. March 5 at 8 Camac Street, 6th floor; 4 pm - 6 pm: Zee Institute of Creative Arts is organising a workshop on Drawing Cartoon Characters. For registration, call 22820123, 9331720675. March 6, 13, 20 & 27 at Eduzone, 112 Southern Avenue: Eduzone offers SAT, GRE, GMAT, IELTS, TOEFL free diagnostic tests. Registrations are on for a total 16 classes certification crash courses in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Sanskrit, public speaking, personality enhancement . E-mail eduzoneindia@gmail.com to register or call 9830020277, 9230613528 Details: www.eduzoneindia.com

SPORT

Till March 12 at CC&FC: Give in to the cricket fever with Royal Challenge presents The Telegraph Cup Cricket 2011 for corporates. Matches start at 5.30 pm.

QUIZ

March 5 at The Space Circle: Adverb presents Showbiz - The 4th edition, for three-member teams. Registrations start at 4pm. Quiz starts at 4.30pm. Entry fees: Rs 300 per team. Prizes for top three teams. QM: Biswabijoy Sen.

MEET

March 3 at Hyatt Regency; 10 am onwards: Indian Chamber of Commerce is organising the 4th Environment Partner ship Summit, Sustainable Environment Management: Value to Business through Inclusion, Empowerment & Development, to focus on important aspects like water management, renewable energy, waste management & its recycling, low carbon development and others.

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

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