Of inhuman bondage It is estimated that 700,000 to 4 million women and children are trafficked around the world today, with no less than 2.5 million women engaged in flesh trade. Unfortunately, the term ‘sex worker’ conceals the truth that no woman takes up this profession by choice: girls are stolen, lured, tricked, locked up and forced to serve multiple clients. Labour movements and legislations that guarantee minimum rights to sex workers are of little help. Let alone retirement benefits or pension during old age, these women are physically and psychologically violated, exploited and traumatised throughout their lives, having to undergo several abortions and becoming victims to diseases like jaundice, tuberculosis and HIV-AIDS. Yet, these victims are stigmatised and shunned by society, whereas traffickers and brothel owners go scot-free. To mark International Women’s Day on March 8, Apne Aap, in collaboration with American Center and supported by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), hosts a festival of films (with English subtitles) to raise awareness on human trafficking. To be screened today: Emmy award-winning documentary The Selling of Innocents (dir: Ruchira Gupta; English, 11.30 am) and Kaal (dir: Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay; Bengali, 3.30 pm). March 6: Human Trafficking (English, 11.30 am), Chameli (dir: Sudhir Mishra, Hindi, 2.30 pm; a scene from it appears here), Mando Meyer Upakhyan (dir: Buddhadeb Dasgupta; Bengali, 4.30 pm) and Trade (English, 6.30 pm). The festival closes with an interactive discussion on March 7 (10.30 am - 1 pm). Event: A film festival to mark International Women’s Day When: March 5 - 7 Where: Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani

art

Till March 5 at Galerie La Mere, 3 Regent Park; 4 pm - 8 pm: Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture presents Parama, an exhibition of paintings and drawings by leading women artists. Till March 5 at Samokal Art Gallery, 23 Gariahat Road, 1st floor, Gol Park, #9836276110/ 9836057232; 4 pm - 8 pm: Mind of Matter / Matter of Mind — an international art exhibition of paintings, sculpture and installation. March 5 - 9 at Chemould Art Gallery, 12F Park Street; 2 pm - 7 pm: Odyssey, an exhibition of paintings by Sambhu Saha and Samik De. Inauguration today at 5 pm. March 5 - 11 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm - 8 pm: Canvas, Paper, Bronze — works by Asim Basu, Asit Poddar, Chandrasekhar Acharya, Gautam Sarma, Prangopal Ghosh and Ratan Banerjee. Till March 7 at Galerie 88, 28B Shakespeare Sarani, #2290 2274; 11 am - 7 pm: The Exit, an exhibition of recent works by Anindita Dutta. Till March 7 at G.C. Laha Centenary Fine Arts Gallery, 7 Chittaranjan Avenue, 1st floor, #65216931; 1 pm - 7 pm: The first solo exhibition of paintings by Prabal Sengupta. Till March 8 at The Promenade Lounge, Taj Bengal; 10 am - 11 pm: The second solo exhibition of the recent works of Mohini Biswas. The artist will be painting live from 3 pm to 6 pm. Till March 8 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 3 pm - 8 pm: Birla Academy of Art & Culture and Rabindra Bharati University present Imagism, an exhibition of artworks by the faculty members of Rabindra Bharati University’s visual arts. Till March 8 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 4 pm - 8 pm: A group exhibition of painting and sculpture by the Young Contemporary Artists Circle. Till March 8 at Galerie Karma, P-505 Keyatola Road, #24636731/2; 11 am - 7 pm: Aura presents a group exhibition of paintings and sculptures. Participating artists: Ambarish Brahmachari, Susmita Rakshit, Manas Mondal, Prabir Chakrovorty, Amit Ghosh and Sudipta Basu. Till March 10 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #24752275; 3 pm - 8 pm: An exhibition of restored paintings. Till March 12 (except Sunday) at Anant Art Gallery, 18 Alipore Road, #32584832; 11 am - 7 pm: Moments, works of Sandip Daptari. Till March 12 (except Sunday) at Aakriti Art Gallery, 1st floor, Orbit Enclave, 12/3A Hungerford Street, #2289 3027/5041; 12 noon - 7 pm: Masterpieces II — an exhibition of selected paintings and sculptures by Paritosh Sen, K.H. Ara, Ajit Chakraborty, Ganesh Pyne, Kartick Chandra Pyne, Jogen Chowdhury, T. Vaikuntam, Partha Pratim Deb, Amalnath Chakladhar, Sanat Kar, P.R. Narvekar, Sekhar Ray, Subrata Biswas, Tapas Biswas, Nantu Behari Das and others. Till March 14 at Eye on Art Gallery, 3, Pretoria Street, 2nd floor;12 noon to 8 pm: Forms & Figures — an exhibition of contemporary paintings. Till March 15 (except Monday & holiday) at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 3 pm - 8 pm: Annual exhibition by the Canvas Artists’ Circle. Till March 15 (except Monday) at Bose Pacia, Stephens Court, 18 Park Street, #40010148; 11 am - 7 pm: Bose Pacia, in collaboration with The Guild, Mumbai, presents Balaji Poona: Black Smoke. Till March 27 (except Sundays) 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 (except Mondays) at Gallery Nakshatra, 2/1 Outram Street, 2nd floor, #22892982; 11.30 am - 7.30 pm: Bronze sculptures by Tapas Sarkar.

DRAMA

March 5 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Ajnatobass — Nandikar’s latest production, directed by Sumanta Gangopadhyay. Story: Sukanta Gangopadhyay. Directorial adviser: Rudraprasad Sengupta.

PERFORMING ARTS

March 5 at Rabindranath Tagore Centre, ICCR, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani; 6.30 pm: As a run up to International Women’s Day (March 8), Apne Aap presents a Bharata Natyam recital by Geeta Chandran wherein she will weave a message against human trafficking. The evening will commence with a short play (direction: Dolly Basu) to be performed by children (from red light areas) of Apne Aap’s centres in Kidderpore and Topsia. March 5 at Kala Kunj (Kala Mandir B); 6.30 pm: Abrittiloke presents Dibyendu Palit: 70, an evening of songs, poetry-reading, audio-play and informal discussion. Participants include Mrinal Sen, Alokranjan Dasgupta, Pabitra Sarkar, Bibhas Chakraborty, Samaresh Majumdar, Badal Basu, Tapan Bandyopadhyay, Jagannath Basu, Abhirup Guha Thakurta, Krishna Basu, Srijato, Urmimala Basu, Soumitra Mitra, Mallika Sengupta, Binata Roychowdhury, Abhijit Tarafdar, Nupur Basu, Pradip Dasgupta, Rabin Majumdar and Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay. March 6 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #24604245; 6.30 pm: Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts and Tanmoy Bose present a jazz quartet with Jesse Charnow (drummer), Leo Dombecki (pianist & composer), Ratul Shankar (percussionist) and Mainak ‘bumpy’ Nag Chowdhury (bass guitarist). March 6 at Gyan Manch; 6.30 pm: Padatik Dance Centre presents the Drishtikon Dance Foundation production, Samvet, a solo Kathak performance by Rachna Yadav. Choreographed by Aditi Mangaldas. March 7 at Rabindra Sadan; 6 pm: Inauguration of a year-long festival to celebrate the completion of 36 years of Manipuri Nartanalaya. On this occasion, Manipuri Nartanalaya will launch its new audio-visual production, Amitajyoti (concept & choreography: Bimbavati Devi), based on Tagore’s Vishwa Parichay. Also, Odissi dance recital by well-known danseuse Aruna Mohanty along with her troupe from Bhubaneswar.

talk

March 5 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Tushar Kanti Ray will speak in English on Modern Outlook on Yoga and Meditation. March 5 & 6 at Sri Laxmi Narayan Mandir, 42 Sarat Bose Road: 8.45 am - 10 am & 7 pm - 8 pm: Discourse on Sri Madhurastkam of Suddhadwait philosophy founder Acharya Mahaprabhu Srimad Vallabhacharyaji by eminent philosopher and preacher Haribhai Kothari of Mumbai.

FILM SHOW

Till March 5 at Max Mueller Bhavan: Goethe-Institut, Max Mueller Bhavan and American Center, US Consulate General Calcutta present The Lubitsch Touch — works of the great German filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) with screenings of some of his films from the early German phase (1918-21) and some from his later American phase in the Forties. Today: Heaven Can Wait (1943, b/w, 112 min) at 5 pm; and Ninotchka (1940, b/w, 110 min) at 7 pm. Till March 6 at Gorky Sadan; 6 pm: Eisenstein Cine Club and The Bengal present The Tender Muse through the Rhythms of Life: Cinema Cares, Cinema Concerns in commemoration of International Women’s Day (March 8). Today: Girl Fight (feature / 111 min), directed by Karyn Kusama (USA).

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till March 5 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2460 4245; 10 am - 7 pm: Divinity Dance and Sensuality — an ensemble of photography and dance with images by Aharon Rothschild inspired by Chetna Jalan’s upcoming work, E-Mo-Ko (Who Am I). Till March 10 at Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road; 2 pm - 8 pm: The Seagull Foundation for the Arts and Tasveer present Marc Riboud - Photographer, an exhibition of photographs by Marc Riboud.

MAGIC FAIR

Till March 8 at Rabindra Sadan premises; 2 pm onwards: FIMA Magic Fair 2009, the first ever national level magic fair organised by Federation of Indian Magic Associates. Featuring workshops, organised shows by individual magicians, magic clubs, state and national magic associations. Today: magic workshop: Close Up, Conjuring, Impromptu magic show, Hand shadowgraphy, Ventriloquism, Juggling, Street magic (2 pm - 6 pm); and panel discussion (3 pm - 4 pm) & evening magic show (6 pm - 8.30 pm).

EXHIBITION

Till March 7 at Artisana, 13 Chowringhee Terrace (off Gokhale Road); 10 am - 7 pm: To celebrate the spring season, Artisana presents the Abir collection of cotton sarees and dupattas, specially created by Bailou. Till March 5 at Ice Skating Rink; 10 am - 8 pm: Rajasthani Mahila Sangathan hosts Vasant Utsav (pre Gangaur Mela) in aid of charity. March 6 - 8 at 23/1 Ballygunge Station Road; 11.30 am - 8 pm: In aid of charity, Basanta Mela, organised by Saroj Nalini Dutt Memorial Association, features sarees, kids’ garments, bedcovers and food stalls.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