A spiritual odyssey Drawing from extensive research, undiscovered letters, journals and memoirs, biographer Deborah Baker has woven a many-layered literary mystery from American poet Ginsberg’s 1961 journey by boat from New York to Bombay. A Blue Hand: The Beats in India follows the poet and his fellow Beats companions as they travel from the ashrams of the Himalayan foothills to Delhi opium dens to the burning pyres of Benaras. They encounter an India of charlatans and saints, a country of spectacular beauty and spiritual promise and of devastating poverty and political unease. In their restless, comic and often tortured search for meaning, the Beats looked to India for answers while India looked to the West. It is a story of their search for God, for love and for peace in the shadow of the atomic bomb. It is also a story of India — its gods and its poets, its politics and its place in the American imagination. This evening, Penguin Books India hosts the launch of the book, along with a panel discussion based on it. Participants: Nabaneeta Deb Sen, Nabarun Bhattacharya, Utpal Kumar Basu and the author. Baul singer Laxman Das Baul will present a suite of baul songs on the occasion. Event: Launch of A Blue Hand, The Beats in India and panel discussion When: Today at 7 pm Where: Town Hall, 4 Esplanade Row (West)

art

Till August 7 at Masters Collection Art Gallery, G7 Malayalay Apts, 3 Woodburn Park Road; 11 am - 7 pm: Creativity Unlimited, an exhibition of recent creations by Anup Giri, Swapan Palley, Sachin Jaltare, Beena Pradhan, Debabrata Chakravarty, Asit Sarkar, Samir Paul, Minakshi De, Sukanata Das, Subrata Das, Dhananjoy Ghosh, Nelson Kennedy, Kajol Mondal, Sutapa Khan, Sibsaday Choudhary and others. Till August 8 at Gallery Kolkata, 41 Shakespeare Sarani, 2nd floor, Duckback House, #2287 3377/88; 11 am - 7 pm: Glimpses — showcasing paintings and sculptures by modern and contemporary Indian artists. Till August 8 at Chitrakoot Art Gallery, 55 Gariahat Road, #2475 2275; 3 pm - 8 pm: Masters of Bengal — Graphic works by Somnath Hore, Ramendra Nath Chakraborty, Chittoprasad, Haren Das, Nandalal Bose, Manindra Bhushan Gupta, Prankrishna Pal, Dharmanarayan Dasgupta, Suhas Roy, Arun Bose, Amitabha Banerjee, Lalu Prasad Shaw, Sanat Kar, Shyamal Dutta Roy, Ganesh Pyne, Bikash Bhattacharjee, K.G. Subramanyan and others. Till August 9 at Gallery Sanskriti, 5C Alipore Park Road; 11 am - 8 pm: Gallery Sanskriti and Apparao Galleries present The Wandering Alchemist — paintings and sculptures by Alexis Kersey, George K, and Manish Nai. Till August 9 at CIMA Gallery; 2 pm - 7 pm: Untiled and more recent works by Shakila. Till August 10 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture, 2nd floor; 4 pm - 8 pm: Freedom Land — an exhibition of paintings by Alaykumar Ghoshal, Arnab Mukherjee, Chandra Nath Saha (Tilak), Kamal Kumar Mukherjee, Nandita Mukherjee, Shubhabrata Bose, Sudipta Dutta, Sujata Kar Saha and Utpal Dutta. Till August 10 at Academy of Fine Arts, North Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: West Bengal Government School Teachers Association presents an exhibition of paintings and sculptures by art teachers of West Bengal government schools. Till August 10 at Artists Circle, 46 Circus Avenue, #2283 3176; 2 pm - 7 pm: Contemplative Inwardness, a solo show by Samir Saha. Till August 10 at Society of Contemporary Art Gallery, 398 Rashbehari Avenue, EM Bypass Connector Road, Gold Park; 3 pm - 7 pm: Group exhibition by Rangan. Featuring works by Abhijit Pal, Hirak Chand, Sabyasachi Barah, Anjana Mukherjee and Ramkrishna Haldar. Till August 14 (except Sunday) at Emami Chisel Art Pvt. Ltd, Emami Towers, 687 Anandapur EM Bypass, #40113182; 11 am - 7 pm: Maanush, paintings, collages and mix media works by Haku Shah. Till August 16 (except Sunday) at Tejas Art Gallery, 11 Mayfair Road, #4007 6042; 1 pm - 7.30 pm: Horses, a solo show of horses in mixed media on canvas by artist Dhiren Sasmal. Till August 17 at Gallery Katayun, 4A Auckland Square; 3 pm - 7 pm: An exhibition of paintings by Nilima Dutta. Till August 20 (except Sundays) at Akar Prakar, P 238 Hindustan Park, #2464 2617; 2 pm - 7 pm: Abol Tabol: An installation in clay by Nidhi Jalan.

DRAMA

August 7 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Nat-Ranga presents Gulbaaj, the Man of the Match. Direction: Sohan Bandopadhyay.

TALK

August 7 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Shivananda Hall; 6 pm: Swami Atmapriyananda will speak in English on Kena Upanishad. August 7 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Rajkrishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Samshuddhananda will speak in Bengali on Srimad-Bhagavad. August 7 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 7.10 pm: Swami Vamanananda will speak on Spiritual Retreat and Guided Meditation.

PERFORMING ARTS

Till August 9 at Kala Mandir; 6 pm & August 10 at Science City Auditorium; 11 am & 6 pm: Indo Occidental Symbiosis and Juhu Cultural Association (Mumbai) present Mallhar Festival. August 7: Soumitra Lahiri (sitar) with Arvind Kumar Azad (tabla); and Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar (vocal) with Kumar Bose (tabla) and Jyoti Goho (harmonium). August 8: Kartick Kumar (sitar) with Kumar Bose (tabla); and Ustad Rashid Khan (vocal) with Subhankar Banerjee (tabla) and Jyoti Goho (harmonium). August 9: Budhaditya Mukherjee (sitar) with Abhijit Banerjee (tabla); and Ajoy Chakraborty (vocal) with Kumar Bose (tabla). August 10, 11 am: Ustad Amjad Ali Khan (sarod); at 6 pm: Kishori Amonkar (vocal) with Kumar Bose (tabla). August 7 at 4 Elgin Road (Saumendranath Tagore’s residence); 6.30 pm: To mark 60 years of Baitanik, an evening of Tagore songs by Debarati Som, Swapan Som, Sharmishtha Datta (Pathak), Jayanti Purakayastha, Subrata Sengupta and artistes of Baitanik. Also, felicitation to Sumitra Sen.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Till August 12 at Photographers’ Gallery, 59A Southend Park, #65406499, 98303 31556; 3 pm - 8 pm: Bouquet of Photographs, featuring images taken by Atanu Paul and members of Third Eye. Till August 13 at 46 Satish Mukherjee Road (near Kalighat tram depot), #2455 6942/43; 2 pm - 8 pm: Running Amok: An exhibition of photographs by Jasmeen Patheja. Till August 17 at By the Way, Taj Bengal; 10.30 am onwards: A Whole New World, an exhibition of photographs by Rashi Goenka.

BAISHE SHRAVAN

August 7 at Bichitra Hall, Jorasanko Thakurbari; 9 am: Hey Mohajiban — a collage tracing those final days of the Poet’s life, his endurance of the agony and his passing out of existence on the 22nd day of Shravan by juxtaposing it with his death-defying creations in the form of poems, songs words and images. Concept, script & direction: Chaitali Dasgupta. Readings by Chaitali Dasgupta and Agnimitra Ghosh. Songs by Debasish Raychaudhuri, Aniruddha Singha, Ranjini Mukherjee and Rohini Raychaudhuri. August 7 at Netaji Indoor Stadium; 5 pm: Pather Panchali remembers Tagore on his death anniversary with Smarane Barane, featuring songs and recitation. Participants: Rajeshwar Bhattacharya, Abhirup Guha Thakurta, Pramita Mallick, Sreeradha Bandyopadhyay, Srikanto Acharya, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Lopamudra Mitra, Indranil Sen, Manomoy Bhattacharya Rajasree Bhattacharya, Pubali Mukhopadhyay, Urmimala and Jagannath Basu, Bratati Bandyopadhyay and others along with students of Visva Bharati and Rabindra Bharati. August 7 at Rathindra Mancha, Jorasanko Thakurbari; 6.30 pm: Rabindra Bharati Society pays tribute to Tagore on his 67th death anniversary with reading and recitation by Urmimala and Jagannath Basu, and songs by Shreya Guhathakurta, Prabuddha Raha, Manisha Murali Nair, Manoj Murali Nair, Shikha Basu and Agnibha Bandyopadhyay.

DEMONSTRATION

August 7 at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2440 8937; 6 pm: Toneshop by Amyt Datta — Demonstartion with eminent guitarist Amyt Datta on how to make guitar tones and the way it works in the realist way and on stage in the professional way, like the use of compression, chorus, microphones, etc.

EXHIBITION

August 7 - 9 at Kaushik Hall, Nari Seva Sangha, Jodhpur Park; 11 am - 8 pm: All India Women’s Conference, Jodhpur Park Constituent Branch is showcasing an exhibition of batik, kantha stitch items, hand painting, applique, dress material, sarees, tops, children’s garments and costume jewellery. August 7 - 15 at 85 Lansdowne, 85B Sarat Bose Road, #24862136; 11 am - 7.30 pm: Festal Prelude, a week-long exhibition of creative, instinctive and original designs of fine jewellery by Queenie Dhody (Aug. 7 & 8), contemporary Indian wear by Namrata Joshipura, traditional Jodhpuri saris by Sheffali Poddar and a new festive line by resident designers. August 7 at Taj Bengal; 11.30 am onwards: Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri - The original presents an exhibition of Krsala range of jewellery. Till August 13 at Merlin Homeland, 18 Asutosh Mookerjee Road; 12 noon - 8.30 pm: Green Drive: The Nature and Environment Awareness Programme showcasing rare and common saplings, foliage creepers, bonsai and rare blooms, seeds manure, palm trees, cycads and various gardening tools. Till August 8 at Finesse, 11/1B New Road, #24790545; 11 am - 7 pm: Spining dreams and weaving spells of sarees from the banks of Narmada; subtle maheshwari sarees in myriad hues handblock printed for the elegant look, venkatgari and uppadas in real zari from Andhra Pradesh with traditional motif and contemporary look. Till August 15 at Starmark (3 Lord Sinha Road, G-202 City Centre, and South City); 10.30 am - 8 pm: An exhibition of Penguin Classics Collection covering Greek and Roman works, and Victorian literature and modern classics. Till August 20 at 108 Raja Basanta Roy Road, #2466 4315; 10.30 am - 7.30 pm: Paramita Viswanathan’s Design showcases silk, tassar print, chiffon, crepe print, mull, kota, tangail print and south Indian sarees. Till August 30 at F-17 Dakshinapan, Dhakuria, #2423 7625: LePakshi (Andhra Pradesh Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd) hosts Mangalagiri Festival, a display of Andhra Pradesh handloom products.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