Music of the wandering minstrels A community traditionally associated with Birbhum in Bengal, Bauls are best known for their songs and poems invoking a god who dwells within the human spirit. Fakirs are mendicants who travel from one place to another, often singing songs bearing their spiritual message. Bauls and Fakirs are believed to share two key aspects: a protestant subaltern socio-religious ethos and a physico-yogic practice; both being reflected in the songs that form the textual corpus of these communities and expressions of their life. Baul and Fakir genres of music have rich historical, cultural and social significance. Their songs are all about transcendence, nostalgia, mysticism and the exotic. With the winter chill in the air, the annual Baul Fakir Utsav is back in the city, with its medley of songs of the soil, presented in a warm, affable and homely ambience. In its fifth edition this year, the festival features a star cast of folk music practitioners, including Radheshyam Das, Kanai Das, Gaur Khyapa, Satyananda Das and Kartick Das who will render baul songs. Fakiri music will be performed by Nur Muhammad, Heera Shah, Khaibur Fakir, Akkas Fakir, Amirul Fakir and Golam Fakir. This year, bichhedi, Baul and Fakiri songs will also be presented by Chandrabati Ray Burman, Ronesh Thakur, Abdur Rahaman and six other performers from Sylhet, Bangladesh. Event: Baul Fakir Utsav 2010 When: January 9 and 10; 11 am onwards Where: Shaktigarh, Jadavpur

ART

Till January 9 at CIMA Gallery; 3 pm - 7 pm (Monday) & 2 pm - 7 pm (Tuesday to Saturday): In Search of a Context, an exhibition about the relation of art to its setting of time, place, social and historical moorings. Artworks include paintings, sculptures, drawings, collage, films and video. Featuring works of Manas Acharya, Samir Aich, Rashmi Bagchi Sarkar, Sumitro Basak, Rameshwar Broota, Shreyasi Chatterjee, Swarna Chitrakar, Jogen Chowdhury, Sougata Das, Partha Pratim Deb, Meera Devidayal, Early Bengal School, Anita Gopal, Subodh Gupta, Anup Mondal, Binode Behari Mukherjee, Ravinder G. Reddy, Satyajit Roy, Kingshuk Sarkar, Shakila, Shuvaprasanna, Mayank Kumar Shyam, Arpita Singh, J. Swaminathan, Rabindranath Tagore, Manish Waghdare, Ancient South Indian Sculpture, and Cinematic Installation by Rituparno Ghosh and Mainak Bhaumik. January 9 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture; 6.30 pm: Ashok Vajpeyi will inaugurate the 43rd Annual Exhibition 2010. The show will continue till January 31 (except January 20, 23, 26 and Mondays), 3 pm to 8 pm. January 9 at Seagull Arts & Media Resource Centre, 36C S.P. Mukherjee Road; 2 pm - 8 pm: Seagull Open House, an initiative of the Seagull Foundation for the Arts, is featuring an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Fatema Ebrahim. Till January 10 at Eye on Art, 3 Pretoria Street; 1 pm - 7 pm: Paintings by Apurba Choudhury, Augustine Mullick, Shuvankar Maitra, Sukhendu Paul and Tapan Mitra. Till January 10 at Art Walk, South City Mall; 12 noon - 8 pm: Paintings by Swapan Kumar Saha and Somnath Adhikary. Till January 11 (except Tuesday) at The Halo Heritage Art Gallery, 26 Ritchie Road; 3 pm - 8 pm: Colours — an exhibition of paintings by B.R. Panesar, Anita Roychowdhury, Prabir Sen, Krishnendu Chaki, Manas Roy, Dripta Roy, Shomi Banerjee, Malay Das, Subhendu Sarkar and Shubhabrata Nandi. Till January 13 at Academy of Fine Arts, West Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: A solo exhibition of recent works by Kuntal Dutta. Till January 31 (except Mondays) at Victorial Memorial Hall; 10 am - 5 pm: Indian Life and Landscape by Western Artists: Paintings and Drawings from the V&A, 1790-1927, hosted by The Victoria Memorial Hall and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Till January 31 (except Mondays) at Ahuja Museum for Arts, 26 Lee Road, #40034974, 22894745; 11:30 am – 7:30 pm: An exhibition of Happy Paintings (a blend of French, Cambodian and Canadian art) by Stephane Delapree.

DRAMA

January 9 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Taki Natyam presents Good Morning Nishikanto. Drama & direction: Ramaprasad Banik. January 9 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Howrah Dakshinayan presents Hawa Badal. Drama & direction: Kunal Mukhopadhyay. January 9 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Sundaram presents Ja Nei Bharatey. Drama, direction & performance: Manoj Mitra. January 9 at Calcutta Club lawns; 7 pm: Calcutta Club is organising a play, Brief Candle, to be performed by Prime Time Theatre. Direction: Lillete Dubey. January 9 at Tapan Theatre & January 10 at Bijon Theatre; 6.30 pm: Shohan presents Helmet, directed by Anish Ghosh. January 9 & 10 at Padatik’s Buildwell Theatre; 7 pm: Padatik and Stage Passion present Mukhia Manoharlal, directed by Pradip Roy. January 10 at Academy of Fine Arts; 3 pm: Samstab will stage its latest production, Bhootnath. Direction & performance: Dwijen Bandyopadhyay. January 10 at Academy of Fine Arts; 6.30 pm: Anya Theatre will stage Aachhe Aachhe Sthan. Direction: Ramaprasad Banik. January 10 at Girish Mancha; 6.30 pm: Sanglap Kolkata presents Lathikando. Drama & direction: Kuntal Mukhopadhyay. January 10 at Mukta Angan Rangalaya; 6.30 pm: Shouvanik will stage Matlobi Pasha. Direction: Chandan Das.

MEMORIAL LECTURE

January 9 at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Vivekananda Hall; 6 pm: Prof. Surabhi Banerjee, vice-chancellor, Central University of Orissa, Government of India, will deliver the Mrs Sukhnandan Bhagat Memorial Lecture in English on Women’s Education in the New Millennium. Dr Uma Das Gupta, formerly research professor, social sciences division, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, will preside.

PERFORMING ARTS

Till January 11 at Rabindra Sadan: West Bengal State Music Academy, in association with EZCC, presents a five-day classical music conference. Today at 1 pm: Ivy Banerjee (vocal), Smarajit Sen (sitar), Mandira Lahiri (vocal), Ganesh Kumaresh (violin), Sumitra Guha (vocal), Irshad Khan (sitar & surbahar), and Ashwini Bhide Deshpande (vocal). Tomorrow at 10 am: Supriyo Dutta (vocal), Suranjan Mukherjee (sarod), Ruchira Panda (vocal), Anupama Bhagat (sitar), Indrani Majumdar (vocal), Rajendra Prasanna (flute), Subhankar Bandyopadhyay (tabla lahara), Shamik Dutta (sarod), Phalguni Mitra (dhrupad), and Rais Khan (sitar). Till January 11 at Mahajati Sadan: The 19th session of All-Bengal Music Conference. Today at 6 pm: Sourav Chakraborty (sitar), Pandit Arun Bhaduri (vocal), and Souraja Tagore (Bharata Natyam). Tomorrow at 6 pm: Deepshankar Bhattacharya (sitar), Manjusha Sandip Patil (khayal), and a jugalbandi by Kedia Brothers Mayur Mukut (sitar) and Manoj Kumar (sarod). January 9 at Nazrul Mancha, Kamarhati Municipality; 5 pm: Pandit Dakshina Mohan Tagore Memorial Foundation presents an evening of classical music featuring Debaprosad Ganguly (dilruba), Buddhadev Chatterjee (flute), Sanchita Chowdhury (dhrupad & dhamar), and Mita Nag (sitar). January 9 at Uttam Mancha; 5.30 pm: Surolok presents Tagore’s Tasher Desh. January 10 at Satyajit Ray Auditorium, RTC, ICCR, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani; 6.30 pm: A classical sarod recital by Ken Zuckerman, accompanied by Prof. Sankar Prosad Chowdhury on the tabla. January 10 at Charanamritam, 11A Dr Suresh Sarkar Road, Entally; 6.30 pm: Devotional songs by Nupurchhanda Ghosh.

PHOTO EXHIBITION

Till January 10 at Gaganendra Pradarshashala; 2 pm - 8 pm: Srijan presents its fifth photography exhibition featuring images taken by its members. Till January 13 (except Sunday) at Weavers Studio Centre for the Arts, 94 Ballygunge Place, #2461 3145; 10 am - 7 pm: Return to Eden — an exhibition of photography by Prabir Purkayastha. Curated by Ina Puri. Till January 13 at Academy of Fine Arts, North Gallery; 3 pm - 8 pm: Vista presents Ways of Seeing — a group exhibition of photographs by Indranil Das, Suman Chatterjee, Ahindra Choudhury and Partha Sengupta.

DISCOURSE / TALK

January 9 at at Istitute of Historical Studies, 8/1 Loudon Street; 3.30 pm: Dr Kabita Ray, reader in history, Sivanath Sastri College, will speak on Revolutionary Ideology in Bengal: A Peep into the Press, 1905-1918. January 9 at Ramakrishna Mission Saradapitha, Belur Math; 5.30 pm: Swami Arunatmananda will speak on Mayer Katha. January 9 at Ramakrishna Math, Baranagar; 5.55 pm: Discourse on Ramakrishna Punthi by Dr Bhupendra Nath Seal. January 9 at Ramakrishna Vedanta Math, 19B Raja Raj Krishna Street; 7 pm: Swami Paramatmananda will speak in Bengali on Mrityu-Rahasya. Till January 10 at G.D. Birla Sabhagar; 6.30 pm - 8 pm: Discourses in English, Bhagavad Gita - Chapter X: The Yoga of Supreme Manifestation, by Sunandaji. January 10 at Birla Academy of Art & Culture: At 6 pm: Illustrated talk: Longing Comes to An End: Tyeb Mehta’s Santiniketan Triptych 1955 by Ms Ursula Bickelmann, Heidelberg, Germany. At 7.15 pm: Illustrated talk: Through the peeophole: How to approach contemporary Indian art as an European curator by Dr Barbara Scheuermann, Berlin, Germany.

FESTIVAL

Till January 10 at Nalban Ecopark, Salt Lake; 12 noon - 9 pm: West Bengal Tourism and Food Festival 2010. Today (Kerala Day): Highlights of the cultural programme includes performances by artistes from Kerala and by Monali Thakur. Also, eight stalls of authentic Chinese cuisine by chefs from China along with other delicacies of Calcutta. January 10 at Swabhumi; 10 am - 6 pm: Pongal Festival organised by Bharathi Tamil Sangam along with all Tamil associations of Bengal.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