Talk by Ashokamitran on Oct 2

Centre for Film and Drama and Suchitra Kala Kendra
in association with Toto Funds the Arts and Sanchaya

present

"Creating Communities:
Society, Youth and Art"

a lecture by
Celebrated Tamil Writer
Ashokamitran

The lecture will be followed by a moderated discussion.

Saturday, October 2, 2010.
10.30 am

at
Suchitra - Ki. Ram Nudi Mane
Banashankari, Bangalore.

TFA Reading on 1 Oct

Toto Funds the Arts

is pleased to invite you
to a reading of the English translation of

Ashokamitran’s Manasarovar

where the author and the translator, N Kalyan Raman will be
in conversation with literary critic and writer Arul Mani
Extracts from the novel will be read by writer Srinath Perur

Venue: Crossword Bookstore, ACR Towers, Ground Floor, 32 Residency Road
Date and time: Friday, 1 October 2010 at 6.30 pm

Ashokamitran (b. 1931) has written over 250 short stories along with two dozen novels and novellas, in addition to a steady output of columns, essays and book reviews. His work has been translated into many Indian and European languages. Five major novels (Water, The Eighteenth Parallel, Mole!, Star-Crossed and Manasarovar) as well as three collections of short stories (The Colours of Evil, My Father’s Friend and other stories, and A Most Truthful Picture and other stories) from his oeuvre are available in English translation. His years of rich and diverse contribution to Tamil literature have brought him many honours, including the Sahitya Akademi award (1996). Ashokamitran lives and works in Chennai.

N Kalyan Raman, who is an engineer by training, took up translation in the early 1990s and has been active ever since. With Manasarovar, he has published five volumes of Tamil fiction in translation, including four of Ashokamitran’s works. His translation of Tamil poetry and short fiction has been included in several collections of bhasha literature in English translation. Kalyan Raman teaches at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.

About Manasarovar (from the publisher’s blurb):

“A profound meditation on the human quest for faith and inner peace.

“In spare unburnished prose, Ashokamitran examines the finite human capacity to deal with pain and sorrow and the need for redemption if life is to go on. And in so doing, he etches a fascinating portrait of the times [the early Sixties], with a cast of characters that includes, among others, Pandit Nehru and Meher Baba, the silent mystic.

“Brilliantly translated from the Tamil original by N. Kalyan Raman, Manasarovar establishes Ashokamitran as one of the most outstanding writers of contemporary Tamil literature.”

TFA Theatre Workshop

Toto Funds the Arts invites you to a one-day theatre workshop to be conducted by Shekhar Seshadri. Based on Augusto Boal's techniques, the workshop will specifically focus on his "Joker System" and culminate in a performance piece for an invited audience.

Shekhar will chose a broad theme for the workshop around which, through the day, there will be scene work, movement, dialogue and image work. As the workshop proceeds, the performance piece will be constucted and linkages established. The "Joker System" itself is based on developing new texts or converting extant texts into performances that follow a series of seven steps: Dedication, Explanation, Scene, Episode, Interview, Commentary, Exhortation.

The workshop attendees need not have any formal theatre or dance experience. The emphasis is more on process than outcome. The final performance is only a bonus.

Date: Sunday October 3

Venue: Centre for Film and Drama, 5th Floor, Sona Towers, Cunningham Road

Fee: Rs 1,400 (includes lunch, tea and dinner)

Maximum number of participants: 25


Send your cheques made out to Toto Funds the Arts, by ordinary post or courier, to Toto Funds the Arts, H-301 Adarsh Gardens, 47th Cross, 8th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore 560082.