Creative Journeys 10: Benyamin

Toto Funds the Arts

and the

British Council Library, Bangalore 

are delighted to invite you to the tenth edition of the series

Creative Journeys

Award-winning Malayalam author 

Benyamin

will be in conversation with CK Meena & Nithin Manayath

Date: Saturday, 27 July 2019

  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: The British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross 

(Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), 

 Bangalore 560 001

Extracts from his novels (in English and Malayalam) will be read 

by the Bangalore actors Vivek Vijayakumaran & Abhitej Gupta

BENYAMIN says it was destiny, not fate, that turned him into a writer. Born Benny Daniel in 1971 to a taxi-driver father and housewife mother, he was working as a maintenance engineer in a bank in Bahrain when he plunged into the world of literature. Of his 20-odd novels, short story anthologies and works of non-fiction, his novel Aadujeevitham, which portrays the life of an Indian labourer in Saudi Arabia, won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award in 2009. Translated into English as Goat Days, it was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012 and shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2013. He won the inaugural JCB Prize for Literature in 2018 for Jasmine Days, translated from his 2014 novel Mullapoo Niramulla Pakalukal, which describes the lives of foreign workers in an unnamed Middle Eastern country on the brink of a revolution. 

C.K. Meena is a freelance writer, author and journalism teacher.

Nithin Manayath teaches in the Communications Department of Mount Carmel College Autonomous.

About Goat Days: "Chilling account of extreme subjugation of body and mind … one of the most gripping books you’ll read."  Shreekumar Varma, The Hindu

"Very seldom in life does a book like Goat Days come along and ruin you for other books . . . You have read it and now other books just don’t compare."  Sheheryar Sheikh, Dawn

About Jasmine Days: "Benyamin’s craft of conversation-driven storytelling succeeds in revealing the tensions in a society starting to unravel."  Faizal Khan, Financial Express 

Previous speakers in TFA’S Creative Journeys Series have been Gieve Patel, Sunil Shanbag, Surupa Sen, Jitish Kallat, Sampurna Chattarji, Susmit Sen, Neel Choudhary and the Tadpole Repertory, Jayant Kaikini and MD Pallavi.

This Series provides a platform for both younger and more experienced writers, filmmakers, performing artists and visual artists to speak about the influences, impulses, processes and thinking that have shaped the art they produce

M D Pallavi: Creative Journey

Toto Funds the Arts

and

Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore 

are delighted to invite you to

Creative Journeys 

a talk by celebrated singer, actor and filmmaker

M D Pallavi  

Date: Saturday, 18 August 2018.  

Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan, 716, CMH Road, Indiranagar 1^st Stage, Bangalore 560 038

MD PALLAVI negotiates multiple artistic fields with ease. Trained in Hindustani classical music, she went on to win a clutch of awards for Best Playback Singer in the Kannada film industry and make a name for herself in theatre, television and cinema. Notable among her international stage performances are the hugely popular Boy with a Suitcase, which has toured all over India and Germany, and C Sharp C Blunt for which she won the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards for Best Actress. 

Pallavi’s anecdotal talk, illustrated with photographs and video clips, and interspersed with live singing, will describe her stage and screen career, from her national and international concerts and her musical collaborations to her acting, directing and screenwriting experiences.

This is the ninth talk in TFA’S Creative Journeys Series.  Previous speakers have been Gieve Patel, Sunil Shanbag, Surupa Sen, Jitish Kallat, Sampurna Chattarji,  Susmit Sen, Neel Choudhary and the Tadpole Repertory, and Jayant Kaikini

This Series provides a platform for both younger and more experienced writers, filmmakers, performing artists and visual artists to speak about the influences, impulses, processes and thinking that have shaped the art they produce

Creative Journeys 8: Jayant Kaikini

Toto Funds the Arts

and

British Council Library, Bangalore

are delighted to invite you to

the eighth talk of TFA’s series Creative Journeys

by the well-known Kannada writer

Jayant Kaikini

Date: Friday, 23 March 2018.  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), Bangalore

JAYANT KAIKINI is a Kannada poet, short story writer, columnist and playwright living in Bangalore. He has six short-story and five poetry anthologies, three collections of non-fiction, and three plays to his credit; he is also a much sought-after lyricist, script and dialogue writer for Kannada films. Among his many literary awards are the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award which he first won at the age of 19 in 1974 for his debut poetry collection, followed by three more in 1982, 1989 and 1996 for his short story collections. He received the Karnataka State Award for best dialogue and lyrics, and the Filmfare Award for best lyrics in Kannada four times — in 2008, 2009, 2016 and 2017. A well-known television personality, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate from the Tumkur University in 2011 for his contribution to Kannada literature, film and television. His latest book is an anthology of essays on cinema, and his latest short story collection in English translation is No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories (Harper 2017).

His unfettered anecdotal chat in English salted with Kannada, moderated by journalist-author C.K. Meena, will span the ups and downs in his life, his intense relationship with Mumbai, his literary universe, his experiences in television and cinema and — in true Jayant mode — unexpected forays into whatever strikes his mind and stirs his memory.

The TFA Creative Journeys is a series of talks, providing a platform for both younger and more experienced writers, filmmakers, performing artists and visual artists to speak about the influences, impulses, processes and thinking that have shaped the art they produce. 

Previous speakers have been Gieve Patel, Sunil Shanbag, Surupa Sen, Jitish Kallat, Sampurna Chattarji, Susmit Sen and Neel Chaudhuri with The Tadpole Repertory.  

Creative Journey 7: Tadpole Repertory

Toto Funds the Arts

&

British Council Library, Bangalore

are delighted to invite you to

the seventh talk of our series Creative Journeys

by

Neel Chaudhuri, Bikram (Momo) Ghosh and Kriti Pant

(co-founders of The Tadpole Repertory)

This creative journey will focus on The Tadpole Repertory, a Delhi-based theatre collective of actors, writers, musicians and designers. Neel Chaudhuri will speak about his association with Tadpole as a writer and director, while Bikram Ghosh and Kriti Pant will talk about their role as actors in the Repertory.

Date: Sunday, 22 January 2017.  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum)

NEEL CHAUDHURI is a playwright, and founder and artistic director of The Tadpole Repertory. The group is dedicated to presenting original writing and devised performances on compelling subjects. Neel studied history and film and was the artistic director of The First City Theatre Foundation from 2006 to 2009 when he wrote and directed his first five plays. His work includes Taramandal, winner of the Hindu MetroPlus Playwright Award in 2010; Still and Still Moving (2011), developed in collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre in London; and most recently, A Brief History of the Pantomimes. Neel is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors Lab in New York, and PLUTO, a coalition of international theatre directors. He is currently touring with This Will Only Take Several Minutes, a collaboration between Tadpole and Hanchu-Yuei, a theatre collective from Tokyo.

BIKRAM (MOMO) GHOSH is an actor, storyteller and Tadpole’s company manager. He works with young people in schools and workshops, builds comedy revues and writes short stories for children. He is also the director of NDLS, a variety sketch show about life in Delhi.

KRITI PANT is an actor who works across different styles, media and communities.  Her past stage work ranges from the Shakespeare in Schools project to Patrick Marber’s Closer. Kriti has toured North America as an actor in Tim Supple's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Theatre MXT’s Success.

Creative Journeys is a series of talks, providing a platform for young and experienced writers, filmmakers, performing artists and visual artists to speak about the influences, impulses, processes and thinking that have shaped the art they produce. 

Previous speakers have been Gieve Patel, Sunil Shanbag, Surupa Sen, Jitish Kallat, Sampurna Chattarji and Susmit Sen.