The LILA Terra-Sutra Green Fingers Combo workshop on Urban Farming and Composting organized in collaboration with Edible Routes at Lotus Farm, Kadarpur was a marvelous experience to all who participated. The workshop began at 8.30 am on July 24 (Sunday), with an interactive session led by Kapil Mandawewala of Edible Routes.
Master Nicholas Packard was born in America, and has lived and worked in many parts of the world, including India, Italy, China and Thailand. He has trained with masters in China in the philosophy and practice of Tai Chi Qigong. He studied Tai Chi with the Grand Master Gaoyang Meng, a Taoist priest at Qingyang temple in Chengdu, Sichuan China. He has learned the Sun Style Tai Chi from Grand Master Meng. He has also studied with the Tai Chi Master of the Yang lineage, Yongqiu Xiao.
In these times, when the society has to grapple with the glorification of a homogenising culture on the one hand and communal coding on the other, the question of the role of education in governance has to be a critical concern. The Dadri lynching, burning of a Dalit family in Faridabad, subjugation of religious liberty and many more developments reflect the levels of intolerance. How do we understand the role of education in this context and how can the seeds of transformation be sowed?
Having attended Pepita’s lecture on “Ritual as Continuity” as part of the LILA PRISM Lecture Series last year, the very mention of Kaapi LILA with her this year got my mind racing with fervent enthusiasm through the visions and memories of her lecture, and the much-needed and opportune possibility for extending this dialogue over through the format of Kaapi LILA where one gets to engage in a more intimate and intense one-on-one, shorn of formalities and barriers, and that too in a space like Nasheman. With this keen anticipation I looked forward to a gripping evening replete with awe and intrigue, and Oh, it did deliver!
“The implied relationship between Mass Communication and the government is that the former can transform the latter,” said Jawhar Sircar, CEO, Prasar Bharati, at the second LILA PRISM 2015 lecture on ‘Mass Communication and Transformative Governance’. “But, we must understand the difference between ‘government’ and ‘governance’. Effective mass communication can change the government, as we have seen in the recent cases of the AAP movement, Narendra Modi’s election campaign, or more revolutionary engagements like what the world witnessed at Tahrir Square or Taksim Square or Tiananmen Square, but transforming governance would mean altering the quality of people’s everyday life.”
“Indian media today is afflicted by a conscience deficit,” said Sir Mark Tully, at the inaugural LILA PRISM 2015 lecture on ‘Media and Transformative Governance in the Indian context’. “The media must create a demand for transformative government.” In the times of tear-jerking, sensational media work, Tully urged the community of journalists to come together and assert their right to objective, transformative journalism. For this, it is important to study and identify areas that need transformation, and do more coverage and follow up stories on those.
A cartoonist who has been travelling with time since he was 17, when the legendary Shankar recognised the mischievous connection-maker in him. A political observer for about four decades, who has seen our large democracy being handled by 12 Prime Ministers, starting with Morarji Desai, and witnessed the country welcoming coalition with all its ills as its chosen mode of government post-Emergency. A newspaper boy who lingers at the crossroads of memory and dream. Kaapi LILA with EP Unny revealed these facets of the man and the world about him, and more.
Photos from the LILA Terra-Sutra Workshop: Imagine with the Beatles
What does Yoga mean in today’s world? Is it a way for people to escape the humdrum of their weary existence? What does it mean to the yoga gurus who manage to reach across the seas and make it a common practice? Where does it all originate and how has it developed through the ages? Yoga, for me, has been a way of stress release and exercise. It manages to calm the mind, almost transporting one to another dimension. However, one sees that it is rather mindlessly practiced today as the instructors inform us what ‘aasan’ is associated with what part of the body.
Photos from the LILA Life Appreciation Programme in Origami