New Delhi

Inside delhi

Remembering one of its noted teachers, Delhi University’s Zakir Husain College is organising a book exhibition titled “The Bhisham Sahni Book Fair” in honour of the eminent Hindi writer and playwright Bhisham Sahni.

The two-day fair will be inaugurated by the late author’s daughter Kalpana Sahni this Tuesday.

The renowned man of letters, who was the brother of the famous film actor Balraj Sahni, served as a faculty member in the English Department of the college.

Ten publishers of national and international repute are expected to take part in the exhibition.

“In these times of increasing Internet dependence and a disappearing reading habit, the book fair is an effort to re-acquaint college students with the joys of reading and owning books. To encourage reading, the college is offering an additional discount of 10 per cent on purchases above Rs.300,” said a statement by the media committee of the college.

Books in all disciplines like sciences, social sciences and literature will be available at the fair. Since the college takes pride in its multilingual heritage, there will be books in different languages such as English, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Persian.

The college intends to make the fair an annual event and hopes that academics as well as book lovers will make it an occasion to re-connect with fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose.

Parul Sharma

Lakdawala Lecture

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Professor of Political Economy at Columbia University, will deliver the tenth D. T. Lakdawala Memorial Lecture on “Crises Today and the Future of Capitalism” in the Capital on December 20.

The lecture, to be delivered in Mavlankar Hall on Rafi Marg, has been organised by the Institute of Social Sciences and sponsored by the Planning Commission in honour of Prof. D. T. Lakdawala, who was Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (1977-80) and the first Chairman of the Institute of Social Sciences (1985-92).

Over the years the lecture has become a landmark fixture on the Capital’s calendar.

The earlier lectures were delivered by illustrious academicians, thinkers and writers including Nobel laureates Amartya Sen and Muhammad Yunus and historian Romila Thapar.

All the lectures so far have been chaired by noted personalities like Manmohan Singh, I. K. Gujral, Hamid Ansari, P. Chidambaram, Bimal Jalan and U. R. Ananthmurthy.

Staff Reporter

Salaam Baalak

To mark its 20th anniversary, non-government organisation Salaam Baalak Trust is hosting a special programme at Chinmaya Mission in the Capital.

Conceptualised by street children and working children, “Dreams” is a combination of theatre, music and dance. The two-day programme that opened on Monday showcases the dreams of a young boy. He dreams of a girl and she descends from a frame into his life. Both celebrate their love in Bollywood style with lots of songs and dance.

To create a colourful ambience, the NGO has put up Chinese lanterns and dragons on the sets. Recalling that lanterns and dragons have been an integral part of Chinese tales, a Salaam Baalak Trust spokesperson says: “In the play, Chinese symbols have been interwoven with Indian street theatre to create a gamut of colour, music and dance.”

The play has been directed by Swaroopa Ghosh and assisted by Pankaj and Sumit. While Avinash K. Yadav is the choreographer, the songs have been composed by Rene Singh.

In 1988, the Trust began to discover the world of street children -- the harsh, raw underbelly of the city. And yet it was a life the children had chosen in preference to a home and family.

There was so much missing from their lives such as food, love and most importantly education.

The Trust has now seven contact points, four shelter homes and a 24-hour emergency service for children in distress besides a mobile school.

Madhur Tankha

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