Lamakaan

Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of

playing for Notre Dame.
Director: David Anspaugh
Writer: Angelo Pizzo
Stars: Sean Astin, Jon Favreau, Ned Beatty

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

When we mention the word boss, we tend to imagine a man! The proportion of women in key leadership roles are relatively low in most organisations across sectors. A woman leader faces many challenges like scarcity of role models, unconscious bias, and a peer group that continually shrinks the more senior they become. Moreover, those women who do manage to climb up the ladder, face constant scrutiny and criticism. Women also face harder choices, often conflicted between personal fulfillment and professional success.

There are 190 heads of state, and only 9 are women. Of all the people in the parliament in the world, only 13 % are women. In the corporate sector, there are merely 15 to 16 % women. Even in the social sector, where so many organisations are working towards women empowerment, only 20% of women occupy the top jobs.

Being a woman and having a successful career can be difficult. ‘Women Leaders:By Accident?’ discusses and celebrates those women leaders of Hyderabad who have overcome these challenges in the social and development sector. These women leaders will talk about their journeys and how they fought their way to be where they are now. This panel of women leaders are here to inspire a generation of young women who want to be future change makers or future leaders. Join us in this panel discussion, headed by Anusha Bharadwaj, Founder and Director, SoCh for Social Change and Executive Director, VOICE 4 Girls to discuss their journey to leadership in the social sector.

How India Voted in 2019: Puzzles with No Clear Answers?

While a BJP / NDA victory in the 2019 election was anticipated, political workers and commentators alike were surprised to the extent - the seemingly unassailable capacity of the modi / shah duo and the BJP to craft an absolute sweep that has left the opposition in shambles. This has prompted some commentators to suggest that India has changed fundamentally and in some ways irreversibly. Is this really true? How would we characterize such a change? Or if not, how does one understand the results?

Pranjoy Guha Thakurta, Journalist & Political Commentator, Arafa Khanum Sherwani, Senior Editor, The Wire and Biju Mathew, Professor and Labor Organizer respond to these questions and more in lamakaan's key election analysis event. The event will be moderated by Malini Subramaniam, Journalist and Political Activist.

All are welcome!

A non-commercial, knowledge sharing program aimed at bringing students-teachers into the environment space. On this note, I request you and the Lamakaan Hyderabad management to consider being our venue partner for the same. we seek your support for venue on 12th and !3th of July 2019.

AS OF NOW THIS IS OUR FIRST SHORT FILM..SO WE ARE UTILIZING THE PLATFORM OF LAMAKAAN FOR SCREENING IT,HAVE A DISCUSSION ON IT AND TAKE THE OPINIONS OF THE AUDIENCE AT YOUR PLACE.

Vamsi Vakulabharanam
Associate Professor of Economics
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In the recently concluded Indian election, economic factors did not play a decisive role. Despite a faltering economy, BJP returned to power with an enhanced majority. Political and cultural factors seemingly played a much more central role in the determination of the election outcome. What is in store over the next five years? Will economic factors become central once again? What kind of an economy can we expect in the near future? What indications can be gleaned from the newly minted 2019 budget? What are the emergent economic faultlines of the Indian economy?

12th July 2019
7:00pm

Do you like defending your opinion with facts, perspectives and and are also willing to be intellectually challenged on your opinions?
Yes? Welcome to the Hyderabad Debating Meetup.
We will have a list of topics(general topics, philosophical topics, current affairs etc.), which each pair of people will pick from and debate on.

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

We will celebrate monsoon with ragas and its semi classical forms. Season has always been playing roles to associate with particular emotions in Indian classical music. Amongst them monsoon has typically correlated with love and lorn. We will present some ragas which has been profusely used demonstrating monsoon and we will show the melody of those ragas on their semiclassical forms.

Book reading and discussion with Chinese-American author Cathy Guo (Columbia University) about her latest book, Myth of the Entrepreneur, which she has co-authored with Ravi Kailas (a Hyderabadi serial entrepreneur)

About the book "Myth of the Entrepreneur"

What happens when a successful entrepreneur, who built and managed the world’s largest independent payphone company when he was still in his early thirties, begins questioning his identity as a value creator? What happens when he pauses and reflects on the nature of consciousness, value, and personal identity – only to redefine, for himself, the relationship between the entrepreneur and society?

Triggered off by a heart attack at thirty-eight, Ravi Kailas’s search takes us through the challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, process of shedding the self to discover service. His story is set against the backdrop of inspirations that are deep and varied: from Vipassana meditation to Alexander the Great, from Ashoka to Chuck Feeney, from the pioneers of trusteeship like Jamsetji Tata to a deep analysis of its relevance to modern-day inequality across the globe.

Myth of the Entrepreneur is an intimate exploration of Kailas’s journey to understand what constitutes tue value, and how each of us can interrogate this concept of ‘value’ to lead more fruitful, connected and liberated lives. For today’s young executives, this book will be an indispensable guide as they search for meaning and satisfaction in an ambitious, sometimes ruthless, world.

This will be a discussion about the relation between queer identities and
feminism in India. Can they live without each other? Do they strengthen
each other? Queries and doubts about the usefulness of feminism to queer lives and vice versa will be addressed. 

Chayanika Shah is an activist at heart, a Physicist by training and a teacher by choice. She has been an active member of two autonomous voluntary collectives in Mumbai -- Forum Against Oppression of Women and LABIA – A Queer Feminist LBT Collective. She has campaigned, researched, taught, and written on the politics of population control and reproductive technologies, communalism, feminist studies of science, and sexuality and sexual rights. Her co-authored books include “No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy”; “Bharat ki Chaap”, and “We and Our Fertility: The politics of technological intervention”. Chayanika is also a member of National Human Rights commission’s core group on LGBTI issues.

The discussion around the heritage status of the Errum Manzil Building has brought to the fore one fundamental issue about Hyderabad. This is one of the largest metropolises in India, with more than four centuries of urban history. It played a critical role in geopolitical and national territorial power from the time of its inception. Sitting on top of the Deccan plateau it has a unique geological and ecological system and a unique settlement history. At this juncture, looking to the prospects of becoming a global city - every decision we take - contributes to climate change, every decision we take has consequences for the future security not only for Hyderabad but for the region and the country. What role does the civil society play in all this ?
This meeting is in continuation of the meeting of June 30th, 2019. We hope to hear from participants on how to bring together our knowledges into meaningful action. We need you. The city needs you. So please do come.

Art, in its totality, is to celebrate longings and most of us can't spare ourselves from this burdening pleasure. Poetry by no means is any less capable of celebrating. On 2019-07-14 with the help of Lamakaan a charge free poetry event "Why not a poet?" is being hosted where I, raman, an unknown poet, will recite some of my poems and talk about how poetry talks to me at so many levels.

I.D is a Hindi independent movie directed by Kamal K.M starring Geetanjali Thapa.

Geetanjali Thapa plays Charu who lives in a rented accomodation in Mumbai along with her friends. One day a painter visits her house for a painting job when she is alone. The painter later falls unconcious. Charu tries to find his I.d to inform his condition to his family. But she doesn't fit d one on him. She takes the painters picture on her mobile to find his near ones.

In her quest ahe reaches the slums in Mumbai that are by the large dumping yards and is put in a situation where she meets and interacts with various people living there the diaplaced, the transgender, beggars etc.., all who do not have an I. D.

The movie depicts the lives of displaced and critiques the society on various levels very sensitively. There are no over the top monologues but the situations and scenes created by Kamal speak volumes on the differences between people like Charu and the displaced painter all along the movie.

National Education Policy 2019: A Panel Discussion


Made public a few weeks ago, the draft National Education Policy 2019 proposes major changes in the government funding policy on education, the structure of school education, the curricular design for school and higher education, the nature of teacher training and recruitment, among other crucial areas of India’s education system. The institutional implications of these policy measures will be wide ranging and deep, and invite therefore a critical and constructive engagement with the draft NEP. What is the process that has guided the making of the NEP? How do the NEP proposals relate to the Right to Education? Do the experiences of the socially marginal communities offer an alternate vantage point for responding to them? These are among the several questions addressed in the panel discussion.

Our Panelists:-

Chandan Gowda - CG is Professor of Sociology at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru."

Shantha Sinha is a former Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and retired as a Professor, department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad. As secretary trustee of MV Foundation she worked towards abolition of child labor and in support of children's right to education.

Sujatha Suryapally - Professor of Sociology at Satavahana University & Activist.

Ritesh Khunyakari- Faculty at TISS Hyderabad.

Moderator :- Dr.A.Suneetha is a Senior Fellow at Anveshi. She has studied women's madrassas as part of her research on gender and minorities.

Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew, and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics.
Director: Hugh Hudson
Writer: Colin Welland (original screenplay)
Stars: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

“The History of Irram Manzil, its preservation and ways for its rehabilitation for public use” A Talk By Dr Fatima Shahnaz

Ever since the state government decided to build the new secretariat at the complex of Irrum Manzil, one of the icons of Hyderabad Collective Heritage, there's this huge buzz amongst the activists to safeguard from monument from being razed to the ground. As part of several talks and discussions happened earlier at Lamakaan and at various other places, this talk by Prof Shahnaaz will give the detailed account of the Irrum Manzil, its history and the way out of preserving it from the clutches of the governmental agencies.

Dr Fatima Shahnaz is an international advocate of human rights, a Professor (Emeritus) of Political Science; an author and journalist. She obtained her B.A., M.A. and PhD from the Sorbonne University, Paris, France. Her school-leaving General Certificates of Education was from the Oxford/Cambridge Boards. She was the first Indian/Asian Head Girl at her English boarding school.

She has written one novel, GOLCONDA, on Hyderabad and the end of the Asaf Jahi NIzam’s rule and the integration of Hyderabad into the Indian Union in 1948; this book gives an insider’s insights into the Hyderabad of that period and its palace life. The book was published in New York by News India (Times). Other books include several poetical collections: Sarasvati; Shards; KHAKI –Poems on Pulwama; The New York Poems, In the Arms of Words – Poems whose funds went for the Relief of victims of the Asian Tsunami and Hurrican Katrina in New Orleans (by Sherman Asher publishers, USA) and others. She has given speeches and lectures in the New York area and in India, Delhi and Hyderabad, after returning to her homeland. She has worked on many human rights causes, and women’s rights, in India as well as overseas.

Lamakaan invites one and all to the launch of the book " Caste Matters" authored by Suraj Yengde. The launch will be followed by a panel discussion.

About the book: n this explosive book, Suraj Yengde, a first-generation Dalit scholar educated across continents, challenges deep-seated beliefs about caste and unpacks its many layers. He describes his gut-wrenching experiences of growing up in a Dalit basti, the multiple humiliations suffered by Dalits on a daily basis, and their incredible resilience enabled by love and humour. As he brings to light the immovable glass ceiling that exists for Dalits even in politics, bureaucracy and judiciary, Yengde provides an unflinchingly honest account of divisions within the Dalit community itself-from their internal caste divisions to the conduct of elite Dalits and their tokenized forms of modern-day untouchability-all operating under the inescapable influences of Brahminical doctrines.
This path-breaking book reveals how caste crushes human creativity and is disturbingly similar to other forms of oppression, such as race, class and gender. At once a reflection on inequality and a call to arms, Caste Matters argues that until Dalits lay claim to power and Brahmins join hands against Brahminism to effect real transformation, caste will continue to matter.

About the Author: Suraj Yengde is a Shorenstein Center inaugural post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has worked with leading international organizations in Geneva, London and New York, and is associate editor of Caste: A Global Journal of Social Exclusion. His writings have featured in India Today, the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Economic and Political Weekly, Huffington Post, the Conversation, Globe Post, Mail and Guardian, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, and Social Transformations, among other leading publications.

The Discussants are:
1. Prof Kancha Illaiah Shepard
2. Dr. Manisha Bangar
Hepatologist, Socio-political Analyst, International speaker on Bahujan Rights, National Vice President People's Party of India-Democratic, Former National Vice President BAMCEF.
3. Prashanth Dontha, HCU

ALL ARE WELCOME. ENTRY IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

"We don't die from a Broken Heart. We only wish we did"
Well, this fact is true to its core. All stories do not end on a good note. Some have a
tragic conclusion and some end without even a proper closure. A relationship is
characterized by different kinds of emotion. It is a journey. A journey where two people find
each other, accept each other and create magical moments with each other. But what happens when
when this beautiful and magical relation ends! It brings a flood- A flood of emotions
where everything which was initially beautiful and magical, starts to hurt!
Come to watch Meera's story who is going through a similar kind of trauma.
Safarnama presents a Hindi Play- 'Broken' which will definitely touch your soul with its
take on modern day relationships.

This will be a discussion on how social norms and governments shape and control our ideas of sexual expression, identity and norms. Who can behave in what way or dress in which manner or have sex with who are highly charged questions. How does it  make love and sex do and die battles for so many young people in India?

A.Suneetha is a feminist scholar and activist who has worked in civil liberties and human rights organisations as well as with women's rights groups. She is part of a team that produced the first bilingual textbook on gender sensitisation in India - Towards a World of Equals. At present, she is a researcher working on gender and minority politics at Anveshi Research Centre on Women's Studies. 

It is a brief narrative of understanding of the human mind from a psychiatrist perspective. It is an effort to understand the confluence of Sufi, Bhakti traditions in India with a special focus of psychological processes. Drawing predominantly from Khusrow and Nammalwar. This talk is delivered by a Psychiatrist.

Dibiya - A short story reading by Amar Sankrit. Which is written by the famous writer & poet Uday Prakash.

SUSMAN (The Essence)
A film by Shyam Benegal 1987. 140 min

Shyam Benegal’s SUSMAN is a highly regarded
film. It provides a deep insight into the travails of
the “Ikat” handloom weavers of Pochampally.
From yarn to loom to final product, Susman
captures the backlash of irregular and inadequate
state support for the handloom industry in the 1980s.
The film has a host of powerful performances
including Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.
The words of Mandira, a designer, played by
Neena Gupta, resonate even more powerfully
today : “We must make space for creative persons
… so they can function even in an industrialised
society... (along with) a method by which markets
should be made available to craftsmen who work
with their own hands. Do you think we should
allow our remaining skilled craftsmen to die out or
become historical anachronisms?”
The film was selected for the Indian Panorama at Filmotsav 1987, Invited to the London Film Festival, the Chicago Film
Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Sydney & Melbourne Film Festivals 1987.
It was remade as Kancheevaram in Tamil by Priyadarshan.

Written by Shama Zaidi
Music : Vanraj Bhatia
Cinematography : Ashok Mehta
Editor : Bhanudas Divak
Cast :
Shabana Azmi - Gauramma
Om Puri - Ramulu
Kulbhushan Kharbanda - Narasimha
Neena Gupta -Mandira
Mohan Agashe - President of Handloom
Cooperative Society
K.K. Raina
Annu Kapoor - Lakshmaya
Ila Arun
Anita Kanwar
Pankaj Kapur
Jayant Kripalani
Satish Kaushik

Screening of Shyam Bengal’s masterful film from
1987 on the travails of the weavers of
Pochampally, and the handloom industry.
Followed by a discussion.

7.30 pm, Thursday, 18 July, 2019
at LAMAKAAN (off Road No. 1, Banjara Hills,
Opposite GVK One, Hyderabad – 500034)

The recent decision of the TISS adminstration to close down the campus"sine-die" after a week long peaceful protest by the students was blatant attempt to subdue the dissenting voices that wished to ensure that education could be accessed by all.
The administration has arbitrarily decided that students should pay Rs. 54,650 / - upfront for tuition fee and hostel, without which they will not be allowed access to hostel accommodation. This is clearly an exclusionary step whereby most students belonging to socio-economically marginalized communities will not be able to continue education and in an indirect way reinforces rigid caste structures whereby students only from certain social locations can access quality education. Such a huge monetary expectation runs contrary to the spirit and purpose of an exemplary institution like TISS as well as the previous guidelines which stipulated payment of Rs. 15,000/- as accommodation charges over three instalments.

In addition to the demand of reinstating the earlier fee structure, the TISS Hyderabad Student Action Committee (SAC) also raised in its Charter of Demands the need to enable those students unable to immediately pay the dining hall fee with the option of paying their dues once their student aid and scholarship amounts are disbursed. The fulfilment of this demand requires that the institute provide an assurance to the service provider (the private party running hostel on TISS campus) to this effect, which the administration is reportedly unwilling to do. It is also quite disconcerting that the TISS management seems unwilling to uphold principles of transparency and display its tender documents and contract with the private party Mr. CN Reddy, despite repeated demands from students. This is even more worrying since the private party is charging the students hostel fee for 6 months at an exorbitant rate of Rs. 8,600/- per month, while the semester itself is only for a period of four months ! (while reportedly the same service provider chares Rs. 4,500 outside)

Students have also been complaining that the location of the girls’ hostel is unsafe, with many women facing street sexual harassment near the hostel. However, we are informed that the administration has denied responsibility for their living conditions, stating that the campus is ‘non-residential’ from the current academic year.

In order to bring this issue to light for the general public and mainstream media, we would be grateful if Lamakaan would allow us to conduct a discussion about our present situation and link it with the larger socio-political and economical scenario of our country

Sports Movie Month - Invictus

Nelson Mandela, in his first term as the South African President, initiates a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land: enlist the

national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Anthony Peckham (screenplay), John Carlin (book)
Stars: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

About the Book
Aspiring actress Priya is dead. It’s a suicide, and rumour has it that Anil, son of politician and former Telugu-movie superstar Mohan Krishna, drove her to it. Just another film-industry scandal? Or something bigger, much bigger?

Partha, hired by Mohan Krishna’s family to handle the crisis, thinks so. Why won’t such a powerful father defend his son, Partha wonders. Is there an intra-family war? Whose interests are playing out in the media and on social media? Is a political game afoot or is this all connected to Mohan Krishna’s own dubious past? And why are student unions getting involved?

Even as Partha and his associates, Seema and Harish, confront the ethics of being involved in a war with no heroes, they are drawn into a dangerous hunt. They must negotiate a tangled and vicious world to answer one question: a young woman is dead—to whom is her death useful?

Negligence and isolation leading to an extreme form of alienation of a rock band artist, Pink Floyd – alienated from his audience, from his relations, from the society at large. Alan Parker, director of the film, depicts Pink building a metaphorical wall around himself escaping which only means facing the harsh realities of real life. The live-action of this musical complemented by Gerald Scarfe’s meticulously created animated imagery move from individual alienation to a reactionary mass movement, a wonderful depiction of how the atomization of individuals in this system makes them sick in myriad ways and eventually many such pale-faced alienated individuals constitute the rabid fascist mass ready to act on the whims of their leader. An adaptation of the 1979 music album The Wall, the film has been widely viewed worldwide and subject to studies by scholars from various fields. Hyderabad Cinephiles invites you to watch this masterpiece and participate in a discussion thereafter on the explicit/implicit messages, art, music and other aspects of the film. Save the date and spread the word.

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

Barking Dog is a Hindi sit-com written by Vishal Vijay, inspired by The Zoo Story by American playwright Edward Albee. The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication as anathematization, social disparity and dehumanization in a materialistic world. The story, in simplest terms, is about how a man who is consumed with loneliness starts up a conversation with another man on a bench in a Park and eventually forces him to participate in an act of violence.

Passes - 200/-
Contact # 9700074079

Are 'male' and 'female' the only ways in which we can identify human beings? Are they 'natural' and 'fixed' for life? How does the society decide who is what? And why is it so intolerant to people who want to mess with, shift or change their birth based gender? Does the world get messed up if we have many genders? 

Rachana Mudraboyina is a transgender rights activist from Hyderabad. She is the founder member of Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti and also the founder of Trans-Vision, a youtube channel where she is also the writer and director of its web series.

Drag queens are performance artists, almost always male, who dress in women's clothing and often act with exaggerated femininity and in feminine gender roles with a primarily entertaining purpose. They often exaggerate make-up such as eyelashes for dramatic, comedic or satirical effect. Drag queens are closely associated with gay men and gay culture, but can be of any sexual orientation or gender identity. They vary widely by class, culture, and dedication, from professionals who star in films to people who try drag very occasionally.

The activity, which is called doing drag, has many motivations, from individual self-expression to mainstream performance. Drag queen activities among stage and street performers may include lip-syncing, live singing, dancing, roasting etc.

Mitrangan Sahitya kataa is group of like minded people interested in marathi literature reading and writing. Group meets every week to do reading of their writing. The event is consists of short plays written by people from Mitrangan Sahitya Katta. Program is free. for all people from Mitrangan group. Singing of poems. Prakash Phadnis is mentor for this program.

Conversation with Prof Anil Sadgopal on National Education Policy 2019

Lamakaan invites one and all to this interesting conversation with one of the finest educationists in the country on the National Education Policy 2019.

The draft of NEP 2019 was the first document to be released by the newly elected government in May 2019 and was made public on June 2019. There were suggestions invited from the public. The draft policy is an important document about the education in the so-called new India and its implementation will have a great impact on all the stakeholders Therefore, Lamakaan believes that it needs to be discussed widely.

About Prof Anil Sadgopal: Prof Anil Sadgopal is an Indian educationist and activist, known for the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme and for advocacy related to the Right to Education (RTE) Act. He is a recipient of several awards and honours, including the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for 'Application of Science and Technology for Rural Development'. He was instrumental in setting up the Eklavya foundation in 1982. For over a decade, he was Professor of Education at Delhi University and headed its Department of Education during 1998-2001. Since 2004-2005, he has been campaigning for changes in the RTE Act, which he believes is flawed.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Education system of India is so rotten to its core that any mention of this anymore only sounds like a cliché. A sense of helplessness has clouded the people who for decades have seen that there isn’t any fundamental change in the status quo, no matter which regime is there at the helm. And naturally, the ultimate victims are the students. School-going students are suffering from severe anxiety and depression, not to say that the conditions amongst the college going youth is even more severe for they also face the immediate pressure of landing with a job as they graduate. The level of stress, depression, anxiety resulting from unrealistic expectations, lack of peer support, rampant competition etc. is only increasing day by day – so much so that many students are choosing the most unfortunate option of ending their lives altogether. According to a TOI report in Mar’18, one student is committing suicide every 55 mins in India. The same report states that 26,000 students had committed suicides during 2014-17. It hasn’t been long since we had to hear the news of IIT Hyderabad student Mark Andrew Charles succumbing to job pressure. In an yet another incident, Payal Tadvi from Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai gave up her life facing caste discrimination and harassment inside the campus.

While the psychoanalysis increasingly focuses on the immediate causes behind the students’ suicides viz. depression, stress etc. But the question remains as to what it is that causes the students go into such a state at first place? Analyses employed mainly by psychiatric means tend to make the underlying systemic factors as secondary. It must be asked why after 72 years of independence, Indian state has failed to provide an environment in the campuses which is free from any kind of discrimination. Further, why hasn’t the state been able to ensure a respectable employment to everyone. After all, what it is that makes parents have unrealistic expectations from their children? What it is that causes this rat race amongst students and starts the process of dehumanizing from their age of innocence? How is it possible that even today the students from lower-castes have to face casteist slurs by upper-caste students? All of this cannot be understood merely from psychoanalytical dimensions. Instead, those dimensions must be placed in the overall socio-economic scenario of this country. Only then, we can come to a conclusion that can be a real guide to further action. In Defense of Reason, a discussion forum, cordially invites you to have a discussion on this issue in Lamakaan on July 30, 2019. No registrations are required. Please come and do not forget to spread the word.

Would like to host an awareness program with couple of talks on current statistics and the severity of the issue.
Play a short skit on incidents

Ekaansh Theatre presents "Poos Ki Raat" - A story reading evening by Amar Sankrit. On the occasion of 139th Birth Anniversary of the famous Indian writer & Upanyas Samrat "Shri. Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava" also known as "Munshi Premchand".

Sports Movie Month - Hoosiers

A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship.
Director: David Anspaugh
Writer: Angelo Pizzo
Stars: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

It is a different rather seldom Love Story which evolves in a routine college life, A Hindu Middle class girl who is very Confident, Practical, Smart, Bold, Beautiful, Bindass and Extrovert falling in love with simple & reserved Muslim Boy who suppresses his identity in his college.
The story unfolds their respective fathers Friendship, Trust, Admiration, loyalty and great respect towards each other and its family. The story also deals with the bomb blast, riots, political issues, communalism, terrorism, fascism, mythos, intolerance and patriotism.

The Journey of a Kidney Donor, Anil Srivatsa who went through emotional upheavals and the subsequent making of a champion for the cause of Organ Donation. He has driven across 40 countries and over 85000 km in his own car and taken the message about organ donation to schools, colleges and social clubs.
Come hear Anil share his fascinating story about his travels and travails.

'Laaysa'is a dance production by the Choreography Society of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. The production will be a showcase of Indian classical dance forms, mainly Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattam.

A unique and creative workshop for all art enthusiasts , Art lovers, join us to create 3 dimensional wall murals ,with hands on experience of moulding and casting, using clay and plaster of Paris in a very easy and safe method,
This will be a two day/two session event which is open for all age groups,
Children below 12 need to be accompanied by parents, but they will be considered as individual participants, participants can take away their creative works at the end of the session. This will be a 3 hours workshop on day one (clay design moulding, casting)and two hours session on day two (painting the murals )
All the required Materials will be provided for the work shop,
Participation fee is 300 per day,
The workshop is conducted by National award winning artists ( sculpture Sri.Kota Partha Saradha, & painter crimson )
For queries contact : 9959864467,9182783684 .

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

Non competitive quiz required for every first Saturday of the month.
Capacity ~ 50 members

UDAAN Performing Arts presents Marathi play Waryawarchi Warat written by an emenant Marathi writer P. L. Deshpande. This play narrates the story when P L Deshpande goes to the village with the concept of about the lifestyle, people, and nature in his mind. But to his surprise, he finds a totally different version of the village.

Date - 3rd August ( Saturday ) 2019
Time - 07:30 pm to 09:00 pm
Venue - Lamakaan, Banjara Hills, Rd No 01
Donor Pass - Rs 200/-
Online Booking on in.bookmyshow.com

A unique and creative workshop for all art enthusiasts , Art lovers, join us to create 3 dimensional wall murals ,with hands on experience of moulding and casting, using clay and plaster of Paris in a very easy and safe method,
This will be a two day/two session event which is open for all age groups,
Children below 12 need to be accompanied by parents, but they will be considered as individual participants, participants can take away their creative works at the end of the session. This will be a 3 hours workshop on day one (clay design moulding, casting)and two hours session on day two (painting the murals )
All the required Materials will be provided for the work shop,
Participation fee is 300 per day,
The workshop is conducted by National award winning artists ( sculptor Sri.Kota Partha Saradha, & painter crimson )
For queries contact : 9959864467,9182783684 .

Why does a person come into queer space? And how can we make space for all the reasons why they may be there? What is often our first response and immediate priority when a person comes.  How may we take care of one another with responsibility? How do we learn to say  'we are here for you'?  

Ponni Arasu is a queer feminist activist. She has been part of queer collectives and advocacy groups such as Nigah, Anjuman and Voices Against 377. In her capacity as a legal practitioner and researcher at the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, she worked with the LesBit collective. She is also a historian of public politics in Tamilnadu.

Nabikei (Footprint) Shri Prakash, 2017. 63 min The American Southwest—especially the sovereign Indigenous nations of Acoma, Laguna, and the Diné or Navajo Nation—has a long history of uranium mining. Once home to a booming economy and proudly called the Uranium Capital of the World, these Indian reservations and poor White communities are now littered with old mines, tailings dams, and other uranium contamination, which is the legacy of this deadly industry. On the Navajo Nation alone, there are more than 500 abandoned uranium mine sites that need to be addressed.

In spite of the US government’s Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, supposedly strict and powerful regulatory agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency are almost helpless to mitigate the contamination left by the nuclear industry.
This film explores how colonialism, which came to the Southwest with Spanish conquest, has changed face in modern time, as it is played out in a new quest for mineral resources.
Contaminated land, water, and air have left these poor communities helpless. Their efforts to gain justice have failed. Indigenous and poverty-stricken communities who suffered the most are trapped and exploited, as new mining companies continue to disregard the health and environment of these people with the lure of a better economy, jobs and new In Situ Leach uranium mining methods.

Unfortunately, this is the same sad story repeated in other parts of the world including India, but in India it is the government itself undertaking the enterprise and repeating the same degradation in Jadugoda (Jharkhand).

The play is based on the conversation between the two legendary writers of their time. Ismat Chugtai and Manto were good friends. The play deals with some lighter moments of their personal life.

Open discussion on the eve of upcoming Handloom Day on 7th August 2019.
Why a handloom Day?
Importance of Handlooms N Handicrafts?
Need to feel responsible to protect our cultural heritage?

A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky (as Andrey Tarkovskiy)
Writers: Stanislaw Lem (novel) (as Stanislav Lem), Fridrikh Gorenshteyn (screenplay) (as F. Gorenshteyn)
Stars: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

Panel discussion--"Keep the climate, change the economy: Need for a rainbow coalition"
Climate change is here! We are already seeing monsoon vagaries every year and frequent extreme weather events like the very heavy rainfall in Mumbai in July 2019, and in Kerala in August 2018. The probability of remaining within 1.5-2oC temperature rise above pre-industrial times that scientists consider a do-not-cross redline now appears to be low. If greenhouse gas emissions do not come down drastically in the near future, temperature rise is likely to be 3-4oC, and the consequences of this will be catastrophic. South Asia is one of the two most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts. The 2015 inter-governmental Paris Agreement to check climate change does not seem to be succeeding. People need to step in now. What should we do to form a people's rainbow coalition to tackle a now imminent climate crisis? What should its programme be?

Panel: K Babu Rao, Kajal Gupta, NS Prasad, Gangadhar Pandey, Arpit Sharma
Chair: T Vijayendra

ALL ARE WELCOME!

This panel discussion is a curtain raiser kind of an event for the forthcoming SAPACC meeting, Hyderabad 18-21 September 2019

More details about SAPACC:
https://www.ecologise.in/sapacc/

Performing Classical Dance (Bharatnatyam)

Rudy has always been told that he was too small to play college football. But he is determined to overcome the odds and fulfill his dream of

playing for Notre Dame.
Director: David Anspaugh
Writer: Angelo Pizzo
Stars: Sean Astin, Jon Favreau, Ned Beatty

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

When we mention the word boss, we tend to imagine a man! The proportion of women in key leadership roles are relatively low in most organisations across sectors. A woman leader faces many challenges like scarcity of role models, unconscious bias, and a peer group that continually shrinks the more senior they become. Moreover, those women who do manage to climb up the ladder, face constant scrutiny and criticism. Women also face harder choices, often conflicted between personal fulfillment and professional success.

There are 190 heads of state, and only 9 are women. Of all the people in the parliament in the world, only 13 % are women. In the corporate sector, there are merely 15 to 16 % women. Even in the social sector, where so many organisations are working towards women empowerment, only 20% of women occupy the top jobs.

Being a woman and having a successful career can be difficult. ‘Women Leaders:By Accident?’ discusses and celebrates those women leaders of Hyderabad who have overcome these challenges in the social and development sector. These women leaders will talk about their journeys and how they fought their way to be where they are now. This panel of women leaders are here to inspire a generation of young women who want to be future change makers or future leaders. Join us in this panel discussion, headed by Anusha Bharadwaj, Founder and Director, SoCh for Social Change and Executive Director, VOICE 4 Girls to discuss their journey to leadership in the social sector.

How India Voted in 2019: Puzzles with No Clear Answers?

While a BJP / NDA victory in the 2019 election was anticipated, political workers and commentators alike were surprised to the extent - the seemingly unassailable capacity of the modi / shah duo and the BJP to craft an absolute sweep that has left the opposition in shambles. This has prompted some commentators to suggest that India has changed fundamentally and in some ways irreversibly. Is this really true? How would we characterize such a change? Or if not, how does one understand the results?

Pranjoy Guha Thakurta, Journalist & Political Commentator, Arafa Khanum Sherwani, Senior Editor, The Wire and Biju Mathew, Professor and Labor Organizer respond to these questions and more in lamakaan's key election analysis event. The event will be moderated by Malini Subramaniam, Journalist and Political Activist.

All are welcome!

A non-commercial, knowledge sharing program aimed at bringing students-teachers into the environment space. On this note, I request you and the Lamakaan Hyderabad management to consider being our venue partner for the same. we seek your support for venue on 12th and !3th of July 2019.

AS OF NOW THIS IS OUR FIRST SHORT FILM..SO WE ARE UTILIZING THE PLATFORM OF LAMAKAAN FOR SCREENING IT,HAVE A DISCUSSION ON IT AND TAKE THE OPINIONS OF THE AUDIENCE AT YOUR PLACE.

Vamsi Vakulabharanam
Associate Professor of Economics
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

In the recently concluded Indian election, economic factors did not play a decisive role. Despite a faltering economy, BJP returned to power with an enhanced majority. Political and cultural factors seemingly played a much more central role in the determination of the election outcome. What is in store over the next five years? Will economic factors become central once again? What kind of an economy can we expect in the near future? What indications can be gleaned from the newly minted 2019 budget? What are the emergent economic faultlines of the Indian economy?

12th July 2019
7:00pm

Do you like defending your opinion with facts, perspectives and and are also willing to be intellectually challenged on your opinions?
Yes? Welcome to the Hyderabad Debating Meetup.
We will have a list of topics(general topics, philosophical topics, current affairs etc.), which each pair of people will pick from and debate on.

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

We will celebrate monsoon with ragas and its semi classical forms. Season has always been playing roles to associate with particular emotions in Indian classical music. Amongst them monsoon has typically correlated with love and lorn. We will present some ragas which has been profusely used demonstrating monsoon and we will show the melody of those ragas on their semiclassical forms.

Book reading and discussion with Chinese-American author Cathy Guo (Columbia University) about her latest book, Myth of the Entrepreneur, which she has co-authored with Ravi Kailas (a Hyderabadi serial entrepreneur)

About the book "Myth of the Entrepreneur"

What happens when a successful entrepreneur, who built and managed the world’s largest independent payphone company when he was still in his early thirties, begins questioning his identity as a value creator? What happens when he pauses and reflects on the nature of consciousness, value, and personal identity – only to redefine, for himself, the relationship between the entrepreneur and society?

Triggered off by a heart attack at thirty-eight, Ravi Kailas’s search takes us through the challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, process of shedding the self to discover service. His story is set against the backdrop of inspirations that are deep and varied: from Vipassana meditation to Alexander the Great, from Ashoka to Chuck Feeney, from the pioneers of trusteeship like Jamsetji Tata to a deep analysis of its relevance to modern-day inequality across the globe.

Myth of the Entrepreneur is an intimate exploration of Kailas’s journey to understand what constitutes tue value, and how each of us can interrogate this concept of ‘value’ to lead more fruitful, connected and liberated lives. For today’s young executives, this book will be an indispensable guide as they search for meaning and satisfaction in an ambitious, sometimes ruthless, world.

This will be a discussion about the relation between queer identities and
feminism in India. Can they live without each other? Do they strengthen
each other? Queries and doubts about the usefulness of feminism to queer lives and vice versa will be addressed. 

Chayanika Shah is an activist at heart, a Physicist by training and a teacher by choice. She has been an active member of two autonomous voluntary collectives in Mumbai -- Forum Against Oppression of Women and LABIA – A Queer Feminist LBT Collective. She has campaigned, researched, taught, and written on the politics of population control and reproductive technologies, communalism, feminist studies of science, and sexuality and sexual rights. Her co-authored books include “No Outlaws in the Gender Galaxy”; “Bharat ki Chaap”, and “We and Our Fertility: The politics of technological intervention”. Chayanika is also a member of National Human Rights commission’s core group on LGBTI issues.

The discussion around the heritage status of the Errum Manzil Building has brought to the fore one fundamental issue about Hyderabad. This is one of the largest metropolises in India, with more than four centuries of urban history. It played a critical role in geopolitical and national territorial power from the time of its inception. Sitting on top of the Deccan plateau it has a unique geological and ecological system and a unique settlement history. At this juncture, looking to the prospects of becoming a global city - every decision we take - contributes to climate change, every decision we take has consequences for the future security not only for Hyderabad but for the region and the country. What role does the civil society play in all this ?
This meeting is in continuation of the meeting of June 30th, 2019. We hope to hear from participants on how to bring together our knowledges into meaningful action. We need you. The city needs you. So please do come.

Art, in its totality, is to celebrate longings and most of us can't spare ourselves from this burdening pleasure. Poetry by no means is any less capable of celebrating. On 2019-07-14 with the help of Lamakaan a charge free poetry event "Why not a poet?" is being hosted where I, raman, an unknown poet, will recite some of my poems and talk about how poetry talks to me at so many levels.

I.D is a Hindi independent movie directed by Kamal K.M starring Geetanjali Thapa.

Geetanjali Thapa plays Charu who lives in a rented accomodation in Mumbai along with her friends. One day a painter visits her house for a painting job when she is alone. The painter later falls unconcious. Charu tries to find his I.d to inform his condition to his family. But she doesn't fit d one on him. She takes the painters picture on her mobile to find his near ones.

In her quest ahe reaches the slums in Mumbai that are by the large dumping yards and is put in a situation where she meets and interacts with various people living there the diaplaced, the transgender, beggars etc.., all who do not have an I. D.

The movie depicts the lives of displaced and critiques the society on various levels very sensitively. There are no over the top monologues but the situations and scenes created by Kamal speak volumes on the differences between people like Charu and the displaced painter all along the movie.

National Education Policy 2019: A Panel Discussion


Made public a few weeks ago, the draft National Education Policy 2019 proposes major changes in the government funding policy on education, the structure of school education, the curricular design for school and higher education, the nature of teacher training and recruitment, among other crucial areas of India’s education system. The institutional implications of these policy measures will be wide ranging and deep, and invite therefore a critical and constructive engagement with the draft NEP. What is the process that has guided the making of the NEP? How do the NEP proposals relate to the Right to Education? Do the experiences of the socially marginal communities offer an alternate vantage point for responding to them? These are among the several questions addressed in the panel discussion.

Our Panelists:-

Chandan Gowda - CG is Professor of Sociology at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru."

Shantha Sinha is a former Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, and retired as a Professor, department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad. As secretary trustee of MV Foundation she worked towards abolition of child labor and in support of children's right to education.

Sujatha Suryapally - Professor of Sociology at Satavahana University & Activist.

Ritesh Khunyakari- Faculty at TISS Hyderabad.

Moderator :- Dr.A.Suneetha is a Senior Fellow at Anveshi. She has studied women's madrassas as part of her research on gender and minorities.

Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew, and the other a devout Christian, compete in the 1924 Olympics.
Director: Hugh Hudson
Writer: Colin Welland (original screenplay)
Stars: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

“The History of Irram Manzil, its preservation and ways for its rehabilitation for public use” A Talk By Dr Fatima Shahnaz

Ever since the state government decided to build the new secretariat at the complex of Irrum Manzil, one of the icons of Hyderabad Collective Heritage, there's this huge buzz amongst the activists to safeguard from monument from being razed to the ground. As part of several talks and discussions happened earlier at Lamakaan and at various other places, this talk by Prof Shahnaaz will give the detailed account of the Irrum Manzil, its history and the way out of preserving it from the clutches of the governmental agencies.

Dr Fatima Shahnaz is an international advocate of human rights, a Professor (Emeritus) of Political Science; an author and journalist. She obtained her B.A., M.A. and PhD from the Sorbonne University, Paris, France. Her school-leaving General Certificates of Education was from the Oxford/Cambridge Boards. She was the first Indian/Asian Head Girl at her English boarding school.

She has written one novel, GOLCONDA, on Hyderabad and the end of the Asaf Jahi NIzam’s rule and the integration of Hyderabad into the Indian Union in 1948; this book gives an insider’s insights into the Hyderabad of that period and its palace life. The book was published in New York by News India (Times). Other books include several poetical collections: Sarasvati; Shards; KHAKI –Poems on Pulwama; The New York Poems, In the Arms of Words – Poems whose funds went for the Relief of victims of the Asian Tsunami and Hurrican Katrina in New Orleans (by Sherman Asher publishers, USA) and others. She has given speeches and lectures in the New York area and in India, Delhi and Hyderabad, after returning to her homeland. She has worked on many human rights causes, and women’s rights, in India as well as overseas.

Lamakaan invites one and all to the launch of the book " Caste Matters" authored by Suraj Yengde. The launch will be followed by a panel discussion.

About the book: n this explosive book, Suraj Yengde, a first-generation Dalit scholar educated across continents, challenges deep-seated beliefs about caste and unpacks its many layers. He describes his gut-wrenching experiences of growing up in a Dalit basti, the multiple humiliations suffered by Dalits on a daily basis, and their incredible resilience enabled by love and humour. As he brings to light the immovable glass ceiling that exists for Dalits even in politics, bureaucracy and judiciary, Yengde provides an unflinchingly honest account of divisions within the Dalit community itself-from their internal caste divisions to the conduct of elite Dalits and their tokenized forms of modern-day untouchability-all operating under the inescapable influences of Brahminical doctrines.
This path-breaking book reveals how caste crushes human creativity and is disturbingly similar to other forms of oppression, such as race, class and gender. At once a reflection on inequality and a call to arms, Caste Matters argues that until Dalits lay claim to power and Brahmins join hands against Brahminism to effect real transformation, caste will continue to matter.

About the Author: Suraj Yengde is a Shorenstein Center inaugural post-doctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has worked with leading international organizations in Geneva, London and New York, and is associate editor of Caste: A Global Journal of Social Exclusion. His writings have featured in India Today, the Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Economic and Political Weekly, Huffington Post, the Conversation, Globe Post, Mail and Guardian, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, and Social Transformations, among other leading publications.

The Discussants are:
1. Prof Kancha Illaiah Shepard
2. Dr. Manisha Bangar
Hepatologist, Socio-political Analyst, International speaker on Bahujan Rights, National Vice President People's Party of India-Democratic, Former National Vice President BAMCEF.
3. Prashanth Dontha, HCU

ALL ARE WELCOME. ENTRY IS FREE AND OPEN TO ALL

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

"We don't die from a Broken Heart. We only wish we did"
Well, this fact is true to its core. All stories do not end on a good note. Some have a
tragic conclusion and some end without even a proper closure. A relationship is
characterized by different kinds of emotion. It is a journey. A journey where two people find
each other, accept each other and create magical moments with each other. But what happens when
when this beautiful and magical relation ends! It brings a flood- A flood of emotions
where everything which was initially beautiful and magical, starts to hurt!
Come to watch Meera's story who is going through a similar kind of trauma.
Safarnama presents a Hindi Play- 'Broken' which will definitely touch your soul with its
take on modern day relationships.

This will be a discussion on how social norms and governments shape and control our ideas of sexual expression, identity and norms. Who can behave in what way or dress in which manner or have sex with who are highly charged questions. How does it  make love and sex do and die battles for so many young people in India?

A.Suneetha is a feminist scholar and activist who has worked in civil liberties and human rights organisations as well as with women's rights groups. She is part of a team that produced the first bilingual textbook on gender sensitisation in India - Towards a World of Equals. At present, she is a researcher working on gender and minority politics at Anveshi Research Centre on Women's Studies. 

It is a brief narrative of understanding of the human mind from a psychiatrist perspective. It is an effort to understand the confluence of Sufi, Bhakti traditions in India with a special focus of psychological processes. Drawing predominantly from Khusrow and Nammalwar. This talk is delivered by a Psychiatrist.

Dibiya - A short story reading by Amar Sankrit. Which is written by the famous writer & poet Uday Prakash.

SUSMAN (The Essence)
A film by Shyam Benegal 1987. 140 min

Shyam Benegal’s SUSMAN is a highly regarded
film. It provides a deep insight into the travails of
the “Ikat” handloom weavers of Pochampally.
From yarn to loom to final product, Susman
captures the backlash of irregular and inadequate
state support for the handloom industry in the 1980s.
The film has a host of powerful performances
including Om Puri, Shabana Azmi and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.
The words of Mandira, a designer, played by
Neena Gupta, resonate even more powerfully
today : “We must make space for creative persons
… so they can function even in an industrialised
society... (along with) a method by which markets
should be made available to craftsmen who work
with their own hands. Do you think we should
allow our remaining skilled craftsmen to die out or
become historical anachronisms?”
The film was selected for the Indian Panorama at Filmotsav 1987, Invited to the London Film Festival, the Chicago Film
Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Sydney & Melbourne Film Festivals 1987.
It was remade as Kancheevaram in Tamil by Priyadarshan.

Written by Shama Zaidi
Music : Vanraj Bhatia
Cinematography : Ashok Mehta
Editor : Bhanudas Divak
Cast :
Shabana Azmi - Gauramma
Om Puri - Ramulu
Kulbhushan Kharbanda - Narasimha
Neena Gupta -Mandira
Mohan Agashe - President of Handloom
Cooperative Society
K.K. Raina
Annu Kapoor - Lakshmaya
Ila Arun
Anita Kanwar
Pankaj Kapur
Jayant Kripalani
Satish Kaushik

Screening of Shyam Bengal’s masterful film from
1987 on the travails of the weavers of
Pochampally, and the handloom industry.
Followed by a discussion.

7.30 pm, Thursday, 18 July, 2019
at LAMAKAAN (off Road No. 1, Banjara Hills,
Opposite GVK One, Hyderabad – 500034)

The recent decision of the TISS adminstration to close down the campus"sine-die" after a week long peaceful protest by the students was blatant attempt to subdue the dissenting voices that wished to ensure that education could be accessed by all.
The administration has arbitrarily decided that students should pay Rs. 54,650 / - upfront for tuition fee and hostel, without which they will not be allowed access to hostel accommodation. This is clearly an exclusionary step whereby most students belonging to socio-economically marginalized communities will not be able to continue education and in an indirect way reinforces rigid caste structures whereby students only from certain social locations can access quality education. Such a huge monetary expectation runs contrary to the spirit and purpose of an exemplary institution like TISS as well as the previous guidelines which stipulated payment of Rs. 15,000/- as accommodation charges over three instalments.

In addition to the demand of reinstating the earlier fee structure, the TISS Hyderabad Student Action Committee (SAC) also raised in its Charter of Demands the need to enable those students unable to immediately pay the dining hall fee with the option of paying their dues once their student aid and scholarship amounts are disbursed. The fulfilment of this demand requires that the institute provide an assurance to the service provider (the private party running hostel on TISS campus) to this effect, which the administration is reportedly unwilling to do. It is also quite disconcerting that the TISS management seems unwilling to uphold principles of transparency and display its tender documents and contract with the private party Mr. CN Reddy, despite repeated demands from students. This is even more worrying since the private party is charging the students hostel fee for 6 months at an exorbitant rate of Rs. 8,600/- per month, while the semester itself is only for a period of four months ! (while reportedly the same service provider chares Rs. 4,500 outside)

Students have also been complaining that the location of the girls’ hostel is unsafe, with many women facing street sexual harassment near the hostel. However, we are informed that the administration has denied responsibility for their living conditions, stating that the campus is ‘non-residential’ from the current academic year.

In order to bring this issue to light for the general public and mainstream media, we would be grateful if Lamakaan would allow us to conduct a discussion about our present situation and link it with the larger socio-political and economical scenario of our country

Sports Movie Month - Invictus

Nelson Mandela, in his first term as the South African President, initiates a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land: enlist the

national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Director: Clint Eastwood
Writers: Anthony Peckham (screenplay), John Carlin (book)
Stars: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

About the Book
Aspiring actress Priya is dead. It’s a suicide, and rumour has it that Anil, son of politician and former Telugu-movie superstar Mohan Krishna, drove her to it. Just another film-industry scandal? Or something bigger, much bigger?

Partha, hired by Mohan Krishna’s family to handle the crisis, thinks so. Why won’t such a powerful father defend his son, Partha wonders. Is there an intra-family war? Whose interests are playing out in the media and on social media? Is a political game afoot or is this all connected to Mohan Krishna’s own dubious past? And why are student unions getting involved?

Even as Partha and his associates, Seema and Harish, confront the ethics of being involved in a war with no heroes, they are drawn into a dangerous hunt. They must negotiate a tangled and vicious world to answer one question: a young woman is dead—to whom is her death useful?

Negligence and isolation leading to an extreme form of alienation of a rock band artist, Pink Floyd – alienated from his audience, from his relations, from the society at large. Alan Parker, director of the film, depicts Pink building a metaphorical wall around himself escaping which only means facing the harsh realities of real life. The live-action of this musical complemented by Gerald Scarfe’s meticulously created animated imagery move from individual alienation to a reactionary mass movement, a wonderful depiction of how the atomization of individuals in this system makes them sick in myriad ways and eventually many such pale-faced alienated individuals constitute the rabid fascist mass ready to act on the whims of their leader. An adaptation of the 1979 music album The Wall, the film has been widely viewed worldwide and subject to studies by scholars from various fields. Hyderabad Cinephiles invites you to watch this masterpiece and participate in a discussion thereafter on the explicit/implicit messages, art, music and other aspects of the film. Save the date and spread the word.

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

Barking Dog is a Hindi sit-com written by Vishal Vijay, inspired by The Zoo Story by American playwright Edward Albee. The play explores themes of isolation, loneliness, miscommunication as anathematization, social disparity and dehumanization in a materialistic world. The story, in simplest terms, is about how a man who is consumed with loneliness starts up a conversation with another man on a bench in a Park and eventually forces him to participate in an act of violence.

Passes - 200/-
Contact # 9700074079

Are 'male' and 'female' the only ways in which we can identify human beings? Are they 'natural' and 'fixed' for life? How does the society decide who is what? And why is it so intolerant to people who want to mess with, shift or change their birth based gender? Does the world get messed up if we have many genders? 

Rachana Mudraboyina is a transgender rights activist from Hyderabad. She is the founder member of Telangana Hijra Intersex Transgender Samiti and also the founder of Trans-Vision, a youtube channel where she is also the writer and director of its web series.

Drag queens are performance artists, almost always male, who dress in women's clothing and often act with exaggerated femininity and in feminine gender roles with a primarily entertaining purpose. They often exaggerate make-up such as eyelashes for dramatic, comedic or satirical effect. Drag queens are closely associated with gay men and gay culture, but can be of any sexual orientation or gender identity. They vary widely by class, culture, and dedication, from professionals who star in films to people who try drag very occasionally.

The activity, which is called doing drag, has many motivations, from individual self-expression to mainstream performance. Drag queen activities among stage and street performers may include lip-syncing, live singing, dancing, roasting etc.

Mitrangan Sahitya kataa is group of like minded people interested in marathi literature reading and writing. Group meets every week to do reading of their writing. The event is consists of short plays written by people from Mitrangan Sahitya Katta. Program is free. for all people from Mitrangan group. Singing of poems. Prakash Phadnis is mentor for this program.

Conversation with Prof Anil Sadgopal on National Education Policy 2019

Lamakaan invites one and all to this interesting conversation with one of the finest educationists in the country on the National Education Policy 2019.

The draft of NEP 2019 was the first document to be released by the newly elected government in May 2019 and was made public on June 2019. There were suggestions invited from the public. The draft policy is an important document about the education in the so-called new India and its implementation will have a great impact on all the stakeholders Therefore, Lamakaan believes that it needs to be discussed widely.

About Prof Anil Sadgopal: Prof Anil Sadgopal is an Indian educationist and activist, known for the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme and for advocacy related to the Right to Education (RTE) Act. He is a recipient of several awards and honours, including the Jamnalal Bajaj Award for 'Application of Science and Technology for Rural Development'. He was instrumental in setting up the Eklavya foundation in 1982. For over a decade, he was Professor of Education at Delhi University and headed its Department of Education during 1998-2001. Since 2004-2005, he has been campaigning for changes in the RTE Act, which he believes is flawed.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Education system of India is so rotten to its core that any mention of this anymore only sounds like a cliché. A sense of helplessness has clouded the people who for decades have seen that there isn’t any fundamental change in the status quo, no matter which regime is there at the helm. And naturally, the ultimate victims are the students. School-going students are suffering from severe anxiety and depression, not to say that the conditions amongst the college going youth is even more severe for they also face the immediate pressure of landing with a job as they graduate. The level of stress, depression, anxiety resulting from unrealistic expectations, lack of peer support, rampant competition etc. is only increasing day by day – so much so that many students are choosing the most unfortunate option of ending their lives altogether. According to a TOI report in Mar’18, one student is committing suicide every 55 mins in India. The same report states that 26,000 students had committed suicides during 2014-17. It hasn’t been long since we had to hear the news of IIT Hyderabad student Mark Andrew Charles succumbing to job pressure. In an yet another incident, Payal Tadvi from Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai gave up her life facing caste discrimination and harassment inside the campus.

While the psychoanalysis increasingly focuses on the immediate causes behind the students’ suicides viz. depression, stress etc. But the question remains as to what it is that causes the students go into such a state at first place? Analyses employed mainly by psychiatric means tend to make the underlying systemic factors as secondary. It must be asked why after 72 years of independence, Indian state has failed to provide an environment in the campuses which is free from any kind of discrimination. Further, why hasn’t the state been able to ensure a respectable employment to everyone. After all, what it is that makes parents have unrealistic expectations from their children? What it is that causes this rat race amongst students and starts the process of dehumanizing from their age of innocence? How is it possible that even today the students from lower-castes have to face casteist slurs by upper-caste students? All of this cannot be understood merely from psychoanalytical dimensions. Instead, those dimensions must be placed in the overall socio-economic scenario of this country. Only then, we can come to a conclusion that can be a real guide to further action. In Defense of Reason, a discussion forum, cordially invites you to have a discussion on this issue in Lamakaan on July 30, 2019. No registrations are required. Please come and do not forget to spread the word.

Would like to host an awareness program with couple of talks on current statistics and the severity of the issue.
Play a short skit on incidents

Ekaansh Theatre presents "Poos Ki Raat" - A story reading evening by Amar Sankrit. On the occasion of 139th Birth Anniversary of the famous Indian writer & Upanyas Samrat "Shri. Dhanpat Rai Shrivastava" also known as "Munshi Premchand".

Sports Movie Month - Hoosiers

A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship.
Director: David Anspaugh
Writer: Angelo Pizzo
Stars: Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

It is a different rather seldom Love Story which evolves in a routine college life, A Hindu Middle class girl who is very Confident, Practical, Smart, Bold, Beautiful, Bindass and Extrovert falling in love with simple & reserved Muslim Boy who suppresses his identity in his college.
The story unfolds their respective fathers Friendship, Trust, Admiration, loyalty and great respect towards each other and its family. The story also deals with the bomb blast, riots, political issues, communalism, terrorism, fascism, mythos, intolerance and patriotism.

The Journey of a Kidney Donor, Anil Srivatsa who went through emotional upheavals and the subsequent making of a champion for the cause of Organ Donation. He has driven across 40 countries and over 85000 km in his own car and taken the message about organ donation to schools, colleges and social clubs.
Come hear Anil share his fascinating story about his travels and travails.

'Laaysa'is a dance production by the Choreography Society of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. The production will be a showcase of Indian classical dance forms, mainly Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattam.

A unique and creative workshop for all art enthusiasts , Art lovers, join us to create 3 dimensional wall murals ,with hands on experience of moulding and casting, using clay and plaster of Paris in a very easy and safe method,
This will be a two day/two session event which is open for all age groups,
Children below 12 need to be accompanied by parents, but they will be considered as individual participants, participants can take away their creative works at the end of the session. This will be a 3 hours workshop on day one (clay design moulding, casting)and two hours session on day two (painting the murals )
All the required Materials will be provided for the work shop,
Participation fee is 300 per day,
The workshop is conducted by National award winning artists ( sculpture Sri.Kota Partha Saradha, & painter crimson )
For queries contact : 9959864467,9182783684 .

Write Club Hyderabad helps you pen your thoughts, spill your mind and finally make an appointment with the writer in your head. We conduct free, weekly events that foster writing. Our Meetups aim at helping writers reach their goals in a supportive, collaborative, social setting. Writing doesn't have to be all by oneself. We welcome anyone who writes, regardless of genre, language or age. We have members writing novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays, school reports and more. What we do, basically: One of the members of Write Club (anyone with a participation count over 2 consecutive meetups) hosts a session. They bring forth a theme and writing exercises. We all then write to the host’s prompts and guidelines for about an hour. Once we're done writing, we read out our write-ups (optional). We also exchange feedback and constructively critique each other's works. Entry is free, anyone with an interest in writing can walk in. Bring your writing devices and we’re all set! We promise to provide you with good coffee and a super-creative conversation. We have Write Club sessions every Saturday afternoon – 3 to 6 PM

Non competitive quiz required for every first Saturday of the month.
Capacity ~ 50 members

UDAAN Performing Arts presents Marathi play Waryawarchi Warat written by an emenant Marathi writer P. L. Deshpande. This play narrates the story when P L Deshpande goes to the village with the concept of about the lifestyle, people, and nature in his mind. But to his surprise, he finds a totally different version of the village.

Date - 3rd August ( Saturday ) 2019
Time - 07:30 pm to 09:00 pm
Venue - Lamakaan, Banjara Hills, Rd No 01
Donor Pass - Rs 200/-
Online Booking on in.bookmyshow.com

A unique and creative workshop for all art enthusiasts , Art lovers, join us to create 3 dimensional wall murals ,with hands on experience of moulding and casting, using clay and plaster of Paris in a very easy and safe method,
This will be a two day/two session event which is open for all age groups,
Children below 12 need to be accompanied by parents, but they will be considered as individual participants, participants can take away their creative works at the end of the session. This will be a 3 hours workshop on day one (clay design moulding, casting)and two hours session on day two (painting the murals )
All the required Materials will be provided for the work shop,
Participation fee is 300 per day,
The workshop is conducted by National award winning artists ( sculptor Sri.Kota Partha Saradha, & painter crimson )
For queries contact : 9959864467,9182783684 .

Why does a person come into queer space? And how can we make space for all the reasons why they may be there? What is often our first response and immediate priority when a person comes.  How may we take care of one another with responsibility? How do we learn to say  'we are here for you'?  

Ponni Arasu is a queer feminist activist. She has been part of queer collectives and advocacy groups such as Nigah, Anjuman and Voices Against 377. In her capacity as a legal practitioner and researcher at the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore, she worked with the LesBit collective. She is also a historian of public politics in Tamilnadu.

Nabikei (Footprint) Shri Prakash, 2017. 63 min The American Southwest—especially the sovereign Indigenous nations of Acoma, Laguna, and the Diné or Navajo Nation—has a long history of uranium mining. Once home to a booming economy and proudly called the Uranium Capital of the World, these Indian reservations and poor White communities are now littered with old mines, tailings dams, and other uranium contamination, which is the legacy of this deadly industry. On the Navajo Nation alone, there are more than 500 abandoned uranium mine sites that need to be addressed.

In spite of the US government’s Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, supposedly strict and powerful regulatory agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency are almost helpless to mitigate the contamination left by the nuclear industry.
This film explores how colonialism, which came to the Southwest with Spanish conquest, has changed face in modern time, as it is played out in a new quest for mineral resources.
Contaminated land, water, and air have left these poor communities helpless. Their efforts to gain justice have failed. Indigenous and poverty-stricken communities who suffered the most are trapped and exploited, as new mining companies continue to disregard the health and environment of these people with the lure of a better economy, jobs and new In Situ Leach uranium mining methods.

Unfortunately, this is the same sad story repeated in other parts of the world including India, but in India it is the government itself undertaking the enterprise and repeating the same degradation in Jadugoda (Jharkhand).

The play is based on the conversation between the two legendary writers of their time. Ismat Chugtai and Manto were good friends. The play deals with some lighter moments of their personal life.

Open discussion on the eve of upcoming Handloom Day on 7th August 2019.
Why a handloom Day?
Importance of Handlooms N Handicrafts?
Need to feel responsible to protect our cultural heritage?

A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane.
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky (as Andrey Tarkovskiy)
Writers: Stanislaw Lem (novel) (as Stanislav Lem), Fridrikh Gorenshteyn (screenplay) (as F. Gorenshteyn)
Stars: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Jüri Järvet

Movies Intro : 7:00 PM
Movies Starts at 7:10 PM
Post-Screening Discussion - 15 mins

Panel discussion--"Keep the climate, change the economy: Need for a rainbow coalition"
Climate change is here! We are already seeing monsoon vagaries every year and frequent extreme weather events like the very heavy rainfall in Mumbai in July 2019, and in Kerala in August 2018. The probability of remaining within 1.5-2oC temperature rise above pre-industrial times that scientists consider a do-not-cross redline now appears to be low. If greenhouse gas emissions do not come down drastically in the near future, temperature rise is likely to be 3-4oC, and the consequences of this will be catastrophic. South Asia is one of the two most vulnerable regions to climate change impacts. The 2015 inter-governmental Paris Agreement to check climate change does not seem to be succeeding. People need to step in now. What should we do to form a people's rainbow coalition to tackle a now imminent climate crisis? What should its programme be?

Panel: K Babu Rao, Kajal Gupta, NS Prasad, Gangadhar Pandey, Arpit Sharma
Chair: T Vijayendra

ALL ARE WELCOME!

This panel discussion is a curtain raiser kind of an event for the forthcoming SAPACC meeting, Hyderabad 18-21 September 2019

More details about SAPACC:
https://www.ecologise.in/sapacc/