AAW #191

Merry Christmas Yatris! Here in the Ahmedabad Art Weekly #191 we give you various options to spend your year-end weekend and the first week of the New Year.  The Kankaria Carnival 2018 commenced on Christmas and promises to be week full of activities, lights and music until the New Years Eve. The highly energised environment at Kankaria has this time been amplified with the opening of a floating restaurant and a replica of the upcoming Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train.

The prestigious Vikram Sarabhai International Arts Festival at Natarani Amphitheatre is back after a gap to 3 years. In its 40th edition the 3 day International Arts festival is featuring internationally acclaimed artistes who will present Theatricals and Indian Classical Fusion dance performances. The experimental space of Ouroboros theatre is hosting two performances in this week’s line up. Walter Peter directed drama ‘Alipur ka Azad’ is a British Raj era story, where a group of young folks, are struggling to save their playground from destruction, whereas Tran Adi Liti (Three tilted lines) play is centred on the theme of art, friendship and interpersonal relationships. Actor Paresh Vora will be performing a satirical monologue to comment on the current socio-political conditions of our society in Pritesh Sodha’s ‘Mara Asatya Na Prayogo’.

People looking for some intellectual stimulus should attend the upcoming lecture of Yogendra Yadav a politician, election analyst, author and academician. The founder of Jai Kisan Andolan and Swaraj Abhiyan has been a part of various political parties and frequently writes his opinion in multiple publications. He is in the city to deliver a lecture on ‘Indianisation of Education’. Literature enthusiasts looking for rhyming inspiration should attend a poetry recital of poet-politician Kumar Vishwas. The Kavi Sammelan will also feature other poets like Sampat Saral, Manzar Bhopali, Gajendra Priyanshu and Ankita Singh as a part of the line-up.

Sugam sangeet adorers looking for mesmerising Gujarati melodic experience should arrive at ‘Sambandho nu Sarovar’ concert where father song songster Sanjay Oza and Parth Oza, will perform with songstress Payal Vakhariya.

Independent Painter Dhruti Ghedia, recently opened her solo exhibition, ‘Translucent Emotions’ at Ravishankar Raval Kala Bhavan in the presence of eminent artist Vrindavan Solanki, while the ‘Enthralling Eight’ group of artists return to perform their group exhibition yet again in Ahmedabad this week. The shows will display abstract as well realist artworks.

The inspiration for our 191st Ahmedabad Art Weekly has been borrowed from Violet Alva, India’s first woman lawyer to appear before a high court and preside over the Rajya Sabha. A journalist, lawyer and politician by profession Alva, who was also part of Bapu’s Quit India Movement, started a women’s magazine called ‘The Begum’, which was renamed as Indian Women later. Ahmedabad born journalist never failed to ignite a nationalistic feeling amongst her readers, and the government later honoured her by embossing her visual impression on a postal stamp along with her husband, Joachim Alva. Veterans of Indian politics like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Indira Gandhi remembered her as a brave yet gentle woman.

Illustration : Nilesh Ramani