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Blind men’s car rally flags off tomorrow

Head to Worli Sea Face tomorrow to cheer on 100 visually-challenged navigators and their sighted teammates drive a 45-km course.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The city will host a wonderful car rally tomorrow – 100 visually-impaired persons will be navigators to 100 sighted drivers as they traverse a 45 kilometre route in Mumbai together.

The ‘Blind Men’s Car Rally’ is an initiative conceptualised by Round Table India (RTI )in association with National Association for the Blind (NAB). Says Viral Kedia, convenor for the Rally, “The months of January and February 2014 are devoted to several such rallies all over the country. This year, 24 cities including Mumbai are hosting the rallies. Tomorrow, along with Mumbai, there will be 17 other cities hosting such rallies.”

The idea behind the initiative is a unique one – to create awareness about the grave consequences of ignoring literacy. The initiative focuses on eradicating illiteracy and highlights the challenges faced by the visually impaired. “We want to highlight the fact that a visually impaired person will show the way to a sighted one. It is a powerful message, and a much-needed one. The blind navigators will be armed with route maps in Braille,” says Viral, adding that the NAB screened and tested the navigators, while the RTI was in charge of registering drivers for the event.

The 45 km long route will start at the Police Ground behind Worli Sea Face, and end at the NAB, also in Worli. Designer and politician Shaina NC, ad man Prahlad Kakkar, Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu and Shiv Sena’s Aditya Thackeray will flag off the event at 8 am.

“The rally is a time-distance-speed (TDS) event. Each car will be flagged off within one minute of each other, from the same starting point,” explains Viral. Apart from Mumbai, similar rallies will take off today in major cities such as Delhi, Kolkata, Cochin and Ludhiana.

(Pictures courtesy Viral Kedia, RTI. Images are file pictures)

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Chitresh Dash performs in Mumbai tonight

Known for the ‘fastest feet’ in Kathak in the world, the dance exponent will perform at NCPA with Vikku Vinayakram.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

If you’re in the mood for some divine dancing tonight, make your way to National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) tonight.

World renowned Kathak exponent Chitresh Das will perform at the NCPA tonight, with musician – Vikku Vinayakram. The show, titled ‘Dynamic Feet, Dynamic Rhythm’ is bound to create artistic history with two doyens from two ends of the world representing two corners of India (North Indian dance and South Indian percussion) as the two come together on stage for the first time. Das has very recently arrived in Mumbai – he works and teaches Kathak in the USA – and a documentary film made on him and Emmy Award-winning tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith was recently aired on PBS National Television in the USA on January 20. 

The show is bound to be an extraordinary one, what with Das dancing to the reverberating beat of Grammy Award winner Vikku Vinayakram’s ghatam. Three generations of percussionists – Vikku Vinayakram on ghatam, son N Ramakrishnan on mridangam and grandson Swaminathan on the kanjeera will play as Das’s performs his legendary take on the Draupadi vastra haran. Add to this the terrific Hindustani quartet, Biplab Bhattacharya and Satyaprakash Misra on tabla, Jayanta Banerjee on sitar and Debasish Sarcar on vocals, and the audience is sure to have a fabulous evening.

A representative for Das also revealed that while he is in India, there is also “a scientific study about to begin on him, to measure the parameters in his body that make him cross boundaries of age and race to achieve unparalleled speed and power in his dance technique.” Das is 70 years old and holds the distinction of having the ‘fastest feet’ in Kathak in the world.

Head to NCPA, Nariman Point at 7 pm. Tickets are priced at Rs 1,000, Rs 700, Rs 500 and Rs 300.
(Picture courtesy www.iup.edu)
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Tech

Review: Eddy, children’s education tablet

The Android-based tablet allows parents to monitor their children’s usage and will later tie up with schools in major cities.
by Manik Kakra

Startup Metis Learning recently launched Eddy, an Android 4.2.2 tablet that is aimed at children aged two to 10 years. The device has a 7-inch 1280 x 600 screen, and has a 1.6 GHz dual-core Rockchip processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 8 GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 32 GB via a microSD card.

The OS on the Eddy has been programmed to give Kid’s Mode, Parents’ Mode, which also has the usual Android launcher and other related stuff. You can put a password so that the child cannot access the Parents’ Mode. Using the Parents’ Mode, you can keep a close check on what and how long the installed apps have been used, or restrict the usage of a particular app to a time limit, preview reports of previously used apps, etc. The Kids’ Mode has a custom UI with large blocks for course content, learning games, and references.

Connectivity-wise, there is Bluetooth, WiFi, 3.5mm headset jack, 3G via an external dongle, mini HDMI port, and microUSB port. The tablet comes pre-loaded with about 150 apps and games, which can, along with Settings, can only be managed through the Parents’ Mode (using the Android OS).

Sporting a 2 MP camera, and powered by 3,200 mAh battery, the tablet comes bundled with bright green and pink coloured protective cases, which seem handy for protection against drops and sharp objects. Available for Rs 9,999 on the company’s website and Amazon India, it will later be available from various other online portals as well as retailers. Metis Learning has already tied up with several schools like DPS, Sansktriti for offering Eddy to students and are planning to do so with many schools in major cities.

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Screening: Ekti Nadir Naam

The Root Reel is screening a film on the life and work of Ritwik Ghatak at Alliance Française Auditorium today.

In continuation with their feature presentation of some of the treasured cinema from our country, The Root Reel is organising a screening of Anup Singh’s essay, exploring the life and work of Ritwik Ghatak. The film is titled Ekti Nadir Naam/Name of a River.

Anup Singh’s debut feature, The Name of a River, is an ambitious, evocative docu-fictional essay exploring the life and work of the great Indian filmmaker, Ritwik Ghatak (1925-1976). Ghatak’s reputation as India’s most important filmmaker has been steadily growing since the first major retrospective of his films was organised internationally in the 1980s. Satyajit Ray described him as “one of the few truly original talents in the cinema this country has produced”. Although largely ignored in his lifetime and usually overshadowed by the illustrious Ray, Ghatak was a legend to a whole generation of Indian arthouse directors and was seen by many as the father of the Indian New Wave.

Born in 1925 in what is today known as Bangladesh, he was 18 in 1943 when the Great Bengal famine drove him and his family from Dhaka to Calcutta as refugees. India’s simultaneous independence and partition into India and Pakistan in 1947, and a further partition later into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, made it impossible for him to return to his homeland. The Partition of India and Ghatak’s separation from his homeland act as the driving force in his life and work.

In The Name of a River Anup Singh uses a love story between a man and a woman crossing the river between Bangladesh and India – playing the roles of refugees, divine beings and literary and cinematic characters – to understand the mysteries of the events that led to the massacre of half a million people and forced ten million people to migrate across the newly established borders. Covering a huge area of visual, aural and intellectual ground within its 90 minutes, this exquisite film presents its audience with a dreamlike odyssey through a history, a life and a work that we, the viewers, encounter in the shape of stunning landscapes and music, lovers and gods, myths and memories, literature and cinema.

The Name of a River has been screened at numerous international film festivals, winning the Aravindan Award, India, for best debut filmmaker in 2001, and the Silver Dhow Award for best feature at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2002.

Head to Alliance Française Auditorium, Theosophy Hall, near Nirmala Niketan, New Marine Lines, at 6.30 pm. Entry is free.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy worldcinemafoundation.org)

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Have a story to perform? Head to Prithvi

Caferati at Prithvi Theatre, a forum for writers, gives participants a two-minute chance to perform their written work this evening.

A lot of stand-up-and-perform acts for writers and storytellers are mushrooming all over Mumbai. Joining the bandwagon is Caferati, a performing event to be held at Prithvi Theatre tomorrow, January 28.

Caferati is a forum for writers in English. Most of their membership is Indian or has an India connection, because that’s where the group originated. However membership is open to adults anywhere in the world. Some of the members are published or earn a living from writing in some way, but that is not a condition for membership.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, head to Prithvi Theatre today for an exciting event. The event is essentially this: You + your writing + two minutes at the microphone.

However, there are some rules to follow. While the works can be in English, Marathi, Hindi or Urdu, the writing must be yours and you can perform for a maximum of two minutes only. No group performances are allowed. Participants are allowed to shot, declaim, sing; they can sit, stand or lie down; they can dance, do a cartwheel, play a musical instrument – anything goes, as long as you perform your words.

There is no restriction on genres – you can perform poetry, prose, scripts, songs, etc. but nudity, explicit language, slander or anything that flouts Indian laws is prohibited.

Sounds like your thing? Head to Prithvi Theatre today, at least half an hour before 7 pm to make yourself eligible to enter. Submit your script for approval and perform. Good luck!

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Prithvi Theatre)

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Event

Stories with children

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay is hosting a day-long storytelling carnival tomorrow for children aged between 2 and 12 years.

“Stories are like spiders, with all the long legs, and stories are like spider webs, which man gets himself all tangled up in but which look so pretty when you see them under a leaf in the morning dew, and in the elegant way that they connect to one another, each to each.” – Neil Gaiman

A dilemma that most parents of children today face is instilling a sense of wonder and curiosity in children. Why? Because today’s children learn to use tablets and smart phones even before they learn to read or write! With information available at one’s fingertips, it’s that much harder to inculcate and encourage a keen imagination and creativity.

If you are a parent and are reading this and agree, then you now have a reason to rejoice. Tomorrow, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalay (CSMVS, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum) is organising a day-long story carnival for children.

The Museum’s Kahani Karnival is specifically aimed at children in the age group of 2 to 12 years. With storytelling sessions, workshops and museum walk-throughs, the event should be an exciting one!

The event starts at 10:15 am and registration is compulsory. Email kahanikarnival@gmail.com or call +91 87670 94063 to register.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Picture courtesy Kahani Karnival)

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