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From: atul@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (Atul Arya)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.india
Subject: Festival of India
Message-ID: <1939@ut-ngp.UTEXAS>
Date: Sun, 30-Jun-85 22:53:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.1939
Posted: Sun Jun 30 22:53:14 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Jul-85 13:15:42 EDT
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Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas
Lines: 51


    The "Festival of India" was officially inaugerated by Prime Minister
 Rajiv Gandhi on June 13 in Washington, D.C. . The festival is not a
 single event or exhibition. It is a celebration of Indian art,music,
 dance,theatre,movies etc. etc.. The festival is based on a similar event
 which took place in England some years back (80-81?). The festval will 
 last for approximately 18 months and various events are spread out all
 over U.S. from big cities to small towns (like Austin, Texas).
    I have been unable to get a comprehensive schedule for the festival.
 At present there are four exhibitions in Washington and one in Chicago.
 Some of these are scheduled to travel across U.S. but others like "Aditi:
 A Celebration of Life" (at the Smithsonian) will not. I was in Chicago 
 earlier this month and saw "India - A Festival of Science" at the Museum
 of Sceince and Industry. This exhibition will travel to other places.  
 It depicts the contribution of India to the world of science from the very
 ancient to the present. One outstanding feature is the presence of Indian
 craftspersons making wonderful things like weaving a silk saree or carving
 intricate designs on marble or making a pattern with mehndi (hanna). From
 the expressions on the faces at the exhibition I could safely conclude that
 it is very well received. The crowd was about 50% Indian and 50% Non-Indian.
 (I was there on a weekday). 
    There has been some good coverage about the festival in print. The New
 York Times Sunday Magazine had a cover story called "Art and Life of India"	
 in June 2 issue. It also had a small calendar for the major events taking
 place on the east coast. There is a story in today's (June 30) NYT about 
 the Aditi exhibition in Washington. Also the National Public Radio's
 evening program All Things Considered has been covering the festival on a
 regular basis. Susan Stamberg (co-host of ATC) interviewed the organizer of
 "Aditi" and also talked about the "Mela" (fair) taking place next week.
 They had a long story on the show in Chicago and Susan Stamberg interviewed 
 Pandit Ravi Shanker on the eve of the opening concert (at the Kennedy 
 Center).(A Personal Note: NPR covers India on a regular basis - I remember a
 fascinating interview with the only survivor from the group responsible 
 for the assasination of Mahatma Gandhi).
     Back to the festival. I am still looking for a comprehensive schedule.
 If any one out there has one please get in touch with me. If there is a
 lot of interest I will post the short-schedule from NYT (Please mail all
 responses directly to me and I will summarise). For those of us in the
 backwaters of civilized world ( i.e. Texas) there is some hope. I know for
 sure that an exhibition of Indian Miniature Paintings from the Moughal 
 Period will be shown at the Ransom Center at U.T. sometime in Jan-Feb 1986.  
 Also an exhibition called "Life at Court: Art for India's Rulers - 16th to
 19th Centuries" will come to Dallas next year.

 U.S.Mail: 
     1005 Lorrain                           Atul Arya
     Austin  TX  78703            Dept. of Petroleum Engineering
                                     Univ. of Texas at Austin
  w 512-471-5661
 
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