Talk on Nuclear Energy for whose benefit: People or America?

Surendra Gadekar is a renowned Gandhian anti-nuclear activist from Vedchhi, Surat. He did his Ph.D from IIT-Kanpur and then was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Iowa State University, USA from 1979 to 1981. Subsequently, he joined the faculty of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Dr. Gadekar left his job in 1986 to work with the famed Gandhian Institute, Sampoorna Kranti Vidyalaya, in Vedchhi, Surat. The institute was started by the renowned Gandhian activist Narayan Desai. Here the emphasis is to live a life commensurate with one's beliefs. The activists here have been trying to attain self-sufficiency in food, clothing and shelter through manual work. They have also done immense work on renewable energy, including work on various kinds of solar cookers, biogas and micro-hydro systems. Dr. Surendra Gadekar is best known for his anti-nuclear work. He is famed as the editor of South Asia's most reputed anti-nuclear magazine, ANUMUKTI.

On Saturday, August 23, 2008 Dr. Surendra Gadekaraddressed peace activists, students and citizens of Pune city at Lokayat Hall, 3rd Floor, Opp. Syndicate Bank, Near Nal Stop, Law College Road, Pune-4. The talk was organised by Lokayat Pune.

Play in English Bosnia Revisited

Intensity, emotion, great acting and a powerful script. Just the ingredients required to make a play successful. The Maharashtra Cultural Centre’s first English theatre production, ‘Mirad, a boy from Bosnia’. Hs all this and more.

Tnvee Shevade (19) and Sksham Kulkarni (17) are mere teenagers, but the intensity with which they have enacted the roles of Djuka nd Fazilla, a Bosnian refugee couple, will make its difficult for you to hold back the tears. The teenagers, in a short span of 95 minutes, manage to bring the horrors of the Bosnian civil war of the 90s to your doorstep.

The play is a collage of 14 scenes, which requires the two young actors to portray multiple roles. The ease with which the two teenagers flit between myriad roles is indeed commendable.

The actors, who play Mirad’s uncle and aunt in the play, narrate the horrors of the civil war through the eyes of Mirad.

The play is the English adaptation of the original German play, written by German playwright Ad de Bont. Young Pune theatre director and teacher, Darshan Naik decided to direct the play after the translation was sent to him by Andrea Gronmeyer, a noted theatre director from Germany.

Saksham, who has acted in Marathi films like Gautam Joglekar’s ‘Pak Pak Pakak’ and Meena Kulkarni’s national award-winning film ‘Shevri’, says, “The script was extremely difficult and challenging and I felt I had to do it.”

Tanvee has acted in several state-level plays and thinks the frequent shift in scenes was probably the toughest part of the play. “It is not easy to constantly switch on and off so rapidly."

Daarshan, who made his two young actors watch movies related to war like Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’ and Bahman Ghobdi’s ‘Turtles can Fly’, is extremely happy with the outcome. “We worked very hard for 25 days. I am glad to see the actors giving off their best.”

Rahul Chnadwarkar

In remembrance of the bombing of Hiroshima, Aaghaz's documentary fest

Mention activism and the name of Neeraj Jain pops up. And mention activism to Jain and he has a lot to say. “the life of the common people has become more and more difficult. Communal and caste its forces are rearing their heads. A crass consumerist culture is spreading to every nook and corner, Corruption has become all pervasive. The media is playing an important role in this degeneration. It is promoting a distorted market culture in the name of modernization.

That’s the spirit behind Aaghaz. In its second year, Aaghaz has tweaked its formet and concept a bit. “There will be five theme-based two-day festivals in a year.

We start with a No Pakharans Festival on August 5 and 6 to commemorate the dropping of the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. We plan to discuss nuclear politics through the medium of films, theatre and songs in this festival.” Jain informs.

On August 5, at Sneh Sadaan near the Narayan Peth Police Chowkey, the inauguration of the festival will be with a programme of songs by Sambhaji Bhagat, a folk singer from Mumbai, followed by a talk on ‘Globalisation and Theatre’ by Parnab Mukherjee, alternate theatre director from Kolkata. There will be a play titttled Hamletma Chine directed by Parnab Mukherjee, based on writings by Heiner Muller.

On August 6, Aaghaz has organised a screening of the documentary film War And peace directed by Anand Patwardha, to be followed by adiscussion. The film documents the current, epic journey of peace activism in the face or global militarism and war. It examines not merely the militarisation of India, but analyses the human cost that is extracted from its citizens in the name of ‘national security’.

From the plight of residents living near the nuclear test site, and the horrendous effects of uranium mining on local indigenous populations, it becomes clear that, contrary to a myth first created in the US, there is no such thing as the “peaceful atom.”

The other festivals planned for this year include a festival in the slums of Pune to encourage the tremendous talent among the people living there.

“In this festival we plan to motivate people living in the slums to perform programmes on the lives of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Shahir Anna Bhau Sathe, Shahir Amar Shaikh and Savitribai Phule, including songs, dances, drama etc. Then we plan to organise a festival around Badal Sircar and Vijay Tendulkar celebrating works of cultural greats,” Jain sites.

Huned Contractor