Weeks gone and the Week Coming !

The past three meetings at the Comics Cafe, held as usual on Saturday evenings, have been very heady. Film screening, impromptu reading sessions and usual discussions over coffee, these are the images which conjure up in our mind when we think of these meetings.

Last week, one of our friends Madan Sharma played some digital stories made by the underprivileged children of Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In these stories the children shared various stories revolving around their lives. The children used the collage of sketches, comics, still pictures and dramatized situations and weaved them together by a narrative to give it a story shape. The children of Tamil Nadu, for instance, relived the trauma of Tsunami through these stories. One of our photographer friends who is a resident of the Tsunami-affected region of Nagapattanam spoke about how the catastrophe has changed the lives of the fishermen there.

Many new friends have joined the weekly meetings. They are from different cultural and professional backgrounds and have lent varied hues of colours to the cafe. We welcome them all.

This Saturday, on June 3, we invite you for a reading session at the Comics Cafe where all those who are present shall read any work of theirs, prose or poetry. You are welcome to read any of your past works and if you have been shying away from it so far, here is the time to pick up the pen and scribble down those lines/images/thoughts which have occurred repeatedly in your dreams or are lurking somewhere in the recess of your heart.

If you still can’t find words, you may read the work of any of your favourite author; any page, any paragraph.

See you then on Saturday, June 3 at 5 pm.

Screening of Kitte Mil Ve Mahi

On Saturday, 6th May, Comics Cafe will screen a film made by filmmaker Ajay Bhardwaj. The film titled 'Kitte Mil Ve Mahi' is in Punjabi with English subtitles. The 72-minutes film is largely located in the Doaba region of Punjab. It opens a window onto the Dalit’s aspirations to carve out their own cultural space through religion, politics and the arts.

This film contends the dominant perceptions of the economic and spiritual heritage of Punjab. It does so through a people’s narrative on the preservation and regeneration of its ‘little’ traditions, which often appear seamlessly cultural and political.

Travel to the heart of Punjab. Enter a world of Sufi shrines worshipped and looked after by Dalits. Listen to B.S. Balli Qawwal Paslewale, the first generation Dalit Qawwals born out of this tradition. Join a fascinating dialogue with Lal Singh Dil—a radical poet, a Dalit, converted to Islam. Meet the last living legend of the Gadar movement, Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga, who affirms a new consciousness among Dalits in Punjab and India.

The interplay between the constituents of this mosaic brings to light the triple marginalisation of Dalits--- amidst the agricultural boom that is the modern Punjab, in the contesting ground of its ‘major’ religions, and in the intellectual construction of their 'syncretism'.

The film will be begin at 5 pm (sharp) at Comics Cafe, B-3, Lajpat Nagar 1, Delhi.