The Blue Mormon
Here's a pciture I took of a gorgeous large winged butterfly that was in our garden today! This is the season for butterflies andif you are a nature enthusiast you can read more about the subject in an article by Krushnamegh Kunte, Punes own butterfly expert. Butterfly Diversity Of Pune City Along Human Impact Gradient, Krushnamegh Kunte, 4024, Survey No. 14/4, Warje, Pune, 4110 29. Email: krushnamegh@hotmail.com
Bienvenue! Swagat!
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Butterflies of Pune
Monday, July 28, 2008
Intelligent Childrens Club
An exciting outing at the animal orphanage of Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park at Katraj on this Sunday, August 3.
Time : 11am to 1pm
Activity : Many injured birds and animals are recovering at the animal orphanage-the only of its kind in Asia.
Intelligent Children's Club members will get a chance to:
1. Cut the vegetables for these animals and clean cages
2. Clean animal cages under the guidance
3. Listen to education lecture by Neelimkumar Khaire
Please reach to the venue by 10.45am. Bring your friends along with you.
Please confirm your attendence to Pooja at pooja.sikcchi@gmail.com or call/sms(followed by your name) at 9987176951 by today evening.
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Thursday, July 24, 2008
Pune's pride
Did you know that two scientists who were a part of the IPCC team (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change headed by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri) that won the NOBLE PEACE PRIZE, jointly with Former Vice President of America, Mr. Al Gore, are from Pune?
Dr. Vachaspati Thapliyal and Dr. Krishna Kumar are the two names which have made Pune proud!
As a part of the 10th Anniversary Celebrations of the Nationalist Congress Party
and on the occasion of the 50th birthday of Shri. Ajit Pawar,
the Pune unit of the Nationalist Congress Party
has organized a glorious evening to recognize the outstanding contribution of distinguished Punekars who have done the city proud at the hands of Hon’ble Dy. Chief Minister Shri R.R. Patil in the presence of Hon’ble Minister for Power and Education Shri Dilip Walse Patil andHon’ble Mayor of Pune Smt. Rajlaxmi Bhosle
On Saturday 26th July 2008
At Balgandharva Rangmandir at 5.00pm
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Wednesday, July 23, 2008
ALZEA : Une association permettant de découvrir l'Inde avec un stage
Découvrez ALZEA, une association qui permet de découvrir l'Inde par des stages.
ALZEA is an association based in Lyon- France. It was created three years ago by two teachers, Christine Drevet and Laura Gondolfi, who noticed the lack of structure to help students to work abroad. So was ALZEA founded, and its goal is to promote French students mobility through internships, either in NGOs or companies.
In France, ALZEA has built partnerships with the finest engineering and business schools.
ALZEA relies on a network of local correspondents in 10 countries :
In India, we are based in two cities: Kolkata and Pune. The local correspondent living there are in charge to find placements accordingly to student’s skill and wishes, to find housing and to welcome him/her upon arrival.
During the summer 2008, among the students who came through ALZEA, 6 were living together, forming the “colony” group:
Sophie: She worked for the Institute of Applied Research, for 5 months. She led some state-of-the-art project on metallurgy and nano-particles.
Emeline: She worked for Capmetrics, a financial-oriented IT company. She created some algorithm to enhance their databases.
Charlie: He worked too for Capmetrics, as a web-designer.
Julien: He worked for Potain, a French crane-manufacturer. His job was to improve the production flow of the factory.
Jean-Hughes: He also worked for Potain. His job was to improve the quality of the goods manufactured.
Julien: He worked for ALZEA itself, developing the activities of the association in Pune and Kolkata.
More generally, companies and NGOs from all spectrum have already received French students, and India is a booming destination now as its role on the globe is becoming more and more important. Many French students have found a mission through ALZE and we hope to help more and more to come to discover the wonderful and fascinating sub-continent.
ALZEA in India :
Poona ou Pune?
Les noms des plusieurs villes en Inde ont été changés il y a quelques ans. Pendant la colonisation Anglais, les noms Indiennes étaient Anglicisé et c’est comme ca que on a crée Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Trivandrum – les noms plus facile à prononcer pour des Anglophones mais qui ne signifie rien.
Au contraire, les noms Indiennes ont toujours une signification, Mumbai c’est la ville dédiée à Mumbadevi, et Pune viens de Punya nagari – la ville qui est sacré grâce à la confluence des fleuves. Le ‘n’ dans Pune qui est le ‘n’en Marathi, était difficile pour des Anglophones qui l’appelait ‘Poona’ avec un accent très Anglais !
Voici quelques noms originaux des villes Indiennes :
Bombay – Mumbai
Calcutta – Kolkolta
Madras – Chennai
Trivandrum – Thiruvananthapuram
Poona – Pune
Bharuch – Broach
Bangalore - Bengaluru
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Fall of the Human Intellect
You are cordially invited to attend the Guru Purnima talk by Swami
Parthasarathy on the topic "The Fall of The Human Intellect" on July
21, 2008, Monday 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm at Balgandharva Rang Mandir J M
Road Pune.
You can locate the venue on the Wikimapia by clicking the following
link:http://www.wikimapia.org/
#lat=18.5219751&lon=73.8486385&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2
Vedanta Study Group Pune Thanks you very much for your contribution
for making the event possible, it is a rare opportunity to listen to
such an eminent philosopher / speaker.
Le Pune Jazz Club
Here is an announcement from the Pune Jazz Club about an even to be held this Sunday.
With the rains playing truant, us Jazz junkies have only one place to turn to for solace --- Yes ! Jazz !! We meet on Sunday, July 20th. at The Max Mueller Bhavan, as usual at 11.00 A.M.
This time we have some rather unusual fare lined up - in that we will be featuring Artists or tracks never featured before at one of our meetings. The first session will be presented by Rainer Hoerig, who will be showcasing Amy Winehouse. Rainer is presenting at PJC for the first time, so he is understandably a little nervous.
Unfortunately, Amy Winehouse has produced just two CD's, and there is not much material available. She is not a typical Jazz exponent, but mixes many styles into her own. She is currently one of the hot favourites in Europe and America. Her exceptional voice, and her penchant for mixing jazz, soul, reggae and folk music make her songs sound fresh and extraordinary and has spawned a renewed interest in jazz. Apart from her singing, her distinctive style, most notably her signature beehive hairstyle, has spawned many imitators and been the muse for fashion designers, most notably Karl Lagerfeld. The singer's struggles with drug and alcohol addiction have become regular tabloid news. Rainer will present Amy's latest hits, along with some of her early songs illustrated by a picture show.
The second session will be the responsibility of Sujit Patwardhan, who will be presenting after a lengthy interval. I can only quote Sujit himself, to give members an insight into the thought that has gone into his presentation.
Rediscovering the Soul of Jazz
Over the years, creative performers and composers have created new sounds and new techniques and in the process changed the sound of what we call "Jazz". From Dixieland and Swing, Big Bands and Smaller Combos, Jazz has enriched its vocabulary with each new innovator and skillful performer dominating this unique form of music that we find so exciting – almost addictive.
In making a selection for this month's presentation, it was my intention to include the whole range of styles that have mesmerized me at some time or another through my journey as a lover of jazz, but that attempt had to be quickly abandoned when I saw the music I had chosen added up to 3 hours of playing.
The selection that I finally narrowed down to after much effort and some heartburn will fit in the allotted time and hopefully cover a spectrum that will not be considered too lopsided. While this is so, I also wanted to be sure that the pieces I select for this programme be hard-core jazz and not versions of rock-jazz or funk-jazz. Another criterion I tried to meet was to avoid replaying what has been played many times before at PJC monthly meetings. Hopefully I have succeeded in fulfilling both the goals to a large extent.
The selection:
Dexter Gordon , Sonny Rollins, Jan Garbarek,
Patricia Barber, Billie Holiday,
Miles Davis (from Kind of Blue), The Modern Jazz Quartet,
Charles Lloyd and John Coltrane.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
L'exception culturelle
The concept of the ‘exception culturelle’ in France is best seen in the defense of the art – musique and cinema – against Americanisation. It promotes the idea that a country has the right to defend and conserve its own culture by putting limits to the trade of cultural products in the international market, with the aim of promoting its own artists.
This manifests in certain reservations and quotas in France for the production and diffusion of oeuvres that are EOF – Expression Originale Française.
Yet the critiques faced by this concept include the lack of recognition of cultural diversity within the country itself. Some, like the ex prime minister of Spain José Maria Aznar, believe that the idea of ‘exception culturelle’ is a sign of a culture in decline, as a desperate effort to conserve something that was not capable of evolution.
India has a vast diversity of cultures within herself. In urban India, the impacts of globalisation are clearly visible as less and less people prefer to speak in their own languages or dress in traditional ways. Indian cinema reflects these changes and radio stations such as Radio Mirchi show how far we have come from any kind of purity of language and culture. We have reservations here – but mostly for those that we consider less privileged or ‘backward’ – even the word ‘backword’ reflects what we think of certain sub cultures!
India, on the one hand, is known to be capable of absorbing other cultures and ‘Indianising’ them, and there are some who believe that the roots of Indian culture run so deep and strong that it would be difficult to erase them with outside influences. A culture that is capable of evolving and growing through external influence, may not need, as per Aznar, the protection of an ‘exception culturelle’. But on the other hand, the utter confusion of the contemporary Indian identity makes one wonder what we are growing into!
Young Indians, en tout cas, seem least concerned about ‘losing’ their culture, preoccupied as they are, with adopting the new ‘global’ identity. Whether this identity will help to create a more rooted and balanced culture remains to be seen.
Fête nationale à Pune
à l'Hotel Orbett, 1238/2, Apte Road.
See you there!
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An urban bird sanctuary in Pune
Mais oui! I am an environmentalist - on days when I am not trying to be French! So please bear with the frequent posts on Pune's natural environment! Here is a video on a new experiment - a stimulated bird sanctuary in Pune. May be worth a visit!
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