Past EventsKolkata

RTariq Ansari, Chairman and Managing Director, Next Mediaworks Ltd, spoke about how the media’s role in our lives today cannot be over emphasised. However, it might perhaps be the time now to consider whether its over-hyped role and the tremendous competition between the numerous small and big media organisations has shunted “responsible reporting” to the back bench. Members thoroughly enjoyed participating in this very relevant debate, which has been raging in our living rooms, with someone who has had a long stint of over two decades in the “big fight” of delivering the next “Breaking News”.

Only “a blank, white screen; a light source, a couple of hands, including ten fingers…..”, are the tools of this craft. Yet the amazing scope of this innovative and unique art form is unbelievable!

Two master performers and magicians Amar Sen and Sabyasachi Sen have the rare talent to produce a world of light and shade, presenting images and stories in a narrative structure, using cinematic techniques, even slow motion, with just bare hands and hold an audience of all age groups. Amar is the creator and Sabyasachi, the preserver and critic.

Raksha Bharadia is best known for co-authoring Chicken Soup for the Indian Soul series. Raksha Bharadia has also written All and Nothing, Me: A Handbook for Life and Roots and Wings: A Handbook for Parents, all published by Rupa & Co. Through her interactive session with our members, Raksha tried to help us access our own defining moments. She also added anecdotes from her interviews with people such as M.F Hussain, Pandit Jasraj, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sachin Tendulkar, to name a few. She took the participants through a short writing workshop to try and help them identify the writer in each one of them.

Super Chef, Asha Khatau, spoke about Healthy yet Delicious Cooking at the beginning of this event. Asha Khatau is very well-known in the field of gourmet vegetarian cooking. Her cooking classes, Epicure, are extremely successful. She is also famous for her very popular cookbooks. Last year at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards held in Paris, she was honoured for her outstanding career in vegetarian books. She then led the participants to the Race to Health, an Innovative Cooking Competition, that had more than 60 participants. Participants cooked in groups, given fixed ingredients with which to prepare two dishes each. Members had a very energetic and exciting experience. Each team laid out wonderful, mouth-watering dishes. Asha Khatau along with LSG Committee Member, Abhilasha Sethia and member, Manjri Agarwal, both of Bon Appetit! fame judged the dishes and their presentation. All the groups were awarded for their efforts. At the end of the programme, members bought cookbooks by Asha Khatau, and had them autographed by the author.

Rasa denotes an essential mental state and is the dominant emotional theme of a work of art or the primary feeling that is evoked in the person that views, reads or hears such a work.

Art Historian and Professor Emeritus, Panjab University, Chandigarh, Professor BN Goswami, is a leading authority on Indian art. His work covers a wide range of different areas and his research, particularly in the area of Pahiri painting, is regarded as having influenced much subsequent thinking. According to Professor Goswamy as Rasa is central to the arts of India. If art gives us pleasure it is because it yields rasa. How rasa is ‘tasted’ by the viewer, how it takes possession of him or her, are things that writers have tried to understand and explain through their critique, for close to two thousand years. At this event, Prof Goswami totally captured the attention of his audience with his outstanding presentation of Indian paintings and his detailed explanation of style, sentiment and rasa in each. It truly was an enthralling experience.

Leadership: Rules not Taught in School. Mr. Piramal has led the Piramal Group to evolve from a textile centric business to a conglomerate with diversified business interests across pharmaceuticals, packaging, financial services and real estate. He is also the Chairman of Pratham India, the largest non governmental organisation involved in the development of the future of millions of children living both in rural and urban Mumbai.

Mr. Senthil Chengalvarayan, President & Editorial Director, TV18 Business Media, in conversation with Mr Piramal, introduced LSG members to the vision, philosophy and personality of one of the country’s industrial leaders.

Ms. Kidwai, a self-motivated and confident person, has a lot of firsts to her credit. She was one of the first women to enter the former male bastion of investment banking and rise spectacularly. She was first woman to be – reluctantly -- inducted by Price Waterhouse in 1977. In 1982 she was the first woman in India to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School. And now she has been appointed the first lady President of FICCI.

Her interactive session with LSG gave us an opportunity to know Naina the woman, the mother, the entrepreneur, the negotiator, the pioneer. Other than Indian and Global economy, banking, India’s role in world economy, she also spoke about her pioneering work in the field of water conservation and women's empowerment.

In search of the familiar yet often not so familiar traits of best selling English author. It is often believed that Jeffrey Archer's own story would make an international bestseller. At 29, he was elected Member of Parliament (MP), and later made deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by Mrs Margaret Thatcher and in 1992 a life peer. On the brink of bankruptcy, he began writing his very aptly titled first book, Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less (1976). And the rest as they say is history. Like the characters in his best selling novels, Jeffrey Archer too has led a very colourful and intriguing life, and shared a few anecdotes with us at the event. He spoke about his writing regimen, encouraged the audience to pursue their own writing passion. Jeffrey Archer signed copies of his books on this occasion.

Mahatma Gandhi said: "There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Do we find ourselves rushing through life so much that we forget to stop and smell the flowers? When we do that, we tend to stress more, enjoy less and possibly put ourselves at risk for burnout.

Ladies Study Group in association with Entrepreneurs’ Organisation, Kolkata, organized an event with well known, veteran film actor, Suresh Oberoi in conversation with Sister Shivani. Sister Shivani, the young, articulate face of the Brahma Kumaris and an immensely sought-after personality due to the clarity of the wisdom analyzed the deep rooted causes of the negative emotions experienced in life. She touched upon issues like - the ego, relationships, stress, anger, self esteem and meditation.