PUKAR Youth Fellowship Program Graduation Event (2008 – 2009)
It is both a proud and humbling moment when one sees ones’ own hard work and effort materialize and being appreciated. The 36 groups who presented their final products as part of the Youth Fellowship Project (YFP) too felt the same. The excitement on June 20, the Graduation day for the Youth Fellows, was palpable. Adding to the zeal was the fact that for the first time since the inception of YFP, PUKAR’s Founding Trustee, Prof. Arjun Appadurai was in town to meet the enthusiastic groups.
Prof Arjun Appadurai takes time to interact with the youth fellows and learn about their projects.
After a year of meetings, attending workshops, deadlines, arguments, agreements, stay-overs, analysis, creative and critical thinking, June 20 was the day for Youth Fellows of 2008-09 to tell the world what they had learnt during the process.The research projects were divided into seven themes – Gender, Education, Livelihood, Law & Governance, Environment, Culture and Health. Replete with hand painted charts, cutouts and miniatures, each stall bore testimony to the work done by each research group.
In the Graduation ceremony, Youth Fellows representing the seven themes spoke of the enrichment brought to their lives by the research process.Prof. Appadurai emphasized the importance of
a ground level research studies in relation to the larger scheme of development emphasizing the need for fresh, innovative ideas as pathways towards creating a more equal society.
Youth Fellowship graduates share their experience as researchers.
Chief Guest Mr. Ratnakar Gaikwad in his speech focused on the value system one can adopt in life such as equality, attitude, honesty and selfless service.
The celebration was attended by Pushpa Bhave, the Youth Fellowship Advisor & Mr. F. J. Gandavia, the Secretary and Chief Accountant of Sir Ratan Tata Trust among other guests. Chief Guest Ratnakar Gaikwad and SRTT representative F J Gandavia present certificates to the graduating youth fellows.
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PUKAR Annual Lecture
The SOAK exhibition, mounted at NGMA, Mumbai, took a unique look at Mumbai as an estuary, dismantling the classical representation and perception of the sea as the enemy, divorced from and external to Mumbai’s terrain. Curated by Anuradha Mathur and Dilip Da Cunha, this brilliantly unique installation presented a paradigm shift through detailed section drawings, photo works and models. Complementing PUKAR’s theme of urban water concerns, SOAK, through its round table discussion with academics from various fields, urban planners, architects, artists and practitioners, offered new options, attitudes, designs and perspectives on how we approach monsoon, floods and water in Mumbai. Designers Anuradha Mathur and Dilip Da Cunha walk attendees through their SOAK exhibition at NGMA. Experts from various fields engage in an animated round table discussion on Mumbai’s equation with its waters.
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PUKAR-SOAK Annual Lecture with Prof Arjun Appadurai
The PUKAR Annual Lecture on June 27 this year was held in conjunction with the ongoing SOAK exhibition at Mumbai’s NGMA auditorium. Designers-Curators Anuradha Mathur and Dilip Da Cunha made a comprehensive presentation to a packed audience, detailing unprecedented design ideas and approaches that take us beyond the conventional delineating of land and sea. Prof Arjun Appadurai, founder of PUKAR, in turn, raised the need for applying lessons from the exchange, from “the seeing, talking, thinking” to our material realities and to inspire action.
Prof Arjun Appadurai, Anuradha Mathur & Dilip Da Cunha exchange views on Mumbai’s Monsoon landscape & the lives around it.
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PUKAR Annual Lecture – State of Water in Mumbai
Held on the June 28 at the NGMA auditorium, this symposium was a timely examination of issues surrounding access, distribution and use of water resources in urban areas. Keeping the PUKAR tradition of bringing national and international scholars and practitioners for the benefit of the citizens of Mumbai, there was a panel of scholars from Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai who brought to light and discussed the discriminatory water distribution system and the failures of governance in the four metros.
Scholars present their papers discussing water issues at the symposium.
This discussion was complemented with documentary films made by PUKAR youth fellows that revealed the informal ways in which those at the bottom of the water hierarchy negotiate manufactured scarcity and its impact on their lives.Both sessions led to animated discussions.
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Urban Visions
Between July 9 – 17 2009 The city of Florence, Italy, will host the Beyond Media 2009 Visions 9th International Festival for Architecture and Media in the Stazione Leopolda. The festival includes the Urban Visions Exhibition. PUKAR is proud to announce that it has been invited to exhibit work from the Mythologies of Mumbai project and the Urban Typhoon, Koliwada workshop.
The work that will be exhibited at Urban Visions uses the efforts of communities and residents to reflect on, describe and fantasize about different neighbourhoods in Mumbai. The images to be seen have been created in collaboration with residents, researchers (often from the neighbourhoods being studied) and professionals such as film-makers, architects and artists. The neighbourhoods of Girangaon and Dharavi will be primarily showcased.
