ADDA at RANAN | Iftekhar Ahsan - founder of, and explorer at, Calcutta Walks | SUNDAY, 3 January 2016, 5pm to 7pm

space and time to engage and exchange with individuals and organisations 

that activate, energise and re-define the complex socio-cultural landscape of Calcutta

"what are you passionate about

what makes you tick, why do you do what you do?"

Calcutta. Travel. Learning. Cultures. People. Photography. History. Entrepreneurship

"I do what I do because it is a coming together of all my interests in life."

~ Iftekhar Ahsan

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Adda with Iftekhar Ahsan

founder of, and explorer at, Calcutta Walks

Sunday, 3 January 2016. 5 to 7 pm

The Ranan Workspace

(Ground Floor, 8 Sultan Alam Road, Calcutta 700 033, near Rabindra Sarobar Metro)

Click here for  map

Join the Facebook Event​

Born and brought up (and hopelessly in love with) Calcutta, Iftekhar Ahsan’s passion for trespassing is second only to his love for this city. Mired in years of neglect and bad publicity people fail to accept Calcutta for the great city that it is, and Iftekhar started Calcutta Walks to showcase the city in its true spirit. Calcutta Walks has now morphed into a household name thanks to his commitment and dedication to the cause of promoting a sustainable and responsible tourism business. A regular contributor to The Telegraph and other publications Iftekhar has built a reputation for himself as an explorer of the city and one of the best people to walk around town with.

Ranan believes that the performing arts should be a vital and valued part of shared human experience and society. Cities like Calcutta need spaces to connect, exchange, share, inspire and energise. Our monthly addas engage with people invested in activating the city and the extended arts community in a variety of ways, and with the wealth of ideas, processes and approaches that make up the complex socio-cultural fabric of Calcutta. The adda also contributes to making our workspace a hub for diverse creative energies that meet, stay, morph or simply flow through with honest, open conversations and debates between people, experiences and ideas. 

Email us on ranan.artsengage@gmail.com or rananidia@gmail.com for more information.

Finding us:

The venue is on the ground floor of a residential apartment building. 

There is limited parking space in the neighbourhood so please arrive early. 

Arriving by public transport is advisable and easy. The Metro stop is Rabindra Sarobar, bus and tram stops are Charu Market, Rabindra Sarobar and Bhabani Cinema. The venue is a short walk from here.

The entrance to Sultan Alam Road is flanked by a small Thalassemia Clinic and a mosque. Look for a large black gate on your right soon after you enter the lane.

In the unlikely event that you are arriving by local train, the stop is Tollygunj Station on the parallel road to Sultan Alam. We are a five minute walk from there.

If you get lost or confused, please call 8296440089 or 9830468110. We will get you there! However, phones may be on silent mode once we start - another reason to come a little early and settle in. 

See you there.

Vikram Iyengar on Adda at Ranan with Anubha Fatehpuria

ADDA AT RANAN - July 2015

Vikram Iyengar responds to the Adda at Ranan with architect and actress

Anubha Fatehpuria

How many times have we walked or driven down a road and been brought up short by a building that seems to have no business to be there? It has nothing to do with its location, its surroundings, its neighbours – its incongruous in every way. “Who built that, and why”, we wonder as we move on.

Or worse, still, how many times have we walked or driven down streets in our cities where every house looks like the next, every street looks like the next, and every neighbourhood looks like a generic urban landscape. Nothing to tell us visually which city we are in, what makes it unique, what its culture is, who its people are. Faceless four walls enclosing in, leaving out, without a trace of the personalities individuals who live or work there. Functional buildings, soul-less buildings, buildings without surprises, buildings without delight, buildings of brick, mortar and cement… and precious little else.

Click here for more images

How can the art of architecture work to humanise spaces? This is what drives architect Anubha Fatehpuria’s work and vision. How do you approach a space, listen to it, hear what it has to say, accordingly conceive of a design and choose appropriate building materials and methods to deliver something unique for that spot and that client? Something that cannot be replicated with a different set of variables in a different location. Something that works with the clients specifications and also reflects and responds to the locale, the culture, the surroundings.

Sohini Debnath on Adda at Ranan with Rajeswary Gangul Banerjee

Adda at Ranan - 7 June 2015

Sohini Debnath responds to the Adda at Ranan with vocalist, researcher and teacher 
Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee

Jayati Chakraborty responds to the Adda at Ranan with actress Daminee Basu

At the Adda at Ranan on 3 May, actress Daminee Basu shared a performance which is still an art-in-progress piece on Motherhood, from a bigger project that she wishes to do in the near future - 'Project: Stereotype'. Jayati Chakraborty responds...

What is a stereo type? When does anything become a stereotype? Is this the story of one woman? Or the story of several women? Etc etc..............
So many questions are bubbling in my mind after seeing the performance on 3 may '15 at the Ranan adda by Daminee Basu (Beni). She has recently been working on 'Project Stereotype' where she has chosen to work on motherhood influenced by the pain that she undergoes by the separation from her child. The mixture of soundscape and her silent acting based on some repetitive actions led me to experience a journey of pain, happiness, exhaustion, contradictions.
Looking forward to experience more of these kinds of performance and addas in Ranan.

Dana Roy on two experiences with Gill Robertson and Michael Sherrin

Dana Roy writes on two experiences with Gill Robertson and Michael Sherin - the adda at Ranan on 5 April 2015, and a day she spent at the Think Arts workshop.

Rejuvenation!

On 5^th April, 2015 Ranan was delighted to host an Adda with Gill Robertson and Michael Sherin, both of whom were in Calcutta to conduct the first part of an amazing four week workshop-rehearsal process that Ruchira Das of Think Arts dreamt up and organized. (more on this later)

Gill is this wonderfully energetic, incredibly engaging, red-headed crazy person from Scotland with a loud infectious laugh, who, incidentally, formed the Catherine Wheels Theatre Company in 1999. A company that has made a name for itself creating delicious looking performances such as White and Lifeboat (picture below) for young audiences. We were lucky enough to have Paul Fitzpatrick, from Catherine Wheels show us glimpses of these when he visited Ranan in 2012. What I would give to see one of these productions!

Seeking Support for Ranan's TEN

Ranan turned ten in June 2014.

On 7 and 8 February 2015 at Gyan Manch Calcutta, we step into our next decade with a unique evening of performances – TEN

ten directors (4 Ranan associates and 6 from within the Ranan repertory) respond to the number 10 and create ten short pieces with music, movement, text and design.

An evening responding to one impulse through ten narratives; ten connections woven into one experience that we hope you will be there to share. 

View the promo video

Visit the blog page

Join the Facebook Event

It’s been ten years of creative discovery, delight and disappointment.

Ten years

-       a company taking shape

-       finding and fighting for its beliefs and values

-       forming a dedicated band of people who dream the dreams of Ranan

Ten years

-       creating 14 productions spanning dance, dance-theatre and dance-film

-       offering disciplined and fun-filled Kathak training

-       imagining and developing a diverse group of performers and coalescing into a repertory

Ten years

-       active engagements with old and new audiences and communities

-       artistic collaborations, both Indian and international

-       building relationships to take into the future

Ten years to celebrate …

but also ten years of living precariously on the edge

Ten years

-       struggling to make ends meet

-       trying to achieve a sustainability that we know we deserve

-       imagining a future where we thrive rather than survive

As we mark this milestone, we also hope to enter a new way of being. For this we turn to you with a challenge we have set ourselves: to move away from our dependence on the unpredictable and often hierarchical world of government and corporate funding, and produce this fresh new endeavour with the involvement of people like you (people like us), who believe that the arts have a vital role to play in imagining and creating a world we wish to inhabit.

Any contribution from INR 500/- onwards would be most welcome. All contributions will be acknowledged on our Facebook pages and blog, as well as at the venue of performance. If you would rather remain anonymous, please tell us so. Two complimentary tickets for either of the performances will be reserved for you. Ranan is also tax-exempt under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, and we will be able to provide you with a certificate should you require.

How can you contribute?

-      Sending an INR cheque in the name of RANAN to AA17, Sector I, Salt Lake, Calcutta 700064

-       Bank transfer in INR –

Axis Bank, Account Number: 911010001915884

IFSC Code: UTIB0000721

-       At the special counter at the venue on the performance days – please give us prior information so we can keep your complimentary tickets aside

Please email us at rananindia@gmail.com or call / sms +91-9830015510 to register your contribution.

We sincerely hope that you will respond to this appeal and validate our belief in people power, in the power of the arts, in the power of imagining a different reality.

Over the next year, Ranan plans to initiate a range of creative projects in a variety of contexts and communities –

-       to take our artistic work to the next level

-       to connect with and contribute more to the society we are a part of

-       to move closer to our dream of sustainability

We need and want people to journey with us, to partner us, to support us, to inspire and challenge us. If you would like to know more about these future projects, please let us know. We would be delighted to engage in a conversation and have you on board.

Looking into a future of promise with hope, thanks and determination,

The Ranan Core Team:

Vikram Iyengar

Debashree Bhattacharya

Amlan Chaudhuri

Jayati Chakraborty
Dana Roy

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Our heartfelt thanks to those who have already contributed or promised support:

Mandeep Raikhy, Delhi

Sharmila Biswas and Odissi Vision and Movement Centre, Calcutta

Ruchira Das, Calcutta

Bishnupriya Basak, Calcutta

Shuktara Lal, Calcutta

Debu Bhattacharya, Calcutta

Sunayana Roy, Calcutta

Virkein Dhar, Delhi

Nandita Palchoudhuri, Calcutta

Sridar Iyengar, Mumbai

Rhythmosaic, Calcutta

Sipra Mukherjee, Calcutta

Sudeshna Banerjee, Calcutta

Juee Deogaokar, Pune

Sameera Iyengar, Mumbai

Joyee Deb, New York

Vandana Alase Hazra, Calcutta

Partha Banerjee, Calcutta

Bhaskar Sharma, Calcutta

Santanu Mukherjee, Calcutta

Sarmistha Sarker, Calcutta

Lav Kanoi, Delhi

Oindrilla Dutt, Calcutta
Suksham Singh, Calcutta
Usha and Purushottam Bhatia, Mumbai
Rita Banerjee, Calcutta
Arindam Roy, Calcutta
Kunal Roy, Calcutta
Prita Bhattacharya, Calcutta
Alokananda Mukherjee, Calcutta

and our other friends who wish to remain anonymous.