This Sunday at The Goa Project
Sessions, we’ll take a close look at a long-departed Jaipur ruler’s chhatri (and legacy) and argue for a place for books in a short-attention-span era.

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Aparna is a curator at the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, City Palace, Jaipur. Specialising in art and architecture of early modern India, she has two master's degrees: Art in the Global Middle Ages (MSc, University of Edinburgh, Sep 2017), and Arts and Aesthetics (MA, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, May 2012). In Bombay, she has worked on independent archiving projects, made an audio guide, and taught and co-ordinated a liberal arts programme for undergraduates at ISDI-Parson's Mumbai. Aparna contributes to various publications, enjoys photography, and works to fund her book-buying and travel addiction.

Mohit conceptualised City Book Leaders almost two years ago as a pure passion to chase his love to read books and feed his craving to know more about various subjects. He often lends his strategic expertise to few starts ups in the field of learning and education. To follow his path of conservation, he drives an electric car, bathes with half a bucket, and uses minimum lighting and air-conditioning throughout the day.

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You will need to register on Zoom at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ which will send a log-in link and password to the email address you used to register. (Look for no-reply@zoom.us in your spam folder if it's not in your inbox.)

Dear TGPian,

We hope you had a happy, peaceful Christmas. And we wish all of you the very best for 2021.

In the new year, we’re starting out with a slightly tweaked version of TGP Sessions; Season Two, if you will, which will start on 17th January.

But before that, we thought it would be worth our time to devote one Sunday’s sessions, the 3rd January, to looking back at 2020.

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It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.
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This time in 2019, no futurist, soothsayer or podcaster could have predicted how much 2020 would change our lives: how we would understand and relate to our homes and families, our work and offices, the outdoors, transport, travel, even just survival.

The year is over now, almost, but the changes we’ve lived through look like they are going to be part of our lives for the near future at least. So we thought it would be a good moment to stop and reflect on how 2020 has changed all of us, through experiences good and bad.

This Sunday’s session is an open house for the TGP community, devoted to your answers to these questions:
• What is one unexpected thing that happened to me in 2020 that changed me?
• What is one thing I knew was going to happen in 2020 that changed me?
• How did I surprise myself in 2020?
• How did the world surprise me in 2020?

If you’d like to speak on any of these topics (up to two minutes each), please write to thetgpsessions@gmail.com with “TGP Sessions” as the subject line.

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Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ
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More about the Sessions: https://thegoaproject.wordpress.com/

We started, folks: https://zoom.us/j/97691478373?pwd=K080M2YyeE5CTW80dEFCR2s0cGRhQT09

TGP Sessions: Season 2: The tracks

• The Arts: Performing Arts (Theatre, Music, Dance, Spoken Word), Visual Arts (including Sculpture, Installations, Mixed Media, Design from the art perspective), Literature.
• Society: Includes Access and Inclusion, Social Entrepreneurship, Environment, Development, like the topics under the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Basically, things aimed primarily at a better world.
• Science & Technology: Which includes the social sciences and information technology.
• Design: Including design of public space and utilities, and technology from the user perspective (like user interface design, and product design that changes paradigms).
• News & Media: Journalism as a practice, Cinema, TV, Newspapers, Magazines and Internet-based Media, Social Media, Public Relations, Interactive Media.
• Intersections: Topics that straddle two or more tracks
• Fringe & Geekery: Anything that doesn't fit under the other tracks but we think is fascinating.

This Sunday's presenters. (More about them in the next post.)

Aditya is founder, producer and composer of Nivid, an alt-electro-rock band with provocative and theatrical narratives written in Hindi, based upon reflections of the self, society, and civilisation. The band draws influence from industrial, post-rock, punk, and electronica interfused with Indian sounds. Aditya has traversed from the small-town world of Ludhiana, Punjab to bigger spaces like Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mumbai, and New Delhi enriching his vision and skills. Since 2019 the band has consistently put out thought-provoking, socially relevant music and performances. The World Around Me Infinite Support | Sanskaari got public attention recently with 200,000+ hits.

Bhagya is a self-taught artist who fiercely explores mediums and techniques such as brush strokes, fire, and ambidexterity to depict abstract expressionisms in her works. Sivaraman is a professional social worker with double master’s degrees from TISS, Mumbai, and Oxford University, UK. She has worked with grassroots NGOs, research think-tanks, and policymakers on several social issues pertaining to vulnerable women and children in low-and-middle-income countries. She particularly uses art as a medium to work with behaviour change and trauma, which eventually turned into a medium of healing for her very own self.

Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ
Pitch a Session: https://forms.gle/RU4zfKP3qsGr8x5t5

Aditya is founder, producer and composer of Nivid, an alt-electro-rock band with provocative and theatrical narratives written in Hindi, based upon reflections of the self, society, and civilisation. The band draws influence from industrial, post-rock, punk, and electronica interfused with Indian sounds. Aditya has traversed from the small-town world of Ludhiana, Punjab to bigger spaces like Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Mumbai, and New Delhi enriching his vision and skills. Since 2019 the band has consistently put out thought-provoking, socially relevant music and performances. The World Around Me Infinite Support | Sanskaari got public attention recently with 200,000+ hits.

Bhagya is a self-taught artist who fiercely explores mediums and techniques such as brush strokes, fire, and ambidexterity to depict abstract expressionisms in her works. Sivaraman is a professional social worker with double master’s degrees from TISS, Mumbai, and Oxford University, UK. She has worked with grassroots NGOs, research think-tanks, and policymakers on several social issues pertaining to vulnerable women and children in low-and-middle-income countries. She particularly uses art as a medium to work with behaviour change and trauma, which eventually turned into a medium of healing for her very own self.

Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ
Pitch a Session: https://forms.gle/RU4zfKP3qsGr8x5t5

More about our presenters in the next message.

This Sunday at The Goa Project Sessions, it's the Society track, and the theme is environmental action. We are all aware of the precipice on which we stand, when it comes to air quality and water supply. But what can we actually do about it? Do we need citizens to take steps in their individual lives to combat these issues, or does it all eventually come down to policy? And how is this policy made?

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Meet our presenters

Tanushree Ganguly is an air quality researcher who is working on developing a data-driven approach towards clean air policy making in India. Currently at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, her work focuses on assessing the potential of alternative methods of monitoring air quality and understanding and addressing the current regulatory hurdles in effective implementation of clean air policies.

Mriganka Saxena is the Founding Partner of Habitat Tectonics Architecture & Urbanism (HTAU) and CityAnalytics based in Gurgaon. With over eighteen years’ experience, working with both the public and private sectors she specialises in preparing urban strategies and enabling frameworks for urban transformation initiatives. Her focus lies in design-led policy and tools for effective delivery in the areas of Transit Oriented Development (TOD), Mobility, and Natural Water Resources.

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Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ

We have a slight change in programme. Mriganka Saxena cannot make it. S. Vishwanath graciously agreed to present at short notice.

S. Vishwanath a.k.a. zenrainman has been harvesting rain, digging wells, recycling wastewater and dabbling in water, wastewater and faecal sludge management policy for the last 34 years.

Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ

The Zoom room is open. Register: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ