At the Red Sofa conversations

August 10^th, 2011: Yesterday afternoon I went to Delhi and had a meeting with Jawhar Sircar, Principal Secretary, Cultural Affairs, Government of India. Nandita and Jawhar were known to me during his tenure in Kolkata.

The cultural fraternity of the country knows and accepts the fact that Jawhar Sircar is doing full justice to his post. Before him, the cultural affairs department didn't have a Principal Secretary and was being looked after directly by the Prime Minister. Jawhar Sircar was recently lauded by the Prime Minister in one of his speeches for the good work done by him.

Our's was an informal meeting in which I briefed him about my upcoming events and programs in Kolkata. I returned to Kolkata in the evening.

On Monday evening i went to The Conclave for the ‘Red Sofa’ conversation with Aparna Sen. The Conclave has started this series on completion of 25 years. Rita Bhimani normally moderates the `Red Sofa' conversations and I had missed the earlier conversations which including Mahesh Bhatt and Shashi Tharoor. 

This time Iti Mrinalini was the highlight of the `Red Sofa' conversation (picture).

Aparna Sen also answered questions from the audience, I met Gargi Roy Chowdhury, Usha Uthup, Sangeeta Dutta and Madhu Neotia.

Tomorrow evening I leave for Bangalore.

ess bee