JANUARY 2019

WELCOME BACK FELLOWSHIP

21 Mon10.15 A.M

Madras Club

8, Adyar Gate Club Road

R.A. Puram

Chennai 600 028

Please join us for a morning of fun and laughter as we come together for the first IWA meeting of 2019.Lets start this year by strengthening our bonds of friendship and goodwill.

Come dressed in shades of Blue - associated with intelligence,tranquility and courteousness - qualities of the quintessential IWA woman!

Please note this is a members only meeting.

ARTS & HANDICRAFTS

23 Wed 10.15 A.M

The Folly, Amethyst

Whites Road

Next to Corporation Bank

Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

Arts & Handicrafts

Varnam: Colours; an ode to colourful India

Varnam is a multi-award winning social enterprise that has been working with artisans in Channapatna for over six years.

Our speaker Karthik Vaidyanathan, the founder of Varnam, hails from the Chettinad region of South India. Born and brought up in Mumbai he currently resides in Bangalore. An Engineer-MBA by qualification, Karthik has no formal training in design.

 Varnam was born in late 2011 during Karthik’s trip to Mysore enroute Channapatna. The colourful toys of Channapatna left him fascinated

and created in him, an urge to learn more about the craft. Karthik’s endeavor is to merge his aesthetic sensibilities and design philosophy into traditional crafts. His thought is to reorient our crafts to the modern context by ensuring that each design has a utilitarian value in the present times. The result is a series of designs interpreting this two hundred old toy-making craft in the home and lifestyle space that includes lighting; kitchen, dining and bar accessories; children’s room décor and toys.

COOKING SWAPSHOP

29 Tue 10.15 A.M

The Folly, Amethyst

Whites Road

Next to Corporation BankRoyapettah,

Chennai 600 014

 Chutney Chatter

As we all know, there are so many types of chutneys prepared in India which are traditional not just to our own homes but even the community we come from. With great pleasure, we invited a few of our very own members to share a chutney recipe which is unusual in their kitchen.

In the festive spirit and one for sharing joy, join us in learning some new chutney recipes which the ladies will proudly share, so we can try them out in our own homes.

Looking forward to sharing chutney recipes and chatter with you.

Hope you will join us for this wonderful morning.

CURRENT EVENTS

31 Thu 10.15 A.M

The Folly, Amethyst

Whites Road

Next to Corporation Bank

Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

“What I am Asking is Fairness tothe Athlete.” - Varsha Gautham

Varsha Gautham is the youngest Indian to win an Asian Games medal, at the age of 16, in 2014.A bitter court battle almost forced Varsha Gautham to quit the Asiad this year, but perseverance helped her to tide over the crisis and

clinch a silver medal in sailing at the Asian Games.It was a tough time for her. On numerous occasions the thought occurred to her as to whether she would make it. She always had the belief that she could win a medal, but the hardest part was to actually get to be a part of the Indian squad to the Asiad.Trials and tribulations of an athlete is little known to us. 

Varsha is in conversation with Gita Chandrasekaran, sharing her experiences with IWA.

DECEMBER

CURRENT EVENTS

4 Tue 10.15 AM

E. Hotel

Gate No.1, Express Avenue Mall

Patullos Road

Chennai 600 002 

‘Can we transform a million Indian government schools in our lifetime?’

Aditya Natraj, CEO, Piramal School of Leadership, and the founder and director of Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF), is the son of our IWA member, Sushila Natraj.

Aditya says,”In the last twenty years India has expanded quantitatively and built the largest education system in the world with 1.5 million schools and 8 million teachers. But quality is a huge problem. Fifty percent of fifth graders cannot read a paragraph in their mother tongue. OECD ranked us 83 out of 84 countries that took the test. Can anything be done?”

KEF is a change management organisation that focuses on transforming the

quality of education in public schools.Kaivalya Education Foundation aims to create a generation of school leaders who are empowered with the skills to create a large-scale,systemic impact.Join us as Aditya takes the discussion forward and tells us how he found meaning in life in India’s villages.

Please note: This is a programme presented by our IWA Next Gen.

ARTS & HANDICRAFTS

6 Thu 10.15 AM

The Folly, Amethyst

Whites Road

Next to Corporation Bank

Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

Saris: Nationhood, and Consumption in Urban India

Our speaker, Dr Kaamya Sharma is a Post doctoral Fellow at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras. She received her Ph.D. from the Department of Global Studies at the School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University.Her doctoral work was an ethnographic investigation of revival movements and identity projects centered on the sari in urban south India.

Saris are a part of the fabric of everyday life in India, with a ubiquitous and naturalized presence. Yet, we know little about the history and evolution of this garment. Dr Kaamya will take us through a selective history of the sari, highlighting moments of sartorial conflict and change from colonization to independence and after. She will focus on the handloom sari, discuss policy and private efforts to frame craft as a nation-building activity in order to save artisanal livelihoods.

Dr Kaamya will also throw light on how saris figure in craft-based,cinematic, kitsch and fashionable imaginations.

BOOK DISCUSSION & CURRENT EVENTS

7 Fri 10.15 AM

The Folly, Amethyst

Whites Road

Next to Corporation Bank Royapettah,

Chennai 600 014

What’s in your Attic?

“In a small town by the river Nila, a thirty-five-year-old writer kills  herself.

No one knows why.Fifty-two years later, an antique cupboard in a private resort opens to reveal a frightened child. And the mystery begins to unravel.”

That, dear members, is an exclusive excerpt from the novel, Eating Wasps.

Would you like to read on and/or meet the author of these intriguing lines?

She has received many awards and her books have been translated into over thirty-one languages around the world. She is also the founder of the creative writing and mentorship program Anita’s Attic.

Best selling and critically acclaimed author and poet, essayist and screenplay writer, Anita Nair interacts with the IWA ladies this December. The lady’s writings embrace female protagonists and the parallel journey in books and the current world scenario make for an interesting comparison.

Come, armed with questions (one each) and go back with an autographed book or two!

MUSIC & PERFORMING ARTS

11 Tue 10.15 AM

The Folly, Amethyst

Whites Road

Next to Corporation Bank

Royapettah, Chennai 600 014

What no one tells you about starting up!!

Standup Comedian Karthik Kumar has written 3 standup solo specials (#Poke Me, Second Decoction & Blood Chutney) and performed over 500 shows across India and international markets such as USA, UK,Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. He is also one of the founders of South India’s largest standup movement – ‘Evam Standup Tamasha’ that produces shows regularly and manages a repertory of comedians and theatre artists’ pan-India.

In September, Karthik Kumar launched his debut book on entrepreneurship “Don’t Startup” using his journey with Evam as a reference. The book was written from a perspective of ‘I wish I had known these things when I started my own Entrepreneurship!’. In thishu mor-laced talk he will be detailing his journey as an entrepreneur and discussing his book. Come and whet your appetite for starting up and enjoy life’s lessons comedy-style.