Before starting with the proceedings I would like all of you to:

1. Kindly switch off your mobile phones.

2. Please avoid leaving the venue in the middle of the program.
3. Please avoid flash photography.

A very good evening to all of you.

SPIC MACAY, Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst
Youth, is a voluntary youth movement which promotes Indian classical music,
dance and culture. It seeks to foster awareness of the Indian cultural heritage
through its chapters in over 200 towns and cities all over the world. We at
SPICMACAYs SNU Chapter have been doing our bit to promote the movement
amongst the students, faculty and staff of the SNU Community.

Jerzy Kosinski, an award-winning Polish-American novelist said and I quote The

principle of true art is not to portray, but to evoke.

And today we are honored to have amongst us, one of India's leading
contemporary artists, who has evoked numerous sentiments through her
paintings and murals, Padma Shri Anjolie Ela Menon. She has created a name for
themselves in the domestic as well as international art scenario. Throughout her
career as a painter, Anjolie ji has regularly re-envisioned her role as an artist.

Anjolie Ela Menon was born on 17 July 1940, in West Bengal and completed her
schooling in Tamil Nadu. By the age of 15, she had already sold a few
paintings. Her early canvases exhibited the varied influences of Van Gogh, the
Expressionists, Modigilani, Amrita Sher-Gil, and M.F. Hussain. Along the years,
she was influenced by her exposure to the techniques of medieval Christian
artists. Painting on the hardboard, she enhanced the finely textured surface of
her paintings by burnishing the finished work with a soft dry brush, creating a
glow reminiscent of medieval icons. Anjolie Ji was awarded the Padma Shri, one
of Indias highest civilian honours, by the Government of India in 2000.

Among more than 30 solo shows, her most recent ones include Menongitis-Three
Generations of Art at Dhoomimal Gallery, New Delhi, in 2008; and Gods and
Others presented by Apparao Galleries at Admit One Gallery, New York, in 2000.
She has also been honored with a six month solo show at the Asian Art Museum,
San Francisco, featuring her large triptych entitled Yatra in 2006. Her works
have been featured in several group exhibitions, including Kalpana: Figurative
Art in India, presented by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations at Aicon
Gallery, London, in 2009; Mapping Memories-2, Painted Travelogues of Bali and
Burma at Gallery Threshold, New Delhi, in 2008; and Kitsch Kitsch Hota Hai at
India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, in 2001. Working mainly with oils and mixed
media and preferring to paint directly rather than draw, her paintings are a
reflection of the phases of her life and the world around her. The paintings show
a deep ethos, sensitive to human sensibility, nature and beauty. Experimentation
has always been at the heart of her art. She is among the first Indian artists to do
Kitsch and experiment with digital painting. She has done sculptures from
Murano crystal, a type of Italian glass. With her imagination, innovation, and
restless spirit, the celebrated artist continues to experiment with newer forms,
materials and ideas. Its noteworthy that an itinerant life has resulted in some
truly interesting aesthetic and practical choices for the innovative artist.
We welcome you Maam.

I would now like to call Mr Rajiv Swarup, President of Shiv Nadar University to
light the lamp and start the program.

Without any further due, I hand over the stage to Shrimati Anjolie Ela Menon Ji.