Namaste India Widening Its Horizons |
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NAMASTE INDIA is an autonomous project created in 2012 in Havana, the main objective of which is to study Hindi and Indian culture. Its members are students graduated from the First and Second Courses of Hindi in Cuba between the years 2008 and 2010 under the sponsorship of House-Museum of Asia, belonging to the Office of the City Historian, and the Embassy of the Republic of India in Havana. It also counts on new students and other members. Among the tools elaborated to achieve its success, you can find the website NAMASTE CUBA and, since 2013, KAMALA magazine, a space for the publishing of general issues about India and about the presence of India in Cuba.
In 2014, Discover India emerged. This is an event devoted to promoting that country’s culture in our society and that is coordinated with the House-Museum of Asia, with the collaboration of the Embassy of India and the support of various experts and specialists on this topic. It normally takes place on the last Friday of each month at 4.00pm at the House-Museum of Asia (Mercaderes, No. 111, b./ Obispo and Obrapía, La Habana Vieja, Havana). Recent topics would include:
More recently, the framework of the 24th edition of the International Book Fair of Havana, the Guest of Honor of which was the Republic of India, provided an ideal platform for the presentation of the project’s web portal. Its director, Mileny Roche, presented the Kamala’s (name given to this initiative www.kamala.comlu.cu) basic structure. The name chosen is associated to the evocation this word makes to images of an Indian female deity of great beauty that is related to fertility and prosperity. Being this another of the group’s initiatives to contribute with the promotion and spreading of the culture, traditions, and other values of the Indian society in our country, it contains articles and relevant materials about that nation, image galleries, programs of past and future activities, transmitting, the latter, a clear invitation to everyone who feels interested, as well as links with institutions and websites that have a similar nature as NAMASTE.
Each of the inner pages is marked by a lotus flower, which bears a great symbolic content in Indian culture, and by the quotations of Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts as an evidence of this hero’s significance and the admiration felt for him in all the globe. Equally, news related to India’s development can be found there. They are taken from diverse press media and national magazines, filed, and put at the disposal of the visitor. At the same time, it has the adequate tool to include opinions and critiques, as well as information about the diverse means to contribute to the improvement of the project. The calls for participation in the aforementioned event Descubriendo India find also a space in this recent initiative. The two last sessions have dealt with the topics of Mahatma Gandhi and the culture of Indian orchids in Cuba, respectively. For this month, the proposal is equally interesting. We hope we can count on your attendance and collaboration.
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Embassy of India Havana, Cuba |
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