Open day draws huge crowd

Max Mueller announces Rs 60 lakh grant for ten events

Dr Evelin Hust, Director of its Bangalore branch, located at CMH Road, who made the announcement during the inauguration of its golden jubilee celebrations on Friday (November 20) said the grant would be made available for ten cultural projects such as music, dance, theatre, film, literature, fine arts, new media and interdisciplinary concepts,” the Bhavan stated in a release. Institutions and individuals can send their proposals including a concept, budget, samples of personal works and a personal resume by e-mail before December 31, 2009.  Jury members from India and Germany will decide on the awardees, who will be notified before February 28, 2010.

 The celebrations will be spread across six months in its branches in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. The opening day on Friday had a rousing Jazz concert by Thaerichen’s Tentet from Berlin.

Saturday, declared as `Open Day at the Bhavan’ was an occasion when the doors were thrown open for the public to savour the delights that German culture and creativity had on offer.

Big balloons and freebies welcomed every entrant. Visitors got a chance to partake in events as varied as sampling German food to learning
German in 30 minutes. Among other programes were listening to German music, trying out

German folk dances, watching German movies, partaking in German quiz, singing songs, playing games, painting one’s face, baking and painting. There was intense competition to grab the attractive prizes on offer.

Elaborating on the huge response the event was evoking, Co-ordinator Maureen said that there was a huge demand to learn German language and understand its culture in Bangalore, particularly due to the numerous German concerns setting up shop here. “A decade ago, the Bangalore centre had 750 students studying the German language. It has touched 1,500 this year,” she informed.

The contact details are: Goethe-Institut/Max Meuller Bhavan, Programme Department, No 3, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi- 110 001, India.  The mail address is [e-mail].