January 22, 2024
Pelva Naik has been trained in the Dhrupad style of vocal music under the Dagar School of Indian Classical Music. She is a disciple of legendary Dhrupad maestro Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar and is a teacher of Art, Music and Humanities. She has performed in festivals and concerts in India and abroad. New Acropolis Culture Circle hosted a musical evening with Pelva Naik, where, accompanied [...]January 22, 2024
At time when we are increasingly in search of the light, for the good... perhaps Philosophy can offer answers. World Philosophy Day was initiated by UNESCO in 2002, as a means to revive the value and need of Philosophy in improving our world, by bettering ourselves. But can Philosophy really improve our world? A famous anecdote about the origin of the term “philosophy” speaks of an [...]January 22, 2024
As far back as I can remember, Art has always been the first language that I could understand and express myself most naturally through. At an early age I was lucky to be exposed to the world of classical art and artists by my grandfather. Every summer vacation when I would arrive at my ancestral home in Kashmir, my grandfather would gift me a book from his library on one of the classical [...]January 21, 2024
Marsilio Ficino was a prominent figure in the Italian Renaissance, making significant contributions to the study and revival of Magic. His magical teachings were an amalgamation of Neoplatonism, Hermeticism, and Christian thought. Before delving into Ficino's magical doctrines, it is essential to explore some of the key themes underlying Renaissance magic. - Religious and Cultural Syncretism: [...]January 21, 2024
The wisdom tradition and religious thought of the ancient Aztecs is shrouded in mystery. Whilst we cannot completely ‘know’ how these people encountered life, we can intuitively enter an understanding of how they thought, using symbolic language to decipher what remains perceivable through the shifting sands of time. One such remaining treasure is the myth of Chicovaneg and the Creation of [...]January 21, 2024
“People could learn from their mistakes, if they weren’t so busy denying them”. Carl Gustav Jung A Dangerous Method is a 2011 film that deals with the complicated personal relationships between Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, Sigmund Freud, founder of the psychoanalysis, and Sabine Spielrein, initially a patient of Jung and later herself a physician and one of the first [...]January 21, 2024
The recent atrocities in the Middle East and the subsequent actions, reactions, comments, discussions, and demonstrations around the world have highlighted again how quickly we can become polarized in our opinions today. It is like a chain reaction: the moment one person starts to take sides for who is more deserving of sympathy and support, others feel that they have to do the same; each fact [...]November 1, 2023
The cyanotype process is a fascinating analogue photographic printing process that produces distinctive blue hued prints. It was one of the earliest non-silver processes used for creating photographs, and its invention marked a significant development in the history of photography. The cyanotype technology was invented by Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) - a remarkable British polymath, renowned for [...]November 1, 2023
In March 2022, New Acropolis Culture Circle hosted renowned physician, author and Padma Bhushan awardee Dr. Farokh Udwadia at our Mumbai center. Dr. Udwadia has contributed to many National and International publications, and written several books, one of which is TABIYAT: Medicine and Healing in India. He has spoken out strongly about how humanizing medicine will engender greater empathy and [...]September 8, 2023
'To be or not to be, that is the question’. How many times have we heard, seen, or read this sentence? From Laurence Olivier to Bugs Bunny, so many have tried their hand at interpreting what is quite possibly the most famous soliloquy in literature. Hamlet’s themes, characters, and iconic lines have permeated various forms of art and entertainment, and yet we still must ask ourselves if we [...]September 8, 2023
Life is a mystery and in mysterious ways, invites us to unravel it . The Truth it guards so protectively is expressed in myriad symbolic forms, some of which have survived over centuries, civilizations, and cultures. For one who is on a philosophical adventure of seeking wisdom, these symbolic forms are a bridge to the hidden Truth, or at least to some aspect of it. One such intriguing form [...]