Bengaluru, 13th October 2017: ‘RoundGlass Samsara Festival 2017’, a global heralding of Conscious Action through Art, Appreciation and Dialogue, spear-headed by Grammy® Winner & well known Conservationist Ricky Kej, successfully concluded the 10 days long festival on Environment and Conservation. This large scale International Environmental Festival having thousands of audience had series of events including Environmental Art Exhibitions, Film Festivals, Music Concert and Summits. All with the theme of Environment & Conservation, which were attended by Thought Leaders, Scientists, Legislators, Intelligentsia, Law-makers, Artists, Media & many more from different walks of life from around the world.
Sunny Singh, Festival Chairperson and Founder RoundGlass said, “RoundGlass was founded with 4 important pillars: Live, Learn, Give and Sustain. The company is about collaborating with people who are working towards creating a consciousness. Our biggest reward would be India becoming the most sustainable country.”
The Festival also walks the talk by promising to be the ‘First Ever Event’ in the whole of India aiming to be completely carbon neutral through their association with Smarter Dharma.
Speaking on this at the inauguration RoundGlass Samsara Festival President and Grammy® Winning Musician & Conservationist Ricky Kej said, "While having zero carbon footprint is not possible, we are aiming at leaving a minimal impact on environment and doing our best to offset whatever carbon footprint we have. We, with the help of Smarter Dharma are carefully auditing the entire festivals’ carbon emissions and have planned various measures to offset it"
DAY 1- International Film Festival:
‘RoundGlass Samsara Festival 2017’ opened on the auspicious day of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2nd with an insightful walk through wilderness with an array of environmental films. The Festival, launched by Grammy® Winner Ricky Kej, was attended by numerous dignitaries, including award winning Swedish filmmaker Mr. Frederic Ollerstam, also a jury member for the festival; and Grammy-Nominee, Lonnie Park from USA.
The International Environmental Film Festival from Oct 2nd - 5th was held across three different venues in Bengaluru, namely National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS at IISc campus); Suchitra Cinema & Cultural Academy; and at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Palace Road. A total of 90 films from over 4000 entries from 105 countries were screened during this film festival. Each chosen film was carefully curated by an eminent panel of film makers and has a theme of environment. While the chosen films are interesting, they were also entertaining and had the power to enter the consciousness of viewers. The film festival had a great response with more than 1500 people watching these environmentally conscious movies.
It also had an ‘Indian Premiere’ of the Film ‘Naledi – A Baby Elephants Tale’ by Ben Bowie & Geoffery Luck from USA .
DAY 2 & 3: International Art Exhibition:
The International Environmental Art Exhibition opened on October 3rd at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bengaluru. The Chief Guest for the inauguration of the Art Exhibition was Mr.Sudhakar Rao, Chairman, NGMA Bengaluru and the Guests of Honor were Mr.Y.K.Muddukrishna, Former Director of Kannada & Culture Department & Winner of Santha Shishunala Sharief Award and Mr.Vikram Sampath, Author & Winner of Sahitya Academi Yuva Puraskar.
Eminent artists whose art works were displayed at the exhibition are Dhritiman Mukherjee, Dhimant Vyas andMeital Rusdia. Their works boldly provoke thoughts of environmental consciousness and conservation; the message being the need of a drastic change to make this world a better place for us and our natural world. The exhibition was on till the 10th of October.
The 2nd Art Exhibition inaugurated at UB city on 4thOctober witnessed an overwhelming response from around the world. The Exhibition began with a grand opening performance by Grammy® Nominee, Lonnie Park who came down from New York exclusively for the event, made the evening an extremely memorable one. The Collection, UB City looked resplendent with over 150 beautiful artworks from 14 outstanding artists spread out through the mall, and with performances by the Men’s Choir and Raveolution’s String Quartet at Sublime Galleria, the evening was a perfect blend of art, music and culture
The art exhibition showcased created using diverse mediums including Photography, Painting, Digital Illustrations, Sculpture, Installations, Mixed Media and Virtual Reality. The Exhibition over 7days had a footfall of over 7000 people.
DAY 4: International Music Concert:
RoundGlass Samsara Festival presented a historic environmental music concert by Grammy® Winning Musician Ricky Kej at the magnificent venue of Vidhana Soudha as part of its curtain raiser to the 60th year celebrations. The concert had over 200 artists from around the world, including other Grammy® winners from USA, Ghana, Tibet and South Africa.
The concert witnessed spectacular and thought provoking performances by Darlene Koldenhoven (USA), Wouter Kellerman (South Africa), Monks of Sherbaling (Tibet), Rocky Dawuni (Ghana), Lonnie Park (USA), Hai Phuong (Veitnam) along with renowned Indian musicians B. Jayashree, M.D. Pallavi, Dr.Suma Sudhindra, Sumarani, Charanraj, Chaitra H G, Venugopal and many others.
As a gesture of commitment, all the artists along with each one present in the audience took the following oath and pledged:
I pledge to protect my planet
I pledge to co-exist with nature
I will protect all living beings
Every atom in this universe, is divine…whether living or non-living
I will not waste, our natural resources.
Every day, I will work hard, to make this world a better place.
I will be the change, I want to see!
DAY 5 & 6: Environmental Summits 1 & 2
The festival concluded with two International Environmental Summits held at Vidhana Soudha and NIAS (IISc) on Oct 7th & 8th respectively. The Summits touched upon topics such as Sustainability, Man-Animal Conflict, Climate Change, empowering people, Conservation and associated misconceptions, SDGs etc.
Along with some thought-provoking, soul-stirring presentations and interactions, the Summits also saw musical performances and a meaningful awards ceremony honoring winners of the RoundGlass Samsara Film Festival, RoundGlass Samsara Photography Competition and RoundGlass Samsara Childrens Competitions. The Festival also honored 2 unsung heroes of our Forest Department, the Forest Range Officers.
All the Festival events were attended by numerous dignitaries as speakers, participants and audience. The key speakers included Mr. Anote Tong (Former 3 Term President, Republic of Kiribati), Mr. Robert Swan(Adventurist, Guinness Record Holder), Mr. Kartick Satyanarayanan (Animal Rights Activist, Rescue Specialist), Mr. Jairam Ramesh (Former Union Minister), Mr. Vivek Menon (CEO, Wildlife Trust of India), Ms. Dia Mirza (Brand Ambassador - Wildlife Trust of India), Mr. Mordecai Ogada (Carnivore Ecologist, Kenya), A.S. Kiran Kumar (Chairman, ISRO), Ms. Meital Rusdia (Chief Field Office for UNICEF South India), Mr. Kalyan Akkipeddi (Founder of Proto Village- a Sustainable Village),
Dr. Barbara Maas (Conservationist), Ms. Tashi and Ms. Nungshi Malik (Adventurists, Guinness record holders), Mr. Dhritiman Mukherjee (Nature/Wildlife Photographer) and Prof.Sundar Sarukkai (Professor of Philosophy at NIAS, Bangalore).
Ricky Kej said, “The RoundGlass Samsara Festival was founded to encourage high-level, inter-disciplinary dialogue between Legislators, Scientists, Filmmakers, Artists, Environmentalists, Innovators, Musicians, Thought Leaders, Industry Leaders, Media and other important change-makers in the society to find solutions for the ecological crises in the country and around the world and to promote Environmental Consciousness. Through this Festival of Art, Appreciation and Dialogue, we hope to not only create awareness of what we are doing but to also create a consciousness about our actions in this world and the impact it has on all our co-inhabitants.”
The closing statements by Prof. Baldev Raj, Director NIAS and Festival Adviser, stressed on the importance of going past caste, creed, gender, region and physical appearances to achieve sustainability. He said, “Sustainability can be achieved only from coming together and working towards it. All citizens have to be consciously involved otherwise the whole idea of sustainability is not met. The Samsara festival is like a lotus in a pool. The way a lotus multiplies in its ecosystem, this festival will similarly play the role in the journey of sustainability in the next 25 years of 'RoundGlass’ Phase 1.”
Carbon Auditing of RoundGlass Samsara Festival:
Smarter Dharma monitored every detail, right from the number of energy blubs used, the temperature of the air conditioning system, printing, air and land travel, food consumption etc in order to arrive at the cumulative carbon emission. Measures were taken at the outset to limit the footprint by using alternates, but what was not, will be offset through planting an equivalent number of trees or installing renewable energy resources or buying credits on solar installations etc among other such measures.
On a very rough calculation (as data is still being accumulated), the Festival will need to plant and take care of about 90 – 130 trees to offset its carbon emission and hence become the first ever event in India to become fully carbon neutral.
Few of the quotes during the course of the RoundGlass Samsara Festival 2017 held between October 2nd to 11th in Bangalore are:
Dr.D H Shankaramurthy, Hon’ble Chairman, Legislative Council, Government of Karnataka, said, “On this auspicious occasion of curtain raiser to the 60th year celebrations of the Vidhana Soudha, it gives me great pleasure to associate with such a noble Festival. We wanted the anniversary celebrations to be meaningful in every way and showcase to the World that Karnataka is taking the lead in promoting Environmental Consciousness through Art, Appreciation and Dialogue.”
Anote Tong, Three-Term President, Republic of Kiribati:
“Unless something drastic is done, there is no future. The biggest obstacle to climate change is politics, because the policy changes with every government.”
“We will try to raise the islands by ourselves. We do not want to be climate refugees but if we migrate, we want to do that with dignity, with the right skills.”
“In reality, there is a ray of hope in every situation. A fusion of activities by different people will lead to explosion of energy that will lead to positive action towards climate change”
A S Kiran Kumar – Chairman, ISRO:
“We watch earth from space and we see earth without any barrier, of state, religion etc.”
“We have 5 primary sense organs; let’s make use of them for our prosperity and survival”
“Science and technology move only towards development. It’s on those few who decide how to take this impact forward and either effecting or impacting society at large”
Dia Mirza, Artist & Brand Ambassador, Wildlife Trust of India:
“Our life is not separate from nature, we are a part of it but not apart from it.”
“Each one of us is not a mere drop in the ocean but we are the ocean. Every human choice creates consciousness in a greater level. We always have the option to say no”
“We coexist with the largest number of Asian elephants, Asiatic lions, wild tigers and we inhabit most of the land mass in the country. It is urgent and necessary for every Indian to understand that their lives, growth, success is related to nature.”
About Ricky Kej:
Grammy® Award Winner, ‘Global Humanitarian Artist’ awardee and US Billboard #1 artist Ricky Kej is an internationally renowned Indian Music Composer, Conservationist and Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. Ricky's latest album ‘SHANTI SAMSARA’ was launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Francois Hollande at the United Nations Paris Summit. Ricky went on to performing Shanti Samsara at the United Nations General Assembly, NY among other venues worldwide.
With 15 internationally released studio albums and over 3,500 commercials, Ricky has been awarded the United Nations "Global Humanitarian Artist" Award, Producer of the year at the South African Music Awards, Album of the year at the Zone Music Awards (New Orleans), ‘FutureVision’ Award (Los Angeles), "Pride of Karnataka" and “Youth Icon of India"
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