As the applause in Risley dining hall subsided, Dr. Mohan Man Sainju stood up in front of the red Nepalese national flag and faced the audience. On Saturday, the vice chairperson of the Poverty Alleviation Fund in Nepal and former royal Nepalese ambassador to the U.S. and Canada fixed the audience with a solemn gaze and began his speech on the prospects of Nepal’s development.

Currently on view at the Johnson Museum, Daniel Nadler’s ’54 photographs of Theyyam Rituals of Kerala offer an extraordinary view into the local religious traditions of the south Indian state of Kerala. These performances, in which a male performer is used a vehicle for the spirit of a god, were captured by chance by Nadler while he and his wife travelled through India in 2004.

“It’s not like any other conference you’ve been to,” promised Prof. Lisa Patti, film, speaking of the film conference held at Cornell this past Friday and Saturday. Indeed, the unique structure of the conference was readily apparent after merely a brief glance at the program of events — unlike other conferences that focus on a keynote speech and subsequent panel discussions, this conference had no keynote speech and was structured around a series of film viewings and group discussions which — though led by a discussion chair and series of panelists — included heavy audience participation.

Asmita Basu, a guest speaker from New Delhi, addressed a crowd of mostly graduate students at Myron Taylor Hall about the obstacles and successes in implementing India’s Domestic Violence Act at a midday lecture yesterday.

Basu is a fundamental contributor in the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act in 2005 as a project coordinator of the Lawyers Collective Women’s Rights Initiative, a top legal, non-government organization dedicated to empowering women through law. She spoke in a filled lecture room of around 50 people about her experience in India drafting the law, lobbying members of Parliament to form consensus over the content of the domestic violence law, and monitoring its implementation.

So why are you here [in Libe Café] socializing when everyone else here is working?

That’s a good question. It’s because I spend a significant amount of my time in Olin studying so I like to mix it up with some Libe Café time. It’s a good pit stop especially in this weather. I like to get my dose of coffee here, too.

How many cups of coffee do you a drink a day?

[Silence] I’m counting. … I’m going to go ahead and say three on a good day.

Since you study international relations, do you plan to do a study abroad?

In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, people from all over the Cornell community came together last night to pay tribute to the lives lost in the blasts.

When attendees first entered the One World Room in Anabel Taylor Hall, they were greeted with darkness. This was a deliberate effort to illustrate the dark times that had befallen the world as a result of the attacks. Guests were invited to light a candle, to symbolize pushing the darkness out of the room.

Amy Pearlman ’09, president of the Hillel Jewish Student Union, along with Rob Chicly ’09, president of the Jewish Student Organization and chair of the Chabad student board, addressed the need to fight darkness with light and evil with good.

This Thanksgiving weekend people all over the world were transfixed by the violence taking place in Mumbai, India, as terrorists went on a 59-hour siege of the city. The attacks, which according to The Times of India, killed 183 people and wounded another 239 at 10 locations, lasted from Wednesday to Saturday. Most of the killings occurred at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower Hotel. The Taj Hotel is owned by the Tata group, the chair of which is Ratan Tata ’62, who gave a $50 million endowment to Cornell in October.

The attacks have affected the lives of several Cornellians, including those from India and Pakistan and those planning to study abroad in the area.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India launched its first mission to the moon Wednesday, rocketing a satellite up into the pale dawn sky in a two-year mission to redraw maps of the lunar surface.

Clapping and cheering scientists tracked the ascent on computer screens after they lost sight of Chandrayaan-1 from the Sriharikota space center in southern India. Chandrayaan means "Moon Craft" in ancient Sanskrit.

Indian Space Research Organization chairman G. Madhavan Nair said the mission is to "unravel the mystery of the moon."

"We have started our journey to the moon and the first leg has gone perfectly well," he said.