The City of Areca Palms, Along the Banks of the Luit

March 23, 2025 – 10:30 am

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Guwahati Artists’ Guild

Event Recordings

Guwahati derives its name from two Assamese words: “Guwa“, meaning areca nut, and “haat“, meaning market. Historically, the city has thrived as a prominent trade hub for areca nuts along the River Brahmaputra. The river, locally known as “Luit“, shapes the city’s geography, drives its economy, nurtures its cultures and embodies an identity for its community. It is a lifeline for the region and connects communities across Northeast India.

Much like the flow of the Luit- unpredictable, fast, fierce, yet nurturing, Guwahati, as a city, is also developing rapidly and unpredictably. Yet, it has potential for opportunities to be explored that can encourage its people to slow down and connect deeply with it. If time is an urban construct that can take away the creative agency for people to be themselves, how might designing places for agency and meaningful connections look like? What questions can we ask for people to reclaim their sense of agency of time in a rapidly urbanising and developing metropolis? What can the movement from time scarcity to an abundance of creative agency and meaningful connections be in the language of urban design? What comes after a shared sense of agency and attachment to the city one lives in?

Conscious Guwahati, embraces the theme of “Regrounding” of the upcoming Conscious Cities Festival in March 2025 and aims to explore and expand on how a fast-paced city can intentionally slow down and foster deeper relationships between people and their surroundings. In this Conscious Cities Festival, the event, “The City of Areca Palms, along the banks of Luit“, will have a panel discussion on two themes- “Reconnection with Place” and “Design of Time“. This discussion will be led by experts in Design, Urban Cities, Urban Planning, Media and Art to collectively delve into innovative ways to design spaces that promote mindful living and a sense of agency. The panel discussion will be followed by a Q & A session and an experiential mapping activity with all the participants and experts. Conscious Guwahati’s call for photograph submissions with descriptions of the two themes is now open to the citys’ residents. This call is a part of “The Urban Tapestry” project, which invites entries, that will be displayed through social media, in the time leading up to the Festival.

Conscious Guwahati roots its intentions, on fostering a dialogue that will support residents to reclaim their agency and belongingness in a rapidly developing city. Aligned with Sustainable Development, Goal 3 (Health and Well-Being) and Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), the event shall emphasize on conscious creation of environments that enhance well-being and support sustainable growth. The event hopes for a thoughtful approach to reconnecting with places and time for a healthier, more resilient future.

Place Attachment

Agency & Autonomy

Connection & Belonging

Explore the CCD's Designing for Life Framework

Hosted by

Organised by

Rahul Haloi

Shravani Bhattacharyya

Dr. Rachna Yadav

Development Professional Former Fellow, NIRD Member, International Society of Ecological Economics (ISEE) Life Member, Indian Society of Ecological Economics (INSEE) Life Member, ISRS Life Member, BMESI

About

Academic Background

PhD Ecological Economics (IITG), MPhil in Physics (electronics), MSc Physics (specialization in Electronics)

About Dr. Rachna Yadav

Dr. Rachna Yadav has more than 20 years of experience of having worked in the Development sector in the North Eastern Region of India. Key areas of work include Rural Development, Disaster Management, Gender & Gender Budgeting and Natural Resource Management including Forestry and Biodiversity Conservation. Her training experience includes the areas of Participatory Approaches, Participatory Planning, Natrual Resources Management, Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction and Preparedness, Livelihoods and Gender Mainstreaming, Gender Budgeting. Her expertise includes Monitoring & Evaluation of Rural Development projects in NE region from 1995 – 2002. She has worked as Facilitator cum Evaluator with CAPART NEZ. Responsible for conducting Pre-funding appraisal, Midterm monitoring and final evaluation of projects funded by Ministry of Rural Development. She has led the initiative of UNDP in Disaster Risk Management Programme in the NER. Worked closely with all state Governments of seven North Eastern states, As Networking & Partnership officer successfully established a strong network with Government Functionaries, NGO’s, Elected Representatives and Research Institutions. Having long Research and Documentation experience she has conducted many research projects for UNICEF, ICIMOD, NIRD, etc. She has strong networks with research and training institutions particularly in NE region like NIRD, SIRDs, IITG, TRI, etc.

She is professionally trained in frontiers of technology and research – use of GIS, GPS Remote Sensing, Ecological Economics and Gender. With vast experience at community level and given her scientific background, she can easily integrate social and technical aspects to usher in development at various levels. She has worked in a multi-stakeholder environment for Government projects / NGOs/ UN Agencies. She has worked extensively in the field of capacity building for two decades, by way of capacity building, TNA, IEC, training and documentation including audio visuals. With considerable experience in community mobilization and participatory planning she has conducted trainings for Government Functionaries, NGOs, Elected Representatives, Grass Root Level Organizations and SHGs. She has a good understanding and analytical capability in policy assessment and integrating policy interventions at field level in different areas in the development sector, especially NRM, DRR, Climate Change Adaptation and Alternate Livelihoods. She has conducted research on Urbanization from Environmental sustainability and Entropy perspective. She has worked in the area of Ecological Economics focussing on ecosystem services, ecological footprint and Climate Change and has also done a case study on Guwahati city.

She has been writing on Environmental & Social areas in leading English dailies of the North-East India such as The Sentinel, The Assam Tribune and the North-East Times, and also In Delhi based magazines such as Down To Earth. Some of the articles are available on the India Environmental Portal: www.indiaenvironmentportal.org

Urmi Buragohain

Founder Director, Placemaking Foundation 2025 Climate Parent Fellow Registered Architect, Council of Architecture (CoA) Town Planner, Institute of Town Planners India (ITPI) Placemaking Practitioner

About

Urmi is as an experienced sustainable built environment professional, with over two decades of international experience working in the public, private and non-profit sectors in India, Australia and Qatar. Urmi is the founding director of PlaceMaking Foundation, a non-profit organisation working across various urban centres in Northeast India to bring about long term transformative changes to public spaces through meaningful conversations, cross-collaboration, and enduring partnerships. She is nowadays working as a placemaking practitioner and a social entrepreneur, and on a mission to enable change by inspiring a new generation of placemakers through demonstrating how the placemaking process can bring about a sense of belonging in public places. As a mom deeply concerned about the deteriorating environmental conditions that children in Indian cities grow up in, she joined Warrior Moms, a group fighting for children’s right to breathe clean air, and is raising awareness about this issue in Northeast India. Apart from work and family, it’s taekwondo, good food and good company that helps her stay grounded and maintain focus.

Dr. Mriganka Madhukaillya

Founder, Media Lab, Department of Design , Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati

About

Mriganka Madhukaillya teaches New Media Technology and Cinema, as well as being the founder of the Media Lab, within the Department of Design at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. With a background in quantum mechanics and communication design, he has conducted research and taught at universities worldwide. He was a DAAD visiting professor at Merz Akademie, Stuttgart in 2019, and a visiting professor at the China Academy of Arts in Hangzhou in 2016-17.

Originally invested in documentary film work, as well as public events aimed at reviving a redundant space for discourse in India’s Northeast, Mriganka started developing projects with Desire Machine Collective and Periferry, which in time brought international attention to the singularity of the region.

Mriganka took part in landmark international exhibitions such as: Krishna in the Garden of Assam (British Museum, London, 2016), The Eight Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (Brisbane, Australia, 2015), After Midnight: Indian Modernism to Contemporary, India 1947 to 1997 (Queens Museum and Grey Art Gallery at New York University, 2015), Being Singular Plural (Solomon Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2012), Intense Proximity, the 3rd edition of the La Triennale (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2012), Indian Highway IV (MAC Musée d’Art Contemporain de Lyon, 2011) & Indian Highway V (MAXXI Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo, Rome, 2011). In 2011, Desire Machine Collective was part of the inaugural Indian Pavilion at the 54th International Art exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Everyone Agrees: It’s About to Explode.

Mriganka has been a member of several advisory boards, including acting as juror in Visual Arts for Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart. He is currently a member of the research networks Biopolitica, and Substantial Motion Research Network (initiated by Prof. Laura Marks and Prof. Azadeh Emadi). He has recently joined the Assam State Design Policy research group.

Since 2020, Mriganka is developing the research and design studio Forest Cybernetics. Current projects include the pedagogical lab Library in the forest, and the long term research on amphibious urbanism, incubated as part of Mriganka’s artistic residency at the Akademie der Kunste der Welt in Cologne, Germany, in 2024.

Subhasish Borah

Assistant Director, Directorate of Town & Country Planning (DTCP) Coordinator, Assam Urban Knowledge Hub (AUKH) Dept of Housing & Urban Affairs, Govt of Assam

About

Subhasish Borah is an Assistant Director at the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP), Government of Assam, and coordinates the Assam Urban Knowledge Hub, a Think Tank and Project Implementation Unit under DTCP, where he leads urban design and mobility projects.

Subhasish holds a master’s degree in Urban Transport Planning & Management from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. While working with the Government of Assam, he is also pursuing doctoral studies at the Faculty of Planning, CEPT University. His research centres on the intersection of mobilities studies and urban geography, particularly on the politics of mobility and daily negotiations of spatial mobilities in the frontier cities of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.

Before joining the Directorate of Town and Country Planning, Subhasish served as a full-time faculty member at CEPT University, where he coordinated the Bachelor of Urban Design program.

Besides his professional work, Subhasish is a ceramist and an amateur home chef who loves cooking for his dogs Iki and Luna.

Divya Agarwal

Founder Director- 91East Ventures Independent Strategist Creative Consultant Photographer Writer Guest Faculty

About

Divya Agarwal is the Founder and Director, 91East Ventures, a Creative Consultancy with a focus on North Eastern India. She is a writer, photographer, researcher, and creative strategist who works at the intersection of design and change to drive impact. She often writes for leading publications, is a guest faculty at IIM and mentors at other leading colleges. She often conducts workshops on design thinking and branding and helps solve problems through the logic of data and the magic of storytelling.

With a deep interest in most things art, science, spaces and spirituality, she is a creative entrepreneur who connects the many dots in the world in its interdisciplinary multi-connectedness.

She often consults brands and policies to drive impact in environmental and sustainable practices, driving large-scale awareness and action.

She is a National Geographic photography scholarship winner who went on assignment to Greenland; was honoured as 30under30 women photographers globally by ARTPIL; was an invited attendee to Angkor Workshops in Cambodia and was an Indian Cultural Delegate on behalf of Govt of India to South Korea.

Her marketing cases have been highly awarded by Cannes, WARC, Effies, and other leading portals on effectiveness.

Divya is an engineer, with a post-graduation in communication from MICA, a post-graduation diploma in Indian Aesthetics, and certification in behavioural sciences from Ogilvy, London.