Membership
While an Algebra membership is non-transferable, membership privileges include exclusive invites to a minimum of 12 events over the year, in your Chapter. As a member you may also bring guests to these events at a nominal charge. Each evening is held at the city’s most sought-after, premium venues such as the Taj Mansingh Hotel in New Delhi, The Leela Palace Hotel in Bangalore and ITC Grand Chola in Chennai, the Oberoi in Gurgaon and the Taj Krishna at Hyderabad.
Our speakers are celebrated, world renowned authorities in their fields. Being an Arts & Ideas Club, we cater to a wide variety of interests ranging from politics to movies, from literature to medical science. Each evening has a minimum of two speakers and we aim to keep session as diverse in subjects as possible. We try and keep most of our evenings over the weekend so our members and guests can attend with minimal clash with their work schedules. However, these are subject to speaker availability. Typically an evening starts with cocktails and hors d’eouvres which is followed by the scheduled sessions. Each session is about 45 minutes long. Our members also get a chance to engage with our speakers at the end of each session during the Q&A round. Post the sessions we reopen the bar and members get a chance to mingle and network with other members and are often joined by the speakers as well.
Other than the regular Algebra evenings, whenever possible, we extend more engagement opportunities to our members such as invites to curated walks, sponsor events, exclusive events etc. These events are also by invite only. Membership to Algebra is by invitation or referral. If you know an Algebra member, ask them to put you in touch with us.
Like the sound of what we do but don’t know an existing member? Give Ritu Sud a call on 9599755530 or write to us at team@algebratheclub.com and one of us will get back to you.
Curated Art Walk at the India Art Fair
The India Art Fair is one of the most-anticipated events on the annual art calendar; one of the largest concentrations of creativity in the country. The fair — slated between February 1-3 at the NSIC grounds in Okhla — is sprawling and ambitious: large art projects that take on political, cultural and sociological landscapes; influential galleries and curators from across the world, and a livewire programme of lectures, screenings and conversations. It’s a lot to take in – and it’s best done in the hands of an expert.
That’s why we requested the supremely knowledgeable and articulate Ina Puri to walk us through the 10 essential works you must see at the India Art Fair this year. Ina’s three-decade-long engagement with the arts embraces everything from tribal art and folk theatre to contemporary performing arts, visual arts and literature. A writer, biographer, art curator and collector, she is the author of several books, including In Black & White (a biography of Manjit Bawa), Faces of Indian Art (iconic artists seen through the lens of Nemai Ghosh) and Journey with a Hundred Strings (on the music and life of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma). She produced Meeting Manjit, a film on Bawa, her friend and collaborator, which won the National Award.
On the 1st of February 2019, Ina took 45 of our members on a two and a half hour walk around the Fair giving detailed descriptions of her selected pieces, their significance and, wherever possible, an interaction with the artist. After the walk, members were welcomed with complimentary glasses of wine, courtesy Jacob’s Creek, at the VIP lounge at the Fair. Needless to say it was a great experience for all of us!
Cocktails and Conversation with Andres Velasco
On Friday, February 15, Andres Velasco, the rockstar former finance minister of Chile, joined us for an intimate evening of cocktails and conversation, at NicoCaara, The Chanakya, New Delhi. An economist of global repute; advisor to countless governments; a prolific writer and thinker in Economics and Public Policy; has been a professor at Harvard and Columbia, and he is now Dean of London School of Economics’ Public Policy School. A former presidential candidate in Chile apart from being Latin America’s most acclaimed finance minister, Andres Velasco pulled Chile back from the brink of a massive economic crisis.
In a packed 48-hour Delhi trip, he took out an evening between meetings with the who’s who of the Indian political and economic firmament – including Dr Manmohan Singh, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the former President Dr Pranab Mukherjee, ministers in the current government, and members of the planning commission – to join us for an informal, sprawling conversation at the intersection of economics, public policy, and the new face of capitalism necessary to tackle the challenges of contemporary governance around the world.
Being a limited capacity event, we hosted 70 guests over cocktails, hors d’eouvres and great conversation!
Eminent economist and former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan at India Habitat Centre
He’s got the kind of fan following usually reserved for sporting icons and Hollywood A-listers.
He’s got a seat at the world’s most influential tables.
He’s been called a high priest of financial economics and central banking.
Dr Raghuram Rajan needs little introduction, so we won’t talk degrees earned, positions held, influence demonstrated, credentials and acclaim garnered. Rather, it is Rajan the quietly radical thinker who is the true discovery – the man who can sit at the heart of global political and economic systems and retain clear-eyed insight about their failures, and the critical role of state and markets in enabling the thriving of that crucial third pillar, the community.
On March 26, Algebra, in partnership with our friends at HarperCollins India, invited its members to the launch of the former RBI Governor’s provocative new book, The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind.
To a full house at the Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, Dr Rajan delivered a lecture based on his book, followed by a conversation moderated by Sonia Singh.