It’s not a joke. Your favourite watering-holes are now the city’s coolest classrooms. With lecture series being hosted at bars, this is your chance to upskill and level up, pint in hand
Representational pic/iStock
A night out around town, simply sipping craft cocktails and engaging in an average conversation, has undergone an upgrade. The city’s pub-lecture crews are bringing forth speakers that unpack the illusion of free will or the architecture of ants. It sounds quirky, but in Mumbai, this mix of booze and brains is gaining serious traction.
Everyone is hungry for meaning without pretension or a phone screen, lately. So, this idea of one lecture, one drink, one new idea is smart. You skip the auditorium, go to a bar, and walk away smarter or at least with an anecdote that beats “so how was your day?”
If the classroom looks like this, who wouldn’t mind going back to school? PIC/PINT OF VIEW
The big plus: You now have access to professors from some of the best institutions across the country, IITs included. Plus, you meet people you wouldn’t normally — fellow intellectuals eager to learn and discuss new ideas. Pint of View Mumbai, Society of Intellectuals, and Brydge are the city’s go-to curators for these lecture series. And, each approaches the format with a slightly different flavour.
Pint of View — Mumbai Chapter
Inspired by North America’s ‘Lectures on Tap’, the curators of Cubbon Reads in Bengaluru began curating lectures in bars as Pint of View. Soon, the Mumbai chapter launched as well. Run by Diya Sengupta and Abhishek Shetty in Mumbai, Pint of View is present across 10 cities in India and in London. Soon enough, they will launch in more cities globally as well. Sengupta and Shetty invite professors and experts into bars, de-jargon-ing serious topics over a friendly drink. You can catch lectures on STEM subjects, philosophy, literature, or more.
A recent lecture event organised by Pint of View
Past sessions have covered topics like how neuroscience affects behaviour by Dr Rohit Manchanda, a professor of computational neurophysiology at IIT Bombay; Minaz Ansari, a Professor at Rizvi College of Architecture, has spoken about Mumbai through its architecture. An upcoming session with Dr Suvodip Mukherjee, an astrophysicist and faculty member at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, will cover all you need to know about the cosmos, and more.
Each session is 45 minutes long and ends with a 15-minute Q&A at the end. Ticket prices range anywhere between R499 to R1200 and include a beer or a mocktail. Students can get a discount with their valid student ID. Soon, kids under 18 will also be allowed at some sessions with a parent.
Society of Intellectuals
The Society of Intellectuals (SOI) doesn’t limit itself to bars and extends its lecture series to cafes in Mumbai, too. Their lectures promise insight into the mind, with previous sessions on topics like how sound can heal anxiety conducted by a sound healing practitioner, Riddhi Chhatbar; another by Ankur Panchal, a physics researcher, on quantum entanglement. And, a lecture on human relationships with objects, which was held by Dr Karman Khanna is an assistant professor at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai.
Apart from simply hosting lectures, SOI encourages networking and conversations too. Each session lasts 45 minutes and has a 15-minute Q&A. But you get an additional one and a half to two hours to converse with fellow attendees to converse or network. The ticket price covers non-alcoholic drinks only, and the price usually goes up to Rs1399.
Brydge
Typically, Brydge curates several different experiences for those who would like to meet new people in the city. Their latest is their ‘Intellect on Ice’ series, which, you guessed it, hosts lectures in bars. If you are curious about topics like cortisol and what it means for the way we live, or the human psyche to understand what lies behind some of the darkest crimes, Brydge’s series is for you. The previous session on cortisol has been hosted by Vidita Vaidya, chairperson of the department of biological sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. The upcoming one, which decoded a serial killer’s mind, will be hosted by Havovi Hyderbadwalla, Consulting Psychologist.
Mark yourself present
Intellect on Ice by Brydge: November 9
Beyond the Kill: Decoding Serial Killers
Speaker: Havovi Hyderabadwalla, Consulting Psychologist
To Book: Write to @brydge.people on Instagram
Pint of View Mumbai: November 16
Title: Geometry Gone Wild: Maths About Movement
Speaker: Dr Ravi Banavar, Professor, IIT-B
To Book: Urbanaut.app
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