The lineup for this year’s Indian Summer Festival includes an opening gala featuring food by Vikram Vij, an evening with actor Om Puri, and a talk from the co-founder of Kiva.

The full program for the festival, which takes place from July 9 to 18, also includes a talk from the Nobel-prize winning Dr. Harold Varmus in collaboration with the Jacob Varmus Quintet, a performance from Maestro Amjad Ali Khan and Sons, and an event with writer and religious scholar Reza Aslan.

On July 10 at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, authors Jaspreet Singh and Padma Viswanathan explore “memory, collective silences and personal trauma”.

On Saturday, July 18 at the Imperial, journalist Naresh Fernandes will tell the story of how 1930s American jazz influenced Bollywood music.

And as part of Jessica Jackley’s speech at SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts on July 16, the co-founder of micro-lending site Kiva will present business lessons and talk about the impact of entrepreneurs through emerging technologies.

Artist Aradhana Seth (the art director and set decorator for Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited), will bring her Merchant of Images public art project to Vancouver for the festival. From July 10 to 18, Seth will push a mobile photo booth around, photographing people as she moves through the city.

In the Art of Taxi Driving on July 10, three former and current taxi drivers will share their stories about their lives in cabs.

The opening gala on July 9 at the Roundhouse Community Centre will feature Indian-inspired street food and an outdoor stage with musical acts.

On July 14, Om Puri, whose career spans the stage, Bollywood, art house cinema, and British and American film, will speak about his life in cinema.

More information on the festival is available at indiansummerfest.ca.