Sunday, March 20, 2016

SPICMACAY in IIIT

Dhanada Mishra and his wife Babita Mishra are my good friends. Dhanada is slightly crazy (which may be an underestimation). He studied in India, USA and worked in Australia. Then he returned to India and now plays politics in AAP. But the couple do wonderful things like running Spicmacay chapters in Odisha.

Here is an extract from Wikipedia about SpicMacay

SPIC MACAY (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Amongst Youth) is a non-political, nationwide, voluntary movement founded in 1977 by Dr Kiran Seth, Professor-Emeritus at IIT-Delhi who was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’ for his contribution to the arts in 2009.

SPICMACAY’s intention is to enrich the quality of formal education by increasing awareness about different aspects of Indian heritage and inspiring the young mind to imbibe the values embedded in it. It seeks to inspire youth through experiencing the mysticism embodied in the rich and heterogeneous cultural tapestry of Indian and World Heritage, with a hope that the beauty, grace, values and wisdom embodied in these arts will influence their way of life and thinking and inspire one to become a better human being. For this, the most accomplished artistes of the country render programmes of Indian classical music and dance, folk, poetry, theatre, traditional paintings, crafts & yog primarily in schools and colleges. In 2011, SPIC MACAY was awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Sadbhavana award in recognition of its contribution to youth development.

I had my brush with Spicmacay in IIT Kgp in 70s, IIMB in 80s and XIMB in 90s and 2000s. I always made it a point attend the Spicmacay programs and witness some great performances by icons of Indian classical music.

It has been my dream to start Spicmacay programs in IIIT-BH, This year we had three classical performances - the latest being by Sarod Maestro Pt. Tejendra Narayan Majumdar. The programme was enthralling. The claps from the audience reflected their appreciation.

We hope to have many more such programmes and more so from local artists.