11th March – Friday

7:15 pm – Flute concert by Sri Rajendra Kulkarni at NCL Auditorium

12th March – Saturday

9:30am-Noon – Introduction, Updates of SPIC MACAY in Maharashtra and around the country

2pm – 4:30pm – Interactive session with Institute/Corporate heads and supporters – How to take the movement forward

5pm – 6:30pm – Dhrupad Vocal Concert by Sri Uday Bhawalkar, IISER Multipurpose Hall

7pm – 8pm – Interactive Session of Volunteers with Dr. Kiran Seth

13th March – Sunday

9:30am – Noon – Issue based discussions on the movement in Maharashtra.

We invite ALL SPICMACAY supporters, heads of institutes, administrators, corporate heads and volunteers from all over Maharashtra to attend the convention. If you are new to SPICMACAY and/or would like to give a little time of yours for our cause please do attend the post-Dhrupad Concert Interactive session with Dr Seth.

Please check this space and our website for more updates…

Come, experience the movement and JOIN us!!!

At our end, SPICMACAY IISER-Pune-NCL Chapter is hosting a mini-convention for volunteers from across Maharashtra from 11th-13th March, 2011. The tentative schedule is as follows:

11th evening: Concert

12th: Session with Principals of Schools and Colleges from in and around Pune

13th: Many meetings

PS: Dr. Seth will be here for the convention!

Looking forward to seeing you all there!!!

For more updates, watch this space…

Few could sing them like he could, his sonorous voice ranging effortlessly over three octaves as he explored the nuances of ragas—Indian music’s tonal settings for improvisation and composition, each associated with a season or a time of day. Yet those who packed concert halls to listen to him sing, as Indians did for over six decades, rarely mentioned his technique. Instead, they would talk about how he had made them feel, on a night long ago at the Dover Lane music conference in Calcutta, or under a tent in the grounds of Modern School on New Delhi’s Barakhamba Road, when he sang a raga of the monsoon—and suddenly the skies were full of thundering black rainclouds, even though it was bone dry and bitterly cold.

It was on nights like these that Indians fell in love with this strange man, whose contortions defied the best efforts of those in charge of microphone placement. For nobody could match the extraordinary ability of Bhimsen—always Bhimsen to his listeners—to capture the essential character of a raga, whether playful or grave, and send audiences out into the night humming, with the music under their skin, almost stunned with the force of something they could not quite comprehend.

That was what made generations of homesick Indian students turn to him on freezing winter nights in south London or Cambridge, Massachusetts, when home seemed unbearably far away and the darkness demanded nothing less than the master singing a sombre raga of the late night. But his voice meant a great deal even to those Indians who had little time for classical music. Millions of homes in Maharashtra woke up to him singing the abhangs, or hymns, of the medieval Marathi saint-poets on the early-morning programme on All India Radio’s Bombay station. A much-loved television campaign promoting national unity, which opened with his singing, ensured that even those who grew up with rap rather than ragas knew, and loved, that voice.

His childhood, in the culturally fertile Dharwad region in the state of Bombay in British India, was suffused by music: the devotional songs his mother sang as she went about her chores; the azaan, or calls to prayer, from the nearby mosque. But his love for music crystallised when, at 11, on a scratchy 78rpm record, he heard Abdul Karim Khan, the great master of the Kirana school, which melodiously blended elements of the music of both north and south. That was how he wanted to sing.

The railway boy

Spurred by music, then, he ran away from home, travelling ticketless on the trains that snaked across India from the home town of one great master to another, relying on his singing to melt ticket-inspectors’ hearts. Passengers, too, threw him small coins for his songs. By 1936 he had persuaded Sawai Gandharva, a disciple of Abdul Karim Khan, to teach him the intricacies of the Kirana style of singing. In 1941 he gave his first public performance; by 1946 he was famous.

His style picked up influences from all over India. True, he had the Kirana school’s tunefulness. But those intricate taans owed something to the Jaipur school, even to the style of Faiyaz Khan of Agra. For Bhimsen Joshi was really interpreting Hindustani music in his own way. A good singer, he said, was a bit like a thief, incorporating what he liked best about others’ styles into his own. He sang where he could, too, in the early years: bhajans, or devotional songs, for All India Radio’s Lucknow station for 25 rupees a day, and occasional songs for films later.

It was hard work. A glass of rich buffalo milk in the morning; then four hours singing a raga in the lowest octave as the first part of up to 20 hours of practice. But milk was not all he drank. People told other kinds of stories about Bhimsen concerts, the ones where he was repeatedly announced but didn’t appear for hours. It was only by the late 1970s that he overcame his problems with liquor.

His drinking, like his love for fast cars, was of a piece with the man: slightly reckless, fully immersed in whatever he was doing. His singing, he said, reflected his personality. He reckoned that everyone’s should. Don’t sing like me, he would urge his students. Sing like yourselves, find your own voice.

His favourite composition, in a raga named after a town linked in Hindu mythology to the god Krishna, used words in praise of a 12th-century Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti, the saviour of the poor. But there was not one sectarian note in Bhimsen Joshi. He loved the syncreticism of Hindustani music, with its mixture of Hindu and Muslim influences. Music had no religion or caste, he often said. The religion of music was music.

Source: Economist

7 Dec- Darshana Jhaveri (Manipuri)- Tolani Maritime Institute,Talegaon-6pm
7 Dec- Rajendra Kulkarni(Flute)- Tolani Maritime Institute,Talegaon-7pm
10 Dec-Sucheta Chapekar(Bharatanatyam)- Cathedral School,Lonavala- 5pm
13 Dec- Rajendra Kulkarni(Flute)- NICMAR- 6pm
13 Dec to 16th Dec-Ashwini Tilak(Vocal workshop)-Karnataka Junior
College-12pm to 2pm

Three film screenings by Satyajeet Ray/Shyam Benegal are scheduled at
Vidya Pratishthan,Baramati at the end of this month.

Grammy Award Winner Padmashri Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (Mohan Veena)
accompanied by Pt. Arvind Kumar Azad (Tabla)

Venue : NCL Auditorium, Pashan
Date : Thursday, 21 October
Time : 6 pm

Admission FREE for Students upon display of ID Card!!

Panditji is an internationally renowned musician who has created the Mohan Veena, and with it a unique brand of music that has enthralled audiences around the world winning him numerous accolades including a Grammy Award. Join us for an unforgettable evening of music, melody and rhythm by a living legend of indian classical music.

About the Artistes

Creator of the Mohan Veena, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt (born 1952) is one of the greatest and most expressive slide players in the world. He created the Mohan Veena, a unique instrument that incorporates elements of  sitar, sarod and veena, into a modified Hawaiian Slide Guitar. The Mohan Veena can express the full range of Hindustani Classical music in a unique way. A disciple for the legendary mastro Pt. Ravi Shankar, he belongs to the gharana that traces its origin to Tansen and his guru, Swami Haridas.

He won the Grammy Award in 1994 along with Ry Cooder for their World Music Album, ‘A MEETING BY THE RIVER’. He has received the Sangeet Natak Academy Award and the Padmashri Award, apart from many other accolades and honors. In  India, he cherishes performing for SPICMACAY, the Saptak Festival at Ahmedabad and the Sawai Gandharva Fest at Pune. Panditji has also performed at venues and festivals across the globe. Apart from being a legendary performer, he is a master composer too.

Pt. Arvind Kumar Azad is a gifted tabla artiste and teacher. He is a disciple of Padmavibhushan Pt. Kishan Maharaj, the maestro of the Benaras Gharana of tabla. He has won many awards, including ‘Taal Mani’, ‘Maharashtra Yuva Kala Puraskar’ and ‘Sangeet Ratna’ Azadji has accompanied many artistes in both music and dance for many years, apart from being a guru to many eager students of tabla.

If you’d like to know more about Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, you can visit his website

I am coordinator of SPIC MACAY in CoEP. Sorry for being late to put up a report about the Kudiyattam Concert held in CoEP. Kudiyattam concert was held in CoEP on 15th Sept. 2010 at 6pm. I really consider myself very fortunate to be associated with SPIC MACAY and have Kudiyattam as the first concert.

The artist Shri Margi Madhuji arrived at the college at 4.30pm. The concert started at 6pm. After the usual rituals, first of all, Induji, wife of Shri Margi Madhuji, described the story in English, which was going to be presented. After that, it was time for performance of Shri Margi Madhuji.

Right from the starting of the performance, all the audience were dazzled by the amazing expressions and facial movements of the artist. People were really curious about the art form and especially the make up and dressing. So, it was indeed a treat for them.

The concert ended at 8.20pm. We got spontaneous response from people after the concert. They really enjoyed it. I am attaching some of the photos of concert.

I thank all the SPIC MACAY members and volunteers from CoEP who helped me a lot. This event was a success because of them. This was my first concert as a head and I really got valuable experience from it.

Looking ahead to have more such beautiful concerts.

Sayali Jagdale.

It was a great opportunity for the students and staff  of TMI to witness the Kudiyattam Dance by Shri Margi Madhu ji which was just awesome. His expressions were as powerful as what Ms.Kasturi mentioned them to be.

The function started at 1805 Hrs with introductory remark by Cdt Aniruddh Rao, who spoke on the art form and Cdt Mangala Deoghare who spoke about the details of the artist.

Mrs Indu ji  gave the demonstration with explanation about what Shri Margi Madhu ji has chosen to perform for the day.

The subject was Balacharitam by Bhasa where in the different awatars of vishnu were depicted. The facial expressions and eye which is the integral part of kudiyattam were very powerful. Audience could relate to the introduction given by Mrs Indu ji also found to be enjoying the dance very much.

Shri Margi Madhu ji started with Pralhad and Hiranyakashyapu episode of Krita yuga where in Lord Vishnu emerges out as Narasimha from the pillar and kills Hiranyakashyapu. The enactment was nicely expressed.

Followed by  Thretha yuga episode of Lord vishnu as Vamanavatar where in, he comes in disguise as Vamana in the yagashla of king Mahabali and asks for three feet of land for which he mocks and  later when he starts to offer with pot of water which we say arghya, Sukracharya the guru of asuras (demons) appears as a honey bee (gestures of honey bee was very nice)  and restricts the fall of water from the pot . Vaman then grows in height so much so that he touches the sky.With his gigantic feet he measures heaven, earth and pathala with his two feet. When asked to where he has to keep his third feet. As there is no option then to keep it on the head of Mahabali by which Mahabali is pushed to pathala.

In Dwapara Yuga vishnu takes birth as Rama and kills Ravana. The depiction of Ravana’s death where in  his breaths slowly and slowly  coming to a halt was great.  The span was for at least 2 to 3 minutes which was the conclusion part of the performance. Whole audience watched with rapt silence.

The performance was ably supported by the percussion artists on Idakya was Shri Rajan, Midhav was Shri Ratish bhas,  Shri Anup and Mrs Indu ji was on the cymbal (Talam)

Mrs Indu ji answered the questions put up by the audience which lasted for 00:25 minutes.Tthe audience enjoyed this art form very much.

The programme was attended by  Ms Gagan, Mr Sudhindra, Mrs Nancy Kulkarni of SPICMACAY and Dr Saxena, Principal, Capt RK Razdan, Provost and Faculty , family and cadets of TMI.

Principal and Provost have asked me to convey their appreciation.

Each one present as audience understood the  performance and also they enjoyed the same.

I would like also to mention that we have Mr AK Dixit sir, senior faculty  who is around 73 years old and he attends all the SPICMACAY programs  was moved so much so that, after  the performance  he was almost in to tears and expressed his feelings to the artists when we were about to leave after the dinner from the executive residency.

Thanks to SPICMACAY once again for another nice evening.

Best wishes to one and all

Sanjay Godakhindi
Tolani Maritime Institute
PO Induri,Chakan_Talegaon Road
PUNE-410507
www.tolani.edu
09822109106

Although the pictures are mostly taken at  the Dehradun Convention (2009),  National  Convention Kohima and IIT Kanpur, I think it might be suitable for other chapters.

The film was  made by our volunteer Vineet Panchi .

Special thanks to Bhumesh Bharti ( of Dehradun ) and Sreeni  for the pictures.

It would be good to show it at SPIC MACAY program venues .

Do have a look at it.