Virasat'09

Virasat'09 - the SPIC MACAY week at IIT Delhi, was kickstarted by Sonal Mansingh - well known exponent of Odissi, with a performance titled 'Aaj ki Kanya'. Inspite of making up a majority of the billion Indians, women in most parts of the country remain deprived of their rights. Grave thought, and a true one at that. Powerful act, I thought. Dance can be such an effective medium to put a point across. And I waited eagerly for her final performance. For some reason, she decided to portray eight 'rasa's of life using bollywood numbers. While it is a treat listening to old hits like 'Aye Bhai, zaraa...', I surely didn't expect it at a SPIC MACAY concert. Her ideas were clear but I am sure they did not need any Bollywoodish touch. I was confused whether to accept it as an innovation or to stick to my gut feeling that such a portrayal was unnecessary. There should be some places and issues that should be kept away from Bollywood, I guess.

Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia then lit up the latter half of the evening and this confusion was quickly forgotten, till I sat down this morning. He was, as usual, impeccable, witty and courteous - introducing his regular accompanist on the tabla - Pt. Vijay Ghate, as 'a much better musician' than himself.

Congratulations are due to Dr. Kiran Seth, faculty in the Mechanical Engineering department of IIT Delhi and a slogger for SPIC MACAY for over thirty years - for keeping Indian culture alive and kicking.

And its a treat for all Hindustani music lovers this evening - Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pt. Shivkumar Sharma at Nehru Park, Chanakyapuri. More on that tonight!