A different experience

Creating awareness

Spic Macay (Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth) is holding a two-month long programme Virasat, which will have a series of events on Indian dance, music and art forms in order to create interest among the student community of the City.

As part of it, there was a performance by classical artiste Pandit Ajay Pohankar, which was attended by many students.

Metrolife interacted with students to know from them whether such an initiative has indeed created awareness and interest in them about Indian art and culture? 

Faiza Begum, a first year student at Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College, described the concert by Ajay Pohankar to be “really good”. “We used to see only Western music genres, but this was a different experience altogether. We were curious to know about the musical album Piya Bawari by him and his son Abhijeet Pohankar. Panditji explained each and every raga before performing, which was quite helpful. We learnt about musical notes, instruments and also about professionalism,” she says.

Shilpa, another student, has the same opinion. “This kind of programme was held for the first time in our college, hence we were excited. It was so innovative that we wish such programmes are held again and again. We were lucky to witness the performance of an international fame artiste,” she says.

C Manjunath, HoD, Kannada department feels that, such programmes help to revive the Indian culture. “These days, all classical art forms are sidelined by the media. Reality shows are meant for film songs and Western hip-hops, hence, youngsters don’t show any interest in these classicals. I wish these classical art forms too get exposure,” he says.

Shruthi, a second PUC student of Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College has a lot of good words for the concept. “I felt I was lucky to listen to Panditji who performed at international platforms. He revealed his experiences as a musician and cleared our doubts about Hindustani vocal. Those who could not attend the concert really missed something of once-in-a-lifetime experience,” she includes.

Ashritha Adiga, another PUC student, calls it as a different experience.

“We were never exposed to such kind of programmes before. It was totally entertaining, educating and also enlightening. It was short and sweet, hence no one got bored. We were privileged to witness a splendid performance by Pandit Ajit Pohankar. We gained first hand information about classical music through him.”