Spic Macay founder in Bengaluru to enrol volunteers

Kiran Seth has made a pit stop as part of his cycle yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari

Seventy-three-year-old Padma Shree awardee Kiran Seth has come to Bengaluru on a cycle to promote his organisation Spic Macay (Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth).

He has made a pit stop as part of his cycle yatra from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. In a free-to-attend meeting, he will enrol volunteers for Spic Macay on January 4 at Chitrakala Parishath at 5.30 pm. On January 5, he will cycle from Silk Board at 7.30 am till IIIT-B in Electronic City and everybody is free to join.

He started cycling from Srinagar on August 15, 2022, and is expected to reach Kanyakumari on February 14 and “it was a spur of the moment idea,” Seth said.

Spic Macay organises around 5,000 programmes each year in 500 towns in India but the number hadn’t grown in the last ten years. “When they (people) come to meet me, I can talk about Spic Macay,” he shares about his goal.

Seth’s preparation for the journey was just as spontaneous. “I couldn’t sleep the night I promised to do the yatra. But there’s a saying ‘pran jaye par vachan na jaye’ (Life may go but promises must be kept), so I decided to cycle from Delhi to Jaipur to see if I could do it. Once I reached Jaipur, I decided to cycle to Udaipur, and once I got there, I decided to cycle to Ahmedabad.” The roundtrip was about 2,500 kilometres.

Talking about his biggest challenge on the road, he says, “You need mental strength to be able to get up every morning and cycle under the rain and sun. And you need to be passionate about a cause. I’ve injured my knee on the journey.”