SPIC MACAY’s Anubhav goes online from June 1
About 100 renowned artistes and 15,000 children from India and abroad are expected to participate in the annual convention
by Ranjani GovindAs most events and workshops have gone online because of the COVID-19 pandemic, SPIC MACAY has followed suit. Anubhav, the week-long programme for children, from June 1 will be streamed live on YouTube.
Founded in 1977, SPIC MACAY has been organising national and international annual conventions for the last 35 years. These week-long residential programmes are usually arranged in large educational institutions such as IIT or IIM. School and college students from all over the country or world come together for the cultural exercise. “It is the first time that SPIC MACAY is doing a convention online,” says Supriti, a senior volunteer with SPIC MACAY.
At the convention, students follow a rigorous schedule. “There are yoga and meditation sessions every morning; about 50 workshops in music, dance and crafts followed by yoga-nidra, folk programmes and classic cinema screenings. We also have interactions with directors and actors, talks by eminent persons on painting, environment and literature in our post-afternoon sessions and we close the day with classical music and dance concerts by accomplished artists.”
Supriti says this year the 8th International Convention was to be held at IIT-Kanpur from June 1 to 7, but was cancelled because of COVID-19. “More than 2,000 students had already registered and we did not want to disappoint them. We had earlier organised an online series called Rendezvous, which was successful and that encouraged us to conduct the convention online. The convenor, Pankaj Malhotra and founder, Kiran Seth, were enthusiastic about moving the celebrations online and they managed to convince everyone about the feasibility. The schedule of the online series is the same as our regular annual convention.”
Hosting live concerts online was a challenge because of the time lag in transmission. “Our 200 volunteers guided senior artists, who are not tech-savvy, on how to conduct the session. Over phone and video calls, they told the artists how and where to place the camera and mike and also the right kind of lighting.”
More than 100 artists are participating in Anubhav. “Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt Jasraj, Vidushi Prabha Atre, Pt Rajan & Sajan Misra, N Rajam, Pt Bhajan Sopori, Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar, Vidushi Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Ustad Shahid Parvez, TN Krishnan, L Subramaniam, A Kanyakumari, Guru Ghanakanta Bora, Malavika Sarukkai, Kapila Venu, Teejan Bai, Parvathy Baul, Mayurbhan Chhau, Bhai Alankar Singh, Warsi Brothers, Ghulam Mohammed Sheikh, Karan Singh, Shyam Benegal, Rajit Kapur, Pallavi Joshi, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar among others will address the students. There will also be talks by eminent artists including mridanga vidwan Umayalpuram Sivaraman, dancer Vyjayanthi Kashi, and Saroja Vaidyanathan.”
Supriti said, “Nearly 15,000 students are participating in Anubhav. We have received registrations from USA, UK, Germany, Middle East and Hong Kong.” Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has shown special interest in the programme and is encouraging students to register.
There is no participation fee. Participants can register by May 29 through this link