Her mission: Propagating Indian art & culture among youths
The unique initiative undertaken by Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) is being strengthened in the city by Dr Madhu Shukla who is working as the coordinator of the Allahabad chapter.
The unique initiative undertaken by Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC MACAY) is being strengthened in the city by Dr Madhu Shukla who is working as the coordinator of the Allahabad chapter.
She is also teaching in Prayag Sangeet Samiti.
SPIC MACAY is playing a vital role in binding the children through the promotion of Indian classical music.
"I was appointed as the coordinator of Allahabad chapter in the year 2002. Altogether 40 renowned artistes including Hari Prasad Chaurasiya, Bismillah Khan, Kelucharan Mahapatra, Birju Maharaj, Sonal Manshingh, Sitara Devi and Bhajan Sopari are associated with this society and cooperate their level best," she said.
After joining Prayag Sangeet Samiti as a teacher, Dr Madhu found it quite difficult to acquaint the children with all the aspects of music and other performing arts.
"I had already attended almost 30 programmes of SPIC MACAY and found a solution to my problem. The performance is preceded by lectures and other interactive sessions conducted by the artiste which create interest among children for that particular art,” she says.
“I thought that such things should be introduced in the city also. Thus I contacted the state coordinator, SP Singh in Varanasi who supported me to become the coordinator of Allahabad chapter. Since then, artistes such as Arti Ankalikar, Sunanda Sharma, Rupang Sarkar, Kiran Sehgal, Ronu Majumdar and others have performed before the children and students of various schools and colleges associated with SPIC MACAY," said Dr Madhu.
According to Dr Madhu, SPIC MACAY was established in the year 1972 in Delhi by Kiran Seth who was a professor in mathematics at IIT Delhi. "He was inspired by the thought of associating children with music as well as other forms of performing arts. At present, SPIC MACAY is active in 70 countries," she added.
Dr Madhu has managed to open up SPIC MACAY chapters in Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad University, SMC Ghoorpur, HRI Jhusi and Army School New Cantt. She has also approached the other schools such as BHS, GHS, Maharshi Patanjali, Tagore Public School and MD Convent for the purpose.
"It is unfortunate that still most of the schools are not ready to cooperate. It is surprising to note that SPIC MACAY manages the highly paid artistes with only Rs 5000 while normally they charge as much as Rs 2 lakh per performance. But still we are not getting good response from the principals of the schools", she rued.
"The only objective of the society is to propagate Indian art and culture among students which is on the wane because of the onslaught of Western culture. In Firozabad, and in HRI, students manage their own funds. School management and principals here should take similar initiative and ask the students to contribute minimally if they are facing any kind of fund crunch," said Dr Madhu.
"I think, it is the best opportunity for the students to relate themselves strongly with their culture and traditions and feel proud of it," added Dr Madhu.