About SPICMACAY

SPICMACAY or the Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth is a non-profit, voluntary, apolitical and participatory student movement. Founded in 1977, it has grown from strength to strength and has caught the very imagination of the youth across the length and breadth of the country. The fundamental aim of SPICMACAY is to create an awareness of and an appreciation for the many facets of our rich cultural heritage. The educational system of our country has zero inputs when it comes to making our students aware of their rich heritage. This is where SPICMACAY steps in. Through concerts, lecture-demonstrations, informal Baithaks in classical music, dance, folk arts, literature, theater, cinema, painting, Yoga and spirituality by eminent artists and thinkers—it exposes the students to the cultural tapestry of this land that they seem to be slowly, yet steadily, losing touch of. SPICMACAY has nearly 200 chapters in schools and colleges across India and some 70 chapters abroad.

The BITS-Pilani Chapter

The BITS chapter of SPIC MACAY has been an active member of this family as early as the 1980’s under the guidance of Dr.G Sundar. Many eminent artists like Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Smt. Sonal Mansingh, Vidwan Chitti Babu, Smt. Sanjukta Panigrahi and others had graced the campus during the early years of the chapter. After a brief interlude of inaction the chapter was revived by a group of motivated students in 1999, with Dr. Suresh Ramaswamy (also the Chief Warden) and Prof. Geetha Raghurama (Languages Faculty) at the helm.

Within a span of 5 years, the chapter has grown to nearly 40 registered volunteers, and a track record of having organized nearly 40 programs till date. The noble spirit of SPICMACAY has been inculcated among the local schools of Pilani- namely Birla Balika Vidyapeeth, Birla Higher Secondary School and Birla Public School . It has also released a magazine of its own called ‘Jyotsna’ with thought-provoking and insightful articles on matters of art and culture.

In its new avtaar, the chapter organized concerts and lecture-demonstrations by such eminent people as Pt Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Smt Shubha Mudgal, Shri T.N.Krishnan, Shri T.V.Sankaranarayanan, Smt Bombay Jayashri Ramnath, Shri Raja and Smt Radha Reddy, Smt Uma Sharma, Smt Shovana Narayan, Smt Anjolie Ela Menon, Aman and Ayan Ali Bangash to name a few. The programs have received overwhelming response and support from the student community and the faculty members. On an average 450-500 students attend these programs; with a record high of nearly 3000 students who thronged the Auditorium during Smt. Shubha Mudgal’s concert!

The road ahead

The Chapter wishes to continue with the good work that it has been doing in this direction and has chalked out a number of programs for the future. The coming semester (January-May 2005) promises to be an exciting one as the Chapter has planned a series of events under the banner of the FEST 2005 series. Eminent artists like Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, Shashank, Mysore Brothers, Yakshagana folk art of Karnataka, Rama Vaidyanathan and a Yoga Shibir are in the offing. A second edition of the Chapter magazine titled ‘Drishti’ is planned to be released during Pt Chaurasia’s concert.

How can you help?

Events as high profile as the ones mentioned above obviously entail financial burdens on the chapter. Hitherto, it has been dependent on the grants issued by the SPICMACAY center at Delhi and alumni of the institute. To become a more self-sufficient chapter with greater autonomy and freedom to conduct its programs in a regular manner, the chapter needs a funds corpus for its upkeep.   Typically each concert costs the chapter around Rs.30,000 taking into account the airfare for the artists up to Delhi , the road travel to Pilani, a token honorarium, local hospitality, boarding and lodging facilities. The chapter organizes an average of 8 programs in a year. Hence the cost incurred on the chapter is roughly Rs. 240,000 a year.

The Chapter would be extremely grateful to alumni of the Institute if they could help in creating a Corpus fund for the chapter to ensure a regular and steady flow of funds for its varied programs.  All help rendered would be duly acknowledged in the invites and souvenir for the event, as also in the chapter website that we plan to host very soon.  The publicity pamphlets that the chapter distributes before each event would also gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by the sponsors.  

Help us in bequeathing to the younger generation, the glorious traditions of this famed land—which are unfortunately getting depleted at an alarming rate!

 Photos above (in order) are: Folk performance by Langas and Mandaniyaars (attendance 1,500), Hindustan Vocal Recital by Smt. Shuba Mudgal (attendance 3,000), Sarod recital by Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash (attendance 1,000) and Kuchipudi maestros Raja and Radha Reddy ■