Art Conclave 2018-19

A group of six students from classes VI to VIII accompanied by their teachers from the music and art departments, Ms. Shuchismita Chatterjee, Mr. Adhir Das and Mr. Shankar, attended an art festival cum workshop at the Birla Vidya Niketan, on 2 November 2018. The students who participated were Sukhbani Kaur (VI), Deeposri Choudhury (VIII), Prithvi Singh Gulia (VIII), Ananya Sundresan (VIII), Devansh Mukhopadhyay (VIII) and Hardik Gogia (VIII).

The programme was divided in three parts. As we entered the host school premises, we could see students seated in groups and engrossed in painting. Such a sight infused the creative mood in the minds of the visitors on the first day of the art festival, very aptly named Art Conclave.

The art and craft workshop was conducted at a common venue by teachers from different schools. Mr. Shankar along with Haardik Gogia of class VIII represented our School. Mr. Shankar taught the craft of Katum - Kutum which was originally created by the great artist Abanindranath Tagore, founder of the influential Bengal Art. Katum - kutum means created from found objects, namely twigs and small branches of trees. The creations were highly appreciated both by teachers and students. He deftly crafted animals with the help of twigs. Some of the creations were also offered as gifts to the teachers.

The Performing Art workshops were held in the auditorium. The venue was very familiar as we had attended instrumental music (Sitar) and Indian classical dance (Kuchipudi) performances there in the past.

The programme started with a beautiful rendition of the Saraswati vandana by the senior choir of the host school followed by an instrumental music workshop by famous sitarist, Pandit Gaurav Mazumder, disciple of maestro Bharat Ratna Pandit Ravi Shankar. He started his workshop with an introduction to music; what is music and how it gained popularity. Then he moved on to the aspects of building a sitar. He explained how it is built by combining the pumpkin shell (specially grown in Pandharpur village, Maharashtra) and wood. He shared with us how the sitar got its name from a Persian instrument called Sahtar, wherein saha in Farsi means three. The participating students and teachers were delighted to know so much about this unique instrument. Pandit Mazumder concluded his workshop with a rendition of raga Ahir Bhairav. A very talented young tabla player, Sri Pranshu Chaturlal played accompanist on the tabla during the performance. At the end of the performance there was a question and answer session followed by an instrumental performance by some of the participating students. Deeposri Choudhury of class VIII played Raga Bhupali on the violin.

The second session was conducted by a Kuchipudi exponent Smt. Ayona Mukherjee. She commenced the session with her dance performance which consisted of different elements like kavutvams and the tarangam. She also demonstrated dancing on a brass plate, which is a specialty of Kuchipudi. She explained how Kuchipudi is distinct though similar to other classical dances of India and how speed is the most essential part of it. She explained the aspects of the traditional costume and hairdo used for Kuchipudi. This was followed by a recapitulation of the mudras and a question-answer session. The dance session was further continued by some of the participating students performing various forms of classical dances. Ananya Sundresan of class VIII presented Bharatnatyam. It was a one of its kind experience for each of us.

Ms. Shuchismita Chatterjee