Honours at Vasantotsav- inter school folk music and dance competition

On 25th November, 2017, a group of students from our School, accompanied by their teachers Ms. Suchismita Chatterjee, Mr. Madhav and Mr. Adhir Das; participated in Vasantotsav an annual competition held at Ahlcon International School, Mayur Vihar.

There were four categories in the competition, of which our school took part in three; Group recital of Tabla (Tabla Chaugalbandi), Group Folk Song and Group Folk Dance. Our School secured the first position in Tabla Chaugalbandi and second position in Group Folk Song.

The competition began with the customary lighting of the lamp by the judges followed by a beautiful Cheraw dance performance from Mizoram by the host school.

The students playing the tabla chaugalbandi were Vadish Kardam (XI), Sehej Singh (XI), Divjyot Singh (XI) and Vivek Kohli (IX) accompanied by Milanpreet Kaur (XI) on the harmonium.

The performance started with a nagma played on the harmonium based on Raag Chandrakauns followed by the Tabla Chaugalbandi starting with a Peshkar (a type of composition for solo tabla usually presented at the beginning of a performance), Kaida (a type of tabla composition in which a rhythmic seed (theme) is introduced, which is then used as a base rhythm leading to further improvisations), Tukra, Sawal Jawab, Chaugun Teentaal and ended with the Tihayi.

The students who participated in the Group Folk song category were Kavya Shrotriya (VII), Syed Zaid Hussain (VII), Saarthak Malhotra (VIII), Avreen Kaur (IX), Srinjoy Mukherjee (IX), Nandita Khati (IX), Dhruv Rathi (IX) and Dhriti Chatterjee (X). They were accompanied by Raunak Maini (X) on the flute, Shivangini Sharma (XI) on the harmonium and Mr. Adhir Das on the tabla. Our students sang a Punjabi folk song, Challa, Our recital was appreciated by all. In fact all the performances were diverse and beautiful, portraying the rich cultural heritage of India.

The competition ended by the host school announcing the results for all the categories. Indeed, it was a great opportunity for all of us to learn more about the culture and tradition of India and we gained new experience as budding artists.

Shivangini Sharma (XI B)