An evening with Begum Parveen Sultana . Review on An Evening with Begum Parveen Sultana

Many of you might have heard the name of SPIC MACAY- this NGO promotes Indian classical music & culture specially among youth & children .They have taken a novel yet quite encouraging effort to popularise Indian traditional music among young generation .In this era of ''FAME GURUKUL '' or ''INDIAN IDOL'' based instant name & fame , SPIC MACAY is carrying out the lone battle of reviving the tradition & culture .

One of their well -known efforts is ''Virasat''-months long programme on Indian classical music, theatre, film etc.--different aspects of Indian culture & spread across different schools , colleges, Universities in parts of India . Last Saturday (22nd October). I had an opportunity to attend one of their programmes where Begum Parveen Sultana & ustad Dilshad Khan gave indescripable yet mind blowing performance at Nehru Park, New Delhi.

The evening time , cool,refreshing greenary of the park, quiet ambience,matured listeners ,small decorated stage traditionally enlightend with ''Diyas''- all set the mood of perfet classical music . First They performed vilambit & drut in Yaman , followed by Meera bhajan in Hansdhwani & last but not least ,''Bhawani Dawani'',made popular by Begum Parven Sultana herself .All were enthralled & mesmerized while the duo went on taking us to a different world where no worries, no tension do exist ,only SUR,LAYE,TAAL enter into your heart & drench mind & you just feel like intoxicated .

The TAAN, AALAP,CHALAN,BAANT,TUKDA etc were performed by them so easily yet with so much of elegance that I lost all words to praise them .Both of them could easily move between different octaves creating a ripple in the ocean of music . They have been well supported by Pandit Mithilesh Kumar Jha in Tabla who played brilliantly even with illness & others were also quite complementing to the singer duo .

On a whole, that evening has left a long lasting impression in my memory & I really wish I get those moments back quite often so that I can atleast forget the daily chores ,if not run away from them . There are some other performances coming in November ,one is on 12th , next one is on 26th at the same place . So any Delhite who loves Indian classical music , see you there .

Subhajit