SPIC MACAY UK Volunteers Celebrate Holi

Everyone brought home cooked food - Pot Luck

A fantastic time was had by all playing with colours and water guns

A bring and buy sale was organised - everyone brought items from their homes and sold to raise funds for SPIC MACAY. A total of £60 was raised as a result. Another £66 was raised via the raffle ticket sale & draw.

Over 45 people joined in the celebration and fundraising effort on the occasion of Holi.

Padma Awardees Announced on the eve of India's 65th Republic Day

Following is the list of the 127 awardees of Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri which were announced on the eve of the 65th Republic day.

Padma Vibhushan

The Padma Vibhushan is the second highest civilian award in the Republic of India. It consists of a medal and a citation and is awarded by the President of India. It was established on 2 January 1954. It ranks behind the Bharat Ratna and comes before the Padma Bhushan andPadma Shri. It is awarded to recognize exceptional and distinguished service to the nation in any field, including government service. The first recipients of this award were Satyendra Nath Bose, Nand Lal Bose, Zakir Hussain, Balasaheb Gangadhar Kher, Jigme Dorji Wangchuk, V. K. Krishna Menon in the year 1954. 

The award was established by Presidential decree on 2 January 1954. The Padma Vibhushan was originally established as the Pahela Varg(First Class) of a three-class "Padma Vibhushan" awards. However the structure was changed in 1955 and there is no record of the award being presented to recipients in the original structure. The award was suspended between 1977 and 1980 and between 1992 and 1998. (Source: Wikipedia)

This year's awardees: Dr Raghunath A Mashelkar, Science and Engineering, Maharashtra; B K S Iyengar, Yoga, Maharashtra

Padma Bhushan: The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is announced on the occasion of Republic Day every year. It is conferred by the President of India at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The award was established on 2 January 1954 by the President of India. Shivam Shetty Manohar was the youngest to have received this title. It is awarded to recognize distinguished service of a high order to the nation, in any field. As of January 2010, 1111 people have thus far received the award. In 2013 the veteran playback singer Mrs.S. Janaki rejected the award, stating that the honour came to her too late and that the artists of South India were not duly recognised. (Source: Wikipedia)

The list of 2014 awardees:

Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Art-Painting, Gujarat; Begum Parveen Sultana, Art-Classical Singing, Maharashtra; T.H. Vinayakram, Art-Ghatam Artist, Tamil Nadu; Kamal Haasan, Art-Cinema, Tamil Nadu; Justice Dalveer Bhandari, Public Affairs, Delhi; Prof Padmanabhan Balaram, Science and Engineering, Karnataka; Prof Jyeshtharaj Joshi, Science and Engineering, Maharashtra; Dr Madappa Mahadevappa, Science and Engineering, Karnataka; Dr Thirumalachari Ramasami, Science and Engineering, Delhi; Dr Vinod Prakash Sharma, Science and Engineering, Delhi; Dr Radhakrishnan Koppillil, Science and Engineering, Karnataka; Dr Mrityunjay Athreya, Literature and Education, Delhi; Anita Desai, Literature and Education, Delhi; Dr Dhirubhai Thaker, Literature and Education, Gujarat; Vairamuthu, Literature and Education, Tamil Nadu; Ruskin Bond, Literature and Education, Uttarakhand; Pullela Gopichand, Sports-Badminton, Andhra Pradesh; Leander Paes, Sports-Tennis, Maharashtra; Vijayendra Nath Kaul, Civil Service, Delhi; Late Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma, Public Affairs, Uttar Pradesh; Late Dr Anumolu Ramakrishna, Science and Engineering, Andhra Pradesh; Prof Anisuzzaman, Literature and Education, Bangladesh; Prof Lloyd I Rudolph, Literature and Education, USA; Prof Susanne H Rudolph, Literature and Education, USA; Dr (Smt) Neelam Kler, Medicine-Neonatology, Delhi

SPIC MACAY Poster by our 5 year old volunteer!

Nainika Tikoo, age 5  years decided to make a poster on SPIC MACAY!!! She wanted to write what we do at spic macay. :)) She was not asked by anybody to do it and this was her own project. She did this on her own initiative. She wants to talk to her class about SPIC MACAY at "Show and Tell". 

  

Transcript of her poster (handwriting is a bit hard to read for some of us):

Spic Macay: Created by - Nainika

What we do at Spic Macay
1. We do dancing
2. Meeting
3. Programme
4. Singing
5. Workshops

What are workshops?
They are for making. I did it as well. Do you want to do it?

Happy New Year!!

SM Volunteers Get Together: 29th December 2013

 Over the last 6 months, we have all worked very hard and given of our time, resources and ourselves to the revival of the presence of SPIC MACAY in the UK.

To celebrate our hard work throughout 2013 along with its many successes and failures, as we have only grown from strength to strength; learning from our mistakes and repeating good practices. A big thank you to all the lovely volunteers and friends who came and joined us in our celebration.A big thanks also to those who couldn't make it in person but were there very much in spirit at the First Annual Get Together of Spic Macay UK volunteers. There was home cooked food made lovingly by the volunteers and served affection. 

More photos on our Facebook page: www.facebok.com/spicmacayeurope

Paying our tribute to the sitar maestro - Late Pt. Ravi Shankar

It is exactly a year since the maestro, the guru Pt. Ravi Shankar left for the heavenly abode. 


"It is very important that our government introduces classical music, dance and other art forms on a compulsory basis right from the kindergarten level. We need a conservatory of music and music colleges. I wish all the millionaires and billionaires in India would contribute something to the art of their country. I am not condemning any type of music but when the whole world comes to see and visit India, it’s the incredible tradition of this wonderful country that attracts them." - Excerpts from a conversation between Raviji and Satish and Shashi Vyas, June 2007.

(http://www.ravishankar.org/)

The maestro helped nurture and preserve the beautiful legacy passed onto him by his seniors and he left a legacy that we today proudly uphold. Every one of us as volunteers of this beautiful movement called SPIC MACAY have a responsibility and duty to carry forth this torch. Please pause and reflect on the life and legacy of our gurus. 

Holywell Music Room resonates the sound of the sitar and cello: Oxford Chapter Inaugural

The performance by Pt. Shubhendra Rao (sitar) and Smt. Saskia de Haas (Indian cello), accompanied by Sh. Biplab Bhattacharya (tabla) marked the inauguration of the Oxford chapter of SPIC MACAY, UK.  

We are delighted to share with you glimpses of this beautiful event organised by the volunteers of Spic Macay, UK. Special thanks to our lovely team at Oxford led by Vikaran Khanna, President of the Oxford India Society.

We are extremely grateful to our esteemed artistes, Pt Shubhendra Rao (sitar) and Smt Saskia de Haas (Indian cello), accompanied by Sh Biplab Bhattacharya on tabla, for giving us all glimpses into the magic of the ragas. The marriage of the sounds of the sitar and Indian cello was absolutely mesmerising.

There were 140 people in the audience and they didn't want the artistes to stop!!! So mesmerised that they just insisted on 'one more'. The audience included not only the students, professors but also professionals residents of Oxford.


The QnA that followed saw a number of questions being asked. One of the most interesting questions asked was: "what is the role of silence in music?"Another was on the importance of having the drone - tamboora/tanpura in the background.

The performance lasted for close to 1 hour 40 minutes followed by the QnA. Once the performance was over, the audience gathered up near the stage to ask more questions and interact.

We are grateful to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) for their kind support in making this event possible. This was a first of its kind event for the crowds and clearly there is a lot of demand and need to organise more such interactive programmes. We are also very grateful to Shubhendra ji for very kindly telling the members of the audience, the value of being a part of this beautiful movement - Spic Macay!