Small town with a heart for classical music
Friday April 27, 2012: Yesterday I drove down to Sikar and returned late at night. I went to attend a function organized by an institute called Abhivyakti. I am familiar with Abhivyakti and its director, Dr Anupama Saxena, for quite a few years now.
Prabha Khaitan Foundation has been supporting their activities for quite some time and I never got a chance to visit and see their activities in person. Every year they have been inviting me and regularly followed up with my office to ensure that I could be in Sikar for their annual function. This time they succeeded.
Actually, I was supposed to attend a family wedding at Sujangarh on the evening of April 25th so I thought it would be convenient for me to attend on May 26th. As often happens with me when in Rajasthan, I could not attend the wedding due to time crunch. But there was no way I could avoided this function.
After the function, I had dinner with the Mr Gaurav Srivastava, IPS, Superintendent of Police and Mr Dharmendra Bhatnagar, District Collector and District Magistrate, Sikar, and their family. At the function I also met Ms Rita Singh. I have known Ms Rita Singh, Zila Pramukh, Sikar, from before when she was in Kolkata and we met again.
Before I end this column, I would like to mention that the cultural performance that I saw in this small town with limited resources and means was an eye-opener. It was great. They have a heart for art. It is a fact that the true Indian culture lives and thrives in the smaller towns and villages.
I think Dr Anupama Saxena deserves all the compliments and best wishes for running such a wonderful dance institution in a small town that has gave India sarangi maestro, Padma Bhushan, Ustad Sultan Khan, who passed away in Mumbai last November.
I announced a scholarship in his name for students who wanted to learn classical Indian dance.
ess bee