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	Welcome to the Spicmacay Gujarat website. Hope you know what Spicmacay is all about. Spicmacay stands for Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Among Youth.This is how it all started........... It happened in the year 1978 to some students of the IIT, Delhi. During a Dhrupad concert by the Dagar brothers, four friends discovered that though the music was soulful enough to move them, they were quite ignorant of the music form itself. They did not know any basics of Indian classical music with which it could be better appreciated. In fact , they realised that, on the whole they knew very little of the diversities, intricacies and richness of the 5000 year old Indian heritage. The Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (SPIC-MACAY) was thus formed as a voluntary, non-profit student movement, whereby a few motivated youth themselves got in touch with major artists, musicians, dancers and other performers with the intention of organising programmes targeted towards the youth. The artists themselves were most enthusiastic towards reaching out and inspiring the younger generation to recognise their own heritage. They hence performed for free and even encouraged lecture demonstrations inviting participation and invoking the "Jignasu" in the youth. The tide of westernisation and its accompanying influences were overwhelming, but the effort has been successful. The near complete diversion of the youth towards Western rock and pop cannot (and need not) be undone, but a recognition and appreciation of their own heritage has to be attempted. Since then Spicmacay has come a long way.Now, SPIC-MACAY is active in over 200 cities and towns in India and abroad. From mere concerts, the activities of SPIC-MACAY have increased to include yoga and holistic camps, folk arts and crafts festivals, lecture demonstrations from diverse art forms, baithaks, talk series, film screenings etc. The in house activities of SPIC-MACAY involve organising of weekly/fortnightly meetings at city/chapter levels livened by baithaks or talks, the Lec- Dem series of lecture demonstrations in the summer and Fest series of full concerts in the winter, Virasat - the festival of longer duration comprising of performances, workshops, in folk & classical arts, literature, theatre, cinema and yoga at a city/state level aiming at closer interaction between students, artists and craftsmen Gurukul Scholarships helps students to stay for a month with persons (Gurus), who have dedicated their lives outside of narrow self-motivation to a large cause. They can be from a field of literature, religion, traditional medicine, arts and social work. The Eye is SPIC-MACAY's quarterly magazine of Indian thought and is a written word movement that shares the same aim but accomplishes it through good reading based on inspiration rather than information. Almost all the Gems in the filed of Indian Classical Music have supported SPIC-MACAY at the national level. These include Indian Classical Music greats like Ust. Bismillah Khan, Pt. Ravi Shanker, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Gangubai Hangal, The Dagar Bandhu, Smt. M.S.Subbalakshmi, Pt. Birju Maharaj, Pt. Kelucharan Mahapatra, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma..... the list is endless. Now a little about Spicmacay in Gujarat.Gujarat has also been a very fortuitous ground for SPIC-MACAY. With its culturally conscious citizens, it found immediate ground for its activities in the major cities of Ahmedabad, Baroda, Anand, Bhavnagar, Rajkot and others since 1985 itself. Through the last fifteen years with changing student faces and co-ordination chapters, the essence of the organisation has remained with full fervour in the state. We are now proud to have chapters and active members in many other cities spanning the entire area of Gujarat including from Bhuj and Kandla, to Jamnagar and Junagadh, to Surat and Valsad and many in between. We are still striving to further the movement among the various schools and colleges in the state. In the past Gujarat has also seen its share of eminent artists like Pt. Ravi Shanker, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. C.R. Vyas, Pt. V.G. Jog, Pt. Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia, Dr. N. Ramani, Dr. Prabha Atre, Dr. N.Rajam, Chitra Visweswaran and many others. This year Gujarat will be host to the following artists-Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Dr N rajam, Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Gundecha brothers, Sh Shahid Parvez, Sh Habib Tanveer and Mahesh Ram and Co. Apart from this movies by Satyajit ray are also to be screened. $5 performances and screenings in 11 chapters are the highlights of Virasat 1999 in Gujarat. To know more about Virasat look up our Virasat 1999 site. Do write in to us at the address mentioned below for more information and details.

			My favourite websites:
	C o n t a c t  m e:	Madhumita Chakraborty   SPIC_GUJ@PGPlan.iimahd.ernet.in	Rediff On The Net Virasat SPICMACAY-MICA SPICMACAY-Pune