Celebrating India

Turya este o formaţie profesionistă de muzică instrumentală indiană din România, cu un repertoriu şi o tonalitate unice în lume prin altoirea sonorităţilor clasice indiene pe sufletul românesc, într-o tratare la care auditorul are a se face complice, ca sanscritul sahrdaya[1]. Aşadar, Victor Beliciu şi trupa sa au deschis, vineri 16 aprilie 2010, pe scena Palatului Copiilor din Bucureşti, în faţa a 400 spectatori, spectacolul Celebrate India. În India, oarecarea nedumirere a ascultătorilor de aici ar fi fost ruptă, poate, de „replici” admirativ participative la spirituala raga vibrată pe corzile sitarului, viorii, în bătăi de tabla sau ison de tampura.

Ce începuse în tonuri de templu avea să se ramifice într-un iureş-surpriză, până la „Bollywood touch” (mai ales acesta spre deliciul când nu şi delirul majorităţii sălii), trecând prin istorisirea, de către copii indieni a festivalurilor Baisakhi, Bihu, Vishu şi Holi, succesiunea-crescendo de dans clasic barathnatyam[2], dar şi bhangra punjabi[3] ori balet european, coruri de copii ori cântece din filme. Duium de trupe şi artişti, pe lângă cea evocată la început: Dansas, Alegretto, Naliny (Mariana Saleh) & Akilesh Arya, Vishal Dolya, Providanse-Asaff & Shakti group, Ionela Petcana, Claudia Ignat. Dar, pe lângă spre / peste suta de artişti îşi dăduseră întâlnire numeroşii organizatori şi susţinători români şi indieni, poate pentru prima oară într-o demonstraţie de asemenea anvergură.

Media, uitată sau nu, oricum prinsă în alte spaţii, va fi fost suplinită de mai toţi entuziaştii împărtăşitori ai unei asemenea noutăţi, ca adunare laolaltă, pe malurile Dâmboviţei, începând cu autorii evenimentului, fără any clash with others involved.

Din notele de program ale Manifestărilor, cităm:

Baisakhi, Vishu, Bihu, the Indian New years as they are known in different states and Holi, the festival of color, all symbolizing the arrival of spring: Indian, classical and semi-classical program with little Bollywood touch. The program is organized by Romanian Indian Cultural Association with the support of Dr. George Anca, Ms. Carmen Peasantz and their Indian friends. They (Allegretto, Dansas) have performed in India under International School Cultural Exchange and performed at the New Delhi, Ryan International school in Dec. 2009.

Holi este festivalul culorilor, iar Baisakhi, Bihu si Vishu sunt festivalurile prin care locuitorii a trei regiuni diferite din India celebrează Noul An. Baisakhi este Sărbătoarea Recoltei in Punjab (nordul Indiei), Bihu vine din regiunea Assam (nord-estul Indiei), iar Vishu din regiunea Kerala (sudul Indiei).

Astfel de tatonări organizatorice, formulate mai ales de domnul Deepak Maheshwari, n-au mai fost făcute cunoscute în avans, de unde surprinderea spectaculoasă a performanţei din 16 aprilie, altfel apreciate după, tot via e-mail, ce-i drept. Dl. Manohar Lal, ataşat cultural al Ambasadei Indiei în Bucureşti:

 Ms. Mădălina – www.dansas.ro – her dance group performed 3 dances, 2 Romanian and a Hindi – Dil Bole Hadippa, super performances. Her 3 and half years daughter surprised everyone.  

Mr. Victor, Sitar player and leader of – www.tansen.eu – an exceptional Sitar player, played 4 classical ragas with his troupe. His wife, Reena performed – Bharatnatyam – simply extraordinary.

 Children from the Indian Embassy – Ms. Aakriti Narang, Holi teller, Mudit Gambhir, Baisakhi teller, Ms. Shrishti Sinha, Bihu teller and Vishal Dolya, Vishu teller, Ms. Angelica and Ms. Iulia, Interpreted and enlightened about Four Festivals – Holi, Baisakhi, Bihu and Vishu. Mr. Ram, Mr. Shyam, Ms. Divya and Ms. Tanishka brought Holi colours (Gulal) and all of them played Holi with Gulal at the stage.

Ms. Mariana Naliny and Mr. Akhilesh Arya sang extremely well four hindi songs. People were surprised from Akhilesh’s singing talent.

Mr. Vishal (Indian Embassy) played and an Indian musical drum [Dhol]. He is only Dhol player in Romania.

Ms. Loredana, Shakti Group performed 3 dances on very popular Hindi hit movies, Dhola re Dhola re and Kudi Punjab di, and forced people to dance.

Ms. Ionela sang two Hindi songs very well. She helped us in publicity of the event also.

Ms. Shrishti Sinha (Indian Embassy) danced superbly on a Bengali river-theme based song.

Ms. Claudia Ignat, Indian classical and bollywood dancer, mesmerized audiences with her dances.

It was a Unique Show, combination of Romanian and Indian artists. Artists were from 60 years to 3 and half years, Sitar, Violin, Tabla, Tanpura, Dhol player, Classical dancers Bharatnatyam and Odissi, semi-classical dancers, Bollywood singers and dancers, Salutes to all of Them. It was an treat to watch all of them. Sorry for many who, missed this Incredible ‘Celebrate India’ Show.

Ms. Carmen, Presenter of the show did extremely good job not only by presenting but also coordinated the program with the artists and sacrificed her own dance turn and gave opportunity to other young artists.

Ms. Angelica and Ms. Iulia, worked extensively over the three weeks and did publicity in electronic and print media. Great job. From their efforts we got some partners, one of them – Sophia displayed some Indian decorated items from their shops and made the stage ambience Indian. Thank you to all of them and Sophia.

Ms. Claudia Roibu, Hindi student and Mr. Sorin did very good job by pasting posters and other publicity material at the Hall.

Mr. Arun Kumar, Chef and partner, Agra Palace Restaurant – www.agrapalace.ro – provided authentic Indian food to the venue at very reasonable price. Special thanks to them.

We are grateful for Mr. George Anca, President, Romanian Indian Cultural Association (RICA) and Mr. Nandkishor Pamwar, Second Secretary (Culture), Embassy of India for agreeing the Chief Guests of the Event.

We got good support from many other Indian and Romanian friends, Mr. Deepak Maheshwari and Mr. Rajprohit are extremely supportive and guiding force behind this show. Mr. Ramesh Koka, Kamal Manmani, Rakesh Kaul, Mahesh Hingorani, Yogish Agarwal, Siddhant Sharma [from Girgiu], also supported us. We are thankful to Mr. Ashok Dorairaja and other respected IBAR members for their support.

 Mr. Dayal has been very kind to me always and has always come forward to support such requests. Next my thanks go to all the Romanian artists who with their fantastic performance put a ‘five stars mark ‘to the show. Sincerely and please believe me, that in our Indian cultural show, they were the driving force being in majority even on the artist’s side and on the audience side. Especially the small Romanian children have performed on our Indian songs so well that I, myself couldn’t believe my eyes. It was sssoooo cute, beautiful and entertaining.

Am lăsat descrise în anglo-indiană detaliile impresionantului festival al festivalurilor indiene pe o scenă românească şi pentru a face sensibilă prezenţa încă discretă, dar patetic muzicală a comunităţii indiene şi a grupurilor artistice româneşti de muzică şi dans indiene, al cărei viitor nu mai poate fi pus la îndoială. Mai mult, devine deja un capitol de studiu, parte şi ea, această prezenţă (vârf de lance? oricum, pentru publicul larg) a Şcolii de indianistică ce se reuneşte în 27 aprilie, ora 17, la Clubul Calderon din Capitală.

 Dr. George Anca

Fotografiile (de sus în jos) îi reprezintă pe:

1. Reena – dans bharatnatyam;

2. Grupul Turya classical, condus de Victor Beliciu, sitar;

3. Turya classical;

4. Vishal – interpret la dhol (tobă);

5. (st-dr): Manohar Lal, ataşat cultural al Ambasadei indiene, Nandkishore Pamwar, secretar II, George Anca, preşedinte Asociaţia Culturală Româno-Indiană (RICA)

Abstract

The Festival “Celebrate India” has been organized by Romanian Indian Cultural Association with the support of Dr. George Anca , Ms.Carmen Peasantz and their Indian colleagues. The program included several traditional dances and songs, a concert of the Turya classical music group, with Indian instruments, dances, poems and other extraordinary performances.

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[1] Cititor, auditor, cunoscător

[2] dans indian (Bharat=India, natyam=dans)

[3] bhangra punjabi – Bhangra , numele unui dans vijelios, cf. Căluşarii, din statul Punjab