We help students realise the depth of culture: Spic Macay founder

Padmashree awardee Kiran Seth is an academician and associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Delhi.

Better known as the founder of the Society for the Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth (Spic Macay), Seth recently visited Pune to attend the National School Intensive (NSI) meetings.

He spoke about the purpose of his organisation and shared his views on the trends in education in the country with Gaurav Ogale.

Since its inception in 1977, do you think Spic Macay has been able to achieve what you dreamt of?
There was no particular dream as such; it was more of an intuition and we wanted to reach out to students all over the country. The whole thing was about sharing one’s experiences with his / her companions.

Spic Macay not only works
towards promoting Indian heritage among youth, but also helps them realise the depth and potential of it that remains unexplored. We have only given them a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg and what lies
beneath is much deeper and yet to be explored.

You have been a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education; do you think schools in India are doing enough to encourage students interested in art and culture?
No and the schools are not to be blamed for it. It is society at large that wants the children to get high-paying jobs and lead a
financially secured life. Our system does not emphasise on the importance of growing up into fine human beings.

Heritage comes in when we look at art as a means to an end and not as end itself. Our motive is to throw light on the avenues that art opens for an individual.

Could you throw some light on the National School Intensive (NSI)?
The NSI, Spic Macay’s annual event, will be jointly organised by the Delhi Public School (DPS) and the Takshila Educational Society (TES) in Pune in December.

During the event, students will attend yoga classes, classical music concerts and talks by well-known authors and philosophers. They will also be exposed to cinema classics during the event.

Renowned people from the field of art and culture such as Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, Pandit Birju Maharaj, Pandits Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Kalamandalam Gopiji, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and several others will perform at the event. We invite children from standards VI-IX from all over the city to apply for this programme on
spicmacay@dpspune.com.

Why do you think majority of Spic Macay volunteers are from science and engineering backgrounds?
Society has forced some of the most creative and brilliant minds to get into such demanding fields. These people have been able to realise that real education is incomplete without culture and heritage.

They can effectively and quickly identify the abstract aspects of life.

The whole idea is to bring the abstract, the subtle and the mystical into our education system through different aspects of our heritage. What one needs is the potential to grasp these aspects and it comes naturally to science students.