Dehradun-25th April, 2022- The 11th day of Virasat started with Virasat Heritage Quest Quiz held in the B.R. Ambedkar Stadium, Kaulagarh Road. The quiz was divided into three rounds: a crossword puzzle round, connect and associate competition, and a buzzer round. FLYFOT Public School, Himjyoti School, Guru Ram Rai Public School, Kendriya Vidyalaya UPPER CAMP, Olympus High, Doon International School, Hill Foundation School, and Jaswant Modern School participated. Three schools prevailed victorious: Doon International School (First), Jaswant Modern School (Second) and FLYFOT Public School (Third).
The evening began with a traditional folk performance by Nav Jyoti Sanskriti Evam Samajik Sanstha. They presented traditional songs which are getting lost in the time like be thariya, chaufla, bajooband rasso, tanti. The team comprised of Neel Shah, Sweta Joshi, JP Rawat, Sangeeta Shah and Ashish Gusain as the dancers, along side Govind Sharan, Virendra, Monty, Chanderpal as well as Rajlakshmi, Neeru Wala and Vipin Rana gave music in singing. The instruments used were dholak, tabla and Hudka, which is an instrument rarely seen nowadays.
Dr Anwesa Mahanta is a Sattriya Dance Practitioner and Scholar, National Awardee and India Festival Director at Pragjyoti International Dance Festival.
Anwesa Ji received accolades for her unique interpretations of the Sattriya Dance, keeping the core philosophy of the form and its ritualistic practice intact. She is a disciple of the eminent maestro of Sattriya tradition, Padmashri Bayanacharya Ghanakanta Bora. She has received accolades from multiple art connoisseurs and scholars for her graceful and lively dance and expressive abhinaya.
She is a “star ambassador to represent her art form on a global stage”. She has been honoured with the national award Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar from Sangeet Natak Akademi for 2013-14 for her contributions and the coveted “Charles Wallace Fellowship” British Council to conduct research in Queen’s University Belfast.
She has performed extensively across India and abroad (Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, England, Japan, Northern Ireland, Canada, USA, Sri Lanka, France, New Zealand etc.), appearing at many prestigious dance festivals.
Her first performance of the evening was Dev Vandana. It was accompanied by Debajit Sairia- disciple of Bayanacharya Ghanakanta Bora on the Khol, Gautam Bayan- disciple of Harichandra Bayan as the vocalist, Prasanna Barva- disciple of Lt. Jayhari Das on the Flute. She concluded her presentation with Mathura Vijay in Raga Gauri.
The night started with Nabanita Chowdhary, a vocalist par excellence. She is a musician possessing a soulful blend of spiritual melody and divine aesthetics.
Creativity and improvisation are the essences of Nabanita’s performances. Nabanita received musical guidance initially at a very tender age from her mother. Later she trained under renowned stalwarts like Padma Bhushan Pandits Rajan-Sajan Misra, Padma Bhushan Vidushi (Late) Shobha Gurtu, Pt. Deepak Chatterjee “Rasik Rang”.
Though trained basically in Khayal and Thumri-Dadra, she loves singing Classical Music such as Sufi, Ghazal, Kajri, Chaiti, Jhula, Geet and Bhajans. Rabindra Sangeet (Hindi and Bengali), Nazrul Geeti and Folk music.
Nabanita has extensively performed all over India and USA, Australia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal, Myanmar etc., under the aegis of numerous musical organisations. When she is not performing, she generously devotes herself to teaching aspiring and talented disciples living in different parts of the world.
The night was Nabanita Chowdhary’s first visit to Dehradun. She is a firm believer of regular Riyaz and understanding of music on daily basis.
Her first performance was Raga Jog, bada khayal in vilambit ek taal and two chota khayal.
Her next performance was a Dadra, ‘Rangi saari’, and she concluded her performance with a bhajan dedicated to her guruji, Shri Rajan Mishra ji.
Saniya Patankar is a phenomenal vocalist in the field of Hindustani Classical Music. Today, she performed at Seaforth Estate, Circular Road, Landour Cantt, Mussoorie. The presentation was a part of Virāsat celebrating 200 years of Mussoorie.
REACH was established in 1995 in Dehradun and has continued to organise the Virasat Festival ever since. Their aim is simply to preserve the value and essence of Indian art, culture and heritage and to bring these cultural values to the masses. Virasat has been instrumental in reviving many rural arts which were once on the verge of extinction due to a lack of an audience. The festival has played an essential role in preserving and reviving our village’s traditions, music, dance, crafts, painting, sculpture, theatre, storytelling, traditional cuisine, etc. and bringing them into practice in these modern times, because of which our classical and contemporary arts have started being recognised once again.
Virasat 11th day started with interesting Quiz
