This Christmas Santa Claus brought four hundred people from around the nation to Patna to be part of the National School Intensive, 2010.

It started on 25^th December when right in the wee hours of dawn, delegates started reporting on the reception counter at Patna railway station. The regular busses between station and the Delhi Public School, venue of the event, were made shorter by the behavior of courteous staff and volunteers. Some people had already come on 24^th December itself. This was joined by the National Executive members and some senior volunteers returning from meetings and retreat at Gaya, Nalanda and Rajgir.

The delegates entered into a beautifully decorated gate of the school and the campus full of paintings and collages. Two very efficient registration counters were put up. There were pre allotted rooms and specially designed folders for delegates. The folders were aesthetically designed for this occasion with a souvenir brought out for the event. All this was kept in a beautiful Baawan Buti (an almost extinct weaving technique of Bihar) sling bag with the vertical eye logo woven into it. All volunteers were given badges and teachers were presented with key chains with eye logo. By the afternoon the DPS campus was buzzing with curious school children and their teachers escorting them.

The first day started in the morning with a brief address by the Principal Mr. B. Vinod. Next was a Christmas celebration. Fr. Joseph gave his Christmas message and the children and others sang carols. This was followed by an introductory session and a conceptual session.

There were several exhibitions put up for the participants as well as visitors. The first one was of Musical Instruments. Many musical instruments were put on display for the benefit of student participants. The second was an exhibition of Stamps on Indian Culture. The third and major one was a Photo Exhibition of different art forms of India and rare photographs of Maestros of Music.

The evening started with a brief welcome and formal inauguration by the lighting of the lamp. The music teachers of the school Bipin Kumar Mishra and Siddhi Shankar sang an elaborate stotra as mangalacharan with a spectacular accompaniment on the nagara by Rajsekhar. This was followed by a much awaited Hindustani vocal recital by Begum Parween Sultana. She began with a soulful rendition of raga Puria Kalyan followed by a Tarana and some bhajans. She was accompanied on the table by Shri Mithilesh Jha and harmonium by Shri Debo Prasad Dey. Next was Dr L. Subramanum with his son. His elaborate performance with beautiful rendition were an eye opener for many hooked only to Hindustani music. Mr Sanjiv Kymar, PVC of DPS Patna observed that Karnatic music too is a beautiful thing and not out of bounds. He used to skip most of the Carnatic music concerts. The final and grand performance of this evening was by Padmabibhushan Birju Maharaj supported by his disciple Vidushi Saswati Sen.

Day two started at 5 am with the usual yoga session conducted by Dr. Kiran Seth. Dr Seth was impressed with the turnout of the number of students for yoga, which is not always so. This was possible because of the caring and persuasive staff of the school. It was very cold as the temperature dipped upto 6 degrees at nights. The Infirmary was a great support for the whole week.

It was also the day to start off the intensives. All the intensives started on time despite some traffic snarls on the way of the artistes. All necessary arrangements were in place. The intensive rooms had beautifully done posters with the name of the guru on the door. Students of the school had prepared beautiful bulletin boards related to the art forms as well as the gurus. One teacher was made in charge of each intensive. There were attendance sheets put up on the doors and this was religiously followed for all the days. The ambience had its effect and the intensives were really intense. The gurus were also pleased and could instantly concentrate on their work in the environment. Pt. Birju Maharaj chose on his own to come to the Kathak intensive being conducted by Saswatiji. The students of the Sunderlal Bahuguna’s intensive were bubbling with enthusiasm. Likewise Vidushi Saroja Vaidyanathan got herself in her act of teaching Bharatnatyam to her disciples. Altogether thirteen such intensives took place. One of the unique intensive was of Charkha by Mahila Charkha Samiti. The participants spun reels of thread here.

Vidushi Saroja Vaidyanathan in Bharatnatyam Intensive

The post lunch session was a talk by Padmabibhushan Sunderlal Bahuguna. The humility of Bahugunaji was an eye-opener for the old and young. We hardly knew the man behind the Chipko Aandolan. The Chipko Aandolan is only a chapter of his karmakshetra. This talk was a complete inspiration.

The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin featured the Cinema Classic session. The evening folk time featured Thumari, Tappa etc performance by Shri Gobardan Mishra. The evening concert started with an elaborate Dhrupad Dhamar performance by Pt. Ram Kumar Mallick. This was followed by a magnificent performance of Kudiattam by Shri Margi Madhu. This more than a thousand year old theatre art form could move even the young student participants.

The third day, other than the routine yoga and intensives had a beautiful talk by Padmashri Rabindra Rajhans on literature ‘Kavita Kya, Kavita Kyun’. He beautifully illustrated the beauty of poetry with examples from hindi and English literature. Paras Patthar by Satyajit Ray was shown in Cinema Classic. The evening folk time had the mesmerizing performance of Gottipua from Orissa by the young boys of Konark Kala Kendra.

The evening concert started with a beautiful rendition of raga Malkauns on sitar by Shri Kushal Das. This was followed by a dhrupad concert by Pt. Abhay Narayan Mallick, the doyen of Darbhanga school of dhrupad.

Day four had a talk by Prof. Shyam Sharma on Patna Kalam. He very well illustrated the influence of many factors of this style of painting as well as elements of a beautiful painting. The film Kagemusa by director Akira Kurasawa was shown in the Cinema Classic. The evening folk time featured Purulia Chhau performed by Shri Tarapada Rajak and his troupe. This performance had the audience spellbound for around an hour. It was magical for them as most of them were seeing for the first time.

The evening concert started with graceful performance by Kavita Dwibedi. This was followed by a Flute recital by Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia with Pt. Subhankar Banerjee on tabla. He played alap jod and jhaala in raga Yaman followed by two compositions. He concluded his recital with a thumri.

Day five had a presentation by the intensive participants. The participants of each intensive performed with considerable ease on stage. The new modules like Theatre, Environment, Khaadi, Bawanbuti etc. also proved to go well with the participants.

The final Classical Overnight started with a huge audience as many people from the town came down to witness the event. The evening started with a Mohan Veena recital by Pt. Vishwamohan Bhatt with a beautiful accompaniment on the table by Shri Sudhir Pandey. The second performance was by Smt. Nandini Bedekar, disciple of Vidushi Kishori Amonkar. She had striking similarity with the alap of Taai. Pt. Tejendra Narayan Majumdar stated his performance at midnight and aptly chose to play Darbari. It was a dignified and soulful detailed presentation of the raga in Late Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s tradition. He was accompanied on the table by Pt. Subhankar Banerjee. The next was a performance by Pt. Ronu Majumdar on Baansuri. He played Mangal Bhairav accompanied by Shri Sudhir Pandey on tabla. Pt. Kaivalya Kumar Gurav was the final artiste of the concert. He mesmerized the audience with his beautiful taan patterns in raga Ahir Bhairav and Bhatiar.

Almost all the delegates went on a heritage tour on 30^th December. They went to the Patna Museum, Goleghar, Khuda Baksh Oriental Library and Patna Saheb Gurudwara, the birth place of Guru Gobind Singh.    

The food was a representation of the culture of Bihar. Several items like Litti, Anarsa, Khaaja, Makhana Kheer, are typical of a Bihari palate. It was a wonderful mix of culture and healthy food. The food was sumptuous and no item was repeated at all. There was a hue and cry as usual about food being oily and unhealthy, but it all disappeared the very next day without any change. The students were offered milk before they went to sleep. There was a thoughtful snack and tea arrangement in the cafeteria during the Overnight concert. The last day packed lunch with packaged drinking water was given to the delegates.   

The cleanliness of whole area, whether it was the food court, residential area or concert area, was exemplary. Very efficient measures were taken for mosquito control. There were prompt and regular announcements, when the residents were in the rooms. Several large heaters were keeping the concert area warm. The bed sheets were changed on the third day. Altogether four hundred delegates from 65 schools from all over India participated in this event.

The artistes and Gurus were offered exquisite gifts, representation of some cultural aspect of the state. They were touched when they were seen off with a packet of sweets. Many delegates were in tears leaving the five day rendezvous.

We left the place with a promise to meet at DPS, Pune for the National School Intensive, 2011.

Yashwant Parashar

 Reflections from students:

 “I have attended such workshops at DPS, Pune but not at such a large scale. I am going to learn a lot from the intensive workshop.”

Kanchi Oswal, Roma Rudra DPS, PUNE

 “We are going to learn some good habits like waking up early and becoming self-dependent as we are away from our parents.”

Vishal, Navish , Chirag Jain, Madhav, Prabash Cambridge School, Phagwara.(Punjab)

 “Our expectations are very high as we are attending such a programme for the first time and going to learn about the rich cultural heritage.”

Anjali, Anushree- Wellhams Girls School,Dehradun

 “We had never heard of this art (Madhubani Painting) and have seen it for the first time. We are very happy to learn it and have painted few paintings.”

Akansha Tiku ,Megha Agarwal, Shweta and Celina  Chiranjiv Bharti School, Gurgaon

 “I had not expected such lavish arrangements for such a large group and the food was excellent. Although I don’t have interest in classical music but still I liked the six-day stay over here.”

Manan, Modern School, Delhi

 “I had an ideal yoga session which infact revitalized and rejuvenated me to the fullest and was very soothing.”                                                                                                                                        

Sandeep Singh, Cambridge International School, Amritsar

 “The first day we felt that Sikki will be tough but now we are able to create such colourful coasters and pen stands and baskets. It’s not even expensive.

Mannat & Mahak, Amritsar

National School Intensive 2010, DPS-Patna
After a great deal of time spent travelling from Nalanda, I was relieved to finally reach DPS Patna, a few hours before the Inauguration of the Intensive. Immediately upon entering the school, I was overwhelmed by how ‘full’ it was. Every corner, every board, every room had something to do with the intensive. Posters, decorations, directions were on every wall. The registration process was very professional, and things were running like clockwork. One look at the concert venue had me stunned – the atmosphere that DPS had created was simply phenomenal, as was proved to everyone that evening during the concerts. The children were clearly having a good time – their number and enthusiasm was uplifting to see.
The first evening was magical. First, Begum Parveen Sultana enchanted all of us with her voice. L Subramaniam took the stage with his son, and the two of them kept the entire audience spellbound for well over an hour. Finally, at 10:30 pm, and without having had dinner yet, 350 children watch Birju Maharaj and Saswati Sen in rapt attention, as they guided us through the beauty of emotion through Kathak. The 5 hours of vocal, instrumental, and dance truly was a deeply spiritual experience.
After eating near midnight, everyone went to bed. The next morning, Lo and Behold! All 300 students, with their teachers, turned up at 5 am for Yog! Two hours of Yog broke the morning chill, after which the students cleaned up the venue, and proceeded to get ready for the day. The intensives started that morning, and all the children plunged into learning a wide variety of arts and crafts, ranging from Dhrupad, to Odissi, to Khadi cloth weaving, environment, theatre and Madhubani. The masters engaged the children totally, and I’m sure everyone learnt a lot over the next 4 days. There was also a very inspiring talk given by Sunderlal Bahuguna, telling the students of his time first as a freedom fighter, and then as an environmental activist.
I sadly had to leave that evening, missing what I’m sure was an ethereal performance by Shri Margi Madhu. I hope to attend the whole of the next School Intensive; In fact, everyone at SPIC MACAY Pune is thrilled that DPS Pune is hosting the school intensive in 2011.