Friday, August 22, 2014

Catalysing Udaipur Shakti Sundays


In February 2014 the press coverage and popularity of the Shakti Caravan project gave rise to Udaipur Shakti Work project's second stream of activity the ‘Udaipur Shakti Sundays’ (9th February 2014).

A dialogue between Udaipur Collector Shri. Asutosh Pednekar, W. David Kubiak, Programme Development Director Udaipur Shakti Works Project and Premilla Hobbs (Premilla Dixit Nag), director BMCT, variously on tradition, culture and pro-active citizenry birthed Udaipur Shakti Sundays.

Our responsibility lay in creating a festival worthy of an ancient heritage city with all her beauty and dark realities as she emerges on her 21st century stage. The Udaipur Shakti Sunday festival/event is just that.
Shakti Sundays brings culture and social activism together.NGO and individuals doing social work are given the stage to share the work they do with the public. Local issues surrounding ecology, clean lakes, green neighborhoods, education, gender, safety, democracy and citizen responsibility, are central to the sharing and public discussions.

The event hosts the ‘Udaipur Has Talent’ contest from which our steering committee picks the winners for repeat performances. This contest draws all age groups, precocious toddlers, school kids, college students, professionals and retirees. For the main stage performances we draw from the various small and big performing art institutes of Udaipur. Our audience has been regaled with classical, folk, popular and contemporary songs and dances, skits, mime, martial art & hatha yoga demos, figure skating, fire dance, and even magic and card tricks. We also promote and highlight traditions in decline, such as the intricate percussive art of the Chang players. Chang is a percussion instrument played during Holi, the spring festival of colors.

We  have a steering committee of Udaipur citizens (Lokesh Paliwal, Ashok Jain Manthan,  Eklingnath Paliwal, B.L. Kabra, W.David Kubiak, Premilla Dixit Nag and Rita Dixit-Kubiak). This committee organizes all the Shakti Sunday events. The other collaborating agencies are the Collector’s office, NLCP and UIT.

Initially the Shakti Sunday event took place every Sunday but later we changed it to every other Sunday untill its last event on July 6th 2014. We are now on a monsoon break.

For further information on Shakti Sundays and how it emerged as a brand name in Udaipur in merely five months please visit its FB page : https://www.facebook.com/shaktisundays?ref=br_tf

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