this desi life - SPICMACAY

This is an acronym that stands for Society of Promotion of Indian Classical Music And Culture Among Youth – S P I C M A C A Y and it pretty self explanatory.
Started in the late 70s at IIT Delhi by a ‘hippie’ professor – as one of veteran member explained to me. Apparently this dude was amazed when he witnessed a classical Indian music concert at Columbia and decided to abandon his wild ways in the west and head back home to find his roots.
The main purpose of SPICMACAY is to foster Indian cultural awareness and I think it’s a pretty meaningful idea.
The US chapters of SPICMACAY basically organize classical music concerts at universities across the US (SPICMACAY back home does a lot more including yoga, painting and a ton of other stuff) . The best part is that these concerts are free and offer free chai and samosas during intermission : ). I was fortunate enough to attend 2 of their concerts and decided to become a member and volunteer for one of them.
One interesting thing about Indian events (and by Indian events I mean desi events organized by desis – folks who were born & raised in India) is that they have a certain amount of chaos built into them.
And this basically is the trademark of all things desi. While working in India my boss once told me that Indians believe in ‘chalega technology’ when it comes to work but I feel that can be said about all things desi.
The fliers were shoddy with the spelling mistakes – in this case the name of the main artist was misspelt and the compere could hardly remember the name of the artists performing. But since it was a desi concert everyone assumes or expects certain amount of unprofessionalism (if that is a word). This chaos in fact acts like a buffer zone that helps prevent any confrontation and eases tensions
But that aside it was jolly good event and is a neat organization. Quite a few people showed up – some real connoisseurs of classical music. (which could be understood by their intermittent moans and wah wahs through out the event) So check it out and help promote it.
It is way better than being a part of mind numbing bhangra parties and Bollywood DJ nites.

-Rahul