GAALIBAAZI (Group singing tradition on self made poetry) VENUE: BADRINATHJI TEMPLE, AMBER JULY 7, 2013 Jaipur is a 286 year old first planned city of the country. Jaipur boasts of a unique tangible and intangible heritage fabric. Tangible heritage of the city includes the many historical buildings, havelis, façade, monuments, temples, chaupars, gardens, gates, stepwells and wells etc. A lot of work goes on in the city to preserve the tangible heritage of the city. On the other side, we have the intangible heritage, which includes the various festivals that are organized throughout the year like Gangaur, Teej, Holi, Diwali, Makar Sakranti, Moharram, etc and the various performing arts like Kathak, Dhrupad, Tamasha and Gaalibaazi. Kathak and Dhrupad, are two artforms which are very well known not only in the city but outside Jaipur as well. Tamasha and Gaalibaazi are two such traditions which are near extinction. Gaalibaazi is also losing its audience as the younger generation does not understand it and does not connect with it. These two artforms are organized at a particular time of the year and place of the city. Jaipur Virasat Foundation assists in the organization of both these artforms. It is very important to organize atleast one program in a year of each of these traditions otherwise they will be completely forgotten. One such program of Gaalibaazi was recently organized on 7th July 2013 at Badrinathji Temple, Amber. Gaalibaazi is a more than 100 years old tradition of the Jaipur city. The particular time of the year when Gaalibaazi was oranised, was after Holi in March and till Dusshehra in October. Traditionally, there were many Akhadas which practiced and organized Gaalibaazi. In recent times, there are only 14 akhadas left and out of these 14 only 4 – 5 are actively involved in it. Originally, gaalibaazi was organized at the main crossroads of the walled city and the program would happen only at night after 10p.m. and go on till the wee hours of the morning. Over the past few years, Gaalibaazi is being organized during daytime because of the Supreme Court order which does not allow the use of Microphones and loud sound systems after 10p.m. Jaipur Virasat Foundation was registered in the year 2002 and the main objective of the Foundation was to preserve and promote the old traditions of the city with the help of local organizations, individuals and institutions. As the word about the Foundation spread across the city and the city people started to know of the Foundation, the Foundation was approached by Gaur Vipra Bhajan Evam Lokgeet Sansthan, Jaipur to assist them in organizing a Gaalibaazi program. In the year 2006, JVF organised its first Gaalibaazi performance. The performance was organized at night, as it used to happen originally. This was followed the next and the year after that and since then JVF has been assisting in the organization of the Gaalibaazi performance. In addition to giving a little financial assistance, the responsibilities of JVF included getting all official and legal permissions from the various state departments/local bodies, arranging good sound systems, sending out invitation letters to important individuals of the city, media and government officials and ensure smooth organization of the Gaalibaazi program. Till the year 2010, Gaalibaazi was organized at night, but since 2011 the program is being organized during the day time. The JVF Trust decided that it will organize all the activities following the Government rules and regulations and not do anything illegal. Organising the performance at night would mean going against the Supreme Court order which the Trust was not happy to do. Hence the performance was organized during the day. Last year the gaalibaazi performance was organized during the day time at a Dharamshala in Surajpol. This year, JVF suggested a change in venue as the venue last year was not appropriate for it. This year the program was organized at Badrinathji Temple in Amber City. Badrinathji Temple is more than 700 years old temple and belongs to the Moortikar samaj of Jaipur. The temple committee was originally not very keen to allow the organization of the performance but since JVF had good relations with them, we were able to convince them to allow the performance to happen. The gaalibaazi performance was between 1p.m. – 6p.m., followed by a prasadi of Daal, baati and churma for all. The akhadas (teams) that participated in the performance included: •
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Gaur Vipra Bhajan & Lokgeet Mandal Dhaadi Lokgeet Mandal Kalyan Lokgeet Mandal Damodar Birdichand Lokgeet Mandal There were about 15 – 20 participants in each of the akhadas. Approx. 300 people attended the program. After the program got over, Shri Gaur Vipra Bhajan & Lokgeet Sansthan did ‘Samman’ of the following persons: •
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All the artists Key persons who attended the performance The ‘samman’ included a Turban and a photo. MEDIA The program was attended by persons of the media, both print and electronic. Etv Rajasthan and City News Channel covered the event and broadcasted it as well on their channels. The coverage also appeared in Dainik Bhaskar, Rajasthan Patrika and DNA. It is due to come in Hindustan Times as well. INVITATIONS SENT OUT BY THE FOUNDATION Mrs. Aditi Mehta Mrs. Kiran Soni Gupta (Principal Secretary Art, Literature and Culture, Govt. of Rajasthan) Dr. Arjun Deo Charan (Chairman, Sangeet Natak Academy) Mr. Vilas Jhanve (West Zone Cultural Centre, Udaipur) Mrs. Nitu Rajeshwar (Ravindra Manch) Mrs. Rajesh Yadav (Director, Jawahar Kala Kendra) Mr. Vinay Sharma (Lalit Kala Kendra, Jaipur) Prof. Chinmay mehta Mr. Prakash surana (President, Shruti Mandal, jaipur) Mr. N.K. Paliwal (Drashya Bharati Sanstha) Mr. O.P. Chandak (Geteshwar Mahadev Temple) Mr. Rajendra Boda (PTI) Key citizens of Amber SHO Amber KEY PERSONS WHO ATTENDED THE PROGRAM Dr. Rima Hooja (Managing Trustee, JVF) Ms. Amita Mr. Ashok rahi (People media Theatre) Mr. Sampat Saral (Poet) Mr. Farrukh Engineer (Urdu Poet) Mr. S.P. Sharma (Union Leader in Electricity Board) Mr. Sanjay Kaushik (Tours & Travels) Mr. Iqbal Khan (Senior reporter of Classical Music & Culture) Mr. Manish Agrawal (CA) Mr. Badrinarayan Koolwal, Amber Mr. Onkar Prasad Sharma, Amber JVF TEAM Vinod Joshi Digvijay Singh Naveen Mathur Shyam Bihari Sharma Neeraj Kadela Kailash Vijay Pawan Purohit NOTE: We would like to thank Mr. Vikram Golcha for the financial support that he has been providing for the past two years.