By Shilpa Raina, IANS,
New Delhi : They spend their lives shaping young minds and spreading knowledge, but teachers are an unappreciated lot. Now they can sit back and enjoy some good music as a musical tour paying them a special tribute gets going across India.
The Kolkata-based band Dhwani will start its tour Sep 1 in its home city and go on to Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Indore Sep 2, 9, 10 and 20 respectively.
“Teachers play a pivotal role in our growing up years. We all are influenced by them in one way or the other. But the problem is that most of us fail to recognise their contribution in shaping our lives. Hence, the idea of this concert is to tell them that they are important,” band member Navin Daga told IANS on phone from Kolkata.
“Especially female teachers hardly find any time for themselves; hence, this concert is for them all to sit back and relax and enjoy good music. It is our way of saying ‘Thank You’ to them,” he added.
After two successful seasons of the concert – “To Teachers With Love” – in their hometown, the band is taking the journey further to cities like Chennai, Delhi, Indore and Mumbai.
“We have got overwhelming response from the teachers of Kolkata who really appreciated our effort. So we decided to move on to other cities as well. This year we will be playing in four new cities, but our aim is to reach as many cities as possible,” explained Daga.
The band was formed in 2002 when four artists with a similar vision and love for music collaborated and mesmerised the audience with their music sense.
The band consists of Navin Daga, Sriram Iyer, Sarita Chadak and Diti Priya Das, but this time Priyanka Mukherjee will accompany them instead of Priya Das.
The band is also famous for its multilingual singing abilities. It can sing in as many as 12-15 languages. From Bengali to Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati and even Spanish, Italian, German and Polish.
As Teacher’s Day is celebrated in India Sep 5, the band has consciously chosen the first 10-15 days of September for the musical treat.
“On Teachers Day, all teachers are already busy; so there is no concert on that day. Hence, we have consciously chosen these dates that celebrate the presence and importance of teachers,” Daga said.
The Delhi concert will take place in St. Columba’s School Sep 10 and is free for all principals, teachers and other dignitaries of invited schools.
(Shilpa Raina can be contacted at [email protected])