Sporting Culture

This is also one of the eight tunes that will be played at Shrewsbury,through the streets of Belfast City in the UK,when the torch for the 2012 London Olympic reaches there on June 13. The band was staying at Bikaner House for their rehearsals before they boarded a flight for the UK on Wednesday night. “Brass bands have been an important part of British history. Our military bands are known for their brass martial tunes. It was later that they became a part of Indian weddings as street bands. It is a big honour to take our street band to a place that invented the style,” says Hamid Ali Khan, creative director of Kawa Brass Band. Khan adds that a Kawa Circus,with a slew of puppets,folk theatre artistes and kalbeliya dancers,will also accompany them.

A composition in Hansadhwani has been prepared for the Belfast evening. “It is a happy melody for a happy event. The irony is that the Indian government has never bothered about this band. This invitation has come from the British Council,” says Khan.

Kawa Brass Bands is not the only Indian cultural representation at the Olympics this summer. Tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain will perform with a band of Scottish musicians at the Battersea Park in London on . The session will explore tunes on Scottish bagpipes paired with elaborate rhythms and virtuoso improvisations.

Meanwhile,the skyline of London has changed for good with the Orbi designed by Indian-origin artist Anish Kapoor and Sri Lankan-British designer Cecil Balmond. Located between the Olympic Stadium and Aquatics Centre,the 114.5-meter spiraling metal tower was unveiled earlier this month. It will allow visitors to view the Olympic Park from two platforms. “It is an object that cannot be perceived as having a singular image from any one perspective. You need to journey around and through it. Like Tower of Babel ,it requires real participation from the public,” says Kapoor describing the architecture on his website.

That’s not all. Dotting the streets of six,east London Host Boroughs for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be 48 billboards designed by Indian graphic artiste and filmmaker Sarnath Banerjee. He is one of the five artistes chosen by the Frieze Foundation to be a part of the London 2012 Festival,the finale of the Cultural Olympiad. The Kolkata-born artist will produce a series of posters and a graphic narrative “around the shared history of competitive sport”. The focus will not be on the winners,but the near misses or partial successes.

While Indian sportsmen aim for the gold,work is in progress for a world record of another kind. The Big Dance 2012,to take place in Cardiff,Wales,on July 15,aims to go down in history for the largest Bollywood dance performance ever. To be held as part of the Cultural Olympiad,it brings together performers such as Apache Indian,Kamal Raja,Kiran Dhanoa,Jassi Sidhu,to inspire the onlookers to dance along and create a world record. Other international artistes,who are a part of this three-month cultural extravaganza are Senegalese singer Baaba Maal,American singer Jay-Z,singer Yoko Ono,actress Cate Blanchett,artist Tracey Emin and Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei.

(With inputs from Dipanita Nath)