Turning the clock back

8216;8216;At the festival, Swan Lake, presented in Mohiniattam, was held outside in the lawns and about 800 people came. So, the centre broke away from the 200-300 audience syndrome. This way you take culture to everyone and not just the connoisseurs,8217;8217; he adds.

The change has come in various ways. Of the 200 members inducted this year, 65 were between the ages of 30 and 50. And membership is not alone in going for a gradual makeover. Content is getting new layers as well. 8216;8216;There has been an attempt to deal with critical contemporary issues,8217;8217; says IIC director P C Sen. Which is actually not very different from what Jawaharlal Nehru8212;instrumental in setting up the institute8212;had once said: 8216;8216;The Centre will, of course, not change the nature of the world, but it will help in the process, which is very important today8230;8217;8217;

Founded in 1958 by C D Deshmukh, the centre had, over the years, come to be seen more as an oasis and less the centre of action. But the outside world has gradually entered its rarefied rooms.

8216;8216;As an institution, the IIC has carved a certain position that8217;s difficult to improve upon. But I see a new kind of life coming into it,8217;8217; says journalist Hiranmay Karlekar, a member since 1973.

Though they might be some changes, as Karlekar points out, the profile of IIC is different from other institutions, such as the India Habitat Centre. 8216;8216;At IIC it8217;s basically bureaucrats, academics, journalists, NGO-types who feel at home. At the Habitat Centre, it8217;s a more happening, managerial, entrepreneur, yuppie crowd.8217;8217;

Accordingly, IIC is identified most strongly with its Saturday Club, where former prime ministers and the men and women who have ruled India gather to sternly take stock of issues of national importance. The Habitat Centre, just down the leafy road, buzzes with the energy of late youth, with its theatre productions and open-air concerts. The current festival, by some reckoning, is seen as IIC8217;s attempt to regain its old status as the capital of Steinabad, the intellectual and networking hub of Lutyen8217;s Delhi.

That IIC could be a bigger draw with older people who have more time at their disposal is not something Sen agrees with. 8216;8216;Of the people wanting membership, many are young. The IIC is not just for people who have time,8217;8217; says Sen.

With a membership of over 5,000, about 2,000 are between the age of 30 and 60. Of its total membership, 1,356 are women and 3,888 men.

Apart from the members, younger audiences are adding some vital energy. The IIC has hosted debates for colleges, science programmmes have been held and students have staged plays here as well.

Programme cards, too, are throwing up newer names, rather than just the usual suspects. 8216;8216;Over a period of time there has been a conscious effort to bring younger performers and to woo younger audiences,8217;8217; says Rakhshanda Jalil, a writer and translator. Jalil started a programme called Hindustani Awaz over two years ago, at a time when, she says, she had 8216;8216;nothing but enthusiasm to offer.8217;8217;

8216;8216;It is also reflected in the choice of films that they show. They are no longer by some fuddy-dudy filmmakers,8217;8217; says Jalil who become a member six years ago when she was in her mid-thirties8212;young enough in an institute where people joked the average age was 62.

8216;8216;I may not always be happy with the pace of the transformation but, yes, there is a consensus that there is a change,8217;8217; she adds.