Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Vivekanand, a mono act musical play by talented Indian singer, composer, lyricist and actor Shekhar Sen, will be staged Wednesday, Feb. 6, at Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki, to honor influential Vedanta philosopher Swami Vivekananda (1862-1902).
Shekhar Sen has performed more than 1,000 shows around the world in an aim to spread the ageless and universal message of peace, love and harmony through his plays.
Vivekanand is his third mono musical after Tulsi and Kabeer. All three plays carry the same message; the value of religious harmony.
Swami Vivekananda, born as Narendranath Dutta, is widely known as the messenger of the Eastern wisdoms, particularly Hinduism and the tradition of Vedanta, to the Western world. In 1893, he spoke before the World’s Parliament of Religions, offering the message of shared spirituality and harmony of world faiths.
His speech catapulted him to fame and since then he began giving lectures on Vedanta philosophy to his Western audiences in America and England. He was the first Indian to be honored with a professorship of Oriental Philosophy by Harvard University.
His dynamic spiritual personality and the universality of his religious convictions won the hearts and minds of truth-seekers. His vision: “Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached”, is still treasured by many until today.
The two-hour play Vivekanand by Shekhar Sen presents the life of Swami Vivekananda. It tells the stories of Vivekananda’s childhood, the impact of the religious Brahma Samaj group on him, his longing and eagerness to find God and the meeting with his great mentor, Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa.
Shekhar writes, directs and acts in all his musicals, including Vivekanand. He was born into a musical family from Chhattisgarh and came to Mumbai to make music for movies, but was unsuccessful. His failures led him to spiritualism and he began to stage devotional music concerts and make records with research-based themes.
A visit to the U.S. in 1997 to attend a conference on the Ramayana opened his eyes to the impact of Indian culture across the world. This inspired him to write his first musical play Tulsi, which tells the story of the great Hindi poet Goswami Tulsidas (1532-1623).
The artist said he had a very intimate relationship with the characters in his plays.
“I must admit that I don’t start with definite plots or plans in mind. I go on writing for almost a year and the characters guide me … rather than I write them,” Shekhar said in an interview with www.mumbaitheatreguide.com.
The inspirational and highly acclaimed play on the life of the great spiritual leader Vivekananda by Shekhar has been brought to Jakarta by the India Club.
Source: The Jakarta Post
February 6th, 2008
Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang
People from all walks of life have flocked in their thousands to Semawis Imlek (Chinese New Year) market on Jl. Pinggir in Semarang, Central Java.
“This is the fifth time we have organized Imlek Semawis market since it first ran in 2003,” Semarang Chinatown Tourism Community chairman Haryanto Halim told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
“We have held the event every year since.”
Through to Wednesday the 300-meter stretch of road in Semarang’s Chinatown area will be filled with various stalls featuring the Chinese chess, medicine, comics, ornaments, sketches and photographs, folk performances and the famous lion dance.
Local cigarette, car, motorbike and medicinal herb companies are also participating in the festival, as well as Chinese and traditional food stands, to welcome the Chinese New Year which falls Thursday.
“We have maintained the spirit of a traditional night market in greeting the Chinese New Year, by holding it in the middle of the street. This is truly Semarang’s most popular night market,” Haryanto said.
Art performances have also developed into an exchange forum between different ethnicities.
Students from the Indonesian Christian School in Semarang, a majority of whom are from the Indonesian-Chinese community, staged a choir performance of traditional songs accompanied by angklung (Sundanese traditional bamboo musical instrument) and kolintang (North Sulawesi bamboo instrument) music.
Similarly pupils from Kong Kauw Hwee elementary school sang with an accompaniment of music played by musicians from the IAIN Walisongo Islamic University in Semarang.
“We aim to promote cultural exchange through the festival, so as to forge social interaction,” Haryanto said.
“We will invite artists from Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore next year, so that they can exchange knowledge with local artists,” he said, adding that he hoped the visits would lead to involvement of businessmen from the respective countries.
Semarang’s Chinatown district has apparently become one of the city’s main tourist attractions now.
Since former president Abdurrahman Wahid’s initiative to restore cultural freedom to Indonesian-Chinese citizens in 1999, Chinese culture in Semarang has prospered.
The art of playing Chinese chess has been revived by Kwan Bun, 78, who was engrossed in a game with his opponent, an architectural student at the Soegijapranata Catholic University, Melissa, 19.
“I’ve only played it for a year. It’s not hard. If you know how to play conventional chess then it’s not hard to play the Chinese version. You just have to follow the rules of the game,” Melissa said.
A master of the Li Dou ritual which stems from the Tao faith of asking for blessings and warding off misfortune, Santoso, said, “Around 500 people took part in the Li Dou ritual last year”.
“A similar ritual will be held Feb. 26 this year,” he said.
“Essentially each person has his or her own destiny. People can change bad fate by improving their behavior,” he said.
The festival will also host cultural dialogs, inviting a number of noted figures to speak, including cultural observer and former Diponegoro University rector Eko Budiharjo, jamu herbal medicine producer Irwan Hidayat, Father Setyaji of Bhinneka Swa Budaya, and Surabaya’s Sami Rukun Rahayu Agawe Santoso Association chairman Fadholi Said.
“Self-restraint is hard to come by these days because most people are influenced by spiritual illness like envy, spite, arrogance, egotism and greed. To maintain self-restraint people must be able to cure themselves from such illnesses,” Fadholi said.
Source: The Jakarta Post
February 6th, 2008