Multi-talent teacher

Tandon: education thru music

She can play all of 18 musical instruments including the tabla, guitar, sitar, harmonium, sarod, flute, bongo, congo, etc, with above average proficiency. Durga Tandon, head of the department of music at DAV Public School, New Delhi is quite literally, a one-woman band. In addition she teaches vocal music (classical and light) kathak, folk, western and ballet dancing at the CBSE-affiliated kindergarten-class XII school which has an aggregate enrollment of 956 students.

Tandon’s induction into the heady world of music began at age four when she began tinkering with her father’s tabla and sitar. Recognising her talent, her parents enrolled her in Kanya Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, a renowned but picky music school in Muradabad, where she impressed her teachers with her musical talent and won the best student of the year award three years in a row way back in the 1950s.

However it was during her post-graduate years in the Gokuldass Girls’ Degree College in Muradabad, that Tandon’s parents enrolled her for music and dance training with renowned artistes. Thus, Shovna Narayan taught her the nuances of kathak, while Shiv Kumar Sharma was instrumental in honing her tabla skills. Ashtaq Hussain Khan fine-tuned her sitar playing.

Public performances resulted in a teaching assignment with the DAV school in 1985 where Tandon was hired as a tabla teacher. Since then she rose to the post of head of the music faculty in 2000.

Despite her musical talent, Tandon describes herself as an educationist rather than musician. That’s why she has been spearheading the Education For All and anti-polio campaigns in her school and villages nearby. "Education and health are two issues which need to be addressed urgently for the nation to progress. All educational institutes need to look beyond commerce to benefit society in general. For this we need genuinely humanitarian people interested in education to enter this field," says this role model teacher.

Moreover as founder chairperson of Amrita Swar Sansthan, a music school affiliated to the Prayag Sangeet Samiti, Allahabad, Tandon has been tirelessly promoting music and dance among youth for the past six years. Tuition fees are rock bottom and admission to the talented poor is free. She also directs an annual ballet dance competition for youth, encouraging participation from youngsters across the social spectrum. "Music is a discipline and integral to education. Study of music helps to build confident, impressive personalities," she says.

Indeed her life is her message.

PIB releases

September 24, 2001

'9'

UMA BHARTI GIVES AWAY INDIRA GANDHI NSS AWARDS

Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Sushree Uma Bharti said that the Indira Gandhi NSS Awards constitute recognition of the voluntary and selfless efforts of the NSS volunteers towards the welfare of the community they live in. An award is not an end in itself; rather it should be taken as the beginning of a more dedicated chapter in a volunteer's life. She expressed hope that these awards will motivate the award winners to further dedicate themselves to the welfare of the community and the nation at large. The Minister was giving away the Indira Gandhi NSS Awards to NSS Volunteers, Programme Officers, NSS Units, Universities and Institutions, here today.

Sushree Uma Bharti said that NSS Volunteers have rendered exemplary service in times of external aggression or internal disturbances, an earthquake or a famine and floods. Volunteers have done work in the areas of literacy promotion, health awareness, environment protection and national integration. Propagation of awareness about HIV/AIDS through the Universities talk AIDS project is also a contribution of voluntary work. However, considering the magnitude of the various problems faced by our country, there is lot more that can be accomplished by the volunteers. In this regard, she urged them to treat the 10-day long special camps as pilgrimages and not a mere change from the routine academic life. She exhorted them to fully integrate themselves during the period with the life of the common man in the village so that they are in a better position to appreciate their problems and difficulties.

Commenting on the environmental degradation in the country, the Minister said that the widespread deforestation, large tracts of land have dried up resulting in famine like situations. She had, therefore, decided on the theme of "Operation Haryali" for the NSS during the current year. She urged them to give feedback on the work done by them in this area. She called upon them to dedicate themselves to the task of national reconstruction in a spirit of voluntary and dedicated service.

The following are the awardees for the year 1999-2000.

University Level Award One

Utkal University, Bhubaneswar (Orissa)

NSS Units & Programme Officers Twelve Awards

(Six awards will go to the Programme Officers and six awards to the same NSS Units); Shri Pradeep Kumar Behera from Distt. Koraput (Orissa), Prof. Sanjeev Sampatrao Late from Akurdi (Pune), Mrs. Durga Tandon from Delhi, Dr. K.S. Radhakrishnan from Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Dr. Aradhana Saxena from Ajmer (Rajasthan), Dr. P. Rinawma from Aizawl (Mizoram).

16 volunteers who have got the Awards; Ms. Puja Roy from Jharkhand, Ms. Madhawi Kumari from Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Jani Kinjal Yogendra from Gujarat, Mr. Yadav Rajesh from Mumbai, Mr. Jitendra Nath Mahato from Varanasi (U.P.), Ms. Anureet Kaur from Hisar (Haryana), Ms. Anjana V.R. Chandran from Thiruvananthapuram, Lakhsmi Soujanya Tunguntala from Venkateswarapuram (A.P.), Md. Sadiq M. Mangalgatti from Dhrwad (Karnataka), H.S. Lokesha from Hassan (Karnataka), M.Y. Kenganal from Bijapur (Karnataka), Ms. Pooja Chaturvedi from Ratlam (M.P.), Kumari Gunjan Tiwari from Hoshangabad (M.P.), Shri Hemanta Rabha from Guwahati, Debabrata Kalai from Agartala and Nongthombam Kenedy Singh from Imphal East.