Ek Sur Ek Taal - A unique value education movement of India for Unity, Fraternity and Awakening through students/youth

A program of value education and awareness especially produced and conducted for young students, Ek Sur Ek Taal has created a niche of its own. Its veracity has been endorsed by the overwhelming support and enthusiasm expressed by more than 1.8 million students in India till March 2007.

The guiding principles of this program are to inculcate the spirit of human values and universal brotherhood through music, and to nurture adherence to a socio-cultural code of conduct with moral responsibility among youngsters. In this project, students are trained to sing songs of different languages which inculcate a sense of harmony, brotherhood, peace, service and increase social awareness on issues like environment protection and preservation, water conservation, health and hygiene, population control and eradication of social ills. All the songs are based on these social themes and are the works of well-known poets and thinkers. The experience and knowledge gained by students while undergoing this musical program is considered by many music gurus and eminent teachers to be often more effective than general school curriculums. In fact, its effectiveness is on account of its unique style of training and presentation as well as the ambience created by the emotional bonding of skillful Biradari faculty with students during the training workshop.

Music, by itself, is like panacea that creates a state of supreme spiritual happiness/bliss in the heart and mind of young students. And the trainer quiet easily takes the pupils to an infinite gliding journey….introducing them to the basics of music …..giving new context to the use of some yogasanas in high & low peaches of voice (sur)….and opening a new window of enjoyment and learning……..! Training of certain dance movements with various gestures and postures in sync with lyrical music rejuvenates the students’ mind and body, and the experience of having lived through this musical session becomes a lingering memory.

Yuvak Biradari has always believed that despite various diversities, the soul of Indians is one and the same and it beats in one tune—one sur and one taal. For manifestation of this unifying spirit, Biradari aspires that every youngster--who would become a responsible citizen of this great country should learn and internalize at least some words and cultural ethos from multiple languages of India through music so that a spirit of cultural unity, brotherhood and friendship flourishes among them.

In Ek Sur Ek Taal, Biradari faculty trains students to sing four to five songs in different Indian languages which are the works of great poets like Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Dr. Subramaniam Bharati, Keshavsut, Dr. Umashankar Joshi, Pt. Narendra Sharma, Shivkumar Batalvi, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika, Dr. Jyoti Prasad Agrawal, K S Narasimha Swami, Abhilash, Pt. Durga Prasad Maheshwari, Kusumagraj, Vilas Jaitapkar and Payaam Saidi. The lyrics have been woven in music by Dr.Bhupen Hazarika, Kuldeep Singh, Ashit Desai, Kaveri Sridhar and Ashok Waingankar.

Thousands of students singing collectively with synchronized movements creates a spectacular view and generates electrifying waves laden with messages of hope, courage and duty to the audience as well as to the society at large.

Never before in our country has such an activity been conducted on such a large scale wherein huge groups of students numbering 10000-50000 present this show at a time in the presence of distinguished guests at big stadiums.

Since its first presentation in Guwahati (in 1985) till 31st March 2007, Yuvak Biradari has directly trained and rejuvenated the lives of 18,00,000 youngsters in more than 150 towns and cities across India through more than 800 workshops.

This project has been supported by the Government of India (Ministry of HRD) as well as various state governments (particularly Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa).

Biradari is probably the only organization in India running such a unique program successfully since so many years. This program has been presented at Delhi, Lucknow, Allahabad, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Udaipur, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Gwalior, Kanpur, Thane and many other places in India.

These programs have been witnessed, appreciated, encouraged and rewarded from time to time by countless people as well as eminent dignitaries including the current President of India Honorable Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, and former Presidents Gyani Zail Singh, Dr. Shankar Dayal Sharma, R Venkararaman, and former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi, and P V Narasimha Rao, many Chief Ministers and eminent personalities like Vilasrao Deshmukh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Arjun Singh, Pratap Singh Rane, Chabildas Mehta, Hiteshwar Saikia, Ram Niwas Mirdha, Amar Singh, Ajit Wadekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Amitabh Bachchan and many others.

The credit for this program goes to Pramila Datar, Bal Deshpande, Navinchandra Suvarna, Rekha Shah, Nagendra Rai, Narendra Kothambikar, Balbir Singh, Rajesh Umale, Ramesh Rane and many other artist Biradars.