Silchar’s Sangsmita Nath Mazarbhuiya awarded prestigious CCRT scholarship; “Leap of faith in pursuit of excellence”

Artists who earn a living by performing on stage underwent what can easily be classified as the worst period of their career. The Coronavirus induced restrictions forced a total lockdown on cultural activities. It was a roadblock for the education process too and in a country like India, where arts is hardly ever the priority in a career, the lockdown saw many giving up.

The Centre for Cultural Resources and Training (CCRT), one of the premier institutions in India highlighting the importance of culture in education, too had to delay its scholarship programme. The aspirants who had applied for the Scholarship to Young Artistes in different cultural fields (SYA) in 2019 – 20, had to wait for years. Artistes with experience of over a decade were eligible to apply for the scholarship that guarantees a monthly revenue till the age of 25. CCRT functions as an autonomous organisation under the aegis of Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It could not hold its physical examination necessary to award the prestigious scholarship. After much adieu, the CCRT decided to conduct the application process online in a secured interface.

Last week, the CCRT announced the selection list of candidates who will be awarded the prestigious scholarship. The list comes as a moment of pride as Silchar’s Sangsmita Nath Mazarbhuiya features in it. This year, the CCRT is awarding the scholarship to 400 candidates from across the country, 26 of them are from Assam and Sangsmita happens to be the only one from Barak Valley in her field. She has been awarded the scholarship for her contribution to Gaudiya Nritya. She had applied for the scholarship in 2019 and like thousand others, had to wait for her turn.

“Deep breath – a sense of relief,” was her immediate reaction. Mazarbhuiya adds, “But then I saw tears rolling out from the eyes of my parents (Samar Ranjan Nath Mazarbhuiya and Paramita Nath Mazarbhuiya). Those were tears of joy that brought me a sense of accomplishment.” Without a moment of hesitation, she also credits “Guru Chandan Mazumder” under whom she has been formally training since she was in Standard III.

The entire process was so uncertain that she didn’t even know the results were declared until she got a congratulatory message on her phone. “I was surprised to the extent that I responded thank you dada but why?” Then when she got to know, with “trembling hands” opened the website and saw her name.

The enriched application process is what makes it such a momentous achievement, says Mazarbhuiya. First, the applicants had to face a bench of three experts coming from different streams of performing arts. It was the “viva round” held online where questions of all kinds were asked to them. Apart from Gaudiya Nritya, Sangsmita Nath Mazarbhuiya is doing her post-graduation in Life Science and Bioinformatics from Assam University and did her graduation in Zoology. When she mentioned her acamedic background to the bench, one of the experts asked her to explain the inspirations of Zoology in Gaudiya Nritya.

“It was a tricky question and this explains the level of preparation necessary to apply for the CCRT Scholarship,” says Sangsmita. While it was what can be called an “Out of syllabus” question, Sangsmita’s answer ‘Dashavatara’ impressed the bench. The viva went well but the waves of Coronavirus infections continued to delay the process. The CCRT, therefore, decided to hold practical examinations online.

The candidates were asked to install fraud prevention software, set up a studio-like environment with proper lighting to avoid confusing shadows and then take the test online in front of the camera. “While it is a very enriching process to prepare for the CCRT, much like IIT JAM or GATE, the technical interventions only made it more complicated. I was lucky to have a dance studio at my home which simplified the technicalities, yet it was a big challenge for me. I would have been much more comfortable with traveling to Noida and performing on a stage with the judges sitting in front,” says Mazarbhuiya.

She defines the scholarship as a “Badge of honour” for which she had to undergo a long learning curve holding the hands of her Guru – Chandan Mazumdar. This journey began with a young kid walking into ‘Nritayan’ – the dance institute. The journey progressed leaps and bounds and Sangsmita secured a junior scholarship from CCRT, now a Young Scholarship. “My aim is to get the fellowship,” she says, and the Young Scholarship, she adds, “Is a leap of faith in pursuit of excellence”.