Thursday, January 7, 2010

Nadajyothi - Braille Day celebrations 2010

Vikasatarangini Bengaluru celebrated the Braille day (4th Jan) by organizing a fund-riser concert (Nadajyothi) on 2nd Jan 2010 at Shalini grounds, V Block, Jayanagar Bengaluru. Since 4th Jan 2010 is Monday, the program was conducted on 2nd Jan (sat'day) itself.

It was a jugalbandi of 'Kalaimamani' 'Padmasri' Dr. Kadri Gopalnath on Saxophone and 'Suramani' Pravin Godkhindi on flute. This is the same famous combination that produced 'Raag Rang'. They were accompanied by Anoor Anantha Krishna Sharma (Guru of Pravin) on Mrudangam, Rajendra Nakod on Tabla and Bangalore N Amrit on Khanjira.

The programe started at 6:00PM with a beautiful video message of HH Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji blessing
the participants for their charity and their social consciousness. He emphasized the need to serve the differently-abled people of the society and blessed the artists for utilizing. their skills in serving the society.

View the video message of HH Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji and the school for the blind video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1cgKtBC8Rk

This was followed by an inspiring video presentation on the school/college for the blind by the Incharge of the Nethra vidyalaya Sri. T S Krishna. Everyone present at the venue were moved by the blind children activities. This video depicted the way blind students carry out their studies read, write etc. in the school. The Jr. College for the blind recently created a world record by taking the board exams on laptops and they got 100% result.


Sri B N Vijay Kumar, MLA Jayanagar constituency was the chief guest of this function. Sri Chennagiri Gen. Sec., Sri C N Manjunath, Director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular sciences and Research presided over the function. They along with the artists lit the lamp. Sri B N Vijay Kumar and Dr. Manjunath felicitated the artists while Smt. Shubha (MC) briefly introduced the artists.

View the inauguration function and artists felicitation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBJHgGpKn0w



Sri Gopichand Katragadda, General Manager, India Engineering Operations, GE Energy Infrastructure said that he is moved by what Vikasatarangini is trying to do and he announced to sponsor a Braille printer and other educational material to the Nethra vidyalaya. This was announcement was received with big applause from the crowd as well as the artists. Sriman T S Krishna felicitated Sri Gopichand and expressed gratitude for his support. Sri L Jagadish, Sri Hari Voruganti and Sri Giridhar and Smt Deepa thanked Gopichand from Vikasatarangini Bengaluru.

View the brief speech of Sriman K. Gopichand (GM, General Electric) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCtW-EWRv4U


Once everything is set, Sri Kadri Gopalnath spoke for couple of minutes saying that he is doing this as a service to society and hoped that the blind children for whose benefit this show is being organized, may get benefited by this. He said that all other artists should also come forward to support noble causes like this one. Simlarly Sri Pravin expressed his happiness in playing for such a noble cause.


View the inspiring speech of Sri Kadri Gopalnathji and Sri Pravin Godkhindi here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxX50KAkehE



Then started the concert. What a performance it was! It started with Vatapi (in raga Hamsadhwani). Sri Pravin announced that they want to play something which they never did before in any concert and played Suryakauns Ragam-Tanam-Pallavi (RTP). Audience were spell bound by the richness of the music and the versatility of the artists. Accompaniment artists excelled in their respective departments. The concert finally concluded with invocation of Mother Lakshmi through Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma in the raga Madhyamavathi.

All the proceeds from this program were donated to the School/College for the blind managed by Vikasatarangini.

Vikasatarangini Bangalore would like to thank its members and volunteers for their inspiring work - Jagadish & Usha, Smt. Sarada, Hari Vorunganti & Vandana, Giridhar & Deepa, Kishore & Haripriya, Sailesh & Roopa, Shubha N S, Vishnuchittan and Sri Hari Prasad.