Harshini Magesh, a sophomore from Acton-Boxborough held a virtual zoom concert and raised over $5,000 to support Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA. A brilliant award winning singer, she sang in four languages. Be it a Tamil Ilayaraja composition or a Arijit Singh number she brilliantly presented each composition with such ease. The program was held on July 31.

Harshini Magesh has been an Ekal youth volunteer for the past 3 years. “I’ve been to India many times throughout my life, and I’ve seen that countless kids there don’t have access to nearly as many educational resources as kids like me who are living in the US do. This can be due to financial difficulties, or because of the long distances that the children have to walk to get to the nearest school. Ekal runs one-teacher schools in remote rural areas to bring education to every child. It takes $365 US dollars to run one school for a year. By reaching the $5000 dollar goal, we can run 1 school for 13 years or run 13 schools for 1 year. I was really inspired by Ekal’s goal to bring education to every child.  I wanted to contribute to Ekal’s mission through combining two things I am passionate about, singing, and education” says Harshini. 

The concert opened with Shankar Mahadevan’s Gananayakaya. Late Mangeshkar’s Lag Jaa Gale from the movie Woh Kaun Thi came next. From Bollywood she moved to Kollywood and Tollywood with Illayaraja’s En Vaanile sung by Jensy and Priyathama sung by Chinmayi.  

She surprised the audience with Arijit Singh numbers Laal Ishq and Channa Mereya.  A.R Rehman’s Tamil Song Margazhi Poove, Rajesh Murugesan’s Malayalam song Malare and concluded the program with Teri Mitti. 

The audience was amazed to see the ease and professionalism of this young woman.  Through the program she raised over $5000. “We are grateful to Harshini for putting together this amazing program” said Dr. Subra Dravida who serves on the board of Ekal USA.  The Ekal Youth Leaders program is led by Anu Upneja and Latha Krishnan and has empowered children to use their talents to help raise funds.  

To learn more about the Ekal Youth Leaders program please send an email to aupneja@yahoo.com.