Vision Aid, an organization that helps support low vision individuals in India, presented a grand Bharatanatyam production, Seven Selfless Sovereigns which served as a fundraiser for the cause. The production was choreographed by Madurai R. Muralidharan and featured over 60 dancers. The event was held on August 1. 

The iconic fundraiser presentation from Vision Aid has become one of the most anticipated Bharatanatyam events in the New England Area. While for several years the production was a live event, the pandemic forced the organizers to move this to a virtual mode. The event was a visual treat guided by artistic directors Jeyanthi Ghatraju, Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy, Thenu Raajan, Sheethal Dwaraka, Dhanashree Karmarkar, Aishwarya Balasubramanian and Kalaimangai Anbalagan. The coached and guided the over 60 dancers who participated in the event. 

Kalaimamani Madurai R. Muralidharan unique productions feature fabulous music and spectacular backdrops. In the virtual mode the effects were even more spectacular. The dancers presented the tales of Kings from the Sangam era who are glories can seen in the Sangam poetry. Simple tales were brought to life through beautiful Nritta and Abhinaya. The production was a real visual treat for the audience. Kudos to Muralidharan ji for coming up with unique ideas year after year and generously sharing his work with dancers to present for the vision aid fundraiser. 

The event owes a lot to Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy for patiently adding the sub-titles that made the show accessible to all the audiences. Uma Devarajan, Indira Natarajan, Meena Ramamurti, Jeyanthi Ghatraju, Sankariah Ramamoorthy, Thenu Raajan and Kalaimangai Anbalagan helped with the English translation. 

 

 Kanth Ghatraju, Maneesh Srivastava, Saravanan Meyyappan, Krish Velmurugan, Anand Kavalapara, Vijay Moorthy, Deepa Jacob, Liya Liju and Jayashree Menon did all the videography. 

 

 

 Dr. Partha Ghosh was the chief guest for the event  “Our deepest appreciation and gratitude to our Grand Sponsors whose generosity has helped establish Vision Aid Centers in Hyderabad, Chennai, Madurai, Delhi, Pune, Agra and many other locations. We are deeply indebted to all Catalyst, Platinum, Diamond, Emerald, Gold, Silver, Corporate, and to each and every donor. No contribution is too small” said Lalit Sudan, President of Vision Aid. 

 

This year the vision Aid team received a matching grant to provide Smart phones for the visually challenged.  The Smartphones with special features are expected to  be a lifeline and personal assistant for the education, mobility, personal safety and almost every function in the daily lives for many needy and deserving individuals.

 

Vision-Aid Ambassadors – Jeyanthi Ghatraju, Vaidehi Moorthy, Ananya Kumar, Shefali Bakre, Ashmitha Boopathy, Saiesha Bollapragada, and Ronak Wakhlu were recognized for their support of Vision AID. 

 

Volunteers Sanjay Jain, Sudhir Varma, Ujwala Phene, Syed Ali Rizvi, Paramesh Garimella, Rita Vachani, Anshuman Agarwal, Ravi Rastogi, Sonal Bakre, Monika Manocha Wadhwa, Dr. Ramkumar Ramamirtham, Dr. Bharti Nihalani, Dr. Arun Krishnan, Veena Handa, Lovely Singh, Sonal Patel, Suraja Menon Roychoudury and Dr. Aparna Raghuram were also acknowledged. 

The founders Revathy and Ram Ramakrishna work tirelessly each year to bring funds and deploy them to support the visually gifted. We look forward to the production next year.