Vision-Aid’s “Son of the Wind” – A Visual Treat Raising the Bar Yet Again!

Remarkably raising the bar again for the 15th year in a row, Vision-Aid staged its annual (2023) show “The Son of the Wind – the saga of Hanuman” by renowned producer and choreographer Ramachandran Muralidaran on July 23rd 2023, shattering records on all fronts – whether it was the quality of the production, the number of tickets sold, the fund-raising or the slick and seamless coordination of an intricate and beautiful choreography featuring over 50 New England dancers.

This was the first show in 4 years featuring live dancers on stage (the prior 3 years had to be virtual due to the pandemic). Vision-Aid offered the show in this hybrid model for the first time, as well as live streaming it to virtual viewers.

The sold-out show in Littleton had over 700 attendees with many of them acclaiming the show to be “better than Broadway”.

Prof. Dr. Sushil Bhatia remarked ““enjoyed the show thoroughly- Lalit - your speech, Sushil Tuli’s inspiring words and what a show it was. Jai Hanuman ji. Very well planned and well executed.”

The Keynote speaker Sushil Tuli, CEO and Chairman of Leader Bank delivered a truly uplifting and inspiring keynote address which deeply resonated with the audiences. Vision-Aid’s opening ceremony also featured a very compelling opening speech by Vision-Aid’s volunteer President Lalit Sudan. This was followed by an introduction of the Chief Guests Sushil Tuli and Alka Kotak by Vice Chair Veena Handa. Chairman Emeritus Puran Dang eloquently thanked the Chief Guests on behalf of the Vision-Aid team. Vision-Aid Co-Founder Revathy Ramakrishna, thanked the sponsors of both the event and the cause for their support which enables programs to enable, educate and empower the visually impaired throughout the year. The opening ceremony concluded with Mr. Syed Ali Rizvi, long time Vision-Aid Board member and past President.

Quadruple Matching Grant Announced

Vision-Aid founder Ramakrishna Raju ( Ram Raju ) announced two exciting matching grant programs at the event:

1.     Every donation of $300 made towards AI-powered Smart Vision Glasses will be equally matched thanks to the generous support of renowned author Suresh (Sam) Mehta of Florida, who has donated the proceeds from his remarkable book “Bharat” towards charitable causes.

2.     Every donation of $150 towards a smart phone will be doubled by Trees for Life Foundation.

Beyond these US based matches, Rotary clubs in India and CSR donations also offer matches for both Smart Vision Glasses and Smart Phone, effectively quadrupling the donation.

The match announced at the event has been extended to Sunday July 30^th at 4 pm so any donor interested in quadrupling the impact of these life-changing gift can go to www.VisionAid.org/event to make their donation before 4pm on Sunday July 30^th, to avail the match.

Audience Reactions

Dr.Yogeshwar Dayal, remarked “This is the most wonderful show we have seen which parallels or exceed any Broadway Show with excellent performances and beautiful  costumes”

Dr. Salil Midha, one of the founders of Boston Cardiac Foundation said “The Son of the Wind was a jaw dropping spectacle! It was one of the best shows I have seen. It exceeded my expectations with excellent choreography, visual artistry and music. This show is a great inspiration for everyone and literally better than broadway plays!”

Producer and Choreographer, Ramachandran Muralidaran said “By the grace of Lord Hanuman, the premiere of my newest dance musical “Vayuputra” – “The Son of the Wind- The Saga of Hanuman” received a standing ovation from the sold-out full house. After spending so many months researching Anjaneya Puranam and other ancient texts to develop the screenplay and working with almost 40 musicians to record brand new compositions, I am so happy to work with local Boston dancers and Vision-Aid to bring my original concept to life on stage. By the grace of Hanuman, I am looking forward to staging this production throughout the world.”

Facebook and social media lit up with many other comments flooding in from all directions from well known community leaders like Manju Sheth, Ranjani Saigal, Manisha Jain, Manorama Chowdhury, Sanjay Kudrimoti and many more.

Vision-Aid recognized several outstanding volunteers, as Vision-Aid Ambassadors for their volunteer service. Dr. Shama Dayal presented the Vision-Aid Ambassador Medals to Roopa Modha, Amal Balachundhar, Sarayu Gadam, Krithi Sekharan, Dyuthi Prashanth and Vaidehi Moorthy apart from Jeyanthi Ghatraju who continues to remain the biggest ambassador of the cause.

Mr. Mukesh Chatter presented the President’s Gold Volunteer Service Award to Viritha Reddy, Divyashri Prasath and Medhita Sinha for their outstanding contributions to Vision-Aid.

About the Production and Performers

Shri Muralidaran was assisted in his choreography by his wife Smt. Chithra Muralidharan & daughter  Kavya Muralidharan.  The global premiere of the show materialized in New England with two Lead Artistic Directors who were the pillars for the show this year - Jeyanthi Ghatraju, the founding Artistic Director for Vision-Aid events since 2009, and Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy. Artistic Director, Dhanashree Karmarkar joined this team along with Shilpa Narayanan, Krithi Sekaran, Chitanya Gopu to train 50 talented dancers from across New England. 

They were ably supported by Senior Dance Teachers and Mentors –

Sheethal Dwaraka, Aishwarya Chakravarthi, Kalaimangai Anbalgan, Shilpa Narayanan, Krithi Sekaran, Chitanya Gopu, Roopa Modha, Radhika Narayanaswamy, Divyanka Gupta and Tejasvi Bhadrinath

The dancers and performers in the show included –

Ensemble Group A

Diya Shenoy, Dyuthi Prashanth, Gauthami Sreedhar, Praksitha Rajasekaran, Sakhi Kulkarni, Shreya Kalavur, Siri Srivatsa, Vaidehi Moorthy

Ensemble Group B North

Aadhvi Gopalakrishnan, Joshitha Gopalakrishnan, Aarya Atale, Aishwarya Ananthakrishnan, Amal Balachundhar, Ashvitha Eyalarasan, Kavya Krishnan, Sarayu Gadam, Shakthi Sorensen, Varaliikaa Satheesh

Ensemble Group B South

Akshadha Ghantasala, Anika Nambiar, Avantika Nair, Anamika Nair, Dharshana Lakshmanan, Harini Jeyaraman, Prisha Nambiar, Sheethal Udupa, Sravya Gurajala,

Ensemble Group C

Aanya Challuri, Aarna Mahadevan, Druthi Choudavarapu, Preetika Guntireddygari, Saanvika Sammishetty, Vanshika Kukunoor, Yashi Dwivedi, Isha Dwivedi, Anoushka Nair, Maedha Nalavula, Subramaniam (Subi) Moorthy, Parth Dwivedi, Shravya Suresh, Swarna Rishika Suresh

Vision-Aid thanks the enablers of the dance production –

Props by: Saravanakumar Ramamoorthi, Deepa Vakkalagadda, Saritha Tummalapalli, Sreeja Pillai, Amita Nambiar, Vijay Moorthy, Anika Nambiar, Sravya Gurajala, Vanshika Kukunoor, Avantika Nair, Anamika Nair

Costumes by: Nandinidevi

English narration, dialogs and subtitles by:  Vaidehi Moorthy & Sripriya Natarajan Moorthy

English dialogs performed by: Vijay Moorthy, Bijay Kumar, Jayakumar Natarajan

Stage managers: Kalpana Balachundar, Hema Iyengar and Suja Meyyappan

Lighting: Swapna S, Raajan Narayanan

Photography By: Sanjay and Vasudha Kudrimoti of Fotu Duniya – The Picture World, Atul Nimbalkar, and Veerappan

Videography By: Fotu Duniya – The Picture World

Brochure Design By: Meyyappan Meyyappan of Kolam Media Creations

The Vision-Aid Volunteer team:

The tireless volunteer team at the event included Vijaya Nelavelli, Srivatsan Sathyamoorthy, Dr. Nalini Rangaswamy, Reena Dass, Dr. Swaroop Vattam, Venkatesham, Shashank Bakre, Anurag Wakhlu, Kanth Ghatraju, Mayuri Shah, Itesh Shah, Vimal Mannava and Neeta Agarwal in addition to all Vision-Aid Leadership team members.

Youth volunteers led by Ronak Wakhlu (Vision-Aid Youth President) along with Ishani Wakhlu, Shlok Kudrimoti, Shreyas Tanjore, Neel , Arnav Ajay Manchala, Aditi Wadhwa, Preyanshi Charnalia & Deeya Khamesra

The Vision-Aid leadership team includes -

Board of Advisors:

Puran Dang, Chairman Emeritus, Veena Handa, Vice-Chair, Ram Gupta, Ashok Khanna, Cynthia Asmus, Dr. Loubaina Buxamusa, Ritu Goswami Chawla, Dr. Bharti Gangwani, Dr. Deeba Husain, Vijay Narang,

Dr. Suraja Menon Roychowdhury, Dr. Sabera Shah, Dr. Nilesh Sheth, Dr. Santosh Vempala

Board of Directors

Lalit Sudan, President, Ramakrishna (Ram) Raju, Founder & Executive Director,

Revathy Ramakrishna, Co-Founder & Vice President, Sudhir Varma, Treasurer

Ujwala Phene, Assistant Treasurer, Syed Ali Rizvi, Past President, Sonal Bakre

Dr. Arathy Kartha, Dr. Sanjay Kudrimoti, Dr. Aparna Raghuram, Dr. Ramkumar Ramamirtham

Ravi Rastogi, Dr. Sundar Subramanyam, Hiral Desai Wakhlu, Dr. Jaya Vatsyayan

Council of Ambassadors

Dr. Vivek Badami, Jeyanthi Ghatraju, Dr. Arun Kumar Krishnan, Revathi Pillai, Dr. Monika Manocha Wadhwa

About Vision-Aid

Vision-Aid is a Lexington, MA based non-profit, founded in 2004 with a mission of enabling, educating, and empowering the visually impaired to live with independence and dignity. In addition to serving thousands of visually impaired across 30 locations in India, it has gained a reputation for its innovative and high-impact online and specialized programs. Several unique programs help to train the visually impaired to find gainful employment and live with independence and dignity. In addition to the revolutionary AI-powered Smart Vision Glasses being introduced last year, other example of innovation include the newly launched Digital Accessibility Testing and Training center which not only trains the visually impaired but also employs several of them to perform digital accessibility testing for a global client base, and this is just one example of its innovative offerings among a large portfolio which includes over a dozen specially designed training programs to level the playing field for the visually impaired.  To learn more and support – www.VisionAid.org

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