SANGAM:  A unique musical evening of Older and newer Hindi film songs presented by EKAL VIDYALAYA (Naye Purane geeton ki ek anokhi shaam): Part 1 of a series of 2 articles

EKAL VIDYALAYA is proud to announce SANGAM: A unique musical event on Sept 22nd, 2012 at 6:30 PM at Keefe technical School, 750 Winter Street, Framingham, MA 01702. You are cordially invited to attend this entertaining musical evening featuring a bevy of local artistes who are putting up a unique show. All proceeds will benefit EKAL Vidyalaya, the organization and its mission of providing education in the most rural areas of India.  You will have a fantastic time in SANGAM! Singers include: Meena Sundaram, Sankar Gangaikondan, Parag Joshi, Mohan Subramaniam, Nidhi Tare, Sriharsha Sista and Nalini Krishnan. Emcees include Kumkum Pareek Malik, Siraj Khan, Meera Subramaniam, Razia Mashkoor, Nalini Sharma, Jayashree Shahane, Monisha Prakashand Jharna Madan. Please buy your tickets at http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/cal.php?stage=1&event_id=9217.

Puran Dang, Chairman of Ekal Vidyalaya said “By supporting EKAL Vidyalaya and learning and volunteering for this noble organization, you are uplifting children from dire illiteracy and ignorance. Your love and support towards educating these children save them from a future of poverty and you will be blessed by God”.

Avinash Agarwal, a long-time EKAL volunteer from newton says” Me and My Family have been involved with Ekal Vidyalaya for many years and are blessed to have the fortune of visiting Ekal Schools in India and seeing for ourselves the good work carried by Ekal through its ‘One Teacher Schools’. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of Ekal- one of the most selfless and transparent organization with over 6,000 full time volunteers. With over 38,000 Schools  reaching over a million children currently, Ekal’s mission of 100,000  One Teacher School by 2015 is indeed a noble endeavor which needs everyone’s support. A Dollar a Day i.e. Just $365 a year helps run a school for a full year- creating a literate village with abundant opportunities.”

We have had a very productive summer working towards this event and creating the concept SANGAM which to us symbolizes the merging of various ideas, emotions and talents that leads us to a common goal.
Here is a paragraph from “The Hungry Tide” a novel by Amitav Ghosh describing the Sunder bans archipelago in West Bengal. “The river’s channels … create a terrain where the boundaries of land and water are always mutating, always unpredictable….when these channels meet, at these confluences…. The forest dwindles into a distant rumor of land. …such a confluence is spoken of as a Monona.

Kumkum Pareek Malik and myself are helping organize this event with the support of our teams of singers and emcees, volunteers and the EKAL organization which has encouraged our vision in every way. Kumkum, who is emceeing this event elaborates, “Sangam is the ancient concept of three rivers meeting, a Triveni of Ganga, Jamuna and a “hidden” Saraswathi. During our rehearsals for SANGAM, our thoughts turned to the Sangam of old music, new music and the “hidden force”, a deep caring for those less-privileged, which is driving the union and forging the path ahead. SANGAM is a beautiful concept.. The idea that disparate forces can meet in a beautiful union, be reshaped and changed, and move forward anew. It is a powerful concept for creativity and collaboration! ”

Sriharsha Sista, one of the singers describes the factors that have influenced his music. If you haven’t heard him before, you will love his powerful voice and engaging style of singing. “My favorite singers and musicians have varied over time. I realized there is a lot of talent in our country and some of them even had the right attitude to make the best use of it while some others were just born with all this and much more. Balamurali Krishna, SP Balasubramaniam, M S Subbalakshmi, Aruna Sairam, Mohammad Rafi, Shankar Mahadevan, Sonu Nigam are a few of my most favorite singers and the music directors list ranges from Illayraja to Vishal-Shekhar. Sonu Nigam's 'DEEWANA' was the first album I had heard of his and since then I have listened and enjoyed most of the songs he sang. I also have a good ear for Carnatic music which I have learnt for a few years from various teachers. My dad and uncle were my first teachers and I truly owe to them for introducing me to this colorful world of music."

Nidhi Tare, a vivacious singer with a voice that can do acrobatics is a student of Smt. Shuchita Rao. She is also and great photographer and her snaps can be enjoyed on our event page. She is very excited about singing old and new numbers and feels there are significant similarities between many artistes in both generations. For eg: Asha Bhosle and Sunidhi Chauhan, Lataji and Shreya Ghoshal. She also sees AR Rahman and Ram Sampath carrying the baton of music compositions into the present era.She is particularly thrilled about doing this event for EKAL Vidyalaya and thus helping improve the future generations better their lives.

Parag Joshi, a popular and versatile performer, teals us a bit about himself: “Born and raised in a family with a lot of musical influence, I have always found myself associated with music for as long as I can remember. I grew up listening to an eclectic mix of many different kinds of music, and have been performing as a vocalist at different levels for more than 20 years now. I am equally comfortable singing songs from light classical and Bollywood genres as I am with straight rock numbers. I have won numerous awards for singing in competitions, and have found that to be a great way to stay on top of my game. Professionally, I am a software professional working for Math Works, located in Natick.”  Pssttttt! You will see a side of Parag that you may not have seen before in SANGAM. In fact, he blew me away with this old classic!

Janani Baskaran, a young singer with the Abhinaya Arts Music Group states” Ekal Vidyalaya stands out from most other charities because instead of providing shelter and food, it provides knowledge so someone can support themself. By participating in fundraising events for Ekal, I can help change lives because of what I believe in and do what I enjoy most, sing. Helping this charity is the most rewarding feeling ever.”

Hope you have had a quick peek at the wonderful people making up TEAM SANGAM and the various talents they are bringing to this show! Hope you like our Mohona of people, music and a great cause.

Puranji kindly remarks " We, at Ekal, are most grateful to Meena Sundaram and Kumkum Pareek Malik for leading our upcoming show: SANGAM. They have collected a wonderful team of Singers and Emcees to make this show the best ever. They have been making preparations with unbelievable sincerity and hard work". Puranji, it is our privilege to be associated with EKAL and work on this wonderful event. We hope all of you in the New England community will attend and support this event! Tickets are available at http://www.lokvani.com/lokvani/cal.php?stage=1&event_id=9217.

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