“One of the best shows Boston has ever seen” was the unanimous opinion of all who attended the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation fundraiser on April 29th where funds were raised to support schooling for over 30,000 children.  Combining Kathak with Flamenco and Bollywood music and dance, the artists dazzled the audience and kept them riveted for the entire duration of the show. The event was held at the Ashland High School. 

The event opened with a lamp lighting to the Apna Ekal Hoga Na song by Anuradha Palakurthi. An Ekal presentation detailing the programs at Ekal followed. 

This was followed by the entertainment program. The audience was awe-struck as they were immersed in music-masti-magic. Kaafila - A Bollywood Caravan came alive with Aditi Bhagwat & Kunal Om's who dazzled the audience with their phenomenal Kathak Flamenco dance jugalbandi. Live music by Das, Suranjan and Shruti was magical. A wide range of songs from Bollywood numbers to ghazals had something to please everyone’s taste.  

A presentation of songs and dance from the black and white era were beautiful. Aditi presented dances to golden oldies like “Dil Cheez Kya hai” and “Inhi Logon Ne” For the grand finale the artists invited the audience on stage and had them dancing to many foot tapping numbers.  The audience had a great time. 

Guests of honor included Vivek and Vandana Tiwari Sharma, Prashanth  and Anuradha Palakurthi, Rutty and Adi Guzdar, Subra and Anuradha Dravida, Meena  and Sundar Subramanyam,  , Mona Khaitan, Sanjay Kaul and Jaya Asthana. “The cause of Ekal is dear to my heart said” Chairman Emeritus of Ekal New England Puran Dang.  Many supporters of Ekal shared their view on why they felt Ekal was worthy of support. “We support many causes. However in most cases the money goes to a general pool. In the case of Ekal your money supports specific schools and thus you know the exact impact of your money. That gives us great satisfaction” said Adi Guzdar, who along with his wife Rutty are strong supporters of Ekal . “I thank Ekal for allowing me to fulfill my philanthropic dreams” said Vandana Sharma who along with her husband supports a tailoring center in Bharatpur. 

Sudha Subbaraman and Kumar Vishwanathan  were presented their family portrait made by Ekal Youth Leader Sanjana Sampath. She plans to do it again this year for yet another deep donor. The prestigious Nishi Nehra Award for deserving Ekal Youth Leader (EYL) went to Shanmukha Srinivasan, presented by Ram Nehra ji. Kids Aditi, Anishka and others made lovely 'thank-you' cards for the artists.

Such an event would not have been possible for the tireless effort of the Ekal NE Volunteer force, which included the adults and the youth alike. Volunteers simply showed up and handled the many chores. Team had the blessings of elders, Ram Nehra ji, Puran Dang ji & others.

The decor brought alive a typical Ekal school, you could feel for real! And yes, women happily posed with the handsome Akshay :)  The volunteers dressed in identical Ekal Sarees that became the talk of the evening.  

Dinner came from NESSP, Chhavi Tiwari Misra, Masala Arts, Little India, Dosa Temple, Bawarchi, KG Narayana & Ashland families, Patel Brothers,and Ritu Gaind. 

The pledges culminated in nearly a 1000 schools being raised reaching over 30,000 children. A beautiful event that did so much to support a good cause.

Credits

Photography - Naga Gandham, Priyanka Priyanka Manish Jaiswalal, Chen, Arun Anuradha Upneja, Ashish

Decorations - Aneesha Karody, Raksha Soni - Magic touch!!! Meena Mehta, and so many who helped out.

Audio/Video - Jawed Wahid, Sonal Limbachia

Artists Care - Supriya Singh, Rekha Palriwala

Brochure Design & Print - Meena Mehta, Neelam Wali

Brochure Articles - Nandini, Neha Vijay, Sanjana, Ayush Upneja, Akhil Upneja

Lighting, slides - Adishesh, Arun Saigal

Registration Table - managed by youth, Nandini Seetharaman, Karthik, Satwik, Sanjana, Praneet, Ganesh, and others

Book Table - Prisha Praveena Naduthota & mom

Ekal Pots - Anishka & Sangeet Srikanth

Food packing/presentation - Girija Mahendrakumar, Latha Krishnan, Krishnan, Ruchi Misra, Manjri Manjiri Vaidya Danke, Meera Ron, Karthy, Piyush Agarwal, Shobana Sampath, Krishna

Anchor for the evening - graceful Manpreet Kaur Nehra

TV coverage - Jharna Madan, Mandy Deb Pant

Ekal Sarees - Shree Sai Vogue & Srilakshmi Srinivasan

Core team members, Pushpa Baskaran lead the planning and handling of the event, managed the volunteers, supported by Latha Krishnan (dinner captain!), Aneesha, Rekha Palriwala, Sangeet Srikanth, Srilakshmi Srinivasan, Anil Saigal, Anil Minocha, Shuba Sainath, Namdev Baskaran, Anu Anuradha Upneja, Amirt Amrit Soni, Rishi Kapoor, Niti Chhabra Kapoor, Praveen Misra, Raman Arora, Sridevi Chen, Meena Mehta, Nisha Bawa, Monika Manocha Wadhwa, Mr. Karody, Sanjay Gowda, Bhanu

EYLs Janani, Nikita Minocha, Sid, Nishi, Ronit, Amirtha, Praneet, Sriganesh, Ganesh, Sanjana, Nandini, Karthik, Anishka, Akansh