Revathy Ramakrishna, co-founder of Vision-Aid, an organization that works to empower the visually challenged was given the 2019 India New England Woman of the Year Award.  There were 20 finalists for the award that was presented at the Burlington Marriott on Friday May 17, 2019.  Renowned Carnatic Music teacher , Tara Anand was given that lifetime achievement award while Dr. Meena Subramanyam and Meera Ramamurthi received honorable mention for their work. 

Woman of the year was an event that was conceived by Upendra Mishra, the publisher of India New England.  Dr. Manju Sheth joined the team as director and hostess of the event since 2013 has reshaped the event adding lot of glitz and glamor to the event. 

In addition to recognizing the 20 women finalist, the MCees, Jharna Madan and Dr. Mandy Pant had a brief interview. There were dance presentations based on the woman theme. The first was a Bollywood fusion number led by the Jhoomar dance group set to the music of  the film Manikarnika. Poetess Poppy Charnalia combined her beautiful poetry with the Kathak dance by Shelley Chabbra. 

Shailaja Gargeya, a dear friend of Tara Anand created a beautiful video on the life of Tara.  Tara thanked the organizers and felt the award brought attention to Carnatic Music for which she was grateful.  Desh Deshpande introduced Jason Robins, DraftKings CEO, who gave the keynote address.  After dinner Revathy Ramakrishna was declared as the winner of the India New England Woman of the Year. “This award is not about me but about the cause I support. I am grateful for the attention it has brought to VisionAID. I thank so many people including my husband and my father-in-law who made this organization possible”. 

The other 19 nominees where Shefali Agarwal, Arundhati Ghosh, Monica Grewal, Srividya Kalyanaraman, Durba Mitra, Saraswathi Muppana, Avanti Nagral, Homaira Naseem, Saraswathi Nochur, Ramya Sita Palacholla, Jaya Pandey, Uma Ramanathan, 

Meena Ramamurti, Tanvi Rana, Pam Randhawa, Raksha Soni, Meena Subramanyam, Keerthi Sugumaran, Anita Teig, 

Kudos to the great work done by all the wonderful women. Lokvani congratulates them .