A concert.....soul food......touched

Asha for Education had organized a concert on Saturday called Notes of Hope.The first half of the evening consisted of a mesmerizing mandolin recital by none other than the maestro,U Srinivas, himself.Now this was the first time ever that M and I were going to a concert,any concert.I enjoy Indian classical music immensely but I wasn't too sure if M cared as much.

The whole event itself was very well organized by the volunteers of Asha and it actually started well on time!Strike one!

U Srinivas was accompanied on stage by his brother U Rajesh again on the Mandolin,Aditya Kalyanpur on the Tabla and somebody else whose name I did not catch, on the Ghatam. And together,they created magic.The music was divine and U Srinivas lived upto his reputation of being a genius.At times,we were so captivated by the music that we would forget to even applaud and we just sat there with our eyes glazed and our feet tapping away to the rhythm of the music.They played for an hour and 45 minutes straight, at the end of which we were left wishing for some more.And M put all my concerns to rest as he had enjoyed the recital just as much as I did.

There was a 20 minute break after which commenced a dance performance by this group of young adults.This bunch of teenagers was a special one as all four of them were visually impaired or differently abled as their manager elucidated.They were from the Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind which is in JP Nagar,Bangalore.One had to be there to see what these kids were capable of doing.They performed 6 Bharatnatyam dance pieces and 3 folks dances ,each of which involved very complex dance movements and steps and poses.And the wonder of wonders is that they got every expression right and every movement and step was bang on.They moved from one end of the stage to another and back to the original position with so much finesse and grace and ease that one point,I actually began to doubt if they were really blind.And their coordination was just perfect and not once did they make any mistake on stage.It was an enriching and humbling experience.





My sister-in-law A,is one of the volunteers of ASHA and she got to spend some time with these kids.And she says that they are such a lively bunch and have a very good sense of humor and made her laugh all the while.








Saturday evening was a first in many aspects for both M and I and we were definitely not complaining at the end of it all..