Sankara Nethralaya USA, Atlanta Chapter raises $200K to support 3000 indigent people in India

By Madhavi Indurti
Pics.by:Venkat Kuttua

The Sankara Nethralaya USA’s Atlanta Chapter hosted a spectacular dance-drama in bharatanatyam “Drish TI”, by Atlanta’s popular Kalaivani Dance Academy at the Infinite Energy Center,Atlanta, on September 8,2019. The program was a fund-raiser for supporting two humanitarian causes-‘Adopt- a- Village’ and ‘Mobile Eye Surgical Unit’.

An entertaining opening by emcee Jayakiran Pagadala whose proficiency of several Indian languages set the right note by making all regional audiences from India feel at home.The roll ups related several programs which Sankara Nethralaya has on its radar along with Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s AI revolution and how they have leveraged those in detecting diabetic retinopathy were informative and thought provoking. It is noteworthy that Google is partnering with Sankara Nethralaya hospitals.

Atlanta Trustee Srini Reddy Vangimalla, Vice President Moorthy Rekapalli & President Bala Reddy Indurti addressed the audience before the Bharata Natyam program and noted about Sankara Nethralaya fundraiser events in different cities in USA and service activities in India.

The riveting dance-drama conceptualized and choreographed by Kalaivani Dance Academy’s co-director Padmaja Kelam and scripted by co-director Siddarth Kelam had an apt theme that closely related to the causes supported by Sankara  Nethralaya. The way Hasini loses her eye sight and the way she invokes her passion for dance in spite of dearth of vision and the message towards the end that inner senses have no boundaries and inability to see hardly matters when you pursue your passion were heart lifting. This apt connection was remarkable. What a terrific performance by the artist Kalaivani’s disciple Priyanka Kasula who played Hasini ! Kudos to Padmaja Kelam, Siddartha Kelam, team of children who showcased their training and talents,lyricist Dr Uma Eyyuni and composer Asha Ramesh and members of the live orchestra. 

One of the attendees shared that he couldn’t control his tears when he watched the heart tugging performance of the girl who played Hasini.  Drishti signifies much more than its literal meaning. It’s about the awakening of our inner humanity and care for others. The external beauty that we see with our eyes is temporary and only brings short term joy. Anthar drishti or the inner sight, on the other hand, induces the highest pleasure or bliss in all of us.

Bala Indurti bestows Award to Padmaja Kela.

Bala Indurti bestows Award to Neelima Gaddamanugu

Fundraising team led by Bala Reddy Indurti, Moorthy Rekapalli, Srini Reddy Vangimalla, Rajasekhar Reddy Aila, Meher Lanka, JayaKiran Pagadala, Padmaja Kelam, Upendra Reddy Rachupally, Ramesh Chaparala, Rajeev Menon, Suresh Vemulamada & Neelima Gaddamanugu raised $200,000 to support 3000 indigent patients. Bala Indurti dedicated this success to Atlanta Chapter founder Dr. Seshu Sarma who has moved to Washington DC to live with her grand children.

Thanks are due to Atlanta team members Krishnadas Pisharodi, Srikrupa Easwaran, Phani Dokka, Uma Narayan, Raghava Tadavarthi, Kamal Satuluru, Namrata Satuluru, Rajesh Tadikamalla, Ramesh Valluri, Venkat Chundi, Ravi Kandimalla, Subba Rao Maddali, Ram Mallappa, Swadesh Katoch, Viju Chiluveru, Niranjan Prodduturi & ByteGraph for their continuous support and hard work for this event.

Thanks are due to MESU (Mobile Eye Surgical Unit) donors: Moorthy Rekapalli & Madhavi and Aniil Jagralmudi & Mahalakshmi. The main goal of MESU is to eradicate preventable blindness in India. Initially we are planning the MESU for Telugu states and eventually we want to replicate the same model all over the country. 
 
Thanks are due to the following Adopt-A-Village donors: Murali Reddy & Bindu, Dr. Sanjeeva Reddy & Sridevi, Suresh Vemulamada & Dr. Madhavi Rayapudi, Srinivas Surapaneni & Priya, Srini Reddy Vangimalla & Deepa, Prasad Mallu & Niveditha, Ravi Reddy Maraka & Praveena, and Balakrishna Nuli.

Thanks are due to Atlanta local associations TAMA, GATA, GATeS, GAMA, GATS, IFA, Maitri & Atlanta Telugu Samskriti for spreading the word in weekly broadcast news.

Thanks are due to the following friends & community leaders for promoting the event with their video appeal in Social Media: Dr. Seshu Sarma, Dr. Ravi Sarma, Anupa Thakurta, Phani Dokka, Hema Shilpa, Madurai Muralitharan, Jyothi Chintalapudi, & Neelima Gaddamanugu.

Video visuals which were created by Phani Dokka and Prameela Gopu were well received by the audience. This video also features Sundar Pichchai Google CEO, Amitab Bachchan, Saurav Ganguly and Madhav.

Bala Indurti bestows Award to Dr.B.K.Mohan

Murli Reddy,President Charter Global,Inc. delivers remarks

Sanakar Nethralaya team also recognized community leaders and philanthropists Dr. BK Mohan & Rajyalaxmi, Pramod Sajja & Pratima, TR Reddy & Niranjini, Dr. G.S. Visvesvara, Veena Bhat for their support since inception of the Atlanta chapter.

Mr. S V Acharya, President Emeritus and founder of Sankara Nethralaya OM Trust expressed regret for his inability to attend the event. He conveyed his message to Atlanta audience over phone thanking for their long term support and making Atlanta chapter one of the most active chapters in the US. He also thanked the Trust President Mr. Bala Reddy Indurti for spearheading this event with support from Vice President Moorthy Rekapalli, trustees Srini Reddy Vangimalla, Rajasekhar Reddy Aila, Meher Lanka, JayaKiran Pagadala, volunteers,  Kalaivani Academy & Atlanta community to make this a memorable event in the history of the Trust in USA.

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