Ekal Vidyalaya’s ‘Ekal Sur Ekal Taal’ show
Gets 58 Generous Ekal School-Sponsors
By Mahadev Desai
Pics.by: ByteGraph
On Sunday,March 12th, 2017, Atlanta was in for a treat when a group of
performers from Ekal India performed at Berkmar High School in Lilburn, GA to
entertain Atlanta residents. These performers have been past students and
teachers of Ekal Vidyalaya and came to US specifically to generate awareness
about Ekal and appreciate the donors for their support.
Ekal, a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt non-profit entity has been working since 1986 in
neglected rural and tribal areas to eradicate illiteracy. It operates and
supports innovative, single teacher non-formal schools for underserved
communities, providing free basic education, healthcare, vocational training and
empowering them. With support from 42 United States’ chapters and those in
Australia, Canada, Dubai, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and Nepal, Ekal is
changing the lives of over 1.5 million children through 1262 schools in Nepal
and 54,764 operating successfully from Kashmir to Kerala in India.
The very reasonable ticket price included a full course delicious dinner which
people thoroughly enjoyed. The program, emceed by Rina Gupta and Kiran Kodithala,
started at 7:15 pm and included inspirational speeches by Arvind Sharma, Mitra
Dasa and Kiran Kodithala. The event included dance,song and instrumental
performances by well-trained students of Atlanta Nritya Academy;Geet Rung School
of Dance & Music and Prem Dance Studio.
The event opened with lamp lighting by Shiv Agarwal, Arvind Sharma, Rina
Gupta and Deputy Consul,Shri D.V.Singh. Followed by lamp lighting, Ekal India
team performed a beautiful recreation of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara to demonstrate
the power of India’s “Unity in Diversity”. Audience members expressed great
excitement and applauded the performance with standing ovation.
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| Shri Arvind Sharma |
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| Mitra Das |
Arvind Sharma gave a speech on Philanthropy and education. Arvind connected
the dots between Gita’s message on perfection of renunciation and the need for
collective action to eradicate the curse of Illiteracy. Murli Reddy, President
of Charter Global commented after hearing the speech that Ekal’s vision for
literacy throughout the nation made him emotional,“If we want new India to
compete on a global platform, it is our moral responsibility to provide basic
education to some of these uncounted children so that they can participate in
the opportunities new world has to offer”
Ekal India performed a heartwarming segment on Patriotism by dancing and singing
to various Hindi songs. Audience stood up and danced and sang along to the
all-time favorites.
Sudakshina from Atlanta Nritya Academy performed a dance segment on women’s
empowerment. During this segment, Sudakshina and team beautifully demonstrated
the different emotions of women and how they can have an impact on generations
for good.
Divya Srivastav’s group – Geet Rung Dance & Music Academy’s students from age
groups of 8-14 regaled the audience with dances to Bollywood favorites.
Attendees danced, clapped and sang along to the amazing performances.
19 kids from Prem Dance Studio, a local Atlanta favorite Dance Institute also
performed to various Bollywood hit songs.
Several attendees lauded on the high quality of performances from Ekal
India,supported by high quality and entertaining performances by local Atlanta
performers and their commitment to Ekal.
During the intermission, Mitra Dasa, demonstrated the power of philanthropy by
showing how he took a discarded can, wood and string to make a self-made string
instrument. Mitra played this instrument and explained that each member of the
audience is giving new life to students in India by supporting Ekal.
Kiran Kodithala spoke about the power of giving by giving a motivational speech
on purpose of life and the value one assigns to saving another human being. Mr.
Kodithala asked – “how much are you willing to spend to save the life of your
child, $10,000? $100,000? Or million?”. Everyone agreed that they would spend as
much as needed to save their child’s life. Mr. Kodithala concluded by requesting
audience to spend just a $1/day to save a child’s life by saving him/her from
illiteracy.
The event concluded with a great rendition of Ramayan by Ekal India. Amoli and
his team performed Ramayan in an impeccable fashion and the audience were
mesmerized by the power of this great epic. The performers showed great singing,
dancing and gymnastic abilities during this performance and attendees were
impressed.
The auditorium had reverberated to a thunderous applause after every item with
later commendable reviews like: “par excellence”, “phenomenal”, “impeccable
energy”, “very graceful” and “perfect expression” coming from attendees. They
said it was a good idea that the instrumentalists, singers and dancers presented
a variety of different flavors combining classical with film and folk elements,
making the whole program flow in a well-balanced manner and to ensure that there
was something for everyone to enjoy.
All in all, Amoli choreographed a wonderful program for Ekal and helped Atlanta
get sponsors for 58 schools at this entertaining and edutaining event. Ekal
Georgia Chapter President, Shiv Aggarwal commended the fantastic team of
volunteers who efficiently served dinner, managed the presentation and completed
secure online credit card sponsorships. Since Ekal Sur Ekal Taal is on a
national fund-raising tour for Ekal, which opens a school in the sponsor’s name
for only a-dollar-a-day or $365 for the whole year, this program can be enjoyed
in other cities too. For details or progress of Ekal schools,please visit
www.ekal.org and continue to change the lives of millions of underprivileged
children.
It was a well-organized, enthusiastic, engaging, much appreciated and enjoyable
program for a very worthy cause!