The March 31st this year was very different for me. Not because of numbers getting tallied on the Financial Year End day, but for what I experienced in the annual day celebrations of an NGO in Thiruvananthapuram. The NGO is H2O (Helping Hands Organisation) and the event is named as "Fafrotsky-18". Frafrotskies means 'Precipitation of objects from the sky that are not normally expected'. About 40 children with special needs performed at "Fafrotsky-18", that included children with different kinds of intellectual disabilities including Autism, Cerebral Palsy, MR and Down Syndrome.
Two things that stood out; a) The way the volunteers were managing the children, and b) the way the leadership team of H2O, especially the founders Prasanth Nair and the Chief Executive Director Jolly Johnson, led from the front. Each and every child from the schools / projects of H2O got opportunity to perform. Some of them, quite a few times. The enjoyment was obvious on the face and body language of quite a few children. Few couldn't express happiness. But we could feel it. Skits to Mimicries to Dances... Later came to know that the volunteers were students of CET (College of Engineering, Trivandrum), my alma mater. Felt very happy to see that the students of today are getting involved in such activities. Kudos to them.
My daughter Pratibha and her Guru Smt Aparna Deodhar were honoured during the event by the Chief Guest Dr Beena IAS. My daughter first presented Raag Hamsadhwani as solo. Later her guru on Sitar and myself on Bansuri joined Pratibha for a Jugalbandi in Raag Yaman. Shaheen P Nazer accompanied on tabla exceptionally well. It was not easy to accompany Pratibha on Tabla, as she drops attention once in a while and quickly catches up. To be in sync with that is a challenge by itself. Shaheen did it very well. We thoroughly enjoyed peforming. I am sure, the audience too enjoyed. The objective was to inspire the parents of the children of the schools under H2O. Hope, we met the objective.
Once again Kudos to all the children participated, the volunteers for their exceptionally god job of supporting and taking care of the children, and the organisers for arranging the show. Our sincere gratitude to the organisers for inviting Pratibha for the event.
Yes, it was a milestone in Pratibha's music journey. And we experienced Frafrotskies...
Here are few pics of the event.
Two things that stood out; a) The way the volunteers were managing the children, and b) the way the leadership team of H2O, especially the founders Prasanth Nair and the Chief Executive Director Jolly Johnson, led from the front. Each and every child from the schools / projects of H2O got opportunity to perform. Some of them, quite a few times. The enjoyment was obvious on the face and body language of quite a few children. Few couldn't express happiness. But we could feel it. Skits to Mimicries to Dances... Later came to know that the volunteers were students of CET (College of Engineering, Trivandrum), my alma mater. Felt very happy to see that the students of today are getting involved in such activities. Kudos to them.
My daughter Pratibha and her Guru Smt Aparna Deodhar were honoured during the event by the Chief Guest Dr Beena IAS. My daughter first presented Raag Hamsadhwani as solo. Later her guru on Sitar and myself on Bansuri joined Pratibha for a Jugalbandi in Raag Yaman. Shaheen P Nazer accompanied on tabla exceptionally well. It was not easy to accompany Pratibha on Tabla, as she drops attention once in a while and quickly catches up. To be in sync with that is a challenge by itself. Shaheen did it very well. We thoroughly enjoyed peforming. I am sure, the audience too enjoyed. The objective was to inspire the parents of the children of the schools under H2O. Hope, we met the objective.
Once again Kudos to all the children participated, the volunteers for their exceptionally god job of supporting and taking care of the children, and the organisers for arranging the show. Our sincere gratitude to the organisers for inviting Pratibha for the event.
Yes, it was a milestone in Pratibha's music journey. And we experienced Frafrotskies...
Here are few pics of the event.
Pratibha, Aparna Deodhar, Chief Guest Dr Beena IAS and Prasanth Nair
Chief Guest felicitating Pratibha
Chief Guest felicitating Guru Aparna Deodhar
Pratibha performing Solo. Shaheen on Tabla
Jugalbandi... Shaheen, Aparna Deodhar, Pratibha and Myself
Dancing with mothers
Dancing with mother
Colourful Dance...
Cerebral Palsy couldn't beat their quest to dance...
Awesome singing..
Powerful drum beats.. Rhythmic too..
Part recording of Pratibha's performance
No comments:
Post a Comment