Charity fundraiser All India Movement for Seva (AIM-S) is bringing a quality show featuring the renowned artist, stellar musician, accomplished Veena player, Shankar Mahadevan, who is comfortable straddling the world of Bollywood beats as well as purely classical renditions. The audience can expect to be treated to the delightful blend of the two as Bollywood Fusion on May 20th at the City National Civic in San Jose with Mahadevan’s show, entitled, “Krishna Sabrang”.
In taped interviews, Mahadevan has stated that he is more excited about who is raising the funds, and the cause for which the funds are being generated.
AIM-S is a venture so simple, yet so unique, while addressing the issues of education and poverty for rural and tribal children in India.The force behind this amazing movement comes from Swami Dayananda Saraswati, widely acknowledged as a philosopher, author and master of Vedanta.
The organization was so named by Swamiji to indicate a sustained effort, rather than a single event for his cause. In the same vein, Seva here implies a conscious continued effort so the recipient of such seva or service is helped. His idea was to help poor children of remotely based regions of India, of which there are about a 100 million.
Currently, over 42 million children do not attend schools in India for a multitude of reasons: the distant location of schools, economic inability of families to cater to their children’s needs, or, dysfunctionality of families with absent or negligent fathers. In an effort to solve some of these challenges, Swamiji’s innovative and practical idea was to use the infrastructure of existing, under-utilized schools and build Free Student Homes (FSH) or “chhatralayas” for students. The emphasis of these facilities is that they mimic a home environment where a nurturing surrogate parent is present, who looks after the physical, mental and emotional well-being of the students to support a well-rounded education.
Implementation of such measures has helped reduce truancy to less than 10% which also incentivizes teachers to remain engaged and continue to remain present in the children’s’ lives. The first such FSH was built in 2001, and now there are over 100 of these! The goal is to have 600 of these homes that can serve as many districts in India. Since its inception, close to 35,000 children from 900 villages have lived in these homes and gained education. The cost of educating one child for one year is $450.
Education is, of course, a very important focus for AIM-S, however the organization also develops healthcare infrastructure by building hospitals and clinics. The recruiting of deserving and needy students is the purview of swamis and brahmacharis, who are selflessly providing these services, eliminating any taint of misuse.
Vijay Kapoor, an engineer turned spiritual teacher, an eminent Vedanta scholar, founder of Arsha Vidya Center, and the coordinator of the Bay Area Chapter of AIM for Seva is passionately involved in raising funds to help the provision of FSHs. The organization hopes to create greater awareness of the movement and its goals, as well as appeal to the generous instincts of patrons to help the cause through a unique offering.
As far as the title of the show, Mahadevan claims that since Lord Krishna is an omnipresent entity in
India and his sagas pervade musical fields in multi-cultural ways, they command universal appeal in music lovers. He aims to present different forms of music which praise Lord Krishna as the common uniting factor.
Another intriguing aspect of this show is that both of Mahadevan’s sons, Siddharth and Shivam will be sharing the stage with him for the first time in the US; the former rendering the rock version, while the latter will be singing Bala Krishna songs. The concert aims to be a celebration of Lord Krishna presented in an entertaining, multi lingual, multi-cultural way, encompassing different genres of music from Carnatic, Hindustani, folk, Rajasthani, Thumri, Bhajans as well as spanning the arc of Western pop, rock and jazz music.
What better way to serve the community, help needy children, and have an enjoyable evening with epic music that will unite the mind and soul.
Archana Asthana
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
