Musical Night-Fun for a Cause

By  Gopinath Sivasubramanian

KATY: A Musical Night Fundraiser for adding High School to the Govindier Aided Middle school located in a village called Valavanur, Tamilnadu was held at Faith West Academy located in Katy.   The evening before Valentine’s Day, opened to the warm and smooth voice of MC Ganga Hiremath.

The artistes were from Canada to Katy.  The singers were Ms.Shyamala Ram, a professional singer   from Canada, Dipayan Bhattacharya , Prazwala Irshad and Sradha Ravishankar from Katy, Sandhya Ayyar and  Dr.Arun Joseph  from Sugarland.

Shyamala riveted the audience with her inaugural Hindi song that filled the auditorium with her melodious voice. Dipayan’s opening song was a K.J.Yesudas number from movie Toote Khilone.    Shymala’s rendition of Parineeta  song Kaisi Paheli Zindagani had many women in the audience swaying to her, a La Pied Piper from Canada.

Prazwala sang Tamil movie songs from A.R.Rehman that brought the desi audience to cheers and joining her in the numbers.   Sandhya sang  Tamil songs from Ilayaraja  composed movies. Sradha’s rendition of Adele’s Skyfall was a highpoint in the first half of the evening.

Students from Shingari School of Rhythm  and Athyanthika School of performing Arts  performed  dance routines to lilting music which was a visual treat.

The musical evening had a delicious interlude in the Indo-Thai dinner.

Sanjay Ahuja of Katy in the audience chimed “ The musical night is awesome. Rupendra Radia wrote :It was an excellent show with great talents , volunteers and good food and can’t ask for more ..”.
The auditorium was sponsored by Anand Chauhan and Dr.Ashima Chauhan. Other event sponsors include Vishala Grocers,  Choti Sarees, Sudha Chan, Prudential Insurance and Texas Kick boxing Academy.

Thai food was sponsored by Toon of Thai Gourmet, Richmond Avenue.  Indian food was catered  from Mantra Restaurant in Katy . Decoration was sponsored by Marla and event photography was sponsored by Murali Santhanam of Msanphoto.com.

Sharad Ravishankar shared his experiences of his  visit to the school and how humbling the experience made him feel about his own privileges.

Latha Ravishankar who organized the event  was thankful to the overwhelming support she received from the sponsors, Jimmy Botter -Faith West Academy, artistes, family, friends, volunteers, Mr Bangar Reddy, Devi and Chandra Sirigiri , Jayani Parikh, Sunny,Roger, Sridhar Dadi, Gemini Cownan, Nagarajan Ravishankar  and the community who supported the cause with their attendance at the musical night.

The school website is https://gamsvalavanur.wordpress.com/.