Performers from the Ekal Vidalaya’s Villages Showcase Ekal’s Indian Successes

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By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: The audience was spellbound to their seats and didn’t stir for three hours except to clap to the beat of the songs they knew, some swayed and others blew whistles of enjoyment. There were no intermissions, no lack of tempo as the program unfolded like a well-oiled machine, save for a technical glitch just before the folk dance segment started. The musical program – followed later at the University Center by a buffet style dinner catered by Bhojan Restaurant – started on time at 3:30pm on Sunday, May 7 at the University of Houston’s Cullen Auditorium and ended close to schedule at 6:15pm and most people didn’t realize how those hours flew away.

Despite the early morning bus ride from Dallas where they performed the night before, the artists didn’t show any sign of fatigue, but took to the stage with vigor and the practiced steps borne from performances over 34 shows presented in as many cities in the US. After a few days of rest, their next Texas stop is Friday, May 12 in The Woodlands and Saturday, May 13 in Austin. After that, there are 22 more shows to go with May 14 in New Orleans then up the East Coast to Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and ending on June 23 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. The multi-city bus tour started in the US on February 24.

Billed as Ekal Sur, Ekal Taal (One Tune, One Beat), an Indian tribal musical concert, the concept was am ambitious undertaking of Ekal Vidalaya Foundaion – USA and its co-founder Ramesh Shah. EVF USA began over 19 years ago and is still headquartered in Houston. For his efforts in helping to develop education among underserved tribal areas in India, the Indian government conferred on Shah the Parvasi Bahrati Samman (Overseas Indian Award) this past January.

Shah embarked on the tour to accompany the performing troupe for 5 months to help in EVF 2017 fundraising efforts. He took on the ambitious challenge of promoting these young performers from nine tribal villages where EV operates who had practiced for 18 months in a unique blend of their talents and took the tour on himself to over 54 cities. The tour is partially sponsored by the Government of India. When Shah came onstage to talk about his experience in helping the tribals, he became emotionally choked up as the audience went wild with applause and then read out the list of donors and their contributions.

Walking onstage, troupe manager N.P. Amoli noted that it was a courageous and remarkable decision, but the results from all the performances have borne out of Shah’s belief in the tour. According to Houston Chapter President Pankaj Desai, a 10 year volunteer with EVF, the Houston performances brought in $550,000 to the foundation.

Part of the success of this multi-city tour comes from the stage management of Ramesh Shah’s younger daughter, Roopal, who ably emceed the program with her punctual and straight-forward style. After a brief musical interlude to let the audience settle in, she opened up the program with brief introductions and bringing on onstage the key Houston Chapter individuals and the Indian Consul General Anupam Ray and his wife Amit to do ceremonial lamp lighting, while two performers sang an invocation in Hindi.

Roopal noted some amazing statistics: the performers had 408 hours so far on stage; driven 15,200 miles and performed to 17,136 people “plus the 950 of you here today,” she added. Noting it would be a long show broken into four segments; she led the audience through three yoga stretching exercises and introduced Pankaj Desai. “It would be hard to imagine 30 years ago that we would be holding this fundraiser for Indian villages in Cowboy Country,” quipped Pankaj. “We are doing our part to help India progress.”

Consul General Ray lauded Ramesh Shah’s journey across the US and compared the effort to support education to the work of Guru Adi Shankaracharya, the 8th century AD theologian and philosopher who traveled across the Indian subcontinent to establish four schools of learning. “The philosophical basis is the same,” Ray said, “because the greatest gift and sacred duty is to educate. India will be a great nation since we value knowledge.”

Amoli introduced each performer and their village background, as they came onstage while a short slide show of their village and family played on the screen backdrop. The nine artists were Tilak Chandra Damai, Dileshwar Yadav, Radhesyam Yadav, Sandip Yadav, Johan Singh Markam, Gitmala Boraik, Sampa Shill, Neena Pandey and Sumitra Kakodia who all sang, danced and acted out scenes in brilliant and colorful costumes.

The program began with a Patriotic Songs segment with Jahan Jahan Daal Daal Chidiya Karte Hai Basera, Yeh Bharat Desh Hai Mera, Mere Desh Ki Dharti, Bharat ka Rehne Walan Hoon and “Bharat Ki Baat Sunata Hoon, among others while patriotic images of India and its leaders played on the screen. This was followed by the Bollywood Segment which featured the performers dressed in costumes to mimic the lyrics while dancing to popular Oldie songs Hawa mein Udta Jaaye Mera Lal Dupatta, Morini Baaga Mein Bole, Hoto Mein Aisi Baat and others, with the songs’ video clips on the backdrop.

The next segment featured Indian folk songs in which the artists dressed in costumes to highlight the cultural diversity of the nine Indian states of Assam, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Punjab. They danced to the popular folk music of the region while the video clips of the same dance were shown on the backdrop screen. The last segment featured a short re-enactment of the popular Ramayana, going through various stages of Lord Rama’s life, which brought the three-hour long program to an end.