Light in the darkness

Light in the darkness

A music and dance concert was put up by the visually challenged to a packed audience in JT Pac, Kochi,  on December 3, to coincide with World Disability Day. This was conducted by Ernakulam Round Table 214, in collaboration with the ‘Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged’ (SRVC), in order to raise funds to build an ‘Early Intervention Center’.

While Divyakumar Jain, chairman, Ernakulam Round Table 214 welcomed the gathering, M C Roy, project head, and Sunil Mathew, secretary, presented the various activities of SRVC.

The programme began with Sumesh, a visually challenged, demonstrating the use of a computer using screen-reading software. He addressed the audience with live projection on stage from his computer, using only the keyboard and headphone, without a monitor. Sumesh also showed how they browsed the Internet, made a word file, attached it and emailed it to JT Pac.

He also displayed good wishes sent from superstar Mammootty by email which read, “Music is the light of people in the darkness. Feel them with their music. Best wishes for the show.”

Mohanlal personally called to send his wishes the previous day over phone as he was unable to access the Internet since he is shooting in a remote location at Kozhikode. Singer Usha Uthup’s text message was also read out.

The first half saw celebrities like K J Yesudas, Vijay Yesudas, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Ramya Nambeesan and Gayatri singing with the visually challenged orchestra. Directors Siby Malayil and Siddique welcomed the singers.

Visually challenged artist Vaikom Vijayalakshmi opened with an invocation song: ‘Smaranam Guruharicharanam’. Vineeth Sreenivasan sang the full version of his song, ‘Anuragathin Velayil,’ from the hit film, ‘Thatathin Marayathu’, including all the dialogues, which are there at the beginning of the song. While Gayathri’s ‘Chanjadi Aadi’ was welcomed with thunderous applause,  ‘Oorum Perum Ariyathe’ by Vijay Yesudas and ‘Andelonde’ by Ramya Nambeesan enthralled the audience.

The orchestra by SRVC, namely ‘Heart2Heart’, consisted exclusively of visually challenged musicians. Afsal, a budding music director, and Ashtaman Pillai, Professor in RLV College of Music are the other two visually challenged artists who took part.

While Vijay Yesudas appeared again to sing ‘Alliyambal’, the lights went off for two minutes. When the lights came back, it was K J Yesudas who made a magical appearance on stage in place of Vijay, as the song continued without a break. Vijay appeared again from the audience with the father-son duo ending the song together.

This cleverly executed act sent the audience into a frenzy. Rithwik, a visually challenged singer from Bangalore, impressed the crowd by singing the duet ‘Oolala’ in both male and female voices.

The last song before the interval was ‘Oru Jaathi Oru Matham’, was done by K J Yesudas, along with the other performers and organisers standing behind Yesudas with lit candles.

During the interval, Jaleel, a visually challenged teacher from Malappuram, who is a mimic, gave a hilarious performance.

Next, it was the turn of the visually challenged dance troop, ‘Articulate Ability’ from Bangalore. Apart from folk and classical dances, they also displayed a composition depicting martial arts and used swords.

The dance section concluded with a performance by Lakshmi Gopalaswami, along with the dancers from Bangalore.

Lakshmi confessed how inferior she felt when she realised that people with normal sight were not taking full advantage of their faculties as compared to the visually challenged.

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