BENGALURU: A musical composition about Mother Earth, sustainability practices undertaken by corporates, the transformation of lakes in India, an online streaming event, Alternative 2, will bring together personalities from music, performing arts, and thought leaders, to create awareness on World Environment Day (June 5).
Organised by VIMOVE Foundation, a non-profit organisation, it will feature 25 changemakers – musician-environmentalist Vasundhara Das, flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, Biocon executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Manipal Global Education chairman TV Mohandas Pai, musicians Bryden and Parth and Merlin D’Souza, speed painter Vilas Nayak, environmentalist Arun Krishnamurthy, Vimlendu Jha , actor Denzil Smith among others. “My birthday is on June 2 followed by World Environment Day. I wanted to mark both occasions by doing something that makes a difference,” says city-based Vinay Shindhe, founder of the organisation.
Each participant has pre-recorded something for the virtual concert. “Our changemakers will talk about deforestation, industrial sustainability, being better prepared for future pandemics, etc. These are flexible topics but at the end of the day, they touch upon nature, mankind, COVID-19 on interconnections,” says Shindhe, who believes that such messages might stay longer in an audience member’s mind if it comes through a mixture of music and arts.
The almost two-hour long concert will be streamed on line for free but voluntary contributions by audience members will be donated to COVID-19 relief funds. While the concert will stream all the participant portions from pre-recorded videos, Shindhe’s and a moderator’s parts will be aired live. Shindhe, along with 25 other volunteers, including five students from Christ University, have spent their lockdown days in bringing out this concert, an effort that they are now proud of. “If we had to do this concert offline, we might have reached just 1,000 people. But now, it has the potential to create a pan-India impact,” says Shindhe.
Agrees Pai, who says initiatives like this will help in building a healthier environment. He adds that while COVID-19 has put us on lockdown, people during this time have experienced cleaner air, bluer skies and healthier water. “It has demonstrated that the negative effects of climate change can be reversed, if we choose to keep carbon emissions under control through our activities. It is time to make the conscious choice to restore the balance in our environment by adopting small but meaningful changes in how we live,” says Pai. (The concert will be streamed on Book MyShow on June 5,7pm onwards)