Drishti 1001

In a pledge to raise $30,000 for Sankara Eye Foundation, Pooja and Lekha Chirala, rising senior and junior at the Harker School in San Jose, are passionately determined to make their cause a success. Under the experienced direction of their Guru Vishal Ramani of Shri Krupa foundation, Pooja and Lekha came up with the idea of Drishti 1001, a thematic bharatanatyam production highlighting the powerful eyes of the the three divine Mothers Lakshmi, Saraswathi and Parvathi with live musical ensemble. Pooja completed her Arangetram in 2007 and started this endeavor in 2009. Lekha completed her arangetram in 2010. While Vishal Ramani is proud of them both, Murali Krishnamurthy, co-founder of Sankara Eye Foundation thinks that such fundraisers involving teenagers is a win-win-win. "Our cause gets more visibility, good for the children and the community in general and the children also become our spokespersons/ champions wherever they go," he said.

In most of the cases, according to him, the idea comes from the donors and they execute it. Krishnamurthy explained that SEF is a great cause and believes that more and more teenagers should work together to make this cause a success.

"I know everyone wants to participate in a good cause and they are waiting to find a good cause. There are many good causes and Sankara Eye Foundation is a very good cause, sincerely working towards eradicating curable blindness by the year 2020 - Vision 20/20 by 2020. We are transparent (all our financial information is on our website) and honest and we always believe in doing the right thing, the right way. Donor's money is treated as divine gift and is handled as such. We all know that we are benefiting more than our patients and that helps us keep humble and we also know that a lot more needs to be achieved with all your help. Please come and join us, help us complete our tenth hospital, coming up in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, help us with our future projects - Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh etc., and support our free eye surgeries. We will perform over 150,000 free eye surgeries this year."

In an interview with India Parent Magazine Pooja and Lekha, sisters and friends spoke about their dreams and goals for this event. Excerpts:

Can you tell us a little about yourselves?
I’m Lekha Chirala and I’m a rising junior at the Harker School. I play on the girl’s varsity basketball team and am also play the Viola in the high school orchestra. Since I started learning Bharatanatyam from age 5, it has become one of my main passions. My most memorable accomplishment was when I performed my arangetram in 2010 to signify a dancers first major milestone.

I’m Pooja Chirala and I will be a senior at the Harker School this fall. I have been learning Bharatanatyam dance since age 4.. I performed my arangetram in 2007 and have been performing both locally and internationally since then. I was part of both Shri Krupa dance teams that competed at the International Amateur Dance competitions in Barcelona in 2008 and 2012 where we won multiple awards. I love all forms of dance and also participate in the high school Conservatory program. I currently volunteer for SEF, where I’m part of the team that provides important feedback to Donors.

Why Indian Dance?
When we were very young, both of us have been very interested in Indian dancing both Bollywood (pop & hiphop) and Bharatnatyam (classical). Our parents felt it was an important link to our culture and upbringing. Classical Indian dance required training and we were fortunate that our dance guru Guru Vishal Ramani lives in Morgan Hill where we live too. On the other hand, we learnt Bollywood dancing watching Indian movies. In Bharatanatyam most dances are performed to ancient stories in Indian mythology. We find it easier to understand and relate to the Indian culture through these stories. There is a strict dance code in Bharatanatyam which has not been influenced for hundreds of years since it was born. Bollywood dancing on the other hand is very contemporary and blends western and Indian forms of dance and music. One of the main reasons we enjoy Indian dances is because it brings our family and friends together. Our guru Vishal Ramani, is the Founder and Artistic Director of Shri Krupa Dance Company. She has blessed us with her outstanding choreography. We have invested a lot of our time into learning and later on graduating. From learning the basics of Bharatanatyam to the history behind the creation of the dance form, we have accumulated a lot of knowledge in Bharatanatyam. Apart from my parents, she has had the most influence on our character and maturity as individuals. It was not always easy, but through all the tough days, my Mom was always there there to help and persevere.

What is this concert about?
This concert is fundraiser to raise $30,000 for Sankara Eye Foundation towards 1001 free eye surgeries. If one donates just $30 to the cause, it would cure blindness for a poor person in India and allow them to become self-reliant and productive individuals and not be a burden to the family. The impact of the cure is immediate. We don’t have to wait for months or years for change. In 2009, I (Pooja) performed a similar fundraiser and helped raise money for 100 free eye surgeries. During the concert we will be performing short thematic ballets highlighting the eyes of the 3 divine Hindu Goddesses: Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Parvathi

Can you tell us a little about Sankara Eye Foundation?
Sankara Eye Foundation (or SEF) is a non-profit organization based in the US and raises money to provide free eye surgeries for poor people who are unable to afford medical attention. They have also set up 9 state-of-the-art eye speciality hospitals all around India to care for people. Sankara Eye Foundation was founded in 1998 with a mission to eradicate curable blindness in India by the year 2020. Their motto says it all :- Vision 20/20 by the year 2020. SEF has recently achieved an incredible milestone of performing 1 million FREE eye surgeries and we wholeheartedly support their passion and commitment and are thrilled to do our part for this cause.

Why did you choose SEF to support through your dance? What does it mean to you?
Our family has been very supportive of Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) for their work in helping eradicate curable blindness in India. What impressed our family the most is the immediate benefit realized by blind when they are able to see. They are able to pursue their dreams like any one of us. The sense of empowerment over a single surgery is hard to imagine but easy to accept. In 2009, Pooja utilized her dance skills and channeled them to a cause and adopted Sankara Eye Foundation to raise money for 100 free eye surgeries. Since then, many of our friends and their friends have followed this example. This year both of us have decided to raise the bar to do more for this noble cause. Our plan is to collect enough donations in order to open 1001 eyes.

What are audiences expect to do? Since this is free event is in the cause of SEF, in what way and how can they support?
Gifting vision has never been easier. The audience will sit back, relax, and enjoy the our performance. Just as we opened our hearts to them, we hope they will feel the same joy and donate generously. We hope each family will donate at least for one eye per each member of their family. One donation can change a lifetime forever. We hope that even those friends and families that are unable to attend because they have to take their sons or daughters to college, will visit our website (giftofvision.org/drishtivision-1001) and donate.

For those young kids who want to do the same thing as you are doing, that is raise funds through dance or music concerts, how should they go about it with organizations such as SEF? Can you explain? (50 words))

All the youth have some wonderful skill that they’ve learnt and are good at. Just like we used our dance skills, other young friends can get the support of their parents or friends and plan a program where they can showcase their talent and contact Sankara Eye Foundation. Murali Krishnamurthy and all the dedicated volunteers at Sankara will help with ideas and hard work to make it successful. Of course such initiatives can be taken up with all deserving organizations such as SEF.

What can audiences expect at your program?
Both of us have put together a spectacular program filled with dances highlighting the Eyes of the 3 Divine Goddesses: Saraswathi, Lakshmi and Parvathi. It is a collage of short thematic Bharatanatyam ballets performed to the accompaniment of professional musicians from India.. We express emotions through eye and hand gestures and portray the mood with our facial expressions. Our feet and bells synchronize to the beat and rhythm of the music as we perform the different short stories from Hindu Mythology. We are honored to have such amazing musicians, who came all the way from India, together we hope to give the audience a visually rich performance to melodious classical favorites .

The Program:
Sunday, August 25, 2013; 3:00PM
McAfee Performing Arts !eater
20300 Herriman Ave, Saratoga, CA
RSVP for seating to Free Concert:
chiralas@gmail.com | 408.805.0039
Donate at: konnectme.org/drishti