Lovely Initiative by Gangadhar and Lakshmi

 Gangadhar and Lakshmi are post graduate students doing their Masters in Performing Arts at the University of Hyderabad, both Kuchipudi dancers. The lockdown and the ruthlessness of the COVID second wave exposed them to the hardships of many around them. That was when Gangadhar came upon this idea - why don't I teach the choreography of a song I had done recently - put it together as a workshop and earn some money that could be used to alleviate some people's troubles. He shared the idea with Lakshmi and Sravya, two of his classmates from the University and with their support went ahead and did an Instagram poll about the proposed workshop. 

The response was encouraging so he made a poster and announced the dates - the weekend of 21 and 22. It would be an online workshop, priced at a modest 1000 rupees, and would be for two hours each day. Gangadhar was overwhelmed by the final response to the workshop - 80 members signed up from across the world - 15 from foreign countries like Italy, US, Russia and so on. 

A Zoom meeting was shared and the workshop was on - on the terrace of their house, pushing the trash away, making space near the tanks, cleaning it up, creating space for a puja to initiate the program and then, so appropriately, under the open skies, this wonderful workshop took off - Gangadhar taught, Lakshmi demonstrated and Srikanth, Gangadhar's younger brother helped. It went beautifully.

They collected way more than they imagined - a sum of Rs 1 lakh.

This was the song Gangadhar choreographed, performed and taught.

And then they got down to identifying the beneficiaries -  people who were alone, who could not pay rent, who had lost their parents to COVID, who had no income, who had no food, who had no money - and helped each one as the case deserved. A total of 23 beneficiaries benefited from this wonderful initiative. As a token of appreciation to all those who helped they compiled a video which is shared above.

What warms the heart is the initiative, the leadership, the responsibility and the brilliant utilisation of resources to create value - and then use it to help a good cause. It is not what we have but how we use it that matters, not how much we have but what we share from what we have that matters. I'll always remember this story because of the way Gangadhar and Lakshmi used their available resources - knowledge of dance, a laptop, technology and social media, limited space - and created magic out of nowhere. Wonderful stuff Gangadhar and Lakshmi and keep spreading happiness and love through your art.

More power to you.