The Atlanta Chapter of Ekal Vidyalaya hosted a music program at Global Mall’s Impact Center, Norcross, Georgia on June 20th, 2008 called “Ekal Shaam Bharat Ke Bachchon Ke Naam”. As it was an Ekal awareness program there was no admission fee and included complimentary vegetarian dinner lovingly prepared and served by volunteers, Isha Goyal and Anushi Aggarwal.

Exactly as scheduled Mr. K. L. Sachdeva of Atlanta Hindu Society (largest donor) lit the traditional Diya at 8 pm. Dedicated volunteers who coordinated this excellent program manned the Sponsorship, Raffle, Information, Dinner tables while Malla Reddy and Sachin Subhedar gave a succinct PowerPoint presentation and Chander Aggarwal, VP reported on the fund raising for Southeast Region.

Rachna Gupta and Sneha Mehta were the Presenters and did an excellent job of connecting the nearly 250 audience members with the Ekal cause through the old and new Bollywood film songs with fifteen talented local singers. The event would not have been possible without the heartwarming support of Navin Tyagi and his Shaam-E-Sargam group who lent not only their musical talent but also their technical expertise. The event proudly showcased the talent of Nikhil Kodilkar, Chandrika Narayan, Indravadan Bhavsar, Pankaj Bhargav, Archith Sheshadri, Deepa Sreetal, Vijay Gaur, Mita Mehta, Shyam Gupta, Aishwarya Narendran, Supriya Shridharan, Shobha Patel, Pankaj Trivedi and Jagruti Trivedi.

What is worth noting is that not a penny was spent on the program of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation as the venue was sponsored by Shiv Aggarwal, local artists donated their time and art, a family charity, Rajkamal Foundation donated $180 and two $50.00 Visa cards for the Raffle. The $180 with the Raffle sale of $550 helped sponsor two schools. The donors who had come to enjoy a musical evening were so impressed with Ekal’s sponsorship of $365.00 per school per year concept that they sponsored 25 schools in tribal areas in India. The entire collection has been sent to Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation of USA, Houston office.

Ekal Vidyalaya- Southeast Region’s will hold its annual fundraiser on Saturday, August 9th from 7:15 PM to 11:00 PM at Gwinnett County’s Berkmar High School where the talented Pandya Group from Kentucky will be singing ghazals, bhajans, old & new Bollywood songs and your favorites.