Meeting Mr. Balamurali Krishna

I got this on my WhatsApp a few days ago. 

Hello Anish,

I hope all is well with you.

First of all, I want to thank you for being a teacher, mentor, and big brother to my son Manoj. As a music teacher, you have imparted skills to play guitar which has led him to try to learn bass, saxophone, and violin during a pandemic. You have influenced and inspired him to be independent and carve his destiny. I am proud of Manoj, who has survived and strived as a Canadian citizen and has successfully integrated and become part of a mosaic of cultures in Canada. This example is a testimony to the power of music as an expressive art to bridge the barriers in society. I am encouraged by this experience and want to include children in my neighborhood to experience and be inspired by the music or performing arts.

I want to request you to arrange a performance by your students in my garden in Chickabanavara. The proposed show will be on April 2 at the Ugadi festival, between 5 pm to 6 pm. The audience will be the children in the age group of 5 to 15 years, both boys and girls with diverse backgrounds, except that they are from a low-income background. These children experienced disruptions in their life due to pandemics, they were isolated and limited their play and formal learning. I took this as an opportunity to bring them together, in a safe environment and conduct informal learning, through play and celebrations of festivals. This is a great success and has become popular in my neighborhood. This show is part of an ongoing informal learning experience for children.

Your students who are still in the learning stage, want to debut their talent by jamming or performing a solo, duo or trio are welcome. It can be instrumental, vocal, or a combination is fine. Indian pop music is preferred in local languages. Your students can bring their parents or guardians along with them.

This is a new initiative to explore the possibility to scale it up in the future. I look at it as an Indian version of micro Woodstock to promote healing & goodwill, among people hurt by divisiveness in our society. This is to promote inspiration and appreciation for music and other performing arts to enhance the well-being of people.

I hope you will agree and collaborate with me to make a positive impact on children.

With regards

Balamurali Krishna

So I met him today to arrange for this and reading this made me feel good that something I did had impacted someone and I’m not feeling useless suddenly. This is also a small opportunity for my students to carry on with their learnings. 

 I will keep on, one day at a time, one student at a time. That’s a promise.