The Faithfull Foundation Trust based on Orewa honoured an Indian family for its contributions to charitable causes and for promoting Indian fine arts.
Balan Pillai, his wife Jalaja, their daughter Dr Sandhya Pillai and son Govind (who was not present) were presented with a Trophy on Saturday, July 19, 2014 at the Orewa Arts & Events Centre at a cultural programme organised by the Trust.
More than 200 people attended the event, called, ‘Indian Cultural Night,’ which comprised mainly traditional Indian dances and instrumental music.
Long-time Orewa residents Purshottam Krishnan and his wife Ratna were the prime motivators of the programme and the initiative to honour the Pillai family.
Illustrious teacher
A citation prepared by Labour MP Dr Rajen Prasad (who was overseas) paid tributes to Mr Pillai as a Lecturer (since leaving his native State of Kerala in India in 1969) in various universities in Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia and Papua New Guinea.
“As a Lecturer and qualified Bharata Natyam dancer, Jalaja taught her children the art and trained them to become professional artistes. Their move was to Dunedin in New Zealand for retirement. While Sandhya pursued a medical degree, Govind was denied entry because he was only 13 years of age. Mr and Mrs Pillai obtained special permission from the Education Department in Australia to undertake university education,” he said.
Govind is now an MBA graduate (Australian Graduate School of Management) an Honours (degree) graduate in Engineering and a Law graduate. He is employed as a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young in Melbourne and Indian Newslink featured him under ‘People in Business’ in its June 1, 2010 issue.
Dance for charity
Four years ago, the family established Karma Dance Inc as a not-for-profit Classical and Contemporary Indian Dance company organising performances and appearing in festivals in Australia, New Zealand and other countries.
“Karma Dance Inc recently organised a sell-out programme in Melbourne in aid of charity,” Dr Prasad said.
Mr Pillai told this reporter that Govind is scheduled to appear at the Opera House in Sydney for a performance and that Sandhya is completing her examinations to become a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS). Sandhya’s daughter Sreenidhi and son Hari are also being trained as Bharata Natyam dancers, he said.
Dr Prasad said that Art would break all barriers, if only people tried.
“The Faithfull Foundation Trust has honoured the Pillai family for performing over 35 years only for charity and for bringing a social change in our society,” he said.
Madhur artistes
Among the highlights of the programme was a Jugalbandhi performed by the Madhur family with Basant and young Akhil on the Tabla and Deepak on Harmonium.
They kept the audience enchanted by their perfect coordination and synchronisation of the ragas and talals. Teenager Akhilesh (Akhil), who is fast rising as a performer by his own right, kept pace with his uncle Basant, while his father Deepak performed with steadiness that is characteristic of him.
The Performers
Basant and Madhur later accompanied Balachandra Bhatt who provided the vocal background for ‘Shiva Vandan,’ in Kathak style performed by his daughter Nutan.
In the first half of the programme, Nutan Bhatt presented a ‘Varnam,’ in Bharata Natyam style, encapsulating the triumphs of Lord Rama, as contained in ‘Ramayan,’ one of the greatest epics of India.
Most dances were in praise of Lord Shiva, including ‘Slokam’ (Hari, who also invoked the Blessings of Lord Ganesha and Goddess Saraswati) ‘Bho Shambho’ (Sreenidhi, whose second item, ‘Ente Bhasha’ was in praise of Malayalam) and Krishna Mudaliar performed ‘Pushpanjali’ (in addition to ‘Peacock Dance’).
Michelle Anthony chose to offer a medley of popular Hindi film songs.
