Bengaluru got a taste of the musical extravaganza that enthralled millions at the World Culture Festival in New Delhi earlier this month with The Art of Living bringing together an ensemble of 2000 Vainikaas (Veena maestros and artistes) at its International Centre in Bengaluru on Saturday, 19th March 2016.

As part of the celebrations to mark the 35 years of service to humanity, The Art of Living hosted Naadotsav. The event saw 2000 Vainikaas, from across the five Southern states of Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, captivate the crowd in the presence of Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

The event witnessed eminent dignitaries including Shri D. H Shankarmurthy, Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative council; Sri Padmanabha Acharya, Governor of Nagaland; Mr. G Hassan Abdel Khalek, Ambassador of Lebanon; Maha Mandaleshwar of Junagadh Akhada and Sri T Somashekar, MLA Yeshwantpur constituency.

Reputed Veena exponents including Revathi Sadashivam, Anuradha Madhusudhan, Shanti Rao, and Vidwan R.K Padmanabha from Karnataka; Vidvan Puddukotai Krishnamurthygaru, Vidwan Ayyagari Syamasundaram, and Vidushi ‘Veena Paani’ Eemani Kalayani from Andhra Pradesh and Telengana; Uma Maheshwari, Karaikkudi Shanthi Mahesh and Ramani Dharamaraja from Tamil Nadu; and Professor S. Balambal from Kerala played at the event.

The spectacular 2000 member veena performance had Vainikaas as young as 10 years and as old as 80 years. For Kerala team, Sneha Devanand, who works as a Developer trainee at Amrita Center for Cyber Security Systems and Networks as part of IoT and BigData team, also performed in the Fest as a Vainikaa. She has been studying and performing Veena for 6 years.

Cross posted from aiotm.in