Unnati Center will reverbrate with heavenly music from renowned artists and their excellent accompanists as part of Utsav, from August 6^th – 26^th. This cultural event is organised around Gokulashtami/ Janmashtami every year.

Around 75 musicians, 16 concerts, one lecture-demo, three days of Bhajans and four days of discourses will jump start the musical event. A lot of meticulous planning and arrangements have gone into this mela.

Unni Krishnan performing on the weekend. Pic : SGBS

The musical festival was kicked off on the weekend with concerts from the sisters Shanmughapriya and Haripriya and Unnikrishnan P. "For 34 years we have run it successfully. From 1985 the event became bigger with concerts and dances featured every year. It is one of the finest in the country running for 15 days. Music lovers will enjoy music from the best," said Ramesh Swamy, trustee of SGBS.

Chitraveena Ravikiran will give a lec-demo on the "Lakshya and Lakshana of Carnatic Music’. There will be a flute jugalbandhi by Rakesh Chaurasia and Vijay Gopal. In addition excellent performances by K.V Narayanaswamy (vocal) with accompanists will be the highlights.

"Every year we have around 1000-1500 people taking part in the festival, making it a grand success. This year also we are hoping for the same. We will also be creating awareness about our Unnati program. We have got a lot of support from the people who come to these events. We also take the opportunity to show the centre and as a fund-raiser," said Ramesh Swamy.

In addition there will also be Bhagavatham discourses (Aug 22-25) by Mr. Mumtaz Ali, President, Satsang Foundation on ‘Bhagavatham’. From 26^th -28^th August there will be Bhajans from various groups.

SGBS Trust and Unnati

This is the 34^th year the Sree Guruvayur Bhajana Samaj Trust is organising the Utsav. The event is open to public, for free. SGBS Trust organises this cultural event to showcase their flagship program, Unnati.

Unnati is a vocational training program aimed at enabling and empowering youngsters from families that are below poverty line. This 90 day program equips unemployed youth (of 18 years or more) with vocational skills and life skills that ensure employment with reputed organisations at the end of the training program. The USP of this program is that till date the program has provided 100% campus placements to all its students. Over 28 batches comprising of 1500 students have been empowered till date.

Programme schedule:

6^th August – Saturday – Priya Sisters:Smt Shanmugapriya & Smt. Haripriya

7^th August – Sunday – Shri P Unnikrishnan

8^th August – Monday – Shertallary Dr K N Renganatha Sharma

9^th August – Tuesday – Sikkil Sri C Gurucharan

10^th August – Wednesday – Sri Abhishek Raghuram

11^th August – Thursday – Shri OS Arun

12^th August – Friday – Mandolin Sri U Srinivas

13^th August – Saturday –Bombay Sisters: Smt C Saroja & Smt C Lalitha

14^th August – Sunday – Chitravina Sri N Ravikiran

15^th August – Monday – Malladi brothers: Sri Sriram Prasad & Sri Ravikumar

16^th August – Tuesday – Sri Sanjay Subramanyan

17^th August – Wednesday – Sri TS Pattabhirama Pandit

18^th August – Thursday – Smt Nityashree Mahadevan

19^th August – Friday – Flute Jugalbandhi: Sri Rakesh Chaurasia & Dr B Vijay Gopal

20^th August – Saturday – Smt Sudha Raghunathan

21^st August – Sunday – Sri TM Krishna (Gokulashtami Special)

22^nd August to 25^th August – Discourse in English by Mr. Mumtaz Ali, President, Satsang Foundation on "Bhagavatham"

26^th August to 28^th August – Bhajans by various groups.

For details go to http://www.unnatiblr.org/ or their Facebook page

UNNATI CENTRE, Temple Road, Sadananda Nagar, NGEF East, Bangalore -38. Phone: 25384642, 25384443, 9844085864 Email: contactus@unnatiblr.org

⊕