Wednesday, May 05, 2004
Wednesday, May 05, 2004 |
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Bangalore
By K. Satyamurty
BANGALORE, MAY 4. The outstanding Pakistani ghazal singer, Ghulam Ali, had a frugal but happy meal with scores of underprivileged children, at the landmark temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) here today. The Ustad is in town for a major concert. The Akshaya Patra scheme of the ISKCON provides nutritious midday meals to 53,000 children, most of them from government and municipal schools in and around Bangalore. Several of them were at the temple with the visiting maestro at lunchtime. Finishing the meal with sweets and ice cream, the amiable Ustad said it was one of the happiest occasions in his life. "This is one of the best such programmes that I have ever seen with thousands of children benefiting,'' he told Swami Madhu Pandit Das, president of the temple and chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation. The Swami said in response: "As an eminent musician of our neighbouring country, Ustad Ghulam Ali has a huge fan following in India. He symbolises the common good in both our cultures. We are happy to receive him at the temple.'' The singer with his versatile and pioneering style and a striking baritone voice, was just yesterday at a Pizza Hut on fashionable Brigade Road fielding questions from journalists amid the blaring rock music at the eatery. In the two years since it was started, Akshaya Patra has covered most of the schools where underpriveleged children study. The programme has encouraged a number of them who might otherwise have dropped out, to stay on in school. During his visit to Bangalore last year, the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, shared a meal with some of the children. Akshaya Patra has custom-built vans in which food prepared in a central kitchen is despatched to schools. An extension of the scheme is the `Kids for Kids' programme, under which students in some of the major schools in Bangalore pool their resources to help those less fortunate through Akshaya Patra.
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