Music festival in honour of Mansur

BKF’s ‘Dhwani’ in aid of kidney failure patients
Deccan Herald

As many as one lakh adults and 1,000 children are added to the list of kidney-affected in India every year. Only about 5,000 dialyses are actually performed in Bangalore.

These statistics prompted the setting up of Bangalore Kidney Foundation, a non-profit organisation, by V A Bapat, a faculty member of IISc and a group of engineers, to treat end-stage renal failure. The Foundation has many firsts to its list - from building the first dialysis centre in the State, recruiting the first nephrologist, performing the first kidney transplant, taking dialysis to rural areas, to launching a free dialysis scheme in Bangalore.

Says Mr Kartik Sriram, trustee, BKF, “To help those in need of treatment for kidney related problems, the BKF conducts annual fund-raisers in various theatre, music, networking and social awareness. One such was the Mallikarjun Mansur Music Festival - Dhwani 04.”

Renowned Hindustani classical musician late Pt Mallikarjun Mansur was treated by the BKF-Chande Nephro Urology Centre in 1991, at a critical stage. After that, he performed at a fund-raiser in aid of BKF. In remembrance, the BKF began the music festival last year.

In its second edition, ‘Airtel Dhwani 2005’ will be held at Chowdaiah Memorial with performances by artistes Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Ashwini Bhide, Rajshekar Mansur, Salil Bhat and T Radhakrishna, in three sessions spread over June 11 and 12. “Our association with Airtel will be long-term, as they play an active role in awareness drives and help ‘express yourself’ better,” Mr Kartik adds.

The schedule: Radhakrishna, and Rajan and Sajan Mishra, June 11, 5.15 pm to 10 pm; Salil Bhatt and Ashwini Bhide, June 12, 10.15 am to 1.30 pm; Bishwajit Roy Chowdury and Rajshekhar Mansur, June 12, 5.45 pm to 10 pm. Donor passes are priced at Rs 330 for individual sessions and Rs 825 for all three shows.

For donor passes: Current Bookings - 25705858; Tickets Bazaar (Malleswaram) - 23440336, KC Das - 25587003, Landmark (Koramangala)- 22067777, Calypso (Jayanagar)-26552368, Music World (Indiranagar)-2525-2874. For details call 2666-1782.