Spreading light through musical notes 

CHENNAI : ‘Sri Shivaranjani’ orchestra by the visually challenged performed for the 33rd anniversary of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Sankara Medical Trust and Shraddhanjali to Sri Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Mutt to an enthralled audience. The event happened at TN Rajarathinam Pillai Muthamizh Peravai Hall on Sunday. 

‘Sri Shivaranjani’ was conceived in 2006 by Shakti Kumaran, founder of the music troupe. The founder was not present at the event as he was performing in the US at that time. “We began our journey in 2006,” said Jalal Ali, one of the troupe members. “We had our first show in 2007 and since then there has been no looking back. We have performed around 3,000 to 4,000 concerts so far,” he said. The troupe kept the audience humming to the tunes of several well-known Tamil songs. 

It was on May 2, 2007, the four-member troupe performed for the first time at a wedding at Valasaravakkam. Today, the troupe has 16 members. The troupe has set goals that it is looking to achieve. These include making route maps of buses and trains available in Braille for visually challenged people, register Sri Shivaranjani as a society, purchasing musical instruments to reduce hiring charges, initiating a music academy for the differently abled and providing a platform for stage shows for upcoming visually challenged singers. The Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Sankara Medical Trust was started in 1985 for the underprivileged and serves local slum dwellers and others.