By Rusen Kumar
MUMBAI: Mumbai Marathon will be held on 20 Jan 2013 here. The Mumbai Marathon is an annual international road running competition over the marathon distance that is held in Mumbai, India, each January.
Light of Life Trust participates on a regular basis in the Mumbai Marathon. Last year we also won the Kingfisher contest for best performance from an NGO. This year, India’s finest rock band ‘Indus Creed’ will be walking with us. Above all Sivamani, India’s world famous percussionist will also be a participant with us. These performers have decided to partner with the cause thanks to Furtado’s—the people who deliver the finest musical instruments to musicians in India and worldwide.
Sivamani is the son of S. M. Anandan, a Chennai-based percussionist. As a child prodigy of 7, he began his career by drumming. Sivamani started his music career at the age of 11, and later shifted to Mumbai. He was inspired by Noel Grant and Billy Cobham. He has played for the biggest musicians in the South including M.S.Viswanathan, Illayaraja, A R Rahman and others. In 1990, he shared the stage with Billy Cobham at Mumbai’s Rang Bhavan.
Sivamani’s earliest experiments with music were with Carnatic maestros including KunnakudiVaidyanathan, T. V. Gopalakrishnan, Valliyapatti Subramanian and Pazhanivel, and L. Shankar. Zakir Hussain also invited him to share the stage with himself and Trilok Gurtu at a fusion concert in Mumbai. Sivamani has collaborated with several musicians including Louis Banks. He has done world tours with A. R. Rahman and collaborated with him for Bombay Dreams. He has also been a part of a musical group called Shraddha which includes Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, U. Srinivas and Loy Mendonsa.
Shivamani has a band called “Asia Electrik” with Niladri Kumar, Louis Banks and Ravi Chari. He also plays at another world music band named “Silk & Shrada.”
He has played the drums for many Indian films including Roja, Rang De Basanti, Swades, Taal, Lagaan, Dil Se.., Guru, and Kabul Express. Some of the songs that he has contributed to include “Kadhal Rojave,” “PudhuVellaiMalai” and Chaiya Chaiya.
Sivamani has performed in Dubai, Moscow, New York, Doha and Toronto. During the Mumbai Festival 2005, Coca-Cola India invited him to perform at the Limca Fresh Face 2005 event, where he created melody from Limca bottles. He has also worked on Galli Sim, an educational series on Pogo and Cartoon Network.
Sivamani has also acted in movies. He co-starred with Vijayshanti and Thomas Jane in the Telugu movie Padamati Sandhya Ragam in 1986.
Uday Benegal is the front man and principal songwriter of the iconic rock band Indus Creed (ne Rock Machine). From the mid-‘80s to the late ‘90s, the pioneering band, which set the foundation for modern India rock, garnered a stack of achievements and awards, including releasing India’s first all-original rock album, “Rock’n’Roll Renegade,” and winning an Asia-wide MTV Video Music Award for their massive hit “Pretty Child.”
But their proudest achievement remains the transformation of the Indian rock audience’s demand-from covers (popular songs by other bands) to original material. The Indian music scene hasn’t been the same since, much to their delight.
In 1999, Uday and Indus Creed band mate Jayesh Gandhi Moved to New York where they started up the Indo-Rock band alms for Shanti. They released a self-titled album, as well as a Hindi version titled “Kashmakash.”
When Uday returned to Bombay in 2008, he regrouped with his ex-band mate Mahesh Tinaikar to create the neo-folk acoustic rock band Whirling Kalapas.
Barely a year Later, Uday and Mahesh felt the need to rock-on once again. Teaming up with his contemporary fellow musician Zubin Balaporia, they relaunched Indus Creed in October 2010 along with their new powerhouse rhythm section comprising bass player Rushad Mistry and drummer Jai Row Kavi. The new Indus Creed have begun to tour actively and are already working on a new album, which they expect to released in early 2013.
The Mumbai Marathon is an annual international road running competition over the marathon distance that is held in Mumbai, India, each January. The course records set in 2011 were also the fastest times ever run for the marathon on Indian soil – clocked timing 2:09:54 by Girma Assefa and 2:26:56 by the women’s winner Koren Jelila Yal. The day’s events also include a half marathon race which is contested by the top-level Indian runners.
First held in 2004, the Mumbai Marathon was part of “The Greatest Race on Earth“an event sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank on a global level. The other three legs of this four-marathon race were the Singapore Marathon, the Nairobi Marathon and the Hong Kong Marathon. The race became an IAAF Silver Label Road Race in 2009 and an IAAF Gold Label Road Race in 2011.
The prize money for the fastest runners in men’s and women’s category are $31,000 (approximately Rs. 15 lakh 50,000) each, with an additional $2,250 (approximately Rs.1,12,500) being awarded to the fastest Indian citizen (men and women) in the full and half marathon categories.
The race has five separate race categories: Marathon (42.195 km), Half Marathon (21.097 km), Dream Run (7 km), Senior Citizens’ Run (4.3 km) and Champions with Disability (2 km).
Light of Life Trust is a registered charity that reinstates the rural school dropout. Here’s what we do in a nutshell:
Light of Life Trust was established in 2002
Starts off with 25 children, but has now impacted the lives of 7000
One of the very few NGOs that deals with adolescents–11-18 years of age
Hand-held guidance to get them back to high school, 1000’s of NGO’s offer primary education but after that what happens?
LOLT reinstates the Rural school drop out by influencing their parents, social circles, villages right from the grassroots level
We not only help them acquire an education, but a career, better prospects and altogether a much better life than they have been accustomed to
Our kids have chosen careers that are out of the ordinary–optometry, computer programming, catering, front desk and hotel management
There’s a complete turnaround in their lives–from being an outcast to being somebody the rest of the village children want to emulate
The far reaching effects of education has brought about change in the entire rural community
The youngsters earn decent salaries, from Rs. 7,000 to 15,000 per month
The silent revolution is growing-LOLT has spread across 325 villages across Maharashtra and we want to impact even more lives
Light of Life Trust is extremely excited to have these talented musicians walking with us, and for our cause to empower the underprivileged in India. Also offering us great support are corporate organizations like HDFC, Bank of Baroda Pioneer Mutual Fund, Welspun and the Aditya Birla Group. This year our Trust will have over 200 people from all walks of life taking part along with our children.
(www.indiacsr.in)
