Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan conferred ‘Kala Pradarshini Ghantasala Puraskar’ on three personalities for their contributions in the field of arts at the 97th birth anniversary celebrations of the renowned musician Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao here on Sunday.
Bharatanatyam exponent K. Kalyanasundaram from Mumbai, Sitar maestro Pandit Janardan Mitta from Chennai and art connoisseur M. Krishnan, Managing Director of Sri Krishna Sweets, Coimbatore, received the awards.
Conferring the awards instituted by the Coimbatore chapter of World Telugu Federation and Chennai-based Kala Pradarshini, centre for performing arts and cultural activities, Ms. Soundararajan recalled that Ghantasala was a legendary musician with divine voice.
She also unveiled the logo of ‘Bharat Kala Sangamam’, an initiative for performing arts.
The event also had dance performances for Ghantasala’s songs by Parvathi Ravi Ghantasala, artistic director of Kala Pradarshini and daughter-in-law of Ghantasala, Kavitha Ramu IAS, and Lavanya Sankar, artistic director of Abhyasa, and her disciples.
Ghantasala’s son Ravi Ghantasala, president of World Telugu Federation V.L. Indira Dutt, chairman of AV Group Companies A.V. Varadharajan, chairperson of Coimbatore chapter of World Telugu Federation Rama Vijayakumar and vice chairman K. Krishnagopal were present at the event held at Sarojini Nataraj Auditorium.
Eye laser system
Earlier, launching a new eye laser system at Lotus Eye Hospital here, Ms. Soundararajan stressed the need for preventive eye care.
Preventive health care was the need of the hour, which has made the Union Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi take up programmes like Fit India Movement, she said.
At an event held at KPR Mill in Thekkalur, Ms. Soundararajan said that women must learn self-defence techniques and yoga to protect themselves. Speaking to the women employees at the Mill, she urged the State government to introduce self-defence training in schools. Ms. Soundararajan said this in connection with the rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad recently.
