Nothing could keep them down

In an effort to shed more light on Autism Spectrum Disorders and their treatments, ‘Global Autism Convention’, a three-day convention was held recently in the City.

The event also had a variety of other programmes like yoga, play therapy and use of computer and technology.

There were 36 technical sessions which presented a broad spectrum of work in different areas of containment and mitigation of autism.

On the second day, an entertainment night was conducted as a part of the convention.
The evening programme had performances by special children from ASHA and visually challenged children from the Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind, followed by a short semi-classical performance by Mihika Bolangady.

The event started with an invocation by Akash from ASHA.

He was followed by singer Mihika Bolangady who enthralled the audience with her extremely melodious voice. She began with a bhajan for Lord Ganesha  and Goddess Saraswati.

Her voice echoed through the auditorium as she sang flawlessly without any nervousness. The performance was engaging and beautiful. The final song was a natya geet which ended with much applause from the audience. 

The next performance was something that left the audience in awe.  Six children from Shree Ramana Maharishi Academy for the Blind  performed a natyanjali and almost as soon as the dance began, everyone in the auditorium was applauding.

 The performance was so well co-ordinated and beautiful that it was hard to believe that the children could not see.

The hand movements were perfect and the enthusiasm  was infectious.
After the first song, the children came out with an even more difficult deepanjali, where they danced with lamps in their hands.

They performed difficult steps and in the end, presented a variety of poses as the audience cheered on.

The next performance was by five young boys from ASHA School, who performed a Bollywood-style dance to the song Yeh Ishq Hain from the movie ‘Jab We Met’.  It was hard to ignore the enthusiasm of the children.

The last performance for the evening was by Sairam Iyer, a singer from Mumbai.
Sairam sang not only old and new Bollywood numbers but also in both male and female voices, entertaining everyone present.