Students were able to mobilise over Rs 1.6 lakh from the concert

In a socially relevant and laudable cause, Greenwood High International School Grade 11 student Ainesh Mohan initiated the setting up of a musical group, Musical Messiahs, along with his friends and performed a virtual concert recently to raise funds for food supply to students of a residential school and NGO, Sucheta Kriplani Shiksha Niketan (SKSN) in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. It’s a non-profit initiative which aims to raise funds for people in need by conducting music concerts. The students were able to mobilise fund of over Rs 1.6 lakh, through crowd-funding websites and support from many others for the school, which is home to around 500 children. The school provides underprivileged, disabled children, coming from far off villages, a safe environment to learn and grow so that they can adapt to the outside world.

Commenting on his initiative, Ainesh Mohan, student of Greenwood High said: “I got to know of the school through a family friend deeply involved in social work. I then looked through their website and researched about the school and eventually called them up and proposed a plan. The school authorities were delighted with the proposition and helped us organize the fundraising concert. I mobilized some of the best musicians from my grade and I proposed my idea to them, which they readily accepted and the musical group was born. I thought the group name “Musical Messiahs” would be a great fit. ‘’Messiah” means angels or saviors and Musical Messiahs aptly describes our intentions – helping people in need through music.”

Apart from this, Ainesh has been involved in a lot of social work and loves helping underprivileged people as part of the Robin Hood Army, a group that works to get surplus food from restaurants and communities to the less fortunate. And prior to the COVID 19 outbreak, he spent weekends teaching children of migrant workers. Ainesh has also been playing piano for over 10 years.

The musical group included Ainesh Mohan, Aarush Mohan, Anirudh Krishnakumar, Aryan Jain, Deekshita T Nambi, Nachiket S Yadav, Neha Gupta , Prajeet K Roy, Sampreeth Immidisetty, Siddharth Sundarajan and Virochan V Pandit. The group performed different genres of music together, all contributing to the themes of “Emotion” and “Spreading Smiles,” towards the noble cause. It was a live stream on YouTube of the recordings of each of them performing their respective pieces. Some of the songs they performed included “River Flows in You” by Yiruma, “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saens,  “Summertime” by Ella Fitzgerald, “Exercise 17 Op. 35” by Fernando Sor, “A Million Dreams” by ZivZaifman, Michelle Williams, and Hugh Jackman, and many others. The group is planning more concerts in the future to raise funds for multiple causes.

Commenting on the students’ effort, Ms. Niru Agarwal, Trustee, Greenwood High International School said: “It is a wonderful gesture to organise a music concert to help the disadvantaged. Music is a soothing experience that enables you to handle disability of any kind. I commend Ainesh and the students for their initiative and I hope many more will come forward to help the needy through more such initiatives.”