In the midst of the loneliness of the COVID pandemic, four teenagers from Mumbai achieved the seemingly impossible: to unite a worldwide group of youth musicians, in a one of a kind global concert. Last summer I had the privilege of participating in the second Aashayein fundraising concert, a surreal experience of collaboration and creativity that culminated in a larger than life global concert.
Prisha, Eesha, Vihaan and Sriya (the Aashayein Core Team) joined together, sharing a common goal to help make a change in the world through their passion for music. It is fair to say that they have certainly gone above and beyond in not only their spectacular results, but also the endless amount of effort and ingenuity they put into what they do. They stumbled upon Enabling Leadership by chance thanks to a Google Search, and after hearing about the organization and seeing the work that EL Create does firsthand, they were immediately won over. The leadership skills and the musical talent that EL Create fostered truly resonated with them, and through their determined efforts and guidance from their ever-supportive mentors, they managed to organize a successful fundraising concert.
Then the COVID pandemic brought a screeching halt to projects all around the world. Isolation caused loneliness and stagnation in all of our lives and at a personal level, I certainly felt like I was growing more and more disconnected from my everyday life as the days went by. In a year like 2020, a concert of the “Aashayein scale” seemed highly improbable because of the endless list of possible setbacks that would certainly be faced. Evidently, that didn’t stop the core team. They held auditions and narrowed their list of performers to a group of over 100 musicians and performing artists from around the globe. Uniting this group of strangers with a shared goal, they didn’t just create a talented ensemble; they created a community.
The path to the final product was a trying one, full of countless obstacles and sleepless nights, and a sizeable list of variables were accounted, for ranging from attire guidelines to audio file formats. Throughout these challenges, their unassuming and friendly personalities made them approachable and relatable leaders; not once did their humility give way to an ounce of pretentiousness. To say the path to the stellar final product was easy would be a lie, however I am fully confident in saying that there is nobody that I would rather have as a leader in a project of such magnitude and unfamiliarity. I live in Seattle (USA), halfway around the globe from them, but I never felt excluded or overlooked. That speaks volumes to the amount of thought that was put into the experience of every performer that plays a role in the project.
The culmination of all the work was a global concert endorsed by the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Hardik Pandya and Vishal Dadlani, but it was so much more than just that. Prisha, Eesha, Vihaan and Sriya brought together 100 performers from all over the world and created a community of like-minded youths. Demonstrating the incredible scope for change by today’s youth, they successfully broke countless barriers and preconceptions; their passion and leadership overcame the pandemic’s daunting imposition of the loneliness of isolation. It was a life changing experience for me and the other performers and a true honor to work with them on such a monumental project.
You can watch the entire Concert here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vokieOHfG8Q
Author: Ananth Dhananjay
