Dr. G. Ramakrishnan
President’s Message
I am very pleased that Powai Fine Arts is celebrating the anniversary of the first year of its existence. For a cultural organization such as this, it is definitely a happy occasion since the dream of several people of this prosperous suburb has come true. It was just in the early part of 2010 that a few like-minded people came forward and decided to form a non-profit organization for the promotion of Fine Arts. ‘Powai Fine Arts’ presented a few good programs of music and dance during the last year and these were well received and greatly appreciated by the audience. I am happy to report that ‘Powai Fine Arts’ is now a registered Society and Trust under the Registrar of Societies of Maharashtra.
PFA felt that it will be very appropriate to bring out a souvenir publication to celebrate the completion of one year after its formation and felt that this souvenir with good articles will offer a deeper understanding of our cultural heritage. PFA also thought it appropriate to include in the souvenir brief introductions to artists and teachers in and around Powai so as to help the interested learners to find their potential teachers in music and dance. Bringing out a souvenir for the first time poses numerous challenges. The first one is to obtain good contributed articles for the souvenir. The second is to collate the data on music and dance teachers. I am pleased to say that our committee members were very active and successful in getting the articles and data on artists and teachers within the stipulated yet limited time.
Any effort of this magnitude does require sufficient funding and we are pleased that a few establishments obliged us by giving advertisements. We feel that our souvenir is also a good medium for advertisers to publicize their products and services. We want to express our gratitude to all advertisers for helping us to tide over the financial requirements for this publication. In a parallel move to this publication, we have also created a contemporary website that will function as a two way channel that would inform viewers about our range of activities while at the same time help us, through feedback from viewers, to be kept informed of our past, present and future.
Another major challenge in bringing out such a souvenir is in its editing. The Editing process needs to ensure that the contributions are original in nature, cover varied topics so as to avoid monotony and that the contents add value to the reader,. I am very pleased to get the help of Dr (Mrs) Kumudavalli Vasudevan, who volunteered to edit all the articles. She is well suited for this role as she holds a Ph.D. degree in English language and is well read and knowledgeable about classical music and dance. I am very much indebted to her for accepting this challenge
Finally, I hope our members, readers and advertisers will appreciate the quality of this publication. I do hope that this publication will increase the awareness of Powai Fine Arts among the residents of Powai and surroundings and will act as catalyst to increase the Life Membership of Powai Fine Arts. Finally I hope that this souvenir will become a collector’s item and that the receivers will find a small space for it on their book shelf. I also believe that if this souvenir becomes a success, we will be encouraged to bring out more such publications in future.
Dr. G. Ramakrishnan holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from BARC/Bombay University. He was a Research Associate at the Florida State University and Brown University, USA. He has worked for reputed firms in India (ICI),
Saudi Arabia ( Kaki and Arab Security Studies) and Singapore( Hewlett-Packard). He came back to India in 1999 and worked for Agilent Technologies as VP and Thermo Fisher Scientific as Managing Director. He was the immediate Past President of Inidan Analytical Instruments Association ( IAIA) and presently the President of Chromatographic Society of India ( CSI). He is a Composer/Singer of Devotional Songs and Bhajans and is the Founder of website www.bhakthi-gitanjali.com.