18 Celebs Auction Six-Yard Saris, Raise Hope For Covid-Hurt Artistes

Covid-19 has turned life topsy-turvy for everybody. For practitioners of classical art especially, the past few Covid-hit months have been excruciatingly painful. With Sabhas in Chennai, the Mecca of Carnatic music, shut and no live concerts, the artists have been caught in a pincer-like situation. On the one hand, their income flow has stopped. On the other, their live connection with the audience, too, has snapped. More than anybody else, the disadvantaged artists are worse off. These tough times call for mutual empathy and sympathy. Well, the pandemic has seen top female artistes in this part of the world coming out to aid fellow-artists who are in distress at the moment. Funds for the folks, and disadvantaged folks, at that! This is an initiative facilitated by Panchavarnam Silks. Eighteen top female artistes from the world of classical music and dance (Aruna Sairam, Bombay Jayashri, Sowmya, Chitra Visweshwaran, Sudharani Raghupathy, Priyadarsini Govind, Nityasree Mahadevan and others) have donated a six-yard sari each to help this cause. The saris were put on auction. The money thus raised will go to support the disadvantaged artistes and their families in these stressed-out times. These aren’t yards of fabric. Well, these 18 have given yards of hope to their fellow-artistes.