The Akshaya Patra
Foundation served its billionth meal in
August 2012.Music for hunger is one of the initiatives of Akshaya Patra
Foundation for the much needed awareness on its work. To mark the
occasion of billionth meal celebration, Shankar Mahadevan, India’s iconic
singer, who achieved worldwide fame with his album ‘Breathless’, and who has
sung and composed music for innumerable super-hit films in Bollywood has
composed and sung a number specially dedicated to Akshaya Patra.
The track , “Ode to a billion” was officially released by Narayan Murthy, Chairman Emeritus,
Infosys Limited, and Sudha Murthy, Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation who
have been long time patrons of Akshaya Patra on August 5, 2012 in Bangalore
following which Shankar Mahadevan gave some performances along with “Ode to a
billion”.
The song, accompanied by a video, in which he has featured,
celebrates the joys of childhood; it seeks to create a world where children can
enjoy a carefree childhood that is not worried about where the next meal is
coming from. The lyrics for this song are written by the legendary Javed
Akhtar. The song conveys a powerful message on the importance and
significance of education and the need for values.
This album will be featured on popular music channels;
download options will be given to prominent mobile phone companies and wide
publicity for the song will be enabled through other venues. This
initiative is expected to raise the levels of awareness for Akshaya Patra, and
more importantly, the need for education internationally, and nationally.
