Like the last five years, this years competition also attracted talented youngsters at the Annual Acharya Viswanath Dev Sarma {AVIDES} Art Foundation competition held in Mumbai on December 21st, 2002. And this year too, we had tough competition, and six outstanding winners. The unique thing about this year’s competition was that we had contestants from all over India, small and big towns. And amazingly, the winners came from widespread locations such as Chattisgarh, Ambarnath, Kolkatta, Pune, Delhi and Chennai.

Special thanks to Sushil Kumar Aggarwal, Meena Dadha and Sunita Buddhiraja for their time and dedication to nurture this competition, and aspiring to make it a premier classical music and dance competition in India. Very special thanks to Sangeet Martandya Padma Vibhusan Pandit Jasraj for continuing to bless Vedic Heritage and this foundation, and bringing it to this elevated stage. I still remember the day when this was conceptualised by GuruMaa and Pandit Jasraj after one of the concerts at Sri Hanuman Mandir in NY! In a very short time, this concept has turned into reality.

Once again, we had an esteemed panel of judges from the world of classical music and dance: - Smt Madhura Pandit Jasraj, Shri Ratan Mohan Sharma, Shri Roopak Kulkarni (flute artist and disciple of Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia), Odissi dancer Smt Daksha, Kathak dancer Smt Madhurita Sarang and Mridangam artist Shri Shridhar Parthasarathy. Sushil Kumar Aggarwal represented the Foundation at the function. The accompanying musicians were Shri Shripad Jail on Tabla and Shri Niranjan Lele on Harmonium - both are renowned artists in their own fields in India.

After a long day of performances by all the contestants, it was a very difficult choice for the winners. Most of the contestants were so good, but only six were to be the winners. After much discussion and debate, the winners were: Vocal - Kumari Ashwini Vyaghambare from Chhatisgarh and Kumari Gayatri Gudi from Ambarnath; Instrumental - Shri Bijoyaditya Mukherjee from Calcutta and Shri Shakir Khan from Pune; Dance - Monisha Nayak - Kathak - Delhi and Sulakshana Jayaram - Bharatnatyam - Chennai.

Certificates were awarded to all the contestants. On behalf of Pandit Jasraj, and on behalf of the panel of judges, Smt. Madhura Jasraj and Her Holiness Guru Maa announced the winners in the evening.

The winners will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 each, and runners-up will be given Rs. 11,000 each along with a round-trip ticket to New York for the final competition at the Dipawali Festival in 2003. Wish all six the very best, and we are sure that they will win the hearts of the audience, like the contestants in the prior years.

Let us not forget that this competition is held under the name of the esteemed GuruDev of GuruMaa! He was a great astrolger, and a very humble man. He was responsible for the blossoming of the spiritual path for our GuruMaa, and now under the proud banner of his name, we are encouraging interest and promoting the ancient art of classical music and dance amongst the youngsters, the next generation which will carry the flag forward.