Durga Jasraj's Help for Ailing Musicians ...

Pretty busy with the upcoming IMA Awards scheduled early next year, veteran musician Pandit Jasraj’s daughter Durga Jasraj is also making sure that other projects undertaken by her pet organization (Indian Music Academy) are getting her undivided attention. Durga is glad that her organization has been able to help old and ailing musicians in the country to get urgent medical attention and says that several corporate companies have come forward to providing financial help.

Durga says, “We get people writing in to us from several parts of the country telling us about the plight of needy musicians. Our organization has been looking after the welfare of such people and providing them with free medical attention.” She also adds the several trusts and doctors have been appointed to aid the case. “Under this same category, several open heard surgeries have been performed and several cases of dialysis are also been carried out in several hospitals. There are some dialysis patients who are undergoing treatment since the last one and half years. So, there is no cap on the number of years of treatment.”

Durga however says that to keep the entire process transparent, instead of handing the money for the medical treatment to the ailing musicians, IMA sends the money directly to the hospitals.Talking about the ongoing preparations for the IMA Awards, Durga says that 2,726 applications have reached the organisation that includes entries from artistes and singers like Shaan, Sonu Niigaam Ji, Shankar Mahadevan and many more. Talking about the unique feature of the awards, she says that this is the first time for any music award in the country that musicians don’t need to depend on their producers to send their music samples. “Instead they can do so directly,” she ends.