Addressing the audience, the founder Robin Raina, talked about how he initially began by putting in 100 thousand dollars in to the foundation himself and has been very encouraged by the kind of support he has received from people since then. Talking about the foundation’s work, he highlighted several ventures where the foundation has provided on going education, shelter and recreation to children in slum areas in India. In Bombay because they could accept only one child from each underprivileged household, every family they chose wanted to have their son educated. The foundation on the contrary chose a girl child from each household to stop this age-old tradition of giving priority to the male child and to discourage discrimination against the female child. This information was greeted by great applause from the audience. The foundation has also joined hands with actor Sunil Dutt to collaborate on medical projects in India. There is another project that is focused on helping displaced Kashmiri children and another to give scholarships to blind children. (For more information, go to Rainafoundation.com). From the elegantly designed donation envelopes and souvenir to the beautifully decorated stage by professional designers the entire concert was very well organized.

Raina was very appreciative of the legendary singer for agreeing to do the concert and support the foundation’s endeavors for betterment of children. The evening began with honoring Manna Dey with a lifetime achievement award, followed by a few solos by Jaffreen a young Bangladeshi singer from New York who has sung with the likes of Asha Bhonsle in Bombay. She sang two popular Lata numbers-Yeh Kahan aa gaye hum and Naina Barse, before Manna Dey came on stage to a standing ovation. The maestro thanked the audience for supporting such a noble cause and began what was to be a mesmerizing 4 hours of superlative singing before an enthralled audience. From unforgettable golden classics like Sur na Saje, tum besahara ho to, kaun aya mere man ke dware, ai meri zohra jabi, zindagi kaisi hai paheli hai, tuje suraj kahoon ya chanda, to the heart warming kasme wade pyaar wafa saab and the stellar ai mere pyaare watan, the hall resonated with Dey’s powerful voice, perfect pitch and melodious rendering. It was amazing to see how high he could take each note and the precision with which he did it in spite of his age and a sore throat ‘ “Even Lata Mangeshkar cannot do that today for such a long time,” said Sandeep Savla, who accompanied Dey on Keyboard and is a musician and music arranger par excellence himself. Dey also sang a few popular duets of his time with Jaffreen, and it was interesting to see that she couldn’t quite keep up with Manna Dey in spite of decades of years separating the two. She kept sipping water after each rendition while Dey sang for hours without needing anything- it was truly amazing to see that kind of stamina at his age.

Manna Dey also invited Kumud Savla a well known exponent and teacher of Kathak to perform as he sang the song that netted him the National award- Jhanak Jhanka tori Baje Payaliya. Kumud improvised on the spot and gracefully went through the various emotions depicted in the song-a wonderful touch to the evening’s presentation.

Dey had interesting anecdotes about some of the songs he sang, from how Rajesh Khanna on hearing Zindagi kaisi hai paheli which was to be the title song, insisted it be picturised on him instead, and how Pran wanted him to keep him in mind with kasme wade pyar wafa sab, and not sing it too intricately or Pran may not be able to do justice to the rendition on the screen. He talked of his real break coming from Shankar Jaikishan, and that Salil Chaudhry was not just a master musician but also a writer par excellence and a close friend. He talked about the amount of work and nuances it required to sing for comedic legend, the late Mehmood.

Dey then sang in Malayalam, Bengali and Gujarati on popular demand and also one of his own semi classical compositions. Every song was welcomed with cheers and whistles and the maestro was greeted with constant applause as he ended each song. He was very touched and said he found it incredibly heart warming that decades down the road so many people still love his songs with such passion. It has made him feel that his life long devotion to music has been worth it.

The concert ended close to 1 a.m. and people were still clamoring for more. The Raina foundation was able to raise close to 26,000 dollars from this event.