Shankar Mahadevan, Louiz Banks & A. Sivamani to perform live for 'Talk To Me' foundation

Noted singer and music composer Shankar Mahadevan, Louiz Banks, and A Sivamani will be performing live at Tata Theatre on Friday. Titled Rhythm and Soul, the musical concert with the trio along with Sridhar Parthasarthy and Mohini Dey who are coming together for the first time. The concert is in support of 'Talk To Me', a mental health NGO. The funds raised from the event will go towards their mobile facility to help the marginalised.

“We want to create a bus with a sitting areas. This bus will go and be parked at different locations in different areas where people from that vicinity can go and seek help. Even if we have one or two center, people can't travel but when there's a bus people can come from nearby areas,” says Dr Narendra Kinger, senior clinical psychologist and therapist for over 35 years.

The therapist hopes that the bus will be operational by this year. “We are trying to raise funds through music concert as it will raise awareness and reach out to people. We wanted to do something that people will enjoy and music is something everyone enjoys so we wanted to create an event which will leave a positive impact,” says Dr Kinger.

“In my practice of all these years, I have realised there are many more counselors and therapists but one of the biggest stumbling blocks seems to be money. Therapy is an ongoing process for a few months and many people drop out because of financial constraints; so the inspiration was to provide service which is almost free or pay when you can,” says Dr Kinger, who started the free and pay as you can; initiative way back when people weren't reaching out for their mental health issues due to financial difficulties.

“Clients decide how much they want to pay and in some cases if they cannot pay, there's an option to come and take the service for free,” says Dr Kinger. He also shares that several noted psychiatrist from the city have extended support to counsel and provide medication to those who can not pay. “It's a mental health initiative. We want to make ourselves accessible to those who may not be able to come to us,” he says.

Though, in the recent years, there has been increasing acknowledgement of the importance of mental health, many still find it difficult to talk about it. To destigmatise the mental health issue, Dr Kinger and his team organise several workshops and seminars. “The thought behind 'Talk To Me' and this event was to reach out to more number of people to create an awareness about mental health,” he urged.

Operational since 2020, 'Talk To Me' started its formal functioning in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. He says, even though there was no awareness 36 years back, people used to come for help. The awareness is not there into the lower social and economic strata. In addition to creating awareness around mental health, 'Talk To Me' also intends to remind the government to cover mental health insurance schemes.

“The government has been declining this for many years except this current year when the Finance Minister announced Rs 100 crore for mental health but for 1.4 billion population this amount is too less,” says Dr Kinger and adds that it will save a lot of insurance claims for the government when people will treat themselves with therapy and not go for many medical tests. “People under 30 have become more aware and are openly talking about what they are going through. A lot of companies have become aware about their employees mental health and this is a good sign,” says the psychologist in conclusion.

When: April 21, 7.30 pm

Where: Tata Theatre, NCPA, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point, Mumbai

Entry: INR 4000 onwards