Dinanath Mangeshkar Award

The 24th April 2018 saw Mrs Mary Behlihomji receiving the Dinanath Mangeshkar Award for her selfless work with deaf children through The Central Society for the Education of the Deaf.

Yesterday was the grand function held at the Shanmukhanand Auditorium with Mr Nitin Gadkari being the chief guest.

Mary shared the stage with celebrities like Anupam Kher, Asha Bhosale, Shekhar Sen, PadmaVibhushan Amjad Ali Khan (Sarod Maestro), Dr.Datar from Dubai and KaviYogesh (Lyricist who penned the songs of Anand for Salil Chaudhray).

Hirdaynath Mangeshkar welcomed us all and gave a brief history of the awards. The Compere introduced each of the awardees and read out their achievements, then Mr.Nitin Gadkare presented the Dinanath Mangeshkar Award to the recipients. Each of the recipients was requested to speak a few words.

The publicity shy Mary Behlihomji spoke a few words but they were from the heart showing the silent work they have been doing for the last 50years. The only thing she told the audience was that the school is open to all castes and religions. Education is given free of cost. Bananas, cup of milk and a nutritious salad is given to the children daily at no cost.

There is a school bus which picks and drops up the children at Byculla, and Mumbai Central station as some of them come from as far of as Dahanu, Dombivili etc.

The school trains these Hearing Impaired children to listen learn and speak and subsequently gets them enrolled into schools for children with normal hearing. The school is run by well qualified teachers who have the children’s interest at heart.

Mary also said that the first family of music was honouring the cause of deaf children who initially cannot hear music but with the help of training and good hearing aids they start to learn to dance and sing.

Mr.Anupam Kher was so impressed with the work being done at CSED that he immediately informed Mrs. Behilihomji on the stage that he would donate his prize money to the organization.