Smarananjali is an annual tribute to those Indian soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for the country, in the form of various song and dance programmes organised jointly by Doordarshan Kendra, Bangalore, All India Radio, Raj Bhavan, Sainik Welfare and Resettlement and State Bank of Mysore.

             The first edition of Smarananjali took place in 2007. “I’m a proud Indian and greatly respect the armed forces. I’ve also visited our borders - Indo-Pak, Indo-China and Indo-Bangla - and I’ve seen the hard work and the sacrifices soldiers make on a daily basis. They lay down their lives for us, but what happens to their families? We remember them during crisis, but they’re soon forgotten during happier times. I wanted to bring a change to that mentality and hence decided to start this programme,” says Dr Mahesh Joshi, additional director general, Doordarshan Kendra, Bangalore.

             Last year, the people honoured were family members of late Gunner Ashok Mayannavar of the 191 Field Regiment Artillery Division who was killed during Operation Meghdoot in Jammu and Kashmir, Sepoy Yellappa Gowdar of the 12 Madras Regiment, who sustained injuries during Operation Rhino in Assam, family members of late Colonel Venugopal Vasanth (Ashok Chakra), commanding officer of the Maratha Light Infantry, who was killed during Anti-insurgency Operations in Jammu Kashmir and relatives of Colonel Jojan Thomas of the 11 Jat Regiment who was killed in Operation Rakshak.

           “Our first programme honoured martyrs from Karnataka. However, this wasn’t done keeping any difference in mind. All martyrs are one and the same for us, and the consequent programmes have honoured the families of martyrs from all over the country,” says Dr Joshi. Although at first they had decided to honour only those belonging to the armed forces, they consequently opened it up to include para-military forces and all policepersons.

          Every year the programme consists of colourful and enthralling dance and musical performances. This year, it will honour the families of one Kativik Regional Police Force martyr, one Border Security Force martyr, one police officer martyr and two Home Guard martyrs. “We rarely have any speeches during these shows, except for the speeches made by the Governor and Chief Minister,” says Dr Joshi. For the first time, this year, the organisers decided to open the show to the public and invited people who would be interested to write in to them. “We received 18,000 requests. Unfortunately, we can only accommodate four hundred people,” Dr Joshi says.

|||||| Thank you for your interest.||||||