‘Manamala Hendewa’ at Nelum Pokuna

The Nelum Pokuna Performing Arts Theatre will once again play host to the solo music concert titled “Manamala Hendewa” by the popular vocalist and musician Keerthi Pasquel on occasion of his birthday on January @9

The concert titled “මනමාල හැන්දෑව” will likely be Keerthi’s most successful performance to date. The show’s music will be provided by a seasoned band led by Nalaka Saji Jayasinghe, with guest appearances from artists like Chandralekha Perera, Nirosha Virajini, Samitha Mudunkotuwa, and Dammika Bandara for duets. Each member of the audience should leave with a lasting impression of the performance. In 2019, the first performance of “මනමාල හැන්දෑව” took place at Nelum Pokuna, where it received acclaim and quickly sold out.

After almost three years since his last solo concert, Keerthi Pasquel is finally ready to perform his biggest ever one-man show, “මනමාල හැන්දෑව” once again at the request of his fans who have been without live entertainment for more than three years due to the Covid 19 Pandemic and the economic downfall in the country.

The money raised at the concert will go toward a trust fund that will be used to help patients in need as well as to upgrade the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Apeksha Hospital by purchasing equipment and cancer drugs.

Every time veteran performer Keerthi Pasquel sets out to put on a show, you can be sure that he’ll try something completely new, different, and outlandish. Numerous concerts featuring Keerthi, such as “Keerthi Acoustica,” “Keerthi Unplugged,” “Tribute to the Legends,” and “Evolution of Music with Keerthi,” were huge hits. As a result, the theater was full to capacity throughout the performance.

Keerthi’s passion for serving the needy led to the formation of Help Circles (Guarantee) Limited, a non profit charitable organization spearheaded by Mr. Pasquel himself. Individually and through Help Circles he has completed many chartable projects:

Keerthi Pasquel marked his birthday in 2021 on a commendable note when he took part in donating the much-needed enhanced Bono Marrow Transplant Unit to Maharagama Apeksha Hospital. On an invitation made by Dr. Prasad Abeysinghe, Help Circles ( Guarantee) Limited spearheaded by Keerthi together with a few other donors helped enhance the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit from 2 room facility to 8 rooms. This is the only stem cell transplant facility in the government sector so far and the largest in the country. The expansion of the unit will help minimize the long waiting list and start allogeneic transplants in the foreseeable future. Let this be another great step in this journey of helping the needy.

Pomegranates are recommended by doctors around the world for cancer patients. However, in Sri Lanka, organic Pomegranate is not freely available. Further, this is a luxury fruit in Sri Lanka that limits access for ordinary people. Hence, Keerthi conducted a donation drive where cancer patients were donated a kilo of organic pomegranates upon request.

Help circles led by Keerthi donated a much-needed HIPEC Machine to University Hospital, Kotalawala Defence University. Sri Lanka had only one such machine to treat various abdominal cancers and this is the only machine available in Colombo at present.

Since early 1990’s, Sri Lanka has seen a rapid increase in Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) in some part of the country due to lack of purified water. The leading cause of CKD is elevated levels of heavy metal, fluoride, and minerals (Lead) in ground water.

People in North Central and North Western provinces of Sri Lanka are the most vulnerable to be diagnosed with CKD. Majority of the patients are low-income farm workers in the age group of 30-60. Patients suffering from CKD face many challenges like decline productivity, reduction of quality of life, decline in earning potential and inability to sufficiently provide their families.

In an effort to provide clean water to innocent Sri Lankan’s who are susceptible to deadly kidney diseases, Mr. Pasquel’s charity Help Circles funded the Handapanagala Water purification project ‘පිවිතුරු පැන් පූජා’, a project organized by Sharda TV.

Coordinating with the Education Ministry and Zonal Directors of aesthetic studies, 1000 students had been selected representing all nine provinces and is being in the process of distributing violins to all provinces. At present he has distributed around 500 violins.Songs are in plenty on this small island. Yet only a handful of them stays in people’s minds for generations. Keerthi has in his kitty a gamut of such songs.