ON SONG THIS YULETIDE

After a hiatus of a few years, I got back to the Celestial Voices choir of which I had been a part. We had two performances this year. We peaked in the second.

We did not have the thrill of the competitions this year.

SINGING AT THE THALASHERRY CHURCH FOR SOLI DEO GLORIA

There were lots of good food that we got to share, banter right through the late hours and some solo singing that I could not stop doing. I think I would have bored the young ones with my old bunch of songs.

The onward journey to Kerala took off well. We were at the Chennai railway station pretty early and had enough time to settle down into our seats.

When sleeping time came we had some snoring music from fellow passengers. As it has always happened in the past, I could not sleep after belting out many solo numbers.

My mates would have thought that I was putting up a stunt when I had opened my laptop and books in the train, to study my course material. It was a serious attempt though it seriously flopped :) because singing and studies never go hand in hand for me. I always tend to make that mistake. We reached Tiruvalla station and then the place of stay and were put through a good stint of hospitality. The food was simple and good. A few of us went to the Parimala Church that was close by and offered our prayers.

Soli Deo Gloria was the name of this occasion of music on September 1st, 2019 at the CSI St.Thomas Church at Thalasherry, Tiruvalla. It's a Latin term meaning 'Glory to God alone'. This church has Anglican roots. It's notable that Ambalacatta, Quilon and Thalassery were the places where Tamil Christian books were printed by European missionaries in large numbers for more than 300 years. The CSI churches have always been on top when it came to choir singing and four part harmony and we could see it in the way their choir was organized and in the arrangements that were made. It was really heartening, whenever that feeling that we had finally made it to this place, kept touching our hearts. We had had an invitation last year for the same occasion, but it had got washed out due to the very severe flood situations in Kerala.

The base group where I belong to, had some challenges to iron out during our mock singing sessions but the final show went through really well. We pulled it off really well. This was not a competition. A few others teams that I got to hear also performed really well.

A bunch of us were to return the same day as we had to report for work the next day. And so we had planned early all the logistics to reach the railway station so as to not miss the train. Once our singing was done, we slipped out of the church, collected our luggage and food packets and got into a van that was kept ready for us. We just had twenty minutes with us to make it to the station and then scramble on to the right platform. A few in the returning bunch constantly kept tracking the train approaching the station.

After the van had moved fifty metres from the church, we had a beautiful twist as one of the members had left her mobile phone back at the church with another person in our team :) So we stopped and waited for her to run and get back. This tremendously added more thumping to our already pounding heart beat :) What was supposed to be a small regional TV show was now taking the dimensions of a Bollywood thriller.

She got back and we were soon on our way. We reached the station and lost a few minutes trying to understand which platform our train would come in. We got the information and validated it with a few vendors at the station and had to take the over-bridge to get to the right platform. Once we were there we heard the announcement that the train was waiting at a distant spot for the signal. Two other trains went by and we had spent a good thirty minutes there waiting and chatting. Meanwhile, a powerful shower of rain had also come down.

We couldn't change to some casual clothes before we had left the church as we were hard pressed for time. Once the train came, we got in and did that first. The return journey was pretty good. We had long hours to sleep as the train was to hit Chennai only around 10.30 am. Our talented keyboardist treated us with a big bag of food that his parents had brought to the Kottayam station. That served both for dinner and the next day's breakfast. We also had the food packed by the church for dinner. So, we all went to bed with a full belly.

It was a sad to get back to Chennai from God's Own Country but when duty calls, we have to.

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THE IMPACTS OF MY SINGING CRAZE – SHADES OF THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE SAD

Although I was a day scholar at college, I frequented the hostel at least two days in a week. Settling in a corner of my friend Manokaran’s room, I would start singing. Jayaram, who also sang, would join me sometimes. Hostel mates would slowly come in and in about thirty minutes, there would be a good crowd listening and calling out for more songs. After each such session, when I travelled back home, I just could not think of anything else other than songs. I consider such wonderful moments with friends to be very precious. Even today, when there are small unions with friends, the same singing happens, but still, those times at college remain as beautiful patches.

I had a cousin sister with whom I had the opportunity to discuss many Malayalam songs. She was blessed with a great voice and there were songs that I always wanted her to sing again and again. She also would very keenly listen to the songs I sang. There were many moments we spent, singing and discussing the finer aspects of the songs. In 1993, in her twenties, she left for her heavenly abode after a battle with aplastic anaemia. In a forest, where lots of birds sing, even the absence of one, makes a difference. Her songs still remain in the song space that surrounds me.

My marriage was in 1993 and my wife never knew about this craze that I had. Whenever we went out together, I always had a song running on me, either humming or singing. My wife often nudged me to draw my attention to people who were watching me. She found this to be very embarrassing and calls me crazy. I have still not got out of this habit as yet.

On an afternoon in the hot month of May, 1996, my colleague, who is my good friend and I, stepped out for lunch and were walking through the shop floor. This was while I was with my first employer. I never knew that he had actually come out after a hot board room discussion. We moved towards the company canteen silently and I was humming a favourite song that was on my mind, a little louder. I knew that I could hum it even louder as my song would never be heard by anyone 15 feet away due to the din of the machines around. I sang a little louder. A third person joined us while we were on the way. He was part of my colleague's team and on seeing him, my colleague started off with the same topic that had been discussed in the board room. I was still humming and singing a bit loudly. Seeing my casual demeanour while such a serious topic was being discussed by him, he suddenly yelled a question "Why can't you keep quiet?” at me. It really rattled me. I should have been careful I thought. He immediately apologized for what he did, but I too felt I should have desisted from such behaviour that time.

In 2000, my first employer sent me for a management training programme at Lonavala. This was for a week’s duration. There were participants from several corners of India, belonging to the same company. One person named Kumar, with whom I was teamed up for working sessions and presentations treated me with sheer disdain, right from day one. It really put me off and also hurt me so much, that I could not focus on the sessions that were running. I really did not know why he was doing that either. On the last day, there was an open session around evening time, where the participants could entertain the gathering. I was also one of the few who sang a few songs in Hindi and Malayalam. Kumar came to me and was effusive in his praise for my singing. Thereafter, the way he talked to me and treated me was so different. That evening, many other participants called me to their places in the hotel, where they were meeting as small groups and made me sing.

In the year 2003, I joined my second employer at Kolkata. My wife and daughter had not moved with me as she was into an established job at Chennai and my daughter was into school. So I was shuttling between Kolkata and Chennai once in three or four months. The Howrah mail took a long time and so the Coromandel Express was what I always preferred to for coming down to Chennai. The return was by flight, as that way crunched down on the sad period of thinking while leaving home. I had a good Walkman with me and I had just caught up with Salilda's Bengali film songs. On one such trips to Chennai, I was on the middle berth and with my earphones on me, I was singing along while the song was running. I never knew that my singing was that loud. When we touched early evening and I had climbed down from my berth to sit down for a while, a Bengali lady who was travelling with her little son complimented me for the singing. She also gave me a Chocolate pie that they were having then and told me to always keep singing.

Kolkata gave me a new high in singing. There was a corporate Anthakshari competition, for which I also had mailed in my nomination. I still don’t know Hindi although I keep singing a lot of Hindi numbers. On the night before the competition, my friend and roommate Ankur, spent his valuable time, to explain the meaning of the songs that I had selected for singing. I had written down the script in English. In the first round which was an individual round, I sang three Hindi songs and I got lots of appreciation from the judges for my voice and singing. And then, they started talking to me in Hindi on something else they wanted me to sing along with another colleague. I did not know how to respond. The colleagues with whom I went were also new to me and they also did not know why I was displaying an embarrassed silence when the judges were asking me. I did not want to show any sign of my ignorance of Hindi as I thought that it would go in as a negative point. Nevertheless in the team round, we as a team could not qualify and move further. But, that was the first time, an external judge was complimenting my singing and it gave me real confidence. The very next week, I was on a stage at Kolkata and I sang a Hindi number.

The singing craze still continues even when age is going up in numbers. Many times I wonder if it’s time to keep quiet. But frankly, am not able to.

OUR SECOND WIN THIS SEASON - A BIG KILL

I remember our battle at the Green Meadows Resort on the ECR road in 2011. The teams who battled were from a diverse genre. We hall all kinds of groups and it was a real treat to watch. I could not believe that we battled and got the second position then.

Our competition at the Hindustan University was of a similar profile. There was a Mizo choir, four Marthoma chruch choirs, two CSI choirs and many bands and to beat all of them and come out as the winner was truly amazing. As a group we have given our best and Vinod, our great conductor and trainer deserves a big applause for ironing out all the discords while we were put through the rigourous drills.

We had some lovely and precious moments around the time the victory was announced. Me and my choir mate running up from the ground floor on hearing the cry of our other mates, never expecting a victory at all, the sight of other teams giving us a standing ovation when we were collecting the award, our ride back home with lots of singing and revelry, our group walking a short distance to the church singing 'Jingle Bells', our dear priest waiting for us at the church with a bag of sweets and the final victory shout before we parted for home.

Here's a small poem that I jotted down after this victory.

When  Victory Came Knocking

The smell of victory,
After an intense battle,
Can be intoxicating,
And yesterday,
Victory overwhelmed us.

For many of us,
Victory came knocking,
When we had closed the doors of hope,
And had started looking beyond.
Some of us had moved afar,
And were busy feeding our horses,
And sharpening our swords,
For the next battle.
But then we heard,
The cry of victory,
Resonating all over our camp,
And we ran back,
To embrace an astounding triumph.

The unbridled joy,
That victory inundated us with,
Could be seen and heard,
On our journey back home too.
There was revelry,
And a joy that was very special,
Even as we sang,
While on our way back to our church.

There is a special camaraderie,
That can be sensed,
In our bunch.
It is this affinity,
That is feeding into,
The celestial harmony,
That we generate.
May God, always keep us this way.

We are gifted with a General,
So committed in his venture,
And blessed with such a sharp ear,
That even the tiniest discord,
Will never get past him.
May God bless him,
As he mounts his horse again,
To lead us,
Through many more carol battles.

WE OPENED THIS SEASON WITH A BANG

The Christmas season for this year opened up sometime during October end. Due to some personal exigencies, I could not make it for two practices and thereafter I caught the singing bus over the last two weeks for the next two practices that followed. Sometimes during the first practice that I was into, I felt that the choir was chewing something too big for its calibre. In fact two of the songs were picked from last year's list as last year's Christmas had been literally washed out due to the floods, and we did not get to sing much. And the chewing impression I had, was about the two that we had picked up from last year. During the second practice, that impression changed as I saw many aspects of harmony falling in place. But still, perfection was eluding us somehow. It was somewhere there close by, but somehow we just could not embrace it.

It was with this mindset that I had got on to the podium for our first competition today. We had a stiff battle from a few other teams, but then it just happened today. We saw everything falling in place and it was close to or I should say, a flawless performance. I saw one of the judges stand up and clap for us when we finished the second song. A few other judges did again mention about us  and our superb performance while they spoke before the award ceremony. And in the feedback session from the panel, we had no negatives listed on our performance. 

So, we could smell victory, much before we were declared as the victors. That was indeed a great feeling. It's something I cannot fully express in words, but it can only be felt while standing right there in the middle of the audience and the judges and listening and watching them while they give their feedback. Today was our first competition for this Christmas season and we, the Celestial Voices, have begun with a real bang. We convincingly beat seven teams and emerged first.

We will prevail right through this season. Let there be no doubts !!!

I BELIEVE IN MY MAD PURSUITS

Last Sunday, me and my family, were driving back from church, after the release of "Yeldho", the CD containing songs sung over the last 20 years plus by our church choir, the Celestial Voices. Several thoughts on this drifted through my mind and what dominated more were those about the singing madness that still persists within me.  We had slogged through several weeks of practice sessions and recording sessions at the studios, that had run into late hours in the night to get this done. And now, it was a great feeling to see it getting released. Listening to the song from the CD with all the music and harmony is one thing. But when I was sitting under a tree shade for practice in our church premises, along with the bass singers of which am a part, I could hear the plain raw melody of the supranos who were practicing inside the church. Their song slowly and softly spread all around the church, as though going up the church steeple, when the group hit the high notes. There was no music accompaniment, but still, that was a unique feel.

These days if I love a song, I keep humming or singing that, right through the day, especially on weekends. My family often would ask me whether I had got hooked on to it so much that I cannot sing something else. My father in particular, would sometimes tells me, that I am old and that people around are going to think why I am singing all intense romantic songs describing women and their features:) Now this clearly meant that all of them were yet to see a real worth in those singing attempts. Of course, they would love to hear Christian songs being sung during prayer time, but they would not believe that anything  beyond it, was worth trying now.

In the early eighties, I was approaching high school and that is when I got too passionate about songs and started singing them, sometimes right through the day. My father seeing me in this state would ask me whether my focus was in the right direction. But I was clearly mad about singing and I think he was very circumspect about acknowledging it, lest I lose focus on my academic pursuits. But singing in me, never died and I often went full blow when my father was not there at home. And in case he was there, I would get into the singing mode, while in the restroom.

But as we all know, madness and passions stay forever at least in some dormant form, how much ever these are ignored by the world around. And what lay dormant for about four to five years from then, started slowly but diffidently showing its face while I was into college. For me to realize that I was good at anything and to be confident about it, I had to always look up to my father to acknowledge. And so, if he had not acknowledged my calibre in an area, to me it was like I was really wanting in something in those areas. So, this meant that I was always a person who wanted to sing, but who was at the same time, not free and confident on stage to sing. My college mates had to keep pushing me to sing and my first stage performance was a classic royal fiasco, where I stood breathless on stage with the song all stalled. But still, my friends found me good and took me along wherever they had a get together and so I had a chance to belt out Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil songs in these small encounters. And this continued even after I got into organizations for work and is happening even now. I have sung for small groups and on stages,in these places, all without music accompaniment. Now, this for me is like being in a radio mode, to sing when friends demand. We could also term this as Music as a Service, if we align it with the latest trends in Cloud Computing:) It's only that instead of paying me money, they very liberally praise me. But then, this never fetches one an identity.

In the late eighties, while I was yet in the last year in college, mp3 players, cd players and mobile phones were still technological marvels yet to sweep India, though am not sure where else in our world they had taken off. The radio was still a big thing. My journey to college was through the public road transport and I would get to hear film songs being played at shops and marriage halls while travelling. I must confess that many times on my journey back to home, I have left the company of my friends in the bus and got down, hearing melodious songs being played at these places. Such was the madness in me and am sure I would have driven my father into a rage if he had got to know this. There have been several instances, when my wife and daughter have nudged me, because I was loudly humming or singing some song that I was mad about, in public.

It was just the day before that I had spotted an article on the Hollywood stunt director Lee Whittaker. He was the brain behind the stunts that we got to see in films like Viswaroopam, Linga and Bahubali. He grew up on a farm near a lake in Kentucky and was always jumping off the barn, riding horses and motorcycles, driving boats and swinging across creeks on a vine. He was wild and adventurous. No one back home believed he was doing action, because in his small town, Hollywood was never a real entity. Well, when madness takes a direction and brings in an identity or a monetary angle to it, that's when acceptability sets in. And until then, every person with several items of madness of this type that he or she pursues, will be looked upon as truly mad or crazy beings. It is ironical that until we build an identity or strike a monetary return, the many things that we pursue with our heart and soul into it, will remain many times as pieces of madness on the outside.

These days, an identity in solo singing comes when you penetrate into the last three or last two rounds of some reality singing show. Most of them prefer a Carnatic base. Otherwise it is the pure Carnatic singing road that is there which is a much tougher turf. But for Christian folks, carol singing and choir singing are great opportunities, though these belong to a different genre. Once we are able to fit into a group's harmony, we are in. For me, this has given me an identity. I began singing for carols when I was just 8 years old. The expectations in carol singing are not that demanding. But choir singing demands more accuracy and therefore more focus. For me, choir singing remains to be a very humbling experience because, whenever I think that am a great singer and that my voice should be heard more, the choir reminds me that I have to listen to the others and sing in harmony. That's because choir singing is not about one person singing but it is about a huge group striking a super level harmony.

Looking back, I believe, that it is important to believe in these pieces of passion or madness that each of us have in different forms and to slowly breed them, even if the whole world around thinks otherwise. After seeing the CD released and listening to the songs, my family sees value in my pursuits. But then, to polish my singing, I had to hold on to my restroom singing for decades. We never know when our pursuits will gather force and give us an identity or monetary returns. There is no doubt that when life drives us to mad corners, with its several vague twists and turns, these pursuits of madness, will come in handy and save us from really going mad.

THE MADRAS ORHODOX CHOIR -PARTS HARMONY

It is a wonderful feeling to realize slowly, the transformation that the Orthodox Church is going through in music and it is very satisfying to be a part of that metamorphosis.

It is great to see the the first of the many outputs come through after a lot of hard work. The bass group had to go through a real grind with Fr.John Samuel everytime he demanded perfection. I believe it was the same situation for the other voice groups too.

OUR OPENING PERFORMANCE THIS YULETIDE - SANGEEDHADHARA

We had put in several weeks of preparation before this first performance. But still we had lots of hard lessons to take back with us. It was very clear that competition was almost biting us at all corners.

There was a speech by one of the guests, that was really apt for the occasion. He brought out the significance of choir singing attaining a spiritual level when harmony sets in through the voices of all the performers in a team. That harmony that comes in when individuals place the group's objective as primary in their mind according to him, is a great lesson in team work. That is where he said that, each of us need to transcend beyond our self to perform together with others in the team, for acheiving the team's goal.



We could apply this concept to any team activity pursuing a common goal. That is why individuals who are keen on strong individual performances many times may not be able to fit into a group performance.

 

 

THREE EVENINGS OF MUSIC WITH FR.JOHN SAMUEL

This snap was taken after all the recording sessions on the last day of the BASS group. This was the last part of the whole project at Chennai that Fr.John had planned. The whole project involved the separate recording of the SUPRANO, TENOR, ALTO and BASS groups singing the Holy Sacrament songs of our church and then mixing it together to get the right harmony.

We all know the inaccurate rumour in history that Emperor Nero fiddled while Rome burned. I believe my situation was also of almost the same kind. I could not make it to one practice session before the recording as my sister had been admitted to the hospital. And during the actual recording for three evenings, my father had also been admitted.

From one perspective, it looked pretty odd to go out and sing when there was so much happening at home. But my father while on the hospital bed, told me that I should go as I had committed for the same. Besides there was a time when I was pretty young and was battling for life, when my father had promised that I would render my service for the church in some form. He reminded me about this atleast thrice.

Otherwise I felt real happy singing for this compilation. It was challenging as one had to remember a lot of tunes in a short span of time and so a knowledge of reading the music notes was vital.I was really lucky that I was in the company of Elias and Deepu(standing to my right), who were much better BASS singers and who were also much familiar in reading the music notes. It was nice to be a part of a professional recording while my singing was mostly home grown.

Fr.John is an inspiration. Blessed with an amazing voice, it was great to see him get the best out of all of us. He was able to spot even the smallest discord. I felt blessed standing beside him for singing one of the difficult and deep bass numbers. When I left our church on the night of the final day, I felt immensely satisfied.

OUR GROUP WAS ON SONG THIS YULETIDE

This yuletide took us to more competitions. We emerged winners and learnt good lessons too.

We had two free singing opportunities and four competitions.

We were dethroned at the very first encounter, but got back to the winning rhythm from the second competiton. One of these was the "Battle of Carols" organized by Chennai 104.8 FM where we even competed with professional bands and emerged second.

I believe that even if another group took up the same songs that we sang, we would still have won them by a mile, as we had a great conductor who trained us and brought the best out of us.

We also had great co-ordinators who organized the several gatherings, rehearsals and trips extremely well.

We also could clearly see, how our opponents have improved over the years. And that meant that we will have to slog more, and challenge ourselves more, to retain the crown while we move into the coming years.

I liked the camaraderie of this group. Everytime I went back home, I took with me a lot of energy from it. This energy flowed in all the more, when we gave out our victory cry each time. I could sense enthusiasm, a fighting spirit and a killer instinct in that cry. And that still keeps filling in me and in everything I do. Its a great feeling.