Republic Day... and more celebrations

Started the day as always at church... but today was different... Today being a holiday, I walked home after Mass, and both the schools I passed had gathering on their sports fields to celebrate India's Republic Day. And the program included music as well. Got a link to this song composed and performed by a friend of mine who has been rocking stages across India with the best of Western, Bollywood and Punjabi music - Rohan Sequeira (who sometimes can be mistaken for Rohan Singh sporting the turban).

Did you know, that India is not the country who has a national holiday on 26th January. Do you know which other country celebrates it day today... Here's a clue!

Yes! It's Australia Day today...

And my celebrations for Republic Day had a mix of India and Australia... at a family wedding...

Attended the wedding of my cousins daughter in Mumbai... to an Australian citizen (of Indian origin)... Was the first wedding in the next generation in Mumbai... the previous two being in Dubai and Auckland respectively...

A very special practice we look forward to at weddings is the bridal special... and today's selection was Real Love by John Lennon.

Moving back Down Under, one of the best love songs I've heard from Australia... has been by Savage Garden - Truly Madly Deeply.

That's possibly on the playlist for the wedding reception for Shefali and Neil in a few days time. 

What's your favorite love song from Down Under?

Annual Days and Fun Fairs - Keeping the Music Alive

Been a week since my last post... What happening?... Been either BUSY or lazy... 

I prefer BUSY...


The last two weekends have been absolutely jam-packed (why do they call it so) - the usual work schedules, workshops to attend, lectures to deliver, social visits, shopping and lots of entertainment... only this time at the receiving end...

My alma-mater (and now that of my sons) - OLPS High School had a weekend entertainment festival - #SPARK. The Annual Day was spread over over two evenings for logistics and audience management reasons. Was an absolute riot of colour, travel and music - all rolled up in one (no, two). 

The first-half of Saturday featured the tiny-tots of the pre-primary section who sang and danced with outfits in the colour of the rainbow... each colour representing a different state of India...

The Secondary section under the guidance of #StopGaps conductor, Mr. Alfred D'Souza and a talented pianist and instructor, Dionne Moraes, put up songs from over the years from oldies to the contemporary... they even sang Hindi classics. Got a sample out here featuring my #YoungRockstar son (Kaniel) on a solo...

Sunday was a journey 'Around the World' in 150 minutes... The highlight of the evening was two kiddo MCs - Grade 4 students who had really long lines to say and said them really well. The most innocent moment of the evening was when one of these little boys came upto the chief guest, Mr. Terrence Lewis...while on stage and said..."Hold on Sir, we need to say something about you first." Well done boys... Towards the absolute end of the show came my magic moment - 'Daddytime'. My younger #Rockstar (Kendall) was one of the soloist singing individual lines in the song my siblings and I sang 30 years ago - The biggest (and longest) hit of that year - We Are The World... and he sang possibly the most difficult part... well, well, well...

The boys followed it up with a repeat over the the following week - this time together. With full enthusiasm, Kendall took the stage at #AFairToRemember - our parish #FunFair to participate in the entertainment capsule put together by the Sunday School children. Kaniel took up the accompaniment role for him as well as the group song sung by the Grade 2 kids. Unfortunately did not get hold of a video... but got the pic below from some of the catechists...

Sunday evening had lot more music with #Groove including my own guitar tutor #WilburnDCosta and the local drummer boy #FrancisFernandes, Rock n Roll from classmate #DarrenDas and a surprise Bollywood crooner in fellow emcee #RohanSequeira who kept the fair a-rocking - giving the #YoungRockstars a generous dose of inspiration. Here's a little sample though of the boys together doing #Riptide on my #Soundcloud Channel.

Will sure be lots more opportunities for family music together. I'm glad we've made the right start.