Mumbai: Welsh choir adds fusion by learning Hindi songs for concert

The choir interacts with girls at a practice sessions picSayyed Sameer AbediOnacircu00c2u0080u00c2u0088a warm winter afternoon the corridors of Dadarrsquos Shindewadi BMC School reverberate with the sounds of children repeating their lessons after their teacher Listen closely and you hear giggling and sporadic applause Climb up to the terrace and the source of both is revealed mdash a group of men and schoolgirls practising dance moves and in between playing with a tennis ball Itrsquos an oddly mismatched group mdash girls in their pigtails and uniforms and the men in their shorts and sunglassesThe eight men are the Welsh choir group Only Men Aloud OMA They are on their first visit to India armed with a camera crew to record their experience and share it online The girls are part of the schoolrsquos choir chosen by Songbound a music outreach initiative ldquoWe teach music to underprivileged children OMA got in touch because they were interested in collaborating and wanted to get a feel of Hindi and Bollywood musicrdquo says Maureen Pereira operations manager SongboundYesterday both groups put up a music concert on the school grounds ldquoWersquove been planning this trip for two years and are glad it finally happenedrdquo says Tim Rhys Evans founder and musical director OMAThe right songThe highlight of the concert was Apni Yeh Zameen a song written by playback singer and songwriter Rahul Pandey choreographed by Melvin Louis ldquoWe want to release it on YouTube Spotify and iTunes I hope it does well it is our first time singing in Hindirdquo adds EvansThe team spent the last week getting introduced to the language and learning about Classical music at a class conducted by voice coach Hetal Varia ldquoIt was quite spiritual We were with her for three hours sitting on a mat learning ragas and other elements of Indian Classical music We were joined by musicians on the tabla and harmonium It felt like a meditation sessionrdquo shares EvansHindi may be a new language but they didnrsquot find it all that strange ldquoThe vowels and consonants seem familiar Even the accents are closerdquo says Steffan Hughes 22 who is the youngest and newest member of the choir Hughes in fact impressed Pandey with his pronunciation so much that he was asked if he had spoken Hindi beforeWhile the choir didnrsquot manage much sightseeing mdash just the Gateway of India mdash they did go to Film City and shoot a video at Dhobi Ghat They also went on the sets of Indian Idol ldquoWe met Anu Malik who asked us to sing a Welsh love song mdash it will be part of the show Farah Khan was a laugh riot and she gave us tips on how to pull off Bollywood dance moves We even met Virender Sehwag and the boys were quite star struckrdquo laughs Evans ldquoWe love cricket One evening we went to Juhu beach and played cricket with the locals We lostrdquoFeeling the heatOMArsquos Indian sojourn has been an exciting one ldquoIt is everything we expected it to be mdash colourful warm and welcoming People will always smile at you even when you enter their homes or workplaces and disturb them by singingrdquo says choir member Craig YatesThey love the weather ldquoWe find it odd to see the girls here wearing jumpers and sweaters because they find it cold while here we are in our shorts Before leaving we struggled to find summer clothes as all the shops were selling woollen wearrdquo adds YatesThe men have bonded well with the schoolgirls Their practice sessions held on the terrace of the school have taken up afternoons ldquoWe taught them a Welsh song which was about friendship and they in turn taught us a Hindi song Yaaron Dosti also about friendshiprdquo says Yates Friendship and happy memories is what they will take back with them to WalesLog on to wwwonlymenaloudcom