I miss my church. When I was a small boy, I was a regular at Church services through out the year. Except for a single week in May for summer holidays, my father always made sure that I gave my fair share of thanks to the Good Lord above. So, if it wasn't the summer holiday week in May, and health permitting, I was pretty much a regular fixture in the 'CSI Church, Manapparai, Trichy Tanjore District'.
Even though I was fairly attentive in my childhood days, I don't remember a lot of Church, apart from the Hot Cross bun on Good Friday, The bidding on Harvest Festival and Biriyani in Easter, and a few fist fights in the Church once in a while, due to internal politics. Even if the Good Reverend failed to bless the Congregation, my father never missed on complaining about the non existence of our Choir and the singing talent of our Congregation. As you see, our town wasn't all that affluent and it did not boast of a single musician who could play at the Church.
And when Mr. James Chellapandian turned up at our Church, people were praising the Father again. As it turned out, Mr. Chellapandian, or James from here on, could play the Church Organ wonderfully well, and the good guys at the Agricultural office where he was working, had transferred him to Manapparai . So James started playing Organ in our Church and people started to realise how wonderful to have a Church with an organist and a Choir.
Both my mum and dad were avid song listeners. For all his complaning about the Congregation, my Dad was in fact a terrible singer. He never sings, Instead he does what I call as 'Nosing', signing with the nose. But my mum on the other hand, had a sweet voice with very little control. But since both of them had a tremendous interest in Music, they taught me a fair number of Hymns and Keerthanai's.
I was 9 at that time, and I must have paid more attention to the Church back then. I seemed to learn more songs, and I even memorised the Order of Service. My life was at peace, till an unexpected occurance rocked my world. Alas, Mr. James was getting a transfer back to his hometown. This caused considerable panic and havoc in my pop's mind, who took it upon to himself to create an organist for the church.
I assume that he had given the first shot at glory for himself. When he realised that he was too old for this kind of tutoring, He decided that I should take up the mantle of the musician. At 9, with no prior pocket money savings and no steady girlfriends, I hardly had a choice. I started learning piano from James and my father even bought me a little keyboard to practise.
Well that was rad and cool. I was mighty proud of my keyboard. SA20 by Casino. All of two and half octaves with little keys, and one awesome 'Wake me up, Before I go' Demo song by Wham, I guess that was a bribe from my father to keep me away from complaining. So began my classes.
Christmas service 1992 was my red letter day. All of 10 years old, I took my Casio 20 and played 'O Come All ye Faithful' with no amplifiers or sound boosters. The only time when you could hear my Casio was before the song, when i lead the congregation with the last 2 lines of the Stanza before the song. Well, a lot of things happened after that.
For the next 11 years, I was the Organist in my Church. Till the time I finished my college, I played Organ through thick and thin. I watched 6 Pastars come and go, seen 12 Carol services , about 15 Marriages and a fair share of Funerals too. I'm sure when i played Organ, I grumbled a few times too. As my age kids were busy playing in Sunday School, I played Organ and listened to Sermon. But i knuckled down and played well too.
But one thing I always enjoyed doing was playing the organ and singing the song. I've had few funny experiences and a few not so funny experiences, but I've come to admire the depth and the meaning of the songs that I sang in the Church. All the contemporary songs would never come close to the Hymns and the Keerthanaigal I played and sung.
This is where I come to the critical point of today's blog. This yearning for Tamil Hymns and Keerthanai's had grown steadily over time and they have hit the ceiling this week. For a desi living in US, the exposure to Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal is fairly minimal, unless you have your own CD's. With this and the growing number of unsuccessful hits on Youtube for old Hymns, I've put forward this idea of having a lyrics website dedicated to Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal.
This idea is still at it's infancy, and I've formed an Orkut community to discuss this with like minded individuals. If you happen to read this blog and you haven't visited my community, Log into www.orkut.com and search for 'Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal' and join the community and pour your ideas.
Yes, I do miss my Church. Maybe this new website with Lyrics and possibly Music with midi files will reduce that longing feeling.
Youtube link of the day.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zF4uoVDSAyI
Terrific singing by the two ladies. Hats off.
Even though I was fairly attentive in my childhood days, I don't remember a lot of Church, apart from the Hot Cross bun on Good Friday, The bidding on Harvest Festival and Biriyani in Easter, and a few fist fights in the Church once in a while, due to internal politics. Even if the Good Reverend failed to bless the Congregation, my father never missed on complaining about the non existence of our Choir and the singing talent of our Congregation. As you see, our town wasn't all that affluent and it did not boast of a single musician who could play at the Church.
And when Mr. James Chellapandian turned up at our Church, people were praising the Father again. As it turned out, Mr. Chellapandian, or James from here on, could play the Church Organ wonderfully well, and the good guys at the Agricultural office where he was working, had transferred him to Manapparai . So James started playing Organ in our Church and people started to realise how wonderful to have a Church with an organist and a Choir.
Both my mum and dad were avid song listeners. For all his complaning about the Congregation, my Dad was in fact a terrible singer. He never sings, Instead he does what I call as 'Nosing', signing with the nose. But my mum on the other hand, had a sweet voice with very little control. But since both of them had a tremendous interest in Music, they taught me a fair number of Hymns and Keerthanai's.
I was 9 at that time, and I must have paid more attention to the Church back then. I seemed to learn more songs, and I even memorised the Order of Service. My life was at peace, till an unexpected occurance rocked my world. Alas, Mr. James was getting a transfer back to his hometown. This caused considerable panic and havoc in my pop's mind, who took it upon to himself to create an organist for the church.
I assume that he had given the first shot at glory for himself. When he realised that he was too old for this kind of tutoring, He decided that I should take up the mantle of the musician. At 9, with no prior pocket money savings and no steady girlfriends, I hardly had a choice. I started learning piano from James and my father even bought me a little keyboard to practise.
Well that was rad and cool. I was mighty proud of my keyboard. SA20 by Casino. All of two and half octaves with little keys, and one awesome 'Wake me up, Before I go' Demo song by Wham, I guess that was a bribe from my father to keep me away from complaining. So began my classes.
Christmas service 1992 was my red letter day. All of 10 years old, I took my Casio 20 and played 'O Come All ye Faithful' with no amplifiers or sound boosters. The only time when you could hear my Casio was before the song, when i lead the congregation with the last 2 lines of the Stanza before the song. Well, a lot of things happened after that.
For the next 11 years, I was the Organist in my Church. Till the time I finished my college, I played Organ through thick and thin. I watched 6 Pastars come and go, seen 12 Carol services , about 15 Marriages and a fair share of Funerals too. I'm sure when i played Organ, I grumbled a few times too. As my age kids were busy playing in Sunday School, I played Organ and listened to Sermon. But i knuckled down and played well too.
But one thing I always enjoyed doing was playing the organ and singing the song. I've had few funny experiences and a few not so funny experiences, but I've come to admire the depth and the meaning of the songs that I sang in the Church. All the contemporary songs would never come close to the Hymns and the Keerthanaigal I played and sung.
This is where I come to the critical point of today's blog. This yearning for Tamil Hymns and Keerthanai's had grown steadily over time and they have hit the ceiling this week. For a desi living in US, the exposure to Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal is fairly minimal, unless you have your own CD's. With this and the growing number of unsuccessful hits on Youtube for old Hymns, I've put forward this idea of having a lyrics website dedicated to Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal.
This idea is still at it's infancy, and I've formed an Orkut community to discuss this with like minded individuals. If you happen to read this blog and you haven't visited my community, Log into www.orkut.com and search for 'Tamil Hymns and Keerthanaigal' and join the community and pour your ideas.
Yes, I do miss my Church. Maybe this new website with Lyrics and possibly Music with midi files will reduce that longing feeling.
Youtube link of the day.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zF4uoVDSAyI
Terrific singing by the two ladies. Hats off.
3 comments:
Nice post...reminded me of my piano playing days in church...especially the 'having to miss sunday school and listen to boring sermons' bit :))
And good initiative :)....as an avid fan of Tamil hymns and keerthanais, I hope it happens
Nice post..Really instresting to read and to know ur story on how u became an organist..Good one !!!
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