For a school with a student strength of over 2,300, even getting all the children to assemble is a strenuous task. Nevertheless, this Independence Day, the Government Ganapath Model Girls’ Higher Secondary School in Kozhikode has embarked on an ambitious project - to get all of them to sing in harmony.
‘India Rag 2023’ is a mega patriotic song concert to be held at 11 a.m. on August 14 on the school premises, in which all the students are taking part. “There is no such thing as a child who cannot sing. Anybody who enjoys music can sing too. I did not want to exclude any of them,” said Mini. D.K, the music teacher at the school and the mastermind behind the endeavour.
The group will perform eight patriotic songs in seven Indian languages. Excerpts of the Kannada song ‘Nanna desha nanna usiru’, Sanskrit song ‘Jayati jayati Bharatha Matha’, Tamil song ‘Parukkulle nalla nadu’, Telugu song ‘Sanghatanam oka yagnam’, Konkani song ‘Har hath sath rang’, Hindi songs ‘Sath suron ke’ and ‘Chandan hai maati mere desh ki’ and Malayalam song ‘Jaya jaya jaya janmabhumi’ will be sung, along with the National Anthem.
“Our school has students from different States studying here. There are also several differently abled students. This is our effort to encourage the students to think beyond boundaries,” said Ms. Mini.
The background music for the 15-minute concert is being provided by musicians Dominic Martin (keyboard), Sasi Krishna (bass guitar) and Soman (lead guitar).