It was a soulful Sunday for all gathered at ICCR as ex-students of 11 city schools battled it out, powered by their vocal chords. The line-up for Alumni Idol 2015, the music competition organised by the Modern High School alumni association and held in association with t2, had Calcutta Boys’ School, The Park English School, Assembly of God Church School (Park Street), Albany Hall Public School, Apeejay School Park Street, Frank Anthony Public School, 
La Martiniere Calcutta (Boys and Girls), St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, St. Thomas’ Boys’ School, Modern High School and Birla High School. 

For the first round, one ex-student from each school took the stage to belt out numbers like Ek pyaar ka nagma, Sawaar loon and Jiya re, based on which a judges’ panel comprising tabla player Ustad Sabir Khan, classical vocalist Omkar Dadarkar, drummer Rohit Nandi and singer Puja Roy picked the top five. 

Rajeev Maheshwari from St. Xavier’s, Abhirup Dutta from Birla High School, Annesha Ganguly from Modern High School, Rabindra Singh from St. Thomas’ and Anupam Mohta from The Park English School made it to the final round. 
Another round later, Annesha Ganguly was chosen the winner for her rendition of Baiyan na dharo from the 1970 film Dastak. Abhirup Dutta — the youngest contestant —  was adjudged the runner-up for singing Naina thag lenge from Omkara. 

“School is where I realised my passion for music and it’s the best feeling in the world to represent Modern High School again, and also making your alma mater proud!” said Alumni Idol 2015 winner Annesha Ganguly, a student of batch 2012.

Pictures: Anindya Shankar Ray