Prelude jams on stage at Swabhumi. (above) Sudipta keeps the audience clued in. Pictures by Rashbehari Das

Who would have thought soccer could be sung?

That was the question that was asked on Saturday, before the finals of Soccer Rocker 2004 kicked off.

Four enthusiastic college bands proved that the rhythm of the English Premiere League went far beyond fancy footwork on the field, on Saturday evening at Swabhumi.

The finals saw four bands fight it out with their original compositions on English Premiere League football. Organised by ESPN-Star Sports and supported by teen magazine Unish Kuri, the Urban Court was packed with participants and their fans, cheering on the musical action, surrounded by glossy posters of all their favourite teams — ‘The Favourites’ (Manchester United), ‘The Bulldozers’ (Liverpool), The Challengers (Arsenal)…

The fun had hit the road with small shows at schools and colleges in the city and its suburbs last month, where students were quizzed on soccer and were treated to performances by Lakkhichhara. Interested groups sent in recordings of their songs by February 7 and on February 21 the eight semi-finalists had a sing off at Swabhumi.

Finally, Prelude, Mon, Patheo and Baundule made it to the finals on Saturday. They were to sing the same song that had brought them to the finals, but some had chosen to make minor modifications for the rounds to be judged by Pratik Choudhury and band members of Krosswindz Vikram and Chandrani, Pinky and Siddharth from Cactus, and Swapan and Chirodeep of Span.

Prelude took the stage first with a hard rock take on the Premiere League. They performed well, sporting Liverpool T-shirts, though the angst-ridden head-banging may have been a little excessive for the occasion. As the next contenders set up, one of the hosts for the evening, Pranam (the other being actress Sudipta Chakraborty) quizzed the audience on the Premiership.

Next, Patheo took the stage. This peppy team was strong on vocals. They were followed by Baundule. The final act of the evening was Mon. They had the most fun with their upbeat song, with well-penned lyrics that did justice to the theme of the evening.

The final results reflected this. Mon was named winner, with Bhaichung Bhutia, greeted by thundering applause from the crowd, handing over the first prize. Patheo and Prelude were first and second runners-up respectively.

 

Looking ahead

Young Indians, the recently launched youth chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry, held an interactive session between young city professionals from various fields and students from Apeejay School at the Apeejay Anand Library recently. “What are the things we can change about the country?” was the first question. The students started shooting off a huge wish-list — peace with our neighbours, education, infrastructure development, improvements to the political and judicial system… Then came the question of what makes us feel proud of India. Culture, Indian intellect, the education system and IT were high on the list. But India does not have anything that different from any other country, said Ansul Jain from Young Indians. That triggered off an impassioned discussion. As it turned out, the comment was meant to get us to speak out. His gamble paid off — when we were united against something, our love for the country was heightened.

The discussion made clear that though we may not excel in some fields, we are good strugglers, bringing us that much closer to achieving vision 2020 (President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is chief mentor for the Young Indians initiative).

— Sangeet Shirodkar,
Apeejay School

 

Toddlers’ chain

A national pre-school chain has big plans for tiny tots of Calcutta. Shemrock, a Delhi-based group, which now has one school in Salt Lake, plans to set up a total of 10 schools in the next year.

Around 20 kids are currently enrolled at the CB Block school, which opened three months ago, holding out the promise of “stress-free learning” for students aged two to four. On Sunday, the kids premiered their skills in public, with a “kid’s day out”, including a talent show and a fancy dress competition.

Most of the group’s 55 schools are in north India. It has recently started a number of secondary and senior secondary schools as well, but there are no immediate plans of expanding this across the country. “We first want to perfect the system before spreading it,” explained founder-director D.R. Arora.

 

Shiamak Davar dances with students at a workshop at St Xavier’s College auditorium on Sunday. The next batch at Shiamak Davar’s Institute for the Performing Arts, classes for which are held at various venues across the city, start on April 12. Picture by Pabitra Das

Science sessions

Lady Brabourne College celebrated National Science Day on February 28 in honour of C.V. Raman’s birth anniversary. The students of the eight science departments worked hard for the celebrations, a major event on the college calendar. The first part of the day involved a display of projects by every department on a path-breaking discovery in the history of their discipline. The charts were put up for evaluation by the rest of the departments as well as an external judge. The topics ranged from Gregor Mendel (botany) to Green Revolution (economics); seafloor spreading (geography) to xerography (physics). A seminar followed, with one student from each department coming up and presenting a talk on an important discovery in their field.

— Ranjana Das,
IInd year, Geography, Lady Brabourne College

 

Stage acts

This week Loreto College saw a string of events. It started with the heads of various societies sharing accounts of the activities of their respective groups. This was followed by the farewell, with the rocking theme of ‘carnival’. The first and second year students had prepared dance numbers for the seniors, after which every student took to the dance floor. The Dramatics Society then put up Jean Anouilh’s Antigone, a political and satirical remake of Sophocles’ classic tragedy. Laura Mishra, the protagonist, put in an enthralling performance along with Ashrita Ojha, Sravasti Datta, Ria De, Purnima Venkat and Manvika Uberoi.

— Suchi Arya,
Ist Year, English, Loreto College

 

Village vignettes

The third year B.Com students of JD Birla Institute were given a warm farewell by their juniors on February 28 on the college campus. This year’s theme was Rajasthan, depicted through the decorations, food and shows. The whole college campus was transformed into a tribal village. The girls in ethnicwear looked like perfect village women managing their stalls on a variety of themes like tarot-reading and mehendi. A cultural programme of Rajasthani folk songs did its bit to lighten up the atmosphere.

— Pooja Agarwal
Ist year, B.Com, JD Birla Institute

 

Youth feted

The International Award for Young People (East Zone) had its annual award ceremony at Raj Bhavan recently. The theme for this year’s ceremony was peace and harmony. Manju Ahluwalia, chairperson, IAYP, spoke on the special projects the IAYP is nurturing for the under-privileged. Over 100 young people received awards in various categories, like the gold award, handed out by Governor Viren J. Shah, as well as silver and bronze. A large number of silver awards were given to blind boys from Ramakrishna Mission, for a special project run by IAYP. The governor in his address emphasised the need for the youth to get involved in self-developmental programmes.

— Sangeet Shirodkar

“In the opinion of this house, the state of education in India generally does not support the rights of the child.” Serve’s Save the Students National Debate, East Zone, in association with the National Human Rights Commission, will discuss the issue on March 4, 6 pm, at the St Xavier’s College auditorium.

Time Table

It’s the season of exams and this is how they are rolling out:

CBSE (XII) — March 1
ICSE & ISC – March 3
CBSE (X) — March 3
Madhyamik — March 5
Higher Secondary — April 1