The Christmas spirit carries on

The midnight service at the Holy Family church, Porvorim, was among the best I have ever attended.

Nigel Britto

A few years ago, most people would avoid going to the erstwhile Holy Family Chapel, many of them preferring the more flamboyant service at Don Bosco's, Panaji. Even today, we see many people ditching their parishes and flocking to these high-profile services, services that are amazing worship sessions, but attended by people attired more suitably for a fashion show than a Church. Few of the other places that are included in this category include Loyola's, Margao, and Raj Bhavan, Dona Paula. Don't get me wrong here. I love Loyola's and Don Bosco's, but detest the pseudo-spiritual approach that's rampant among people, and especially evident during the ramp-walk to receive what Catholics consider the Body of Christ.

Considering the fact that I've finally managed to make acquaintance with a few of my fellow-Porvorim-ites, many of whom I (mistakenly) previously considered snobs, I ditched the usual Midnight service at the Holy Cross Chapel opposite my house for that at the newly elevated Church to which my Chapel is affiliated. My initial thought was to merely take a moonlit exterior overview of the Holy Family Church. I've been playing the outstanding catholic for years, not necessarily at midnight but at more convenient times of the day as well. Having left the house at 10:28pm, it took 3 minutes to complete the drive to Church. As I reached, I found myself bound by logic to enter, influenced maybe by the rare fact that I was well in time, or maybe subtle fear that I may be baked alive, not an unlikely possibility, taking into account my dark blue shirt, my black suit, as well as Global warming.

The Holy Family Church was well-illuminated and the newly asphalted parking lot was actually kinda bright. Justifiably so, because what could be worse than car-crashes inside the compound of the House of God on Christmas day? The corridors outside the Church were lined with Stars, walking past them being a nightmarish experience, strangely unfamiliar to my unobservant eyes. The Shephard was waiting outside as the flock came in, one by one, greeting and welcoming them. When I entered the great sanctuary, it was brightly lit, with the smiles of parishioners shining brighter than the electric lights above them. At 10:37pm, the Church was almost full, not unexpectedly, considering a quarter of the Church was 'reserved'.

The youth choir was barely setting up, with random sounds of 'check, check' emanating from the speakers, as well as choir members walking hurriedly around, obviously either busy or harrowed after a long day of work and preparation. But all apprehensive thoughts flew out of the open windows when I saw Jazz gurus Braz Gonsalves (whom everyone seems to call 'Uncle Braz') and Savio Martires lined up on the Saxophone and Keyboard respectively, preparing to take Christmas for a long jazzy ride. And indeed when the, "Spiritual preparation to usher in the Birth of our Savior", started, all those who were previously sleepy seemed to jerk out of their dreamy trance and stared at the choir with attention.

The whole concept of 'Spiritual preparation' was a well-thought-out one indeed, with Blossom Rodrigues doing the compering, and doing it well. The choir kicked off their hypnotic performance with the timeless carol, Do you see what I see. It was a memorable pre-mass service with the obviously well-trained choir dishing out hit after hit, all of them exceptionally well presented, voices and instruments in close-to-perfect harmony. The choral performance was only suspended for 5 minutes when Sonia Saigal sang a solo, taking the congregation by storm. (I've forgotten the name of the song). As the 'Spiritual preparation' proceeded, the voices in the choir just got better and better, with the perfect synchronization by the masters on keyboard and saxophone respectively only adding to the joy of the Season.

I guess enough of wordplay now. Straight to the point. The choir was sensational, and their focussed performance for almost 2 hours was nothing short of spellbinding. Personally, this is the best youth choir I've ever heard. Three cheers to Savio, Uncle Braz, Sergio, Sylvester, Joanne, Juanita, Genevieve, Louella, Vian, Gwyn, Irwin, Louis, Ryan, Russel, Raisa, Nadia and the others whose names I don't know/have forgotten. Seven priests con-celebrated the mass, 6 clad with gold and 1 with Silver. The pulpit was supplied by Fr.Tony Lopez, Superior General of the Pilar Fathers, who delivered a fiery and spirited homily about the superficial preparations for Christmas we all are used to. He focussed on the need for us to get the real picture, and subtly put across the pertinent question whether do we know or not whom Christmas is all about. He spoke at length about and almost questioned the significance of decorations, sweets and dances, if our personal spiritual preparations are not in place. Offertory was fairly strange, with the items that were offered ranging right from Stars to Christmas sweets. A woolen shawl was also offered, and the announcer said, "On this cold December night....." An inconvenient truth is that December is no longer as cold as it used to be. Don't believe me? Ask Al Gore. Or Dr.Rajendra Pachauri.

Communinion took a reasonably long time, considering the fact that the congregation was a microcosm of the population in India.

Suddenly, the lights were failing. There was a procession. It was getting dark. There were eerie chords being played. It was getting dark. There was incense. It was getting darker. There were many more candles than we normally saw at church. Light failed. Darkness reigned. A line of people walked in, holding the candles. At first they looked like members of the Bohemian club, but turned out to be members of the Parish Youth, and a few others who joined the candlelight ceremony. They went and stood at the altar, with the candles, as the Saxophonist played the introduction of my all time favorite carol, O Holy Night. The introduction gave way to a duet by Sergio and Sylvester. Soon, a third voice joined the harmony. Don't really know who sang what part since 12 candles seemed insufficient to see what was happening. The song was beautifully done. The stars were, indeed, brightly shining.

Then the lights came on again.

Before the final blessing, the Parish Priest came up and thanked all the people who helped in making this mass a success. And he also advised the congregation to fellowship with one another before going home. Some Cafes sponsored the coffee and cake. A politician sponsored the crib, which made me think of the irony.

The choir concluded the mass by singing Joy to the World. That was the end of one of the best Midnight services I have been for .

After mass, there was chaos. The chaos that is inevitable when around a thousand people decide to wish one another simultaneously! Everyone hung around for a bit, although whether that was voluntary or they were just following Fr.Anand's instructions, I do not know :-) Merry Christmas!

Nessun dorma, big Luciano

Few voices have had such an impact on me as Luciano Pavarotti's. It was with some shock that I learned of his passing.

Nigel Britto

The greatest Operatic tenor of our generation was a gentleman of rare talent as well as a man who did his best to make the world a better place. With a powerful voice touched by the divine, he was the first man to take opera to the masses, and indeed the first tenor to capture the public imagination.

Even though toward the end his voice had lost some of the power, it was still extremely powerful and incomparable to anyone else's. You didn't need to be a fan of the genre to understand Pavarotti. You just needed to be a human being with a heart, and that's all it took for the voice of Luciano Pavarotti to carry you away.

Even during his performance at the Winter Olympics 2006 at Torino, he put aside his cancer and poured his heart and soul into his trademark song, Nessun Dorma. The passion and intensity on his face spoke for itself. His mind-boggling performance at age 71 prompted the NBC commentator to say, "And the Master brings the house down." The great tenor's performance received the loudest and the longest ovation of the evening. Little did anyone know that that magical performance would be the last time the great Luciano Pavarotti would be performing in this world before he moved on.

On a personal note, Pavarotti's was the only operatic voice that appealed to me. It was my dream to *someday* play the guitar for him, a dream that was shattered after his death. Though his colleague tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras have more than competent voices, Pavarotti will remain the man who got people interested in opera that they listened to it and appreciated it, and would definitely rate as my favorite Opera singer.

It is awful to think that he has gone forever from this world. Yet the Maestro lives in our hearts as he joins the choir of angels as they sing their unending hymns of Praise to the master of all Music, and we should thank God that he gave us the chance to listen to his most amazing musical creation for the time He did.

RIP, Luciano. You will never be forgotten.

A Tribute to Krishna's drumkit...

On 3^rd May 2007, Krishna showed up his drumkit at my house cause we were supposed to jam. We took around 3 hours to set it up (Because of lack of technical knowledge) and ended up tele-conferencing with illustrious drummers of the land cause we didn’t know which screw went where. But to Krishna’s credit he finally set it up. Then Mark Rocha came along. We were supposed to have our first jam. But the guitarist sucked (Guess who!) and it ended in a farce. The remaining jam sessions that were to be during the holidays didn’t happen, cause one person was busy with exams, then training himself to communicate, one was having his 12^th Std exams and thereafter went to Mumbai, one preferred wasting time and ended up in Kashmir, and one went all the way to Europe to visit his former colonial masters.

So the drumkit was lying there, lonely and forgotten, so I decided to make some noise. I just banged the kit randomly. (Banged as in hit with force) My neighbors all hated me, my mom told me I sound desperate, and my maid said I should be going with the JVs for Shigmo. Everyone else who saw me had some negative comments or the other.

The first song I mastered was Evanescence’s My Immortal (Album Version) and a number of other docile songs which had no drumming part. All you have to do during those songs is sit and either look at the drumkit in fascination or look at the gecko lizards on the wall with even greater fascination. After sometime, I learnt how to play Faithful, by Lobo. (That’s the song that makes the Bride and Groom romantic for any goan wedding. Then they start dancing with the grace of injured wilderbeasts on the Serengeti plains). The next song I learnt was Am I that easy to forget, by Jim Reeves. And then O Holy Night.

Then I came to know that those hollow things were called Toms. I knew of course that the big tub down there was the bassdrum. Then I read that the Bigger of the two plates which make a loud clanging noise is called a Ride. And the one which makes a slightly less annoying sound is the crash. The lowest of these things are called High Hats. I also noticed that there was a pillow inside the bassdrum. I wondered which deaf a**hole would fall asleep inside the noisiest component of Krishna’s drumkit.

This is a video I recorded just for kicks (Cause I was bored when the book I was reading got over). I kept the camera on top of a tall cupboard, and while jumping off the chair, I tripped. That explains the delay in the start of the video. The first person to see this video was Desiree, who said I looked like a drunkard controlled by puppet strings. The second was Siobhan who said I looked like a small boy trying to play LP (Yuck!!!). The third was Andre who tried his flattery and then said brb as he went off line to have a hearty laugh. And then the drummer of Bhayanak Maut (India’s best thrash metal band). All he said was. Nice drumkit.

Here goes… I need some more insults. The comments option is open to you…