Opening Ceremony!

Hugely challenging it was to overcome stage fear, common amongst most of us, at every event I took to participating at School. Thanks to my Aunt, with whose guidance I had already succeeded by winning prizes in the various speech, elocution and singing competitions held. Over the last 9 years at Don Bosco (excluding KG) I was already a regular face on stage. Apart from being the daily News Reader at the daily-morning-Assembly, I was also an active member of the School Choir, who was known to start and end every function, be it the Christmas day or the Annual day Celebrations. Skits and Plays were also part of my plate where-in I have enacted different roles from a ‘flying bird’ to Gandhi (I had shaved then)!

It was at this juncture, I, having established myself as a boy with no stage fear (at least pretended), along with two friends planned to go on stage, this time with a song for one of the biggest functions at School. It was the Opening Ceremony of the new building we were to get in 1994, ten years after the School was first started. Everyone was so excited about the event for one, we were moving into a real building from under the thatched roofs we used to be. So, we decided, we will perform ‘I can’t help falling in love with you’ from the band UB40. We started by assigning responsibilities – my friend Marie will play the keyboard, Ranjith with the Guitar will join me as the second vocalist. We were set!

The first prompt act was to take a blanket approval from the ‘Father*’ to skip classes in order to rehearse. He, knowing us pretty well, with much reluctance approved. The rest of our classmates envied in our success, but we were determined to make the most of it.

So, we started by arranging for the instruments to be brought to School. We got them fixed at a room which was one of the hide-outs we used at times of painful School March Past drills, so as to evade being fried in the scorching heat. It was where the Table Tennis board used to be kept and we used to call it the favorite TT room.

Several days passed on practice sessions some of which was used to stealthily playing Table Tennis, our favorite pass time then. But I should say, we truly put our heart and soul into this song which was going to be our first as a ‘Band’ as we wanted it to be formed and carried on thereafter. We practiced several hours a day with the Grand event fast approaching!

It was then we got a call from Father. We were to perform our number in his midst as a final rehearsal for the event. He will approve of it for us to go on stage. We were to come to School the following Saturday and perform. We got nervous!

Saturday - Gathering courage and strength, we got on to the stage; we set up the guitar, the keyboard and connected them to the speakers. We had little time to check the speakers as Father had already arrived with the event manager, quickly grabbed a chair and said “Ok, lets go, lets hear what you have”.

The three of us looked at each other with puzzled faces and agreed, the moment was there in front of us and we have to win it. We heard ourselves say, “Let’s go”. The percussion guitar went first, followed by the keyboard and I heard myself singing the first line….and then the second, but baffled to see the second vocalist with his lips moving but not producing sounds. I thought to myself “Dude, we were fine all this while. Now, what’s wrong?” Suddenly, we realized a lot of things were far away from the way we had planned but we continued setting them right as we went on. After much of staring at him, Vocalist 2 joined me hesitantly and by now the song had taken a detour from the original tune. Though we tried desperately to bring it back to its true glory, we had reached the last verse of it and before we could realize, we were done!

We eagerly looked at Father’s face whose look by this time had turned from a strange curiosity to relief. It seemed though he already knew the results even before we started and without much hesitation he uttered to the event manager “Good show! Make sure you have this for the Closing Ceremony” and walked away.

We blamed each other for the disaster and understood by the looks all three carried that the idea of the ‘Band’ was at jeopardy!



It was the year 1994 and we were preparing ourselves for the Opening Ceremony of the new building at School and this incident went on to be one of the most embarrassing moments of our lives. We laughed about it for many years after.

* Father – Priest who runs Catholic Schools.