FOREIGN EXPATRIATES AND BUSY PARENTS MAKE TIME FOR CAROL SINGING EVENT IN GURGAON
FOREIGN EXPATRIATES AND BUSY PARENTS MAKE TIME FOR CAROL SINGING EVENT IN GURGAON
– An Article in MeriNews.com : Friday 13th December 2013 (Shrabani Mukherjee)
December always brings with itself a lot of joy, not only in India but all over the world. Thus to celebrate the heralding of Christmas, Lorraine Music Academy organised a unique carol singing event for residents of Gurgaon. They also gave the international expat community a special place in the event, which took place on 11 December 2013 at Apparel house in Gurgaon.
Talking about this inclusiveness, Aubrey Aloysius said, ”Christmas is an international festival, celebrated globally. Gurgaon is emerging as the corporate headquarter of the country and there is a large expat community residing in this city. Since they are contributing to the economy of Gurgaon and very much a part of our society, we thought this was a good way of honouring them.” Expats from Sri Lanka, America, Sweden, China, Russia, U.K. and other parts of the world joined the founders of the music academy, Lorraine Fiona Aloysius and Aubrey Aloysius for the lamp lighting ceremony.
The event witnessed around 100 children performing with 20 carols sung on the occasion. A number of parents, made it to the event, taking time off their busy schedule. One such parent, Chitralekha Goyel said, ”I had to be here. My daughter, Tanvi, was really excited for this day and so I had to make time for the carol singing event.
Another parent, who was managing the backstage hustle bustle said that kids as young as 4 to 18 years have been practising for the past many weeks. A few children joined the practise sessions during the past 10 days. The show, when it started with Jana Gana Mana was mesmerizing, especially the Swahili song sung in the memory of Nelson Mandela. What followed had everyone tapping their feet to Jingle Bells, Rudolph the red nose reindeer and swaying to the First Noel. Lorraine Fiona Aloysius also participated and sang for the jam-packed auditorium in her mellifluous voice (although she admitted that she was not well). Students from Scottish High International School and Blue Bells Model School also participated.
Talking about the event, Mr Aubrey Aloysius said, ”The ‘Come India Sing A Christmas Carol’ is an event organised by the Lorraine Music Academy and the LAMP Trust to herald the Christmas season and encourage citizens of the National Capital Region to sing Christmas carols and share the season’s spirit of love, joy and peace. A series of events have been planned across the NCR region by this Academy. These events form a part of the ongoing National Patriotic Project ‘Come India Sing Jana Gana Mana,’ an initiative of LAMP Trust and Lorraine Music Academy, launched on 15th August 2013. This project is a clarion call to the children, youth, the 1.27 billion Indians, and to the Indian diaspora across the globe, to stand together for one cause – the Unity of India, by singing one song – our National Anthem, in the correct way as per the code laid out in the Constitution of India.
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