This Dussehra,five from blind school to strike a Tagore note

They said they were very excited at the prospect of singing the songs during Dussehra celebrations.

“I love to sing. And singing Rabindranath Tagore’s songs is a new experience for us. We have learnt Hindi and English songs before this,but this is a an extraordinary experience,” said 17-year-old Faiyaz Aziz Attar. Attar,like the other four others,Amol Bhalerao (18),Deepak Dhokle (12),Rutik Kaile (11) and Suraj Gurav (18),wants to make a career in music. This is also for the first time that Attar will attend a Dussehra pandal.

They are getting trained in pronunciation and voice modulation. “We believe in exposing our children to different experiences,to prepare them for the mainstream in whichever way they can. Many of our Bengali donors pointed out that it was the 150th birth anniversary year of Rabindranath Tagore. So this year,we have three teachers coming to train students with the language as well as Tagore songs,” Sharmila Gujar,the administrative officer at the school.

Even teachers who have been training the students for the past couple of months are all praise for the dedication of children. “The only thing we have to work on is pronunciation. They are bang on target when it comes rhythm. It is an exhilarating experience for me as a teacher as well,to see them sing the songs like any one of us. They will surely be stars of the show this year,” said Madhumita Ghosh,one of the music teachers.

The children plan to sing three well-known Tagore songs,’Dhonilo aaohano modhuro gombhiro’ and ‘Shurer guru dao go shurer dikkha.’ “We play instruments like harmonium and tabla. But we are looking forward to this performance. We have been practising hard and have almost got the songs right,” said Amol,with a smile.