Here’s a quick update on celebrity Loyolites I’ve interviewed for this blog. The thing about celebrities is that they are repeatedly in the news. Still, in case you missed…

VIVEK KARUNAKARAN
Three years ago, I interviewed fashion designer Vivek Karunakaran (1998). Then, he was in the news for being selected to the GenNext round of Lakme India Fashion Week. In 2008, he was back at LIFW, and Westside had contracted to sell his designer line. By 2009, he was on Day 1 at LIFW. And now, with Asal (2010), a Tamil movie starrring Ajith Kumar, Vivek has become a costume designer in filmdom. Vidya Balan, on the cover of Verve magazine (February 2010), wears a Vivek design. Vivek has also styled for Vikram.

SANTOSH SIVAN
Santosh Sivan (1976) was interviewed on this blog just ahead of the release of Before the Rains, an American production set in colonial Kerala. His next film Tahaan (2008), set in Kashmir, was shown at various international film festivals. Like his earlier children’s films, this one too picked up a couple of awards. This year, Santosh Sivan will mark his debut as actor. He has played the lead role, of painter Raja Ravi Varma, in Lenin Rajendran’s film Makaramanju.

JISHNU DASGUPTA
Last month, Jishnu Dasgupta’s (1996) Swarathma won the Best Band of the Year award at the JD Rock Awards 2010. Their debut album “Swarathma” has sold 4,200 copies, and they recently composed songs for Suvarna News TV channel. They tour the country quite a bit and so, if you live in one of India’s metros, you can catch them easily.

Hat tip: Deepak Madhusoodanan (1996)

Excerpts from an e-mail interview with Jishnu

How musical was your childhood?
Quite a lot. My father is a classically trained singer who loves Rabindra Sangeet and old Hindi film music, and our home was always filled with strains of one or the other. Though my father tried to instill in me an appreciation for the above, it remains my regret that I was too much of a ‘teenager’ to listen to him at that time.

After Loyola, you did your B.Tech from NIT-Allahabad, worked in TCS, studied at XLRI… What were your encounters with music during those years?
In Loyola I participated in ‘solo song’ in the Youth Festival in Std IX. I came fourth. There were four participants. Needless to say, I was quite low on musical confidence. Something changed after I went to NIT –- I was in two bands, we got featured in RSJ (then India’s only rock magazine) and played inter-college events. That’s also when I started to play the guitar (the guys from the North east made it look cool and easy!)

I played with a few colleagues while at TCS, not serious bands, but mostly guys looking to have a little fun on weekends. XLRI was a rich musical experience. I met Abhishek, Satadru, Bharat and Poornima who would later become the members of bodhiTree (of the class of 2006) the band that composed, recorded and released on the internet songs like ‘GMD’ and ‘Sabke Katega’. They went on to become cult hits and found their way, with no mass media at all, into every cell phone and iPod in India (and even abroad). I remember being quite taken aback by the response. Though no one in bodhiTree wanted to take music as a career at that time, the experience remains one to be cherished.

I joined ITC after that and was posted in Bhopal and Indore, not particularly known for live music. But I don’t know how, but we started Indore’s only rock band called Square One with some college kids I happened to meet in a Barista. We did about 4 or 5 shows. What fun!

How did Swarathma come together? Did you search for like-minded souls, or did you bump into them, or…?
Swarathma had been an active band for about a couple of years before I met Montry (who played guest drums on a bodhiTree gig in Bangalore). When I moved to Bangalore while with ITC, I gave him a buzz. It so happened Swarathma was looking for a bass player at that time. I met up with the guys, really loved the music, got along with the guys and voila!

Writing and composing songs — are these group activities in your band? What happens when differences crop up amongst creative people? How do you resolve them?
In the scenario of a collaborative songwriting process, conflicts are not only inescapable they are invaluable. It is only with conflict (resolved constructively) that our music becomes better.

Even though we may disagree, we have immense respect for each other’s musical tastes and abilities – we also love each other as dear friends. The combination causes most conflicts to be resolved and helps the music come into its own.

What’s your typical work+music day like?
We’re quite contrary to the image of a band. We rehearse thrice a week from 6.30 am to breakfast. The rest of the day is devoted to individual practice, jams and other things. Afternoon onwards we usually are involved with non-music stuff.

Do you see yourself turning a full-time musician? What’s your advice to those who wish to pursue a career in music? Should music be combined with work, or can we in India think of becoming full-time rock musicians?
As of January 2009, I consider myself a full-time musician. I’ve made (tough) career choices that allow me the freedom to play and create music.

As for advice, I’m most unqualified to dish out any. But what I did was to follow my heart, for I have one life to live. It is hard, with a career, with responsibilities, but if you really really want to do something, you will find a way.

Which other Indipop bands would you recommend to your fans? Who are the other cool kids on the block?
There are some bands we really like -– Faridkot (finalists in the Channel [V] launchpad as well as in Radio City Live (the contest we won).

As a student, you have endured the music classes at Loyola. If you are the school’s music teacher now, how would you teach music?
I have really no idea. None of the music I play has ever been learnt in any class. To my mind, we need to resist the temptation of regimentalizing and taking the fun out of music.

Maybe it can be taught in a way that makes music classes memorable… maybe that’s too much to ask!

Becoming a successful band today is not just about musical creativity, it’s about how you market yourself. As a manager-cum-musician, what’s your advice to music groups struggling on the marketing front?
Believe in the music you are playing 100%. Everything follows from there.

Use the internet. Constantly generate content that engages your listener. Bring him or her closer to your band with it. Social networks, websites etc.

Play more gigs, work the crowd -– be known for something that it truly you.

Listen to Swarathma

Jishnu on BBC (hat tip: Sandeep K (1994 ISC))

How true was this claim?

Those who claimed so (including me) had limited information about other schools in Trivandrum, to make an honest and thorough comparison. If we were tested on this–say, if asked to list out the extra-curricular activities in any three city schools–all of us would have failed. But ignorance did not prevent us from asserting that Loyola was different because of its extra-curricular thrust.

I believe that we students were parroting the words of our teachers and parents. Their own belief was probably rooted in knowledge of other schools (via neighbours, colleagues or relatives). But it is also probable that they took cue from the Jesuits who ran Loyola and cultivated an image of a “different” school.

The Jesuits were not being dishonest. Loyola did have several platforms for literary and artistic activities inside and outside the classroom. There were a weekly period called “Literary Association”, a youth festival, the wallpaper LENS, debates or quizzes each term, and so on. The school also encouraged students to participate in inter-school competitions. In addition, there were squads for cleaning classrooms, social service and similar non-literary or non-artistic work.The Jesuits and the teachers put in a lot of effort to organise these activities in the school. None will question their sincerity or doubt their dedication.

But was Loyola different?

Those who studied in other schools can tell us whether such activities were common in their schools or, as we believed, unique to Loyola. My guess is that various schools had different extra-curricular activities. If English elocution was a prestigious event in Loyola, it might have been kathaprasangam in school x and mohiniyattom in school y. Accordingly, Loyola fared reasonably well in the state ICSE schools’ meet (where the events were similar to what Loyola hosted), but rarely made a mark in the state SSLC schools’ youth festival. If Loyola was different, it was in the kind of activities that the school hosted.

Loyola of the 1980s was different from other schools also in terms of facilities. Loyola had better infrastructure than other schools. Well-equipped classrooms (good desks and benches), different courts for various sports and games, sporting equipment, sound systems, closed auditiorium–few schools in Trivandrum could boast all of these. The infrastructure helped in hosting a range of extra-curricular activities and strengthened the popular claim.

We had the hardware, but was Loyola different in terms of the software?

Look at the approach, for instance. If the popular claim is to be believed, the activities should have been co-curricular, if not part of the curriculum in this school. But at Loyola, every activity was called “extra-curricular”, i.e. beyond the curriculum, as if the curriculum did not demand any such activity.

In the few cases that art formed part of the curriculum, it was taught unimaginatively. There was a weekly music class (till around class 7). There was a weekly painting class (in the lower classes of the junior school, if I remember correctly). And there was a weekly moral science class (till standard 10). For a school that believed it was different, there was hardly anything different in the way Loyola treated such subjects or activity.

We got many platforms to sing, but Loyola did not teach us how to sing, or what music was. I doubt whether any Loyolite learnt music at Loyola, despite ritually chanting songs every week for seven years. All of us could have been exposed to different genres of music, right? (In these days of CDs, mp3 downloads and an audio-visual room, is it too much to expect Loyola to have music appreciation classes?)

Yes, we could paint in the annual youth festival, but were we taught how to paint? I am not expecting Loyola to make every child a Picasso, but at least: (a) tell us why this Picasso chap is great; and (b) show us a few tricks and techniques to draw. Pick up a basic book on drawing and you will realise the opportunities missed.

Some of you will argue that the situation was the same in other schools. Maybe. But that is exactly what I am asking: was Loyola really different?

The story is recounted in ’10 Years of LA Fest’, a souvenir brought out in 2005. On page 2, under the heading ‘The Rising’ it says:

In November 1996, Vivek Krishnan, Harish K., Rahul Warrier and their 12 standard classmates pleaded with the class teacher: Madam, we need a break from the grind of textbooks and classes; let’s organise an inter-school arts festival.

The idea gathered momentum among students. But somebody had to get the green signal from the Principal Fr. Mani Manimala.

One afternoon, as the school bell rang, the teacher surrounded by students egging her on told Fr. Mani, “The students have been saying that they want to organise a festival for schools in the city.” The Principal, full of energy but looking stern as ever, replied, “If you are ready to take full responsibility, go ahead.”

The students who overheard this were ecstatic. The teacher who had bravely conveyed the proposal could not back out. Her students would ensure that, year after year.

The last page of the souvenir reveals who the teacher is.

LA Fest claims to be ‘an all-student affair’. But the invisible hand of 12 standard class teacher Deepa Pillai (DP) has been there in every fest since 1996. Her passion for anonymity forced us to delete her name in ‘The Rising’ (page 2). But we have the last laugh.

Every year, the school magazine’s LA Fest report captures the excitement of the fest. But I would argue that these reports do not capture the fest well. I have heard that within 2-3 days of the concluding ceremony, the student volunteers sit and critically look at their work in organising the fest. The LA Fest, in fact, ends only after that group session.

But such wonderful spirit of learning does not make its way to the school magazine. Instead, we get reports that are too self-congratulatory in tone, with each successive batch rushing to claim that they organised ‘the best LA Fest ever’. I see this whitewashing as emblematic of modern Loyola, where a culture of advertising and hype prevails. But more about that another day.

For now, best wishes to LA Fest 2007. And brothers, please write a fair report for the school mag. Or as you say in Loyola these days, the ‘best report ever’.

BONUS! Download ’10 Years of LA Fest‘ (.pdf; 0.4 MB)

William F. Sherwin.

His church song Sound the Battle Cry marches thus:

O Thou God of all, hear us when we call,
Help us one and all by Thy grace;
When the battle’s done, and the vict’ry’s won,
May we wear the crown before Thy face.

Published in several hymn books, Sherwin’s song is high on military imagery and apparently refers to spiritual warfare. In the Bible, the phrase “sound the battle cry” appears in some versions of Jeremiah 49:2; the hymn, however, is popularly associated with Isaiah 59:19.

Take Sherwin, tweak the third and fourth lines, and you have the second third stanza of the Loyola school song.

O Thou God of all, hear us when we call
Help us one and all, by Thy grace
When life’s game is done, and the victory won
May we wear the crown of joy and grace.

Er…the inspiration is not limited to the lyrics. In 1869, a good 100 years before the first batch left Loyola, Sherwin Sir had also composed this wonderful tune.