Christmastime, Indian Style

Ellavarkum Christmasinte mangalangal! Christmas greetings to you all!

While you would never know it from the weather, it's Christmastime in India (why does that sound like a Weird Al song to me?). I'm pretty sure there won't be any white (except for me!) involved in Christmas here, and I have yet to see an actual pine tree. But there are stars being hung in front of every house, Christmas lights are even going up in places, and Christmas songs are being sung as Keralites prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus. The only place in India that has a reasonably high Christian population (I've heard estimates everywhere between 20-40%), Kerala is a fascinating place to celebrate Christmas, because people of all different faiths get into the celebrations. And I've gotten to partake in some of the festivities.

I should preface this by explaining that I've been singing in three different choirs for the Christmas season-- the UC College Christmas choir, the Holy Trinity CSI choir, and the YMCA Ecumenical choir. Between them, I've had at least one choir practice every day of every week for the past two months (yes, they all started preparing for Christmas in October-- that's early even by my standards!). I love singing in the college choir-- it's well organized and well directed by Thomas Phillip (TP Saar), who really knows music and is a great teacher. Plus, it's made up of a wonderful group of students and faculty who I love spending time with and getting to know.

Not quite so well organized is the Ecumenical choir, whose practices are rarely announced in advance (three times last week, Santhosh, the most competent director of this choir [there are a few different guys who seem to be vying for control], came to knock on my door while I was in varying states of undress and repose during my few unspoken-for hours, to say "hey, we're practicing now if you can join us."), and which really has no clear cut leader- or director-ship. Practices are sparsely attended at best, but at least most of the people in the choir can sing pretty well and know music in at least some nominal sense.

The CSI choir, however, is a disaster. Practices are reasonably predictable and regular, but are still laxly attended. Which is a travesty because there are many members who can not carry a tune, much less read music, harmonise or blend with other parts. And the director is, frankly, awful. I've been blessed to work with some really talented musical directors in the past-- Dick Eckstein, Sal and Bonnie, Sara from Starving Artists--, so I might not be in a fair place to judge. But this guy doesn't seem to realize that parts generally need to be taught before a performance, and that it's usually NOT a good idea to spring a new piece of music on a choir in the penultimate practice before a Christmas service. And it can't help that he's a blowhard who just likes to hear himself talk and sing, even though he can't sing a note, and I'm pretty sure he's never looked at a sheet of notation in his life. So we have sheaves of songs that have never been taught, that we're still expected to sing in less than a week; half of which are in a language that I can't understand, and use scales, modes, and rhythms completely unfamiliar to me. Good thing we've sung through these songs all of once, and that in unison on the melody.

And again, maybe I'm not in a position to judge. I can't really read music either, and I don't have a very good ear. But I'm aware of my shortcomings in this respect and thus, WOULD NEVER MAKE MYSELF A CHOIR DIRECTOR!! If only others were as considerate...

But I digress.

Like I said, I've already taken part in a pretty fair number of Christmas-related activities. On Friday, I was invited to join the final-year BSc Chemistry students' Christmas celebration, and to take part in their Christmas Friend (read: Secret Santa) activities. They had decorated the classroom with streamers and balloons, and there was an Indian Christmas tree in the corner (basically a sawed-off tree branch decorated with streamers and balloons. But hey, they get an E for effort). Once everybody had arrived, we presented our Christmas Friend with their gift, and gave them a piece of cake. I really dig the fact that cake is apparently a big part of Christmas here. Of course, since I was the guest of honour, they made me go first despite the fact that I was obviously completely unaware of the proper protocol for how this was all supposed to go down. But, I made my way through it, and presented Revathy with a little ceramic Santa and card (and cake) to cheers and thunderous applause. I learned from the example of subsequent presenters that you're supposed to make the identity of your Christmas Friend a sort of riddle and cryptically list some of their characteristics. Oh well. I'll remember that for next time (yes, there is a next time. I've got a couple more of these bad boys to attend). So the "wonderful, lovely man from America who plays the guitar" got a little glass sailboat and a small brass replica lamp. I'm stoked. I really wanted one of those lamps! Once the gifts and cake were all distributed, the students asked me to lead them in singing some Christmas songs. I had brought my guitar and all-purpose book of music, so I felt ready for anything. Trouble was, the students don't know any of the Christmas carols we do!! (That's not entirely true-- they do know Jingle Bells and Silent Night). So it mostly ended up being a solo performance, with a few teachers joining in on the songs they knew. While I would've prefered a sing-along, this format allowed me the opportunity to sing some songs they probably wouldn't have known anyway-- namely, "Blue Christmas" and, yes, Parkway South fans "Do They Know It's Christmas?". And I managed to teach them a couple of our Christmas songs. In exchange they sang me some Malaylam film songs.

That evening was the YMCA Ecumenical Christmas Carol Service. More a choir-fest than a worship service, this event showcased several local choirs singing a few songs each. I knew that the Ecumenical Choir would be singing. We had practiced and prepared for it, and our performance of two songs (one in Malayalam, and "Angels We Have Heard On High") came off very well. I was not aware that the CSI choir would be performing. We had neither practiced nor prepared for this event, and the performance, like everything else this choir touches, was a disaster. But I don't think the audience could tell. So I just smiled and mumbled the Malayalam words I was seeing for the first time as well as I could. And of course, since we're in India, the programme started late and ran much longer than anticipated, so I missed dinner. Fortunately my friend, P.I. John was kind enough to invite me back to his house for some bread and jam and biscuits so I didn't have to go to bed on an empty stomach.

And most recently, last night was the UC College carol service. Every year, the residents of the men's hostel try to outdo the previous year in terms of decorating. This year, the Chackos (thus named because they're residents of Chacko Hostel) put up a huge tree reaching almost to the ceiling of the chapel and hung a hundred and one stars around the chapel, including one that had to be more than ten metres tall on a tree outside.

The carol service seems to have been a huge success. It was very well attended-- the chapel was packed to the gills, and probably a hundred people were standing outside. The choir sang very well, and I received many compliments on my solo and on the fact that I was able to sing the Malayalam songs with apparent ease. After the chapel emptied out, the choir and the Chackos had a sort of after-party. Well, maybe "party" isn't the proper nomenclature. We sat in the pews and had tea, oranges, and cake, and anyone who wanted to made a little speech.

I tried to have a friend videotape the service for me, but my battery died after just one song-- d'oh!!

Over the next week and a half, I'l be attending a whole bunch more Christmas activities, so I'll be sure to keep sharing what Christmas is like in India!