Music for you

To celebrate the 60th year of the Youths’ Own Union (YOU) a music program by Asish Motewalla of Canada was organized at the J. D. Bharda High School on June 27, 2006. Singing duet songs with her was Kersi Kadodwalla and giving her accompaniment on the harmonium was Viraf Daruwalla and on the tabla, Jamshed Kotwal. Members of the audience too were invited to render songs of their choice, notes a press release from Rashid Bamanbehram. Ratamai Peer and Jehangir Chaina addressed the gathering on behalf of YOU.

Presently Motewalla is a member of the Sacred Music Society of Ontario, a 100-member choir group that sings in big cathedrals and churches in the province of Ontario in Canada. In Toronto she composed a song rendered by the five-year-old Beaver group called Seven Creations of Ahura Mazda, notes a press release. Her love for Indian culture and the desire to study Indian ragas led her to train under Sohail Rana of Pakistan and Prosenjit Deogharia of Indore Gharana. She has composed songs in five Indian languages and her dream is to sing songs of peace and unity, and generate monetary help and moral support for the children of the world, states an introduction to the singer.

When convalescing at the Cama Home in Bandra after a surgery by Dr Rushad Udwadia at Bombay’s Breach Candy Hospital, 55-year-old Motewalla met Peer who encouraged her to perform under the auspices of YOU. Having lost her brother when she was 15, and both her parents, within a span of four days, when she was 18 led to a lot of soul-searching and introspection. Her outpourings were initially in verse and gradually metamorphosed into songs, notes her life profile.