Trophies for the talented

The 14-member choir of the Happy Home and School for the Blind at Worli, trained and conducted by Shireen Irani who is herself visually impaired, carried away four trophies at the annual school choir competition organized by the Time and Talents Club at the Dhirubhai Ambani School in Bombay on December 14, 2008, as per an e-mail received by Parsiana from Meher Banaji, the School’s director.

The Time and Talents Club, a registered charitable organization has been actively involved in providing medical, educational and social assistance to the less privileged in society for the past 75 years. Its rural projects include sponsoring rainwater harvesting in drought prone villages in Maharashtra, installing solar lighting in tribal villages, providing toilets for tribal families and helping to alleviate malnutrition for undernourished tribal children. Another major objective of the Club is the promotion of music and the arts and to encourage local talent it organizes an Inter Scool Choir Competition every year.

Happy Home choir with their trophies. Conductor Shireen Irani is third from right

This year 286 schools participated in the solo singing competition and 38 in choir singing in four categories: Indian classical, Indian popular, western classical and western popular. The boys of the Happy Home School performed a hat trick, standing first in the western classical, Indian classical and Indian popular music contests in addition to coming third in the western popular category. The School encourages musical talent and it is due to the tireless efforts and training of conductor Irani that the children, normally Marathi speaking, have now become conversant in singing in English. They are often invited to perform at various consulates and organizations and enjoy singing Christmas carols. Banaji writes with justifiable pride that these boys have consistently won the first prize in the western classical music category in the inter-school competition for the last five years.

Established in 1925 by Coomi Sohrab Bharoocha, at a time when the concept of educating blind children was deemed rather radical and the visually impaired were considered only capable of traditional crafts like weaving and basket making, the School started with five blind court-committed street waifs. Bharoo­cha’s persistence and tireless work for their cause has resulted in a full-fledged School which today houses 200 blind and partially sighted boys. These children are taught in the Marathi medium from the Montessori level up to Std X, when they appear for the SSC board examination. The School trains each child to maximize his individual potential. Children are taught to stretch their faculties, communicate effectively, improve their mobility and gain the requisite skills for a full, functional life, the e-mail reveals.

The dynamic vision of director Banaji, who has been associated with the visually impaired for the past 38 years, is credited with turning this institution into a role model for others of its kind.