PRAYER - THE LIFELINE OF LADY DOAK COLLEGE
One of the most powerful weapons which can be used by young and old, rich and poor, weak and strong alike, is prayer. It is clearly one of the strong foundations of Lady Doak College. It can be seen in many areas in the college. Every single day started and ended with prayer in the college. The amazing thing about these prayers were, all students stood still for prayers, whenever it was being read through the speakers (it didn't matter how busy the students were). Today, 73 years on, the college stands unshakeable, because, it was founded by a prayerful woman named Katie Wilcox.
AN UNUSUAL CHRISTMAS FOR HER !
The year was 1915, the First World War was raging on. A young 26 year old American woman named Katie Wilcox set sail for a distant land called India. She bid goodbye to her friends and family in Connecticut. The journey was long and arduous. In those days, Airlines were still nascent, in fact the American Airlines was founded in the year 1926 only. So, sailing by ship was the only way to fare long distances.
In 1915, it took 6 weeks to sail across the Atlantic Ocean from America to England. Then, several months of sea sailing was required to finish the journey from England to India. People often became sick and died during these voyages. Due to the First World War, the journey was even more dangerous, entire ships like the RMS Lusitania sank in May 1915 with more than 100 U.S passengers losing their lives. But, by God's grace and His great plan, Katie Wilcox reached the shores of India on the December of 1915. At once, she made her way to the Capron Hall School where she was going to work. It was Christmas Holidays and Katie was to assume duty in 1916 after the 1915 Christmas vacation. It must have been a very different and an unusual Christmas for her. Her first Christmas away from home.
How good is it that we remember her in December of 2021 for the generosity and love she decided to shower on a people unknown to her.
To draw a comparison, 100 years later, in 2018, another 26 year old American missionary man named John Allen Chau reached the shores of the Andaman Islands in India. But he tragically lost his life.
In the year 2019, a new crop of students at Lady Doak College under one M.Ramaswamy, former Professor of Drama, Tamil University, has enacted an hour long play on the life and history of Katie Wilcox, entitled, "Ancient Root, Katie Wilcox, The Pride of Women Education in Tamil".
THE CHAPEL AND THE CHOIR
Katie Wilcox infused the prayer spirit in every sphere of the campus life in Lady Doak College. The Katie Wilcox Chapel aptly named after her was the vibrant centre of prayer. We received divine wisdom from there. We had various activities happening at our chapel.
One of the activities was the choir practice. We were trained by a professor, Dr. Christianna Singh (who is currently serving as the principal of Lady Doak College).
Choir practice classes were held weekly twice in the evenings. I was in the choir for four glorious years from 2009 to 2013.
Regular attendance was taken, late coming was not tolerated, leave of absence was not entertained. We were asked to submit leave letters whenever we took leave. We were supposed to get the signature of Chris mam. In one instance, I wrote a leave letter and submitted at CFM (Centre for Music) for Chris mam's approval.
One of my naughty friends named Joy Grace loved to play pranks on me all the time. She told me about an incident that apparently happened at CFM with the letter. She said that my letter was found by Chris mam’s husband Mr. Jayasingh, (He was a strong pillar of our Chris mam, a humble man behind the screen). He was known for his sense of humour. He told Chris mam that somebody wrote a leave letter to her and the name has been misspelt and written as Christiana 'Singer'. Subsequently he quipped,"Anyways you are a singer, so the student wrote it right only". And the people around him laughed at his witty statement. When Joy said this, I was in disbelief that I had misspelt the Choir Director's name and till date think it was one of Joy Grace's pranks on me.
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
We, the choir girls went to the Katie Wilcox chapel for our practice sessions. We were gathered in the beautiful chapel, lit up with chandeliers and light bulbs. Most of the time the attendance was taken by a senior. She was a slim, curly haired senior with a trained voice, she was from Sri Lanka. The piano was also played by a Sri Lankan senior with very short hair. Many musical instruments were used for accompaniment and helped us in adjusting to the pitch. Our fellow students played them with intricacy. The Piano, Keyboard, Guitar, Violin, Veena, Drums and Egg Shakers were very popular there.
"In God's Heart It All Began", was the most famous duet, sang by Lillian and another senior Lydia.
One of the first songs that we learnt to sing in the choir was the 'Lady Doak College Song'.
The best part of singing this song was when all joined in the last verse - Now to thee, and to them we acclaim, "Hurrah". When we sang the song in the assembly or any function, the whole college would love to chime in energetically for the last "Hurrah". I wonder who is the author of this beautiful song.
In the choir, we were trained to sing different parts for a song. They were alto, melody or soprano and higher soprano. I was in melody and I loved the singing of alto, which was usually sung by Vanitha and Esther. I was heartbroken when I heard that our senior Vanitha lost her battle with cancer in the year 2019 and went to be with the Lord. She was a very beautiful young lady with an innocent smile. She was known for her 'rap' which she sang to the beat with quick tempo. Vanitha sang with another senior named Esther.
One prominent memory is I sung alto once with my affable junior, Keerthana, for a song titled “As we travel along on the Jericho Road”. We were also taught some Tamil Christian songs. Other times, we had different trainers who held practice sessions, for example, some sweet hymns were taught by Dr. Lily Earnest.
During the months of November and December, the choir was trained to sing the Christmas carols. Separate hours were allocated for the practice and a lot of effort went into the final rendering of the wonderful chorus of voices. We were trained till we all mingled in perfect harmony.
There was Bagin Parco mam from Philippines, a person with a down to earth demeanour. She used to bring a child like enthusiasm to the practice sessions. Parco mam would lighten the tense ambience of the practice sessions and helped us break into a smile while we sang. The importance of a smiling countenance when singing can never be overemphasised. One time when I met Parco mam in person at Panditha Ramabhai Hall, she offered me KFC Chicken. Those days KFC was very new in Madurai and it was becoming quickly popular. Kentucky Fried Chicken became a rage amongst the college goers. Parco mam was a very friendly woman with a generous heart. And many of us took pictures with her on the Carol Service day.
The practice time increased as we neared the carol service. We were given vada or other snacks along with coffee as refreshments. When the day of carol service got closer we were taken to the big stage at the JX Miller auditorium for rehearsal.
In the run up to the big day, we were all engrossed with the attire to be worn on the carol night. For members of the choir, usually a cotton sari was the garment of choice. Tailors were arranged to come to the chapel where measurements were taken for all girls and then the stitching would happen. We all waited earnestly for our new costumes to arrive. In the meantime, our talks were a bit around these topics of accessories - earrings, necklaces, bangles, watches, footwear. In fact, there used to be a healthy competition amongst ourselves as to who was the best dressed and presented themselves well.
Lady Doak college gave us special permission to be in the choir practice during class hours. Our fellow friends might have thought that we were having fun at choir, but it was a hard practice time where we exerted ourselves. We were standing and repeating the carols searching for scope of improvement in the hope of putting on the best performance for the glory of God and to the pleasure of the audience.
In the carol service there were medleys, duets, Tamil Carnatic songs, and instrumentals by Dr. Jessie and Dr. Christianna Singh. There were also songs from the children choir, from Teacher’s choir and from Non Teaching staff choir.
The children's choir was trained by Dr. Betty D'Coute. The children tagged along with Betty mam to the Katie Wilcox chapel where their practice sessions were held. I have observed how Betty mam used to train them. She made a lasting impression on the children and taught with facial expressions that a child would love to emulate. It was a merry time of singing for all of them.
The choir practice was like the making of beautiful work out of wood. Most of us in the choir joined it because we loved music, some of us were gifted from heaven with a beautiful voice. But many of us lacked training which is required for harmony and professionalism. At times the carving process was painful. We had received harsh comments which hurt us, certain times few of us were trained or asked to sing alone which put us in a tight spot. But those incidents made us strong as individuals, and helped us as we gelled in a group. Some of us even shed tears in the process and had thoughts to leave the choir. But all those painful chisel cuts we received in the process transformed us to be better singers for sure. As it was at choir we were even taught to sing with right pronunciation, with right modulation of our voices according to the need of the song. Various vocal exercises for warming up the vocal chords were also taught.
Dr. Christianna Singh brought various local singers of Madurai to review our level of singing. We were visited by Sherwood sir, the famous Choir Coordinator of The American College, Madurai. We were visited by Prasanna Stanley sir who taught music at CFM. He was a member of the very famous Acapella singers of Madurai named Noel Opus, which was a part of the American college Choir for a long time. It was founded by an alumnae of the American College, Madurai.
SA-RE GA-MA
One interesting part about the choir was that we were also trained to sing Tamil traditional songs with carnatic musical notations “Sa re ga.. re ga pa..”, which never entered in my mouth. My vocal system was totally confused to adjust to the learning of those syllables, which I overcame with great difficulty. Often I used to match with the strong singer's lip movement to keep up with the rhythm and tempo. Missing a beat is sure to ruin the practice session of the whole group.
SHANTHI AKKA
We all had great admiration for the decorations in the whole campus and the Miller auditorium. Cute Twinkling serial lights were hung in all the trees from the entrance to the Miller auditorium of Lady Doak College. They were a visual treat to our eyes and we had a feast with all the beautiful eye candy. The Miller Auditorium looked all decked up for the special choir day. How apt when we sang the song - Deck the halls with boughs of holly, Fa la la la la, la la la la...
Every year it was decorated based on the theme of the carol service. Ms. Shanthi, the gifted artist and the craft teacher of the college implemented the artistic, christmassy look of JX Miller Auditorium. Some hostel students helped 'Shanthi Akka' as she was lovingly called. Her masterpiece art was at the entrance of the auditorium. There were mighty Christmas trees, Sleds, Sleighs, Santa claus, manger scene. The Auditorium had huge red or maroon hangings for the windows, red carpets adorned the central pathway. The choir steps on the stage was in red carpet and the stage had adorable paper art which had the picture of the whole manger scene along with that year's title of the carol service.
THE BIG DAY
When the final day arrived, we were singing the praises of the love of the father God in sending His own son into the world. I have felt the presence of Almighty God (El-Shaddai) in the midst of us students. Our professors were looking at us, the young women singing the glory of God. I was so filled with God’s presence when we were singing, “Star of the David, YAHWEH God come to where we are...”. After all the singing was over, a grand dinner party was arranged at the GJ auditorium. It was a night when we relished with joy and heaved a sigh of relief after all those hours of practice finally having borne fruit on the big day.
OF ORPHANAGES AND OTHERS
We, the College Choir visited many places during the Christmas time and sung Carols. The places were Mental health centres, Hospitals, Orphanages, Old age Homes.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS AT THE MENTAL HEALTH CENTER:
We travelled in our college van, we were singing carols all along the way. Our van stopped at the entrance of this mental health centre where they shelter kids, young men and women with mental illness. I was heartbroken when I entered and saw the condition of young men and women of our age. The college gave us right lessons of compassion by taking us to places like that. We donated cakes and food for them from Lady Doak College. When we were about to leave and a mentally ill child refused to leave one of our friends. We were totally moved at the sight of the poor child clinging on to our friend.
AT THE ORPHANAGE AND THE OLD AGE HOME
We went to the orphanage, the children were asked to come out of their rooms. We sang songs for them, we gave them cakes and sweets. They enjoyed our singing. Our girls went to them and spoke and played with them. Some kids were excited, some were quiet, some were thrilled to meet new people who brought music and joy to their place. Still, I sensed the loneliness they were feeling there. I prayed to God to give me strength to support kids like them in the future. My heart went out for their longing souls and I asked Lord Jesus to protect them and bless them with a good future.
We have visited three different old age homes. The old men and women gathered in the main area or hall. When we finished singing, they clapped their hands for the songs. Some even danced. Some were grumpy. We sang the Christmas wish and said a prayer. And then we started to distribute the blankets that the college brought for them. They received it with joy. We were allowed to visit their rooms. Some elders were very old and were bed ridden. Some were very sick and were on intravenous fluid drips. They were having medicines near them. Some invited us to their space and engaged in conversation with us.
All of them had their own share of sorrowful stories. The main complaint was the lack of support from their children. Most of them were sorrowful, but were glad that we visited them. A junior named Chalice welled up her eyes with tears as she was so touched at the story of a wealthy old woman whose son left her there as he was living in USA. This visit made Chalice to have the determination that she should be of help to the old aged people financially in future. Till date, Chalice is doing social service at many places in Chennai. In retrospect, I thank my Lord and saviour Jesus for having given me an opportunity to be a part of these meaningful visits from the Lady Doak College choir.
VISITING HOSPITALS
Another unforgettable visit was our visit to child care center, belonging to the Grace Kennett Foundation hospital. Grace Kennett, who lost her parents at age 2, was later adopted by an American lady doctor named Dr. Parker Vaughan. Under Dr. Parker Vaughan's guidance, Grace Kennett went on to study medicine and became one of Madurai’s renowned gynaecologists in pre-independent British India. She later adopted many children and started the Grace Kennett Foundation.
My dear friend Ida Christalin John, was filled with compassion when we visited the kids there. There were crates with many children. They had heart problems, disabilities, and some were premature babies. Ida recalled the nurse's words who asked us students to visit the center often. The children there lacked the warmth of their own mother, as they were abandoned. The nurse asked us, the young women to visit the place often, and just hold the kids in our arms for sometime, which she said was a great need for them. The Grace Kennett foundation took care of abandoned children and let families to adopt these children.
The most happiest part of all these visits was we visiting the houses of our professors. We visited the house Dr. Beulah J.M Rajkumar. There we sung carols and Beulah mam allowed us to play the grand piano at her house. Dr. Beulah J.M Rajkumar was a former Physics Professor and Head of Department at Lady Doak College. She also serves as the advisor to "The Center for Women's Studies". In her article on the Center for Women Studies, Dr. Beulah recalls with cherish about the contribution of a former Principal, one Ms. Shanti Manuel to the Center for Women Studies. Ms. Shanti Manuel was the longest serving Principal of Lady Doak College from 1968 to 1993.
We were then welcomed into the house of our choir co-ordinator, Dr.Christianna Singh and a huge feast was awaiting us. Every year Chris mam gave us the treat with delicious dishes. We ended our carol rounds by singing the Christmas wishes at her house.
As a part of choir activity during Christmas time, we were invited to carol services at churches in many parts of Madurai. We have sung carols at St.George's church which was in the heart of the city. It was built with huge stones. It was an Anglican church. We have also sung at the Divine Patience church at Railways colony. We sung carols at the Bible college, Arasaradi. We have also sung at the NOYES Matriculation Higher Secondary School located in PT Rajan Road.
A few of the members of our choir were chosen and went to Aachi Masala - Sing the Season regularly. In 2011, 2012 they won a prize in the college category. The grand finale happened in the Madras Centenary Hall under the auspices of the chief guest, Mr. Padmasingh Isaac, Head of the Aachi Group. It was a state wide singing competition held with much fanfare and the finalists will have air time in the Tamil Television channel Star Vijay TV on the week of Christmas. The winning team had a rousing reception at the Community Christmas Celebration held in G.J Auditorium, in which they were felicitated with the giant presentation award cheque. The auditorium erupted with shouts of joy and thunderous applause.
The choir gave us so much of good memories, great experiences and life lessons. When we were at choir, most of us dreamt of becoming great singers in the college. Becoming popular in the choir and becoming a part of the music group CFM was one of the things the girls were after. But with time we learned to accept each other and worked as a team and focussed on the growth of the team and indeed understood that becoming popular in the college does not equal with the other most valuable things in life.
Cynthia Devakumari Ebenezer, the upcoming Tamil christian artist once expressed her desire to me, to be a part of CFM. She was from Social Sciences department and was then working as an intern in Meenakshi Mission Hospital. There, she got an opportunity to sing a song in the Christmas Celebration on behalf of the hospital. Coincidentally, CFM was also invited for the function at the hospital. Cynthia, like many others always dreamt of becoming a part of CFM, but it never happened, much to her disappointment. Check out Cynthia's latest Tamil Christian Song "Um Varthai Ennil".
"Some things are just never meant to be, no matter how much we wish they were". Now we might laugh at the longings we used to have in our teenage years and early twenties. Need for recognition and identity crises are faced by everybody at that age.
Life is full of surprises and ironies. We do not know what will happen next time. One of the greatest life lessons I learnt from the choir is that one needs to accept hardship, endure it like a good soldier and the rewards will follow at the right time. Disappointments are a part and parcel of life. Also, practice will lead to excellence.
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