A musical camaraderie

When Fronia Priscilla and K. Anilathmaj Phani Kumar aka Anil, students of the Department of Communication and Journalism, Osmania University, started jamming in a bid to “create beautiful memories at the University”, little did they know that their talent would go ‘national’ one day. After winning the inter-collegiate music competition in Hyderabad, the duo, along with their group, will now go on to represent OU on a national platform at the upcoming Inter University Cultural Fest to be held at the AISECT University in Bhopal in the first week of November. In fact, they are now a team of eight and seem mighty chuffed as they get ready for the big show.

Fronia shares, “Anil happened to get his guitar to college one day and we began singing songs. It was just a way to pass time and have fun on campus. But then, somehow, we became a group. Most of us are just passionate about music in general and haven’t trained as such. Also, we had participated the first time last year but didn’t win anything. This year, we began preparing in the last minute but emerged at the top. It has been quite exciting for the team.”

The story of how the band came together is interesting. Anil, who is probably the only one in the group looking to make a career in music, shares, “When I joined OU, I was disheartened because I thought that I would not get to pursue music on campus in a capacity I liked. However, it was such a coincidence that several of my friends had varied interests in music. Someone played the violin, someone else liked the drums and we had people who wanted to sing. We thought, why not do it as a group and here we are.”

L. Anantha Lakshmi, a foreign student from Mauritius, says, “I was prepared to just go about the curriculum and do nothing else. Luckily for me, this group happened. My four-year-long training in violin proved to be a blessing. We are having a lot of fun.”

The band, comprising the trio alongside Fareesa Irshad, E. Blesson Abraham, P.V. Sravani, V. Hitesh Kumar and A.V.  Anandaraju, aced the Western music competitions in the city and are going to compete in the same category in Bhopal. Talking about how they began jamming in this arena, Fronia shares, “Blesson and I are used to gospel singing and that’s where our inclination towards Western music comes from. However, while we are jamming, we do a lot of Hindi and Telugu songs too.”

They are delighted to be going to a bigger stage. “Many universities have students from their department of music or music clubs in participation, while we are amateurs. But we have come this far and will leave no stone unturned and give our best. The bottom line is making it memorable for ourselves,” they echo.