with Samir Bhamra and Leylah Rumi
The first singer has to sing at least two complete lines and then the last letter of the song is then used by the next singer to sing another song, starting with the same letter.The winner or winning team is decided by a process of elimination.It is a very fun and popular game all over South Asia.
We organised weekly sessions where approximately 27 people attended the first session. While giving a twist to the decades-old game and to encourage more people to sing, the sessions usually lasted 2 hours with first half following the rules of the game and the second half dedicated to singing songs to different themes such as ‘love’, ‘rain’, ‘bangles’, ‘marriage’ etc. The game was fun and was an attempt to go back to appreciating the simplicity of the game in itself and while doing so, connecting with other participants and revisiting some old memories. It was nostalgic for everyone in oneway or another. It would often happen that one person would start singing and the rest would join in, evoking the feeling of comfort and joy between the participants. People still come together and play the game.
Following the success of Antakshari sessions and a desire to improve their singing, we were requested to run a singing workshop for the participants. The Ray of Hope themed sing-along with singing sensation Dr Gargi Banerjee was organised by the UKAFF and hosted by Gurvinder Singh. Dr Banerjee has more than 10 years of experience as a vocal singing trainer. A runner-up in Zee TV’s SaReGaMaPa she heads the department of Performing Arts at ICG college Jaipur, India. Each participant prepared a piece of a song and got individual feedback from Dr Banerjee. She highlighted the importance of breathing, proper enunciation, vocals and notes to sing a song.
