In the bylanes of Guirdolim is the Pallotti Jyoti Niwas, a home for young boys aspiring to be a priest and going through their Novitiate formation. The novitiate rector, Fr Valentine Alphonso who breathes music and spends his entire lifetime before seminary and even in his seminary life with his guitar decided to give Chandor residents a music room.
“Since I took charge of this place, I felt that the locals needed a space especially the youth where they could come and jam and showcase their musical talents be it with their voices or their instruments. That’s when I decided to convert a small space at this seminary into a music room,” explains Fr Valentine.
Fr Valentine took the pains of buying electric keyboards, guitars, a drum set, sound and mixers and all the equipment the youth would require to come and chill in the music room. Opened last month the music room is now open from 3pm to 7pm for the youth to just come and work on their gospel music.
“I would notice that talent would simply go wasted and the youth had nothing to do. That’s when I got the idea, that I would bring professional musicians and the youth of Chandor together and take it from there,” explains Fr Valentine.
Fr Valentine asserts that he would like to see the youth practice, perform, go places with their music and even maybe have their own compositions and gospel album.
Valentine’s passion for music is such that during his days of studying in Rome, he had moved to London for a communication course when he came across a silent guitar, which was portable and detachable. He worked in a supermarket for three whole months to make enough money to buy the guitar.
Youth have a lot to express through song and music and this music studio is devoted to them. The seminary itself looks at holistic growth and has a basketball court and football ground and we have an audio visual classroom where the locals come together for scripture classes and not to forget our plantations on this property. The music room now completes our facilities.
Fr Valentine is also accompanied by Fr Avinash Mascarenhas, a keyboardist and who’s good at training youth with their vocals. The project till date has been a success with youngsters coming along to showcase their voices and musical talent.
“I remember the good old days when we jammed up on stage with big musicians and I had a seminary band. I hope to see these kids do the same over the years,” explains Fr Valentine, who’s the Asia-Oceania Head for the Palllotian Community whose charism is to renew the faith of the Laity across nations.
