Caroling

Had been wanting to pen down something about this year's Christmas, but was either held up with work or being lazy. Zhong Shuin approached a day after the caroling session, if I could write an article about it for the first college magazine edition. Since I'd written, I thought I would just update it here. Had deleted the original version. So I'll just copy and paste that one which has been edited by Zhong. After cutting off certain lines which aren't needed and adding on some meaningful words to it, I think the article sounded pretty nice. Sharing it with you guys.

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Dressed in red tops and hats, they were all geared up to welcome a night of fun and merry! WENDY TER ZU WEI (Batch 19) sang her heart out with the MMMC Christmas Carolers.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here in Manipal. In spite of being far away from home, I feel blessed because my last Christmas here was almost as significant as it was in Malaysia. It all began with the annual caroling session on 20 December. I had a most splendid time, going from house to house singing a grand list of Christmas carols.

In comparison to past years, we received many unexpected blessings this year – Dr. Stanley Lobo sportingly agreed to accompany us on our grand tour, and arranged two tempos for us to travel from one home to another instead of moving around by a confusing mixture of autos and walking. To tally up the merriment, Dr. Lobo also masqueraded himself as dear old Santa Claus. Donning a red robe with a Santa’s mask over his face, he went around bellowing the familiar phrase, ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!! Merry Christmas!!’.

For many of our lecturers who are believers, there’s no better way to celebrate Christmas than caroling! So after much anticipation, we started the eventful evening at our first stop which was Mdm. Bincy's residency. Next was to Dr. Maya Roche’s followed by Dr. Annamma’s, Mdm. Merin’s, Mr. Vinod Pallath’s, Mdm. Daphne’s, Mdm. Saju’s and last but not least, Dr. Stanley’s.

‘Mamacita, donde esta Santa Claus…Santa Claus...Oh! Pancho, Oh! Vixen, Oh! Pedro, Oh! Blitzen’ we sang, breaking into chuckles in between the lyrics. ‘Ole! Ole! Ole! Cha! Cha Cha!’. And to the more sentimental songs like ‘Silent Night’, ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ and ‘Away in a Manger’. We sang, stretching our voices to match the angels, focusing our minds on the beauty of Christmas – even the lecturers and their families could not resist the temptation but to sing and dance away with us!

We were hosted warmly and given the purest mood of Christmas. The lecturers were friendly, jovial and supportive – their parental love extended beyond their working hours and responsibilities. We were blown away by their efforts in preparing the sumptuous spreads of snacks. Was embarrassed over the mess I created at one of the houses when I accidentally spilled my drinks onto the floor, yet the hospitable host comforted me and said, ‘It’s ok, no worries at all. Treat this as your own home!’. These words tickled my heart for a moment. The sense of déjà vu drifted my inner sighs away, thinking that this Christmas has certainly carved a deep memory in my mind.

Many lively conversations were exchanged during the event and we had the most precious moments interacting with each other. Though it lasted for just a night, all of us had had tremendous bouts of joy cum contentment. It was perhaps the best season of the year. Despite being a yearly affair, Christmas caroling at Manipal has not lost its novelty. I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed it. I wished there were more to come.

This article is dedicated to the loving hands that guided us with faith, hope and charity – Dr. Annama, Mr. Anand and last but not least, Dr. Stanley.