Thiruvananthapuram: 'Angels brought to the Lord the scattered laughter of a little girl... The Lord asked unto her what more she wanted, she dropped her eyes to the Earth and said…wanted to go back to live in Gaza and return as a martyr...'
Blindfolded with black cloth, the students of Thalassery Chirakkara Governemnt Vocational Higher Secondary School crooned these lyrics as they ecstatically played Kolkali at the Kerala School Kalolsavam
These students pulled off the surprising feat in Kolkali expressing solidarity with the Palestine struggle for freedom.
Nobody in the audience was expecting them to sing this riveting song and perform blindfolded at the Kolkali competition.
The packed audience at Periyar venue of the Government Women's College remained dumbfounded at their surprising act.
It turned out to be a befitting artistic response to the terror of war that kills children in Palestine.
After having won first place at the district festival, their coach put to them if they would want to play a song in solidarity with Palestine people against the war.
The coach also added a rider to the suggestion that they would risk losing ‘A grade’.
However, the 12 students in unison gave a thump up to the idea. The coach then had two new songs written on the topic of Palestine crisis.
When the results for the Kolkali came out, they bagged an A grade.
Some of them even got injured as they trained for a month and one of them was down with fever on the day of competition.
Eventually they overcame all the odds playing blind-folded against the war to the rapturous applause from the audience.
The line-up of artists Shefin, Mishab, Milhan, Mazin, Shaz, Rahid, Najal, Rashdan, Hadi, Miraz, Sinan and Ahban were trained by Kolkali experts Abbas Gurikal and Muhammad Rabin under Al Mubarak Kolkali team.