The performer and artiste within them

They loved music. They lived with the ragas and rhythms of their favourite films. Some five or six years ago, they live a life full of musical notes but have to leave it all behind in order to find jobs to support their families. They left their hometowns years ago and joined companies where they work as masons, cleaners, cooks and the like and where their time schedules almost no longer allow them to hone their pasttime activities.

But last week, they all came together and showed the world that they can sing and dance maybe even better than many film icons and that they can mimic and play the drums in a manner truly worthy of praise.

The venue is Qurum Amphitheatre and the audience is packed to capacity on a colder evening as time moved forward. Without much ado, the grand finale of ‘Dil ki Awaaz’ (translates into ‘Music of the Soul’) organised by Xpress Money for the blue collar and yellow collar workers in the Sultanate migrant workers in Oman began with rather soul-rendering notes from construction and maintenance workers who have never sang to such a massive audience before. For them, the evening was a remote dream coming true.

“I still can’t believe that I’m the first prize winner of the finals”, says a jaw-dropped Raju Rasila, a mason working for OSCO for the last three years.

“Never ever have I thought that I’d be able to sing to such a massive audience and win the prize of this magnitude. The organisers have done a great thing to those people like us,” Rasila said while wiping his tears.

Xpress Money Dil Ki Awaaz’ is a first of its kind multi-lingual singing competition launched with the objective of looking for hidden singing talent from across labour camps in Oman.

Dil ki Awaaz grand finale indeed presented a rare opportunity for many migrant labourers in Oman from diverse ethnic and geographic backgrounds to test their musical mettle adjudged by celebrity judges who were tasked to pick the winners from the tight competition.

For Rahul PK, 1st Runner-Up, an electrical maintenance employee with BEC, singing has always been in his blood since childhood when he hummed a few lines of the lyrics that he heard from the transistor radio they used to have at his village in Kozhikode.

For Rahul, who has never sung to the public in his 5-year old sojourn, the occasion was an ‘unforgettable day in his life’. That he would be performing in the august presence of the Indian Ambassador to Oman, Indra Mani Pandey, Murad Ali Hooti from Majlis Ash’Shuraa, Sudhesh Giriyan, COO of Xpress Money and other dignitaries was unimaginable.

“I felt I’m on top of the world after they announced my name on the mic that I was the 2nd Runner Up”, an elated Santu Mondal, who works as a cook for Al Naba’a said. Back home in Kolkata, he used to do street performances and sing for local stage events and weddings.

Supported by Xpress Money’s CSR platform, HOPE, the competition reached out to 45 labour camps connecting with 90,000 people over the last two months giving those who never sang in their life a venue to sing and to those feet that forgot the steps, a platform to try out their stomping steps to the public keeping them entertained.

The competition was spread over two months starting from January 15, across three phases. The initial round of selection process was done by inviting contestants to send their voice samples through WhatsApp, which was later followed by auditions and competitions at labour camps for the shortlisted.

Talking about how this unique programme was conceived, Ashwin Gedam, said, “Interacting with migrant workers over the years we realised they have limited avenues to socialise with people and even lesser ways to channelise their talents. Dil Ki Awaaz was therefore conceived as a platform for leisure, entertainment, and self-discovery for these migrant workers - something completely opposite to their everyday routine life. Dil Ki Awaaz gave them the opportunity to connect with people and encouraged them to showcase their talents, which is generally unnoticed or untapped.”