Christopher DSouza - The multi-talented little young boy

Report and Pictures by Dr. Eugene D’Souza, Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network

Moodubelle, 15 March 2010: Since the end of January 2010, those who have been attending Saturday evening or Sunday morning Masses in St. Lawrence Church, Moodubelle were accustomed to hear the melodious music played on the key board during the singing of the Parish Choir. The sound of the music leads one to imagine that the hands that play the key board should be those of a matured and experienced person in music. However, if one peeks over the key board stand, he or she  is surprised to notice a little young boy barely 13 years old,  moving his fingers skilfully over the key board with his eyes fixed on the notation of the music. This little young multi-talented boy is Christopher D’Souza, fondly called by his parents and sister as ‘Chris’.

Christopher (Chris) is the second child of Victor and Connie D’Souza of Gud-dottu in Moodubelle. Victor D’Souza works in Doha-Qatar and has been a regular contributor to Bellevision. Connie works for an Insurance Company in Kundapur. Their elder daughter, Carol is presently doing Engineering course in St. Joseph’s Engineering College at Vamanjoor, Mangalore.

Chris was born on 12th July 1997 and is presently in the 13th year of his age. Right form his childhood, Chris has been an active and inquisitive child. Realising his potential, his parents decided to provide a better educational environment to Chris and enrolled him in St. Mary’s English School in the Mother of Sorrows Church Compound in Udupi for Lower KG. Presently Chris studies in the 7th standard.

The hidden talents of Chris began to manifest themselves while he was in the primary section of the school. While he was in the fourth standard, Chris developed an interest in drawing and acquired considerable proficiency winning prizes in the school drawing competition. He also began to participate in skits during the school annual day celebrations and once even partly compeered the programme.

When asked about his interest and proficiency in music, Mrs. Connie said that as her elder daughter Carol was good in singing and music she used to attend a music class in Udupi and would practice on key board at home. Young Chris, who was just nine years old at that time, developed an interest in music along with his sister and he too wanted to join the music class at Udupi. Though initially the music teacher refused to accept him as a student as he was too young to learn the fine aspects of music, later she relented and agreed to teach him. Thus, Chris would accompany his sister during her vacation music classes and in the course of one month completed 10 preliminary classes of music and grasped the essence of basic western music. Due to problems associated with travelling the long distances and his preoccupation with school studies, Chris could not continue attending music classes.

In spite of the above difficulties Chris carried on his interest in music practicing at home by playing on the key board and asking his mother Connie to sing hymns and Konkani or Hindi film songs while he provided the background music.

As Carol, the elder sister of Chris has been a member of the Parish Choir, he too was keen to join the choir group.  Realising the potential of Chris to play the key board, Fr. Naveen Pinto who was the assistant parish priest and also the Choir Master admitted him as the member of the choir.

Fr. Naveen wanted to prepare some young boys to play the key board and offered to train anyone who was interested in learning to play the instrument. Nearly 15 young boys volunteered, but at the end only two-Chris and Clive Quadros remained to learn playing on the key board from Fr. Naveen.

When Fr. Naveen was selected to go for B.Ed. studies from January 2010, Fr. Joswey Fernandes, the parish priest suggested Fr. Naveen that it would be better if he trained someone to play the key board during the choir singing for the Saturday and Sunday Masses. Naturally, the choice of Fr. Naveen was Chris whom he had been training for quite some time and Chris had shown his proficiency in playing the instrument. Even Fr. Joswey encouraged Chris to play music of some hymns and gain confidence.

Since the last week of January 2010, after Fr. Naveen went for his B.Ed. studies at Udupi, staying at Kemmannu parish, Chris has been handling the key board during the weekend and Sunday Masses. He attends all three Masses so that he can play the key board for the singing of the choir. He has a fairly good knowledge of the music notations and is presently keen to learn playing guitar. Chris is also interested in singing and attempts to write poems.

In spite of these multi-talents, Chris is quite good in studies. Presently, he attends the National Talent Search (NTS) Classes  and will appear for the NTS examination in November 2010. Chris is very much interested in science and is the leader of the Science Club in his school. He has been interested in preparing different science models. In one of the science exhibitions that was held in his school he had prepared a model of Kaleidoscope. He got consolation prize for his model ‘Metal Tester’ in the recently held science exhibition.

Chris says that it was his parents, Victor and Connie as well as his sister Carol who have been a great source of support and encouragement in developing his hidden talents, especially his love for music. He is also interested in cricket and waits eagerly for the summer vacation after the final examinations so that he could gather his friends and play cricket.

When asked about his future interest, Chris said without hesitation that his aim is to become a doctor. However, he will continue his interest in drawing, but he would give first preference to achieve proficiency in music.

Bellevision wishes Christopher good luck and success in his future endeavours.