Music Is The Food Of Love At The Choir of the Loaves And the Fish

Love and music bring happiness to the infirm and aged in this senior citizens' home and allow them to share it with others too. Be inspired by the Choir of the Loaves and the Fish!

If you walk past the open windows of the Holy Spirit Senior Citizen’s Home at Bannerghatta in Bengaluru and hear the sounds of We Are the World or These Are a Few of My Favourite Things, or I Have a Dream wafting towards you from the interiors, do step in and explore more. You will be pleasantly surprised, even awed, by the fact that the voices that reeled you in belong to a choir of 65-96 year-olds whose lined faces are alight with a passion for music. 

They practice every week, despite the fact that some of them are in wheelchairs or holding on to walkers or have had strokes and are living with cancer, heart disease, dementia, Parkinson’s, and arthritis. In fact, they have even held concerts, not just for family, friends, and visitors to their own Homes, but in other senior citizen homes where they traveled with a great deal of effort. The driving force behind this amazing choir, known as The Choir of the Loaves and the Fish, are two women named Pervin Varma and Regina Thomas. Pervin founded the choir sometime in 2012 when she would visit her uncle and aunt living at The Holy Spirit Home. Having always been passionate about music, this ex-employee of CRY and TISS would have casual interactions around music with the residents there.

“For me, it was how do I use song and music to bring hope and joy to these senior citizens, giving them a sense of value and worth,” says Pervin.

“One day, we were singing I have a dream by Abba, and I said, Let’s share our dreams. What are your dreams? Many immediately said, This is no age to dream. It was Christmas time, and I said, my dream is to form a choir, and instead of people coming and entertaining you this Christmas, we can invite people and perform for them!”

And so the Choir of the Loaves and the Fish was born! 

The Biblical reference to Jesus multiplying loaves of bread and fish to feed his followers was interpreted as the seniors offering whatever they had to God and letting Him use it in whatever way He chose. Their first concert that Christmas of 2012 certainly brought a lot of joy to those who came to listen. The residents of the Home who took part in it were astonished by the feedback they got. They began to practise regularly because now they had something to work towards, says Pervin, adding, “Making a difference to other people was a critical element of the whole experience for them.”

Instead of waiting for the entire year for a Christmas effort, the Choir had started to do an Independence Day concert as well, though due to the pandemic, that came to a halt three years ago. The choir has also performed in another senior citizens’ home, church, and conference at Christ University, Bengaluru.

But getting to this stage of giving outside performances wasn’t easy. Many of the residents initially needed coaxing and cajoling to participate. Pervin remembers one of their members, a lady they called Ammachy who was in her nineties, who would often come to the rehearsals in her nightie but sit silently and stare at them without singing a word.

“There is no criteria to join the choir,” explains Pervin. “If you want to be part of it, everyone gets something to do, a little solo, or to read something, or, in the case of Ammachy, she finally responded to being handed a pair of shakers. A percussionist was born! She really took to them and during her last two concerts, before she passed away, she even sang!”

“Every single time I go there (to the Home), I know why I am there. Just to see their joy,” says Pervin. It is clear that she loves what she does and finds it immensely gratifying. And at the rehearsal we observe, we see her receive that love back and more! 

“One of our members in her 80s, suffering from chronic back pain, lost her son very tragically. Despite all that, she would come for every session and sing from her heart. While she didn’t speak a word of English, she learned and sang all the songs just by listening to the phonetics. My uncle, who had dementia, never forgot the words of a song. In his last concert, he sat on his chair, glaring at me (and I thought he would not remember a thing), but when it came to the solo, he sang impeccably. Uncle Suresh was an Air Force pilot and now has Parkinson’s and is in a wheelchair. It is not easy to sing when you have Parkinson’s. But when he sings his voice is so strong. Especially singing ‘Kadam Kadam Badaye Ja,’ the song to which he once marched.”

The Choir has also done some quirky musical acts. For their Independence Day concert in 2018, they tweaked the lyrics of the famous song from the film Sound of Music, My Favourite Things -  to incorporate all their favorite things! 

Our Favourite Things

Chocolates and dry fruits and

Rich carrot halva

Toffee chews, pomegranates

And Chinese food with champagne

Jim Reeves and Chaudary and Rafi and hymns

These are a few of our favorite things

Goa and feni and Old Monk with thumbs up

Cool breeze and gardens and sunshine on raindrops

Holy Spirit sisters and helpers and friends

These are a few of our favorite things

When the bones ache,

When the nose leaks,

When we’re feeling sad,

We simply remember our favorite things

And then we don’t feel so bad

Singing and cooking and reading and serials

Eating and shopping and meeting with family

Happiness and good health and God’s love for us

These are a few of our favorite things!

Though the pandemic years and aging would’ve taken a toll, the choir, which currently has 23 members, performed in 2021 after a break. It was a reminder that while there are lows in life, the spirit of Christmas and the hope, love, and sense of purpose that music can bring in can always be that bright spot of cheer and light

The Choir of the Loaves and the Fish will do their first-ever online concert as part of the Silver Talkies Club Christmas Fiesta, open to all Silver Talkies Club Members on December 22, 2022. We are honored to have them perform on our platform and wish them success for many years.

To know how to become a Silver Talkies Member member, click here: https://c1.silvertalkies.com/care/membership-plans

To get updates on the choir’s activities, follow their FB page: https://www.facebook.com/ChoirOfTheLoavesAndFish

Note: We first featured The Choir’s story in 2018. The article has been updated and reposted.

All images courtesy: The Choir of the Loaves and the Fish