Team spirit, their motto

THEIR ENTHUSIASM is infectious. Their passion for music, the common bond. Arklites is a music group, and a special one at that... it is an all-girls band. And mind you, they are 22 in number!

Students and ex-students of the SIET College, the girls started off as a college band, performing at their culturals. Slowly, they graduated to inter-collegiate competitions. Winning the Stella Maris and Anna University inter-collegiate culturals spurred them into taking to music seriously.

One of them explains, "Once we finished college, we got on with our lives, looking for jobs or pursuing higher studies. That was when we realised that we were drifting away from music. So we decided to do something together. That was how Arklites was born - to keep alive our love for music."

IT professionals, marketing managers, assistant directors for tele-shows, housewives, students... the mix is eclectic. The group's first public appearance was for a charity show for an orphanage in Seethamma Colony, called Ashram, (not to be confused with the Ashram of Latha Rajnikanth).

The band has also organised two shows for the Vikatan group of publications.

What is interesting is that most of the girls are not formally trained in music. But they have the talent and the interest, which they put to best use - of course, with a little help from friends such as Lloyd, who teaches them to play on the instruments and Christie, who helps them the percussion rhythms.

The band members, comprising bass guitar players, percussionists, singers, flautists and keyboard players, ensure that in every programme, all of them get an opportunity to perform. "We take turns and all of us get a chance to appear on stage. That way nobody is left out," says one of the co-ordinators.

What about the content of the shows? It is mostly Tamil and Hindi film numbers, both old and new melodies. "Songs such as "Roop Tera Mastana", "Janeman Janeman", "Koi Mil Gaya', "Pattu Paadava" and "Idhiya nila" continue to be crowd pullers. We do perform the latest hit numbers but given the choice, we would go for the golden melodies of the 1970s and 80s," is a candid statement from another member of the band, which also performs English numbers occasionally, to add variety.

With three efficient co-ordinators in Lloyd, Christie and Ravoofa, the team is now planning a show for New Year's Day.

As far as financing goes, it is very simple. Says Ravoofa, "The proceeds of one show are pumped into the next. We do not perform for monetary benefits. In fact for the first show, we all pitched in to make it possible." And thus the show goes on.

SAVITHA PADMANABHAN

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