‘From O Osman’ to ‘God Save the King’ to ‘Jana Gana Mana’ Powells have played it all

Zeenath Khan Come December, a wave of nostalgia washes over me as I recall my ten-year-old self singing her lungs out during the Hyderabad Public School’s annual Christmas concert. Bursting with excitement, I along with the rest of the choir strutted out in our gleaming polished shoes on to a tinsel bedecked stage. The girls were prim and proper in red tartan skirts and white blouses,while the boys wore black trousers and white shirts.
The concert began with traditional Christmas carols and ended with a song our redoubtable music teacher Mr Dennis Powell had pepped to the level of a rock anthem: Santa Claus is coming to town, Santa Claus is coming to town, Santa Claus Is coming to town . By the finale, we’d be shaking maracas and tapping our feet while Mr Powell performed a grand flourish on the keyboard.
Although none of us were familiar with the term in those days, Mr Powell, whom henceforth we shall refer to as Dennis, embodied the term ‘Rockstar’. He joined the Hyderabad Public School in 1980, while in his early twenties, and remained its sole music teacher until as recently as 2017. However, in doing so, he charted a different course from three generations of Powells before him.
I caught up with Dennis on a video call and learned some fascinating facts about his family. Not only have the Powells been active on Hyderabad’s music scene from the late 1930s, but their family boasts intricate links to the city’s history.
In the year 1900, the 25 th Madras Infantry presented this bottle to Dennis’s great-grandfather, George Powell, their Drum Major shortly before his elevation to Band Master of their regiment. ‘What’s interesting about this bottle,’ says Dennis, ‘is that the writing and stickers are on its inside.’ His Exalted Highness, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad, whose military already possessed a string band, fancied another. So he moved John Fredrick Powell, who had inherited the position of Band Master from his father, along with his entire band, to Hyderabad. The new imports formed the Police Band for Hyderabad State. Until this day, locals refer to the area in Fateh Maidan where they settled as Band Lines.