P. S. Remesh Chandran
2018
‘Row Row Row The Boat’ is a very old English song for teaching little children the art of musical singing as well as English pronunciation. Listening to the lines the child learns without the assistance of a teacher the three essentials rhyme, rhythm and lyrics. The song has had so many variations and so many tunes during the past centuries, its origin believed to be in earlier than the eighteenth century. People who are used to rowing will find this song useful and handy to teach their children. The broad expanse of water will sure have a prompting effect on human minds to sing and this is the ideal song. Inside class rooms and homes also singing this song would be an exhilarating experience, especially if as a chorus. ‘Row Row Row The Boat’ and ‘Ten Green Bottles Hanging On The Wall’ were my cradle songs and I learned their lyrics and tune well in childhood. I was taught by my father Late. N. Sahadevan, B.A., B.T., C.T.E., who worked as a High School English Teacher in my home village. He was my Class Teacher and English Teacher also in the Tenth Standard in S. K. V. High School, Nanniyode. My mother, late Padmakshy Sahadevan, also taught me the same songs in the same tune, who was incidentally one of his students. Before joining my local High School, he had served a few years in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries for a British cultural firm and then returned and got himself trained by the British Council of India at the Regional Institute of English, Bangalore. Therefore it is not certain where he got this tune from. I am re-creating this tune from memory. YouTube release link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psme2YiOjPI
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