Pride Anthem, Carnatic
I’m thrilled to share that Pride Anthem, a Carnatic music piece I’d composed in June 2021, has now been professionally recorded and released on YouTube. This is a humble attempt to reflect on some societal and personal battles faced by the LGBTQIA+ community, to dispel certain misguided notions and ultimately, to cultivate warmth and solidarity through music and poetry. The song is set in the raagam Behag and in Mishra Chaapu thaalam. The translation is given below::
PALLAVI:
May we spread love in all creation
making it our very nature to be kind..
ANUPALLAVI:
May we step beyond the definitions of ‘man’, ‘woman’, and find our own definitions of ‘who I am’
May we nip the habit of harbouring needless hate within ourselves; it is no flaw to be ashamed of
Awaiting a glorious day free of insult, disrespect, teasing and mockery…
CHARANAM:
May we realise that, transcending the genders, love is an exchange between two hearts
May we know it neither as a ‘type’ of one’s choosing nor a quality imbibed by practice; it is one’s nature that blossoms within
May we cast off impressions from dictates which say that in behaviour, apparel and adornment, these are proper and those, wrongful
May we be unanimous that people, whomever they come together with, are all equal children of the earth
May we, at least henceforth, be done with the arguments, ‘that is the way’, ‘this is tradition’
May we bestow fearlessness upon hearts, fond and tender
May we aid by sowing the seeds of understanding to yield wellness in the world.
On the wealth of feeling, it thrives and so…
