When I first listened to Imogen Heap I knew she is going to be one of those - my most favorite singers today; but however I could never imagine her singing Hindi lyrics some day. As a part of ’The Dewarists’, her latest track a collaboration with one of the Indian music director/ singer Vishal from Vishal-Shekhar duo is a big surprise for me. I find Imogen as an extremely talented musician who create original music with a whole lot of amazing instruments. These instruments produce sounds that are closer to the sounds in Nature, that’s what I’ve felt and she keeps on bringing fresh sound to my ears. Here is the new track Minds Without fear.
This Imogen/Vishal song “Minds Without Fear’ is inspired from one of Rabindra Nath Tagore Poems. Tagore, for me is a great saint and writer whose Gitanjali is my favorite book. It is among those books closer to my heart where each word is a reflection of a man’s wisdom. Gitanjali was given to me as a consolation prize in my school for winning third place in a singing competition when I was in 6th std. And it is first of its kind for me (for singing) therefore the most precious prize ever. That was the first time I participated in any singing competition and winning was like heaven because I remember competing with my seniors.
My school Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya is a boarding school where you get admission only from 6th standard and have to spend 7 years till completing 12th std strictly inside the campus. That truly have been a life changing experience for me which makes me the person that I am today. Away from family, away from everything I had seen and known we lived in a world of our own like a Big Family.
About Minds Without Fear, I don’t know if any of my friends remember that Malayalam Prayer we had in our School. Our Music sir Asokan Sir taught this one when I was in 10th or 11th. What I remember is, he only tuned this Prayer with Tagore’s poem and I must say that is one of the most beautiful prayers we had in School. I’m not sure how many of my school friends remember this one because he directly taught us – music club of our School. So I had this privilege of learning it directly from him and I don’t think they had included it in our Syllabus. Anyway it is still one my favorite prayers. Now when I listen to Imogen/Vishal song, memories of that beautiful prayer is back and I feel happy about it.
So here is that poem in English.
Where The Mind is Without Fear!
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
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