In sync with India

Empty junction outside CSMT during lockdown

The main purpose of a National Anthem is to arouse a sense of fervour and pride for your country. You could be living in the US. Maybe you're in the UK. Or, you're stuck like us at home in India. The purpose of the national anthem remains the same. Jana Gana Mana is meant to make you feel a sense of how great this country is. It's a land mass that has endured multiple wars, famine, inequality and - especially now - disease. But, caught up in our own geographical boundaries, we are all in it together. There is unity in adversity. You're not alone.

That's the central message behind a rendition of the anthem that singer Isheeta Ganguly has recorded during the lockdown. It's a straight-up version of the song where she stays true to the original. But, there's a twist in the video. It consists entirely of frames where Mumbai is empty thanks to the lockdown call in the wake of the pandemic. And there's a further twist. Parliamentarian and author Shashi Tharoor recites an epochal Rabindranath Tagore poem, Let my Country Awake, to bring the musical curtains down.

Tharoor renders it in the manner of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru delivering his Tryst with Destiny Speech. "It's a powerful message for the country when we are divided with the trepidation of the unknown," Ganguly tells us. The politician elaborates, "The verse embodies a vision of our nation's better self, of overcoming divisions by 'narrow domestic walls', of rising above 'dead habit', and of waking up to a better dawn. I thought these soaring aspirations embody a message of hope, not just that we will overcome the present crisis, but that we will awake to something better."

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