New Delhi: A new music album comprising 108 songs dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi penned by poets from across the country in 14 languages including Kashmiri, Sindhi and Urdu has been launched.
The album is part of a two-decade-old project "BapuGeetika: Songs for the Mahatma" conceived by retired government officer Kalpana Palkhiwala.
"Out of the compendium of 108 poems set to tune, a few have been penned during the lifetime of Gandhi and the rest were written in tribute after his death," Kalpana told PTI.
The poems have been penned by literary greats such as Rabindranath Tagore, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Maithilisharan Gupt, Subramanya Bharathi, Amrita Pritam, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Umashankar Joshi, Sumitranandan Pant, Rayaprolu Subba Rao and Natu Gopal Narhar.
Kalpana says she yearned to hear something apart from the same set of songs being played year after year on October 2 and January 30 on radio and television. She also managed to get her hands on a copy of book "Gandhi-Shatadal" containing 101 poems and thus began her project.
Seven composers working in 14 languages set to tune the 108 poems in the almost 15 hour long album. Over 60 musicians have worked on the project, says Kalpana.
"Our youngest singer was 14 years old when we began work and the oldest singer is 75 years old. We have used instruments like harmonium, tabla and manjila and other traditional instruments from different parts of the country for the songs," says Kalpana.
