“I first scribbled the Earth Anthem in 2009 when I was posted in St. Petersburg, Russia as Consul at the Consulate General of India,” says Abhay, whose anthem has now been sung by Shreya Sotang and composed by Sapan Ghimire of Darjeeling.[break]
Earth’s immense beauty has transformed me into a ‘matriot’, says Abhay. “I see her as the cradle and grave of all civilizations that have risen on her surface, creator and destroyer of all life, history, riches, glories of the mankind and yet more.”
After Sapan composed his poem into a song, he decided to go for Shreya’s ‘mellifluous voice’ and he feels the Nepali songstress has totally justified singing in English.
Being a diplomat, Abhay decided to have his anthem in all official languages of the United Nations as well as Hindi and Nepali.
“Now the challenge is for Shreya to twist her tongue and master the pronunciations in eight different languages,” says this poet-turned diplomat, who heads the public information office at the Embassy of India in Kathmandu.
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