VocalEssence Ensemble Singers; Nirmala Rajasekar, soloist

EXCERPT FROM SAROJINI, THE REAL NATION-BUILDERS
For our dear land do we offer oblation to
Goddess Lakshmi the Lotus-born.
Guard the invincible hope of our nation,
Keep her glory unsullied unshorn.

Goddess Lakshmi, grant us showers and sheaves of thy blessing.
Goddess Lakshmi, life and our land await their destin’d spring.

The Indian woman of today is once more awake, profoundly alive.
To her destiny as the guardian of the Vision of national life.

In our hist’ry it was Indian women,
Who’d kindle, sustain the fires of the nation.

Men have dared to say to women, “Go this far and no further.”
Yet women soar beyond these limits.

For we are the real nation builders.
It is not you, but we, who are the nation builders.
We soar beyond the limits, cross the waves and go further.
—Shruthi Rajesekar