Lullabies are known to one and all. Known by different names across cultures, the motive has been the same – to get a tired or a crying baby to sleep. Making a child sleep to a repetitive, hummable tune has always been the forte of women. This is the main reason why the song “Foremost Forever” starts with a lullaby. In line with the theme of the song, the power of lullaby in putting a crying baby to sleep is metaphorical to the power that women have to bring a crying society back to normalcy.

Even though it’s so natural and normal to think of lullabies as a part of our lives, there are interesting aspects to it. Musically, lullabies are a repeatable tune set to a triple or 6-beat (6/8). This is supposed to be representative of the “rocking” motion the baby experienced when it was in the womb. It’s a coincidence that the song “Foremost Forever” is set to 6/8 and so is the lullaby in the song!

If we look deeper into the lullabies in India, most of them have folk origins. But, one aspect remains, by and large, consistent. Lullabies are based on the Carnatic raga Neelambari (There is a raga of the same name in Hindustani classical music as well and hence the stress on Carnatic raga here). This was an interesting aspect that was told to me by one of my relatives when she heard a very early version of this song. I then researched on it and found that the notes in the raga are pretty much in line with E-major chord in the western musical system. This was yet another coincidence in the song – The lullaby is in E-major scale while the rest of the song is on E-minor scale.

While Lullabies are designed to set babies to sleep, the lullaby in the song intends to become an anthem of sorts, with many women joining in – Language no bar!

There is a need to awaken the consciousness of every individual and community to achieve our objective of restoring dignity and respect for women. This is a lullaby to awaken individuals, rather than put them to sleep, awaken them from the nightmare of atrocities to a waking life in a harmonious society!

Come, join us at Foremost Forever - We are determined to bring about this change at the grass-root level, look at areas of collaboration and synergy between the various volunteer groups in different organizations working towards women empowerment, and promoting dignity and respect for women, so that the power of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. 

We Can We Should We Will.

PS: The coincidence in the beat structure and the scale of the lullaby in the song reaffirms my belief that there is a higher force that creates music and that I am merely a channel to propagate it! It is a surreal experience with the way thoughts come to you and get converted to notes and tunes!