Emails from Sunitha Sarathy
Dec 18th, 2005 by ellen
Long long ago I was talking about a music CD Between Heaven and Earth in the Meaningless Drivel board of javaranch’s big moose saloon.
The English song “Warriors in Peace” in the CD was sung by an Indian singer Sunitha Sarathy. 
Last month her friend saw my comment about her vocal performance and sent the link to her. She was happy about my appreciation and wrote an email to me. Oh I was _overjoyed_ and really flattered! 
I replied an email, thanked her for her superb performance again and told her something about myself. And also asked for the lyrics of the song “Warriors in Peace”, since the there’s no lyrics sheet in the case of the CD which I bought from amazon. Before long she sent me the poetic lyrics:
WARRIORS IN PEACE
Composer: A. R. Rahman
English Lyrics: BlaaZe
Vocalist: Sunitha SarathyCh: Warriors on Pace- forever more
Warriors in peace - no time for war
Warriors in deed - we know the score
Warriors of heaven & Earth below …1. From the heavens up above
The only road to peace is love
trust in your heart,see your dreams unfold
though you know not how the story goesWalk with me into the sun
No more battles to be won
Take my hand,youre nearly home again.Time is gently passing by
Though you weep i ask not why
searching the emptiness of your soulLost in visions of the past
memories they seldom last
silence is all that remains the same* Because your life is no disguise, alone you stand
look at me through my mother’s eyes
see who i am…forever free2. Call me when you need a friend
To be with you untill the end
As the mountains crumble to the sea
Share your lonliness with meTrouble always finds a way
To keep you further everyday
if only the end justified the meansBrothers lost and yet they be
so free,in your eyes tears i see
courage is reaching your destinyrepeat * and ch.
In my email to her I said I love A. R. Rahman’s music very much. Here is her comment about Mr. A. R. Rahman:
…Yes A.R.Rahman is awesome.he is a very simple and honest man,the rest his music takes over.he is one of the most decent human beings i have met.i have worked with him in some very nice tamil/hindi….
She also told me the titles of others songs she sang. I myself also googled around and got an extensive list of “Sunitha Sarathy’s songs”. I’m going to download them after my final exams of this semester.
Was intrigued by your post… wanted to share something I’d written sometime back about ARR’s music (and its appeal). Btw, did you listen to his latest offering - Rang De Basanti?
“Have you ever had a die-hard A.R.Rahman fan tell you not to judge the proverbial book by its cover? I’d bet your answer would be in the affirmative if you’ve ever had (the good fortune of having) one to start with.
I still remember quite vividly how I would plead with my Sister to listen just one more time to a song that she has just spurned. I’d say “Rahman’s songs need time to grow on you!”
I have always wondered why this phenomenon is so pronounced in his music. I think I have discovered the answer in Robert Pirsig’s Metaphysics of Quality (or MoQ for short). He is one who postulated “Quality is a direct experience independent of prior intellectual abstractions”.
I have a feeling Illayaraja & Co. should take a lion’s share of the blame for giving people (especially Tamilians) a heavy baggage of intellectual abstractions they seem to be lugging around. If this be the case, why should there be exceptions? What makes me see the quality and apparently my Sister not? The answer is - there is a static good consisting of a fixed set of patterns in the form of traditions and laws and there is a dynamic good that is outside of any culture and that which is not contained by any system of precepts.
“Static good” is what we latch on to and dynamic good is that something which allows our culture to evolve continually. I embrace this dynamic good more readily because I can let go of my relatively light baggage of “intellectual abstractions”. I can say this with a great amount of certainty also because in my experience age is directly proportional to the verve with which Rahman’s music is denounced.
This makes Rahman - The Brujo (Spanish word for a sorcerer). Music composer M.S. Viswanathan can vouch for that – he once said, Buffaloes get scared when they are exposed to Rahman’s music (sure sign of some vicious black magic, I would say).
MoQ also answers the all important question – how do you know for sure what you are after is this so-called “dynamic good”. The short answer is – you don’t. When I embrace Rahman’s music, it’s because of this “vague sense of betterness” it gives me. I searched a little bit to see if my feeling can be given a name. I found my answer in Immanuel Kant’s “noumenon” (German: das Ding an sich or the thing-in-itself) as opposed to phenomenon (as seen by the observer). He says its noumenon that lets us take informed decisions that we think are moral. Its something we don’t perceive but nevertheless thinkable.
Just the other day, my friend asked me what makes me like a particular movie which was trashed rather unceremoniously by the whole of Tamil Nadu and beyond. I didn’t have an answer. I don’t need one because I was after “dynamic good”. On this, my sister would agree because she declared, the movie in question deserved the “cult status”.”
Dear Knowthyself,
thank you very much for your detailed comment! (though I hardly really understand everything you said
) I’m glad you like A. R. Rahman’s music too. I love his music in a much simpler way. It appeared very beautiful in my ears so I loved it, never really thought anything about any “static good” or “dynamic good”. When I have enough spare time from my static stack and dynamic heap, I’d love to know more about the philosophy though. 
Still, thank you very much for your time and wish you a merry Christmas and happy new year!
I’m going to search for A. R. Rahman’s new and old releases after my exams for sure. Maybe by then I’ll share more about my feelings towards his music.
Regards,
Ellen
Ellen, since you like both A.R. Rahman and Sunitha Sarathy, why dont you try listening to the song “Yaakai Thiri” from Aayitha Ezhuthu. or the song “Fanaah” from Yuva.They’re the same song, just in Tamil and Hindi. The music for both the movies are by A.R. Rahman and well, the songs are sung by both A.R. Rahman and Sunitha Sarathy.
I bet you’ll love it!
here are the links:
songs in Yuva (Hindi):
http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/movie/H000684.html
songs in Aayitha Ezhuthu (Tamil):
http://www.raaga.com/channels/tamil/movie/T0000609.html
Note : RealPlayer needed. =>
Great New Year’s gift, thank you very much!
I listened to the songs by ARR and Sunitha Sarathy on both pages. I like them! Never thought Sunitha could have that kind of voice too. I like it however! Nice to hear ARR’s voice too! Thank you very much for your links!
no problem!! ^^
oh yeah..Ellen…there’s this link i found which has download links to all of A.R. Rahman’s music over the years.
here’s the link:
http://www.tamilstylez.net/forum/tsz-about2664.html
have fun!!
Note: You have to make an account at that webbie and reply to the poster for the links to be visible. Making an account is easy ^^
oh yeah, i forgot…
there was this english song Sunitha Sarathy sang for A.R. Rahman in a movie called Kisna. Its called “My Wish Comes True”. The song is truly marvellous!! Here’s the link!!
Songs in Kisna:
http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/movie/H000768.html
the songs a treat to the ears!! enjoy!
knowthyself said,
January 6, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Happy New Year to you too!
I wrote what I did a long time back. I guess I was trying to shoehorn some highbrow philosophy into my explanation (and it shows
)…You are right. The reasons are much simpler. One thing I’m not as embarassed about (in what I had written) is this part where I say: let go of my relatively light baggage of “intellectual abstractions”… When it comes to ARR’s music, this helps. He loves to turn conventions on its head and you’d be better off not trying to slot what he trying to do - with a light baggage, you’d probably not be able to.
Btw, I also have Tan Dun’s Crouching… Was wondering if you tried comparing the two works.
Dear Knowthyself,
I cannot remember when was the last time I read anything about “philosophy”. Years back, when I was a kid, the first Zulassung I got from German school was from University of Bamberg, Studiengang: Deutsche Philosophie. Yes I did applied for that Studiengang (and I applied for German literatures too) and they accepted me. At that time, I had things like “intellectual abstractions” in my brain but then I was really a kid, daydreaming about all kinds of unrealistic things all the time, passionate for my own ideals. A sign of turning old is one goes into “realistic phase” from “idealistic phase”. A memory dump successfully done, I’m just down to earth nowadays perhaps that means I’m truly old. I guess you are still a kid.
But I like kids so much….:)
But seriously, I do wish one day I would have enough spiritual freedom to let those young convictions occupy me again. I believe Rahman’s music’s very spiritual, truly großartig music must need certain level of deep contemplation to get truly empathized.
Sorry to say that but I don’t like Tan Dun. I failed to see much depth in his music, nor much beauty, no matter how commercially successful his work is. ( A bit off the topic but I don’t think the Crouching….was Ang Lee’s best work….his “Pushing Hands”, “Eat Drink Man Woman”, “The Wedding Banquet”, “Sense and Sensibility”…any one of them is far better than the the Crouching….just my opinion.) I’ll blog more about music especially Chinese music or music by Chinese composers when I get more time. Here I just want to tell Prof. Xiling Wang gets my highest respect and greatest love among the present Chinese composers. I mentioned a little about him in a blog:
http://ningning.org/blog/?p=87
(nearly at the end of that blog)
And thanks for coming back.
Ellen
Dear H. H.,
thank you very much for your links! I’m going to download his music (and also Sunitha’s) after my exams for sure.
My server log showed that this blog got linked from a yahoo group which has 8000+ members of A.R.Rahman fans and another public forum of ARR fans. Here’s something I have to say. If you really like A.R.R’s music, please support him by purchasing his CDs after you listened to the downloaded files. I got all tracks of “Between Heaven and Earth” @128kbps 44khz from internet. I loved the music and then purchased a CD copy from amazon. Aside from supporting the composer and singer you love, the audio quality does sound better from a CD. Please do both A.R.Rahman and yourself a favour if you can. Thank you very much!
H. H. thank you again! Tonight I went to a local new year’s concert. I cannot imagine my life without quality music….your information is thus very valuable to me.
Ellen
Hey nice song.I liked it most………………………………………….
Hello everyone i am a big fan of Sunithas singing.we heard her for our annual day and frankly before that i never payed attention.But she sang a beautiful love song in English and we were amazed how someone living here could sound and give us emotions that we feel listening to singers who win grammy awards.Her tamil songs do nothing for her talents.But i am sending a link form Anniyan in which she has sung the theme Stranger in Black this song is haunting and beautiful.Rahman used her voice in Goodbye nanba also very well you should lesten to that song from Ayutha Ezhuthu.We listen all her songs now.But wish she would be heard out of India i think she will win us many awards.She is truly talented.
Hi,
I found your blog via google by accident and have to admit that youve a really interesting blog
Just saved your feed in my reader, have a nice day
lyrics right from the source! wowee!!
cool stuff.
i once tried figuring out the lyrics myself.. did pretty okay, but seeing this was an eye-opener!
sunitha,
what is she doing here…
i think people have to realise that shes got a nuclear weapon in her voice…man shes awesome….but as usual when you ahve real talent you take a real beating if your not willing to go like cattle with te rest of the crowd…i realise she does few selected numbers…shes classy as is her voice …shes our own answer to whitney,mariah,and all others……..shes is godess of music
[...] Lyrics is present on the net. Here. One more step to the Everlasting Fires Of Hell. [...]
i heard his name is allah rakha rahman. he therefore uses a.r.rahman
Hi
It feels nice to see so many ARR fans.
I love ARR’s music because it is soo rich, and at the same time soo simple. He simply makes magic with music. And i dunno how it happens, but trust ARR’s songs to grow on you. I never liked Chaiiya chaiiya whn I heard the first time..but as history would vouch for, I eventually ended up loving the song.
Moreover, brand ARR works. I listen to songs only after I have involuntarily heard them on radio or seen their trailor on the TV. But wid ARR, it is quite different. I can SAFELY wander into the territory of his unknown songs and still be pleasanlty surprised.
His weaves his songs by using a multitude of instruments, vocalists et al. And somehow, the chemistry between these two variables strikes perfectly!!
When i hrd warriors of peace, I was at first intrigued by the singer. I thot it was Dominique….but after googling i found out it was sunitha. I must say, her voice, the intonations and modulations suit the western genre of music very much. Good to see a tamilian sing such songs so well!!
regards
Shambhavi
hi
i m a very big fan of mr A R Rahman.
and i like all music sung and directed by A R Rahman.
i dont know about her voice and her talents.
but she looks gorgeous ..
Its a shame wasting this beautiful voice on songs that are hopeless.I am an ardent fan of MsSunita.She s everything described about her and more on this page, have seen many a show done by her.She is a nuclear bundle of talent thats not put to any use in India,her voice does not even come in our hindi movies.when i hear songs sung in tamil which have been recorded using mumbai singers i laugh and am sad that a talent like hers is shut down.music people obviously have a thing against her cause no one can hide true talent and if its hidden it only means something weird going on.will someone produce her album.its high time india exported a true diva.YES SHES A DIVA.with a voice to be heard at the grammys.
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
m a very very very big fan of Rahman sir.
and my fav song is Newyork Nagaram and VAnde Mataram[:)]
I would like to get in touch with Sunitha. Can you help me ?
i dint like the way SUNITHA SARATHY judged AIRTEL SUPER SINGER 2008. very bad judgements given. as a viewer it was really frusturating:(
the first comment by knowthyself was right….when i heard his music in various song (like WOHE,vaaji vaaji sivaji from sivaji-The Boss,fanaa from Yuva)i had this feeling…a feeling that i could not describe even to my self…i wondered for a long time what these feelings were..and today i happened to stumble across this blog and found what it was..
me and my brother is a crazy ARR fan.i have to thank him because if it wasnt for him i woudnt have heard the best of hi songs.i have learned to not judge a song by its beginning..
also he has a great voice..i just love his voice…
may the great ‘Music
may the great ‘Music Brujo’ create more amazing songs and hypnotize more unsuspecting fans
my email : wolverineriz@hotmail.com
vishves and sowmya (comment 20)…i dont know why you dont like tamil songs but trust me it where ARR is in his zone.have you ever heard ‘New York Nagaram’ or tracks from Sivaji The Boss(except Oru Koodai Sunlight).hear them.if you still dont like it hear it two more time and then just leave it…after some time you will be unconciously humming the song..thats how i started to like tamil song
hi….
Any Means f gettin in touch wit sunitha????? her mail id o smthin lyk dat…
I think as a musician her judgements were accurate.The talent pool was very simple and mediocre and the Chennai judges(Deepan Chakravaarthy and Sunitha Sarathi) both were very selective and gave wonderful tips to the contestants which i dont think Airtel Super Singer has shown.They were extremely patient and were accurate in pointing out the mistakes that singers made.Her comments may have been lost with many veiwers as she did speak in english and used very technical jargon-but hey that is not her problem the veiwer has to be educated on such terms what with the growing need for different styles in playback singing today.And it was very obvious that only very few singers carved a niche for themselves on the show.
Also keeping in mind the drama required for such reality shows to boost TRP s,Ms Sarathi did a wonderful job and stayed within the limits of good educated class which is otherwise lacking in this show.
Hi Ellen,
I am also a big favorite of this song. In your first post, in this page, you gave a link to sunitha sarathy. But, it’s not showing properly. Do you mind sharing that link with me if you dont mind?
Rao
Hi Rao,
I’m not sure which link you were talking about, could you please be more specific?
Oh! I am sorry. I just read again. Earlier I understood like Sunitha’s friend send you sunitha’s website link or such that. But, now I understood that she sent your comment to her. By any chance, if you have her email ID, please share with me.
I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THANK YOU TO SUNITHA SARATHY FOR MAKING MY DREAMS POSSIBILITY.SHE IS ONE OF THE MOST WONDERFUL PEOPLE I HAVE MET IN MY LIFE.MAM I DONT KNOW WHERE ELSE TO SAY THANK YOU TO YOU.THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ADVICE AND KIND WORDS & ENCOURAGEMENT.YOUR SIMPLICITY WITH THE AMAZING TALENT IS WONDERFUL.YOU ROCK.I WISH TO SING A SONG ONE DAY AND DEDICATE IT TO YOUR WONDERFUL PERSONALITY AND YOUR AMAZING SINGING.