“Sometimes music is the only medicine the heart and soul need”

On the 25th of October, the students of 11th Standard of Mushtifund Aryaan’s Higher Secondary School got a golden opportunity to interact with the one-and-only, Mrs. Hemaa Sarsdesai, one of the most famous singers from India known all over the world.

Ma’am is a proud Goan at heart. She was an alumnus of Sharada Mandir School, and was brought up in Boca de Vaca, a locality of Panaji. From a young age, Ma’am had a beautiful voice. At the age of about 8 or 9 years, she made her stage debut and sung the song “My Heart is Beating” at the Navratri Festival. Mrs. Hemaa’s talent was also recognised by her teacher, Late Mrs. Sequeira, who said that she will become big one day. Even from a young age, Ma’am was praised by everyone and everyone felt she was special.

She went on to win first prizes in countless singing competitions. Her first achievement, she won the All Goa Singing Contest (at the age of 11 years), which had about 69 participants and she was the youngest among them.

Ma’am told us that her Parents were quite open-minded; they didn’t force her to take a particular genre of music, but told her to be versatile. So she sung in different genres ranging from Indian Classical to Western Pop and many more.

In 1989, Mrs. Hemaa Sardesai won the prestigious Grand Prix in Germany. Due to this achievement, her name was printed in newspapers which circulated far and wide in India. She had made our country proud.

Ma’am started the session by wishing us all a Happy Dussehra, along with happiness and success in our life. She told us that we have to love others along with ourselves and that nothing matters more than Humanity.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has made us all realise that we are nothing if we are not together. It brought us together as one common human race. We all can survive in this world only if we help out each other in times of distress.

Ma’am said that she is thankful to everyone who supported her and thought that she would achieve a lot and would go a long way. She is extremely thankful to her parents who stood by her all the time, “Parents are our first Gurus after all” she said.

She said that there is a Divine Energy around us, which cannot be found in any idol or picture, or temple, church, mosque, etc. “Life is not what you are. It is what the Divine makes you.” This Divine can be found anywhere and everywhere, even in the depths of our soul. Everything is gifted to us by the Divine. So we have to:

  • Be Humble.
  • Be grateful.
  • Be in respect of what we have received from The Divine.

Ma’am told us that the singing industry she worked in was partial to some people who were willing to compromise something in order to achieve fame and success without hard work but she did not follow this path. Throughout her career, Ma’am kept her values, virtues and principles and never gave them up to achieve false glory. Instead she worked hard, and purely based on her talent, she achieved fame.

Everyone has certain brilliance. Everyone is special. We only have to work hard and follow the path of Truth and Honesty, in order to reach success.

“Never Forget, Your hand is held by The Divine; and The Divine loves you more than you love The Divine. “

Beyond your knowledge, what matters is what you believe in or what you surrender to. As she learned from her Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Ji, Ma’am told us that in tough times we have to surrender to The Divine. Faith and Surrender are opposite to Fear. Irrespective of your Status, everyone goes through ups and downs in life. It is our inner voice that matters. We have to be happy with what we have.

Ma’am explained this point with an experience she had. After winning the Grand Prix, Mrs. Hemaa Sardesai was known all over India, so naturally she thought that she would immediately get singing roles in Bollywood, but it was not that easy. She was having a tough time in Mumbai finding singing roles in studios. But then she took a decision.

She surrendered to The Divine, saying that “you gave me the talent, so you will take care.”

Within a few days Ma’am received a call from none other than the famous Indian composer and singer, AR Rahman, who invited her to Chennai to sing the song “Aawara Bhawren Jo Hole Hole Gaaye” which came to be known as one of her most famous works. At that point of time, Ma’am believed that only The Divine Intervention had shown her the path.

After this Mrs. Hema Sardesai went on to record and sing many beautiful and melodious songs like “Badal Pein Paon Hai” from Chak De! India; “Tera Mere Sapne”; and some songs in Konkani itself: “Mogachi Donuch Uttraan” and a famous Goan Number “Maya Ya”.

Ma’am said that few parents have great ambitions for their kids. They wish their children achieve the things they couldn’t when they were young. But most of the times, the child might not want to pursue that field. Instead the child would like to pursue another field in which he or she has great talent in. In such cases, the parents should not pressurise the child. You have to let them grow and prosper based on what they are good at.

Ma’am was asked whether our karma in previous births affects our present life. To this she replied that our previous births along with our karma give us happiness. This happiness is an achievement in itself. When our parents say that they are proud of the human being we are, then that is an achievement.

Mrs. Hemaa Sardesai once performed in front of 1 million Indians. She was asked how she had kept her composure then. To this Ma’am replied that her parents had taught her to be a lioness on stage. She also told us that when we are with our own people we never feel scared, or nervous. So Ma’am had considered all of those 1 million people her own, which erased all the nervousness in her.

The best compliment Ma’am ever received was:” The devotion you exude is heart touching.”

She advised us to be dedicated in what we do. Human beings have a choice and control, which makes us different from animals.

Mrs. Hemaa Sardesai has also sung the song “Power of Love “, a melodious song with very meaningful lyrics. This song was published by Tony Mercedes, who has worked with many singers in the USA like Ed Sheeran. He once said that out of all the people he had worked with, Mrs Hemaa had a magnificent voice.

When Ma’am was asked how to deal with haters or jealous people, she simply said that we should not focus on impressing people, rather we should focus on only the right thing and The Divine. Haters will be there wherever we go, to criticise us and to bring us down. But with perseverance, we can succeed.

Finally Ma’am told us to be positive in life. Don’t pressurise yourself. Do what your heart tells you, and don’t let failure bring you down. Every person on this Earth is unique. However mature you become, never lose the child in you. Always keep smiling and help those around you.

After this one of the students from 11th Standard, Soumya Hede proposed the vote of thanks. She composed a beautiful poem and Ma’am liked it very much.

Thus ended a wonderful interactive session with Mrs. Hemaa Sardesai. On the behalf of all the students, I would like to sincerely thank Sir Vyankatesh Prabhudesai, our mentor and director, for organising this session and giving us a chance to interact with such an eminent personality.

“Don’t Let Anyone Dull Your Sparkle”

Written by:  Anmol Bhat,

11th regular MAHSS student