Pray For Me, Brother

This is the title of AR Rahman's next album. He has tied up with Nokia and will be part of part of the company's charity project 'Pray for me, brother' which will support poverty alleviation programs of the UN.

From what I could gather from the Net, it is a 9 minute anthem penned by Blaaze and sung by AR Rahman himself. I am not sure why it is being called an anthem? Do you? Regardless, I am looking forward to the launch of this album, which will be his second independent album after the mega hit Vande Mataram.

Looking for the answers to all the questions in my life.
Will I be alone? Will you be there by my side?
It is something He did, I wonder why!
He is searching for the answer to stay alive...
Could you ever listen, could you ever care to speak your mind?
Only for a minute, for only one moment in time! This joy is around you.
Show me the love we must find. Are you searching for a reason to be kind?
He said pray for me brother..

AR Rahman, who calls himself a Sufi, has been quietly doing lot of reaching out activities and generally doesn't like to talk about them. Last year, he gathered a whole bunch of artists and did a musical concert for the tsunami victims. H and he is also working to start a Spiritual Healing Center near Chennai. Here is what he had to say on this subject in a chat with The Hindu.

"On the 27th day of Ramadhan I was giving zakat (alms in cash or kind) last time. When I came out of the house, I was shocked to see some 3000 people gathered outside. When I tried to distribute, people jumped on each other to grab it. They jostled and snatched it from each other. It created mayhem. So much so that we had to close the door and call some really deserving people like the handicapped, the very old and ailing ones, one by one and hand over the zakat. I was moved. It is a shame for our country that one out of four people goes to bed hungry."

And if not anything, Rahman is geared to realise his dream of building a centre for spiritual healing in his hometown, Chennai. With slight hesitation, he gives in. "It was my cherished dream to build a centre of spiritual healing. It seems as if the time has come for it. With the money I earned, I have bought a 60-acre land on the outskirts of Chennai, out of which we will use 40 acres for the centre," he beams. Why spiritual healing you may ask and what is that?

"It is healing only by praying." And he believes it happens because he saw it happening with his own daughter, now six years old. "She had a hole in her heart when she was born. Since she was so small, surgery was very risky. So I resorted to my spiritual guru and by the time she was two, the hole vanished. It was only the prayers that worked. Since then, I do believe in spiritual healing," says the composer, who prefers to call himself a sufi.

Pray for me brother And
Pray for the world To
Build bridges of Love And
Bring down walls of Hate

Pray for me brother And
Pray for the World To
Love all and Serve All