How it began, over an ordinary conversation
There was no grand plan behind it, just two friends talking. “We were just having a conversation, and then we were thinking, why not a musical tribute to the soldiers through our medium, which is always music?” Asha says. “What can we do through our medium to express our gratitude towards this country?”
It was a feeling she’d carried for a while without knowing what to do with it. “That feeling has always been there with me, but then I couldn’t. I didn’t know how to execute it properly,” she admits. By early May, she had her answer: a WhatsApp group, built one student at a time, until it became something much bigger than either of them had planned.
How hard it actually was to record
None of the students grew up speaking Arabic, and Asha doesn’t downplay how difficult that made things. “Only the main challenge was to master this language, Arabic. This was our main, the biggest challenge we had,” she says. “For the younger ones, like six years, seven years, we had a tough time, but then I think they have managed well to master the pronunciation at least.”
Once the song itself came together, the project grew faster than anyone expected. “When the lyrics were ready, when the tune was ready, composing got over, everyone started appreciating the tune. Then we thought, okay, why not go to a studio and record it professionally?” Asha recalls. Videographers started reaching out unprompted.
“I thought to myself, this has to come out big, and we need a proper videography for this.”
Asha’s own journey started the same way, decades earlier
Asha understands the pressure of performing young better than most, because she lived it herself. “I started off my career at the age of 14,” she says. “I sang my first movie song, and I was 15 years old when I got the state award for the same song.” She went on to sing for more than twenty Malayalam films before settling in Dubai and joining Indian High School as a music teacher in 2017.
That background shaped exactly how she ran this project. “I didn’t want them to have the usual way of learning music,” she says. “I wanted them to have the real life experiences, like the vocal recording, mixing, mastering, and the visuals. Everything they need to see and understand what is happening with the project.”
The reaction since release has told her it worked. “Whoever listens to the song, they are saying we don’t sound like non-Arab speakers,” she says. “That’s the greatest recognition we are getting these days, and from Emiratis also. Some locals have contacted us, saying the same. That’s the greatest gift we could ever get.”
Asha isn’t treating this as a one-off. “We are dreaming of having projects like this in the coming years too,” she says. “It should not stop with this one project. They should constantly have this idea of having the social values, having gratitude towards whatever they have in their lives. We are planning for more projects. I hope we get there soon.”
I’m a passionate journalist and creative writer graduate specialising in arts, culture, and storytelling. My work aims to engage readers with stories that inspire, inform, and celebrate the richness of human experience. From arts and entertainment to technology, lifestyle, and human interest features, I aim to bring a fresh perspective and thoughtful voice to every story I tell.