Somesh Mathur

When my friend, author BL Gautam, wrote lyrics for a song to discuss the plight of the farmers in this country, I was wowed. But we decided to go even deeper," says musician Somesh Mathur. What that means is that they travelled the villages of Saurashtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, amongst others, to talk to the farmers and get insight into their troubles. "We wanted to tweak the sentiment so that it was closest to the truth," says the 50-year-old, whose efforts will soon be unveiled as part of a Farmer's Anthem that's been given the seal of approval by Cabinet Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh as well. "Even the minister gave some inputs, as they want farmers to focus on soil culture. I then got around 43 folk musicians to play and sing on the record. It's getting mixed and mastered in LA and then we will present it to the government again."