Bengaluru: Kids often respond better to messages when they are delivered in a fun and engaging way. Keeping this in mind, Bengaluru-based musicians have created a peppy song to spread awareness about diabetes among children, ahead of World Diabetes Day on Nov 14.Titled Gao Gao Muskurao (Sing and Smile), the song has been composed and sung by techie-turned-musician Sunil Koshy, while its lyrics have been penned by Misha Bharathan, a corporate employee. Seven children have lent their voices to the chorus. The team took two weeks to put the song together.“I felt that a song could not get into too many details about diabetes or carry a negative message. I did not want it to create fear among children. Instead, I wanted it to be motivational, upbeat and peppy,” Koshy said.He added, “The song encourages people to be happy, take care of their health, stay strong and dream big. It touches upon health in a subtle way without explicitly using words such as diabetes, doctor or hospital. It is primarily in Hindi, with a few lines in English, Kannada and Tamil so that it connects with the local audience. The song is approximately two minutes and 40 seconds long.”While the audio version has already been released on 24 streaming platforms, the music video will be launched on Sunday at Narayana Health City as part of the World Diabetes Day celebrations.The video is entirely AI-generated. “Initially, I considered featuring children in the video, but the doctor pointed out that parents might not be comfortable with their children being filmed. I realised that animation would be a better alternative. Children would also enjoy watching an animated video, and it would help us protect their privacy,” Koshy said.He said the idea was to get children and others to hum the song, creating a recall factor. “I have always believed that songs can make a difference when it comes to creating awareness about a cause. While talks and panel discussions certainly help spread awareness, a song can create quicker recall. If it is easy to hum, people are likely to remember it, and the message gets carried forward, even if subtly,” he added.
