Surfing Sufi Rhythms

Baul songs,Jikir-Jari and Kabirbani some of the ways in which the annual Sufi music festival,Ruhaniyat,will hail the Almighty.

The wandering musician cult from Bengal,the bauls,achieved what they aspired to they travelled with their music and spread it everywhere. We have to ensure that the voices arent forgotten, says Parvathy Baul,one of the few female baul singers in India,who had dropped out of art school at Santiniketan to become a wandering minstrel. Baul,with various other artistes,will be regaling the audience in the Capital at the 11th edition of Ruhaniyat,the annual Sufi music festival organised by Banyan Tree,a Mumbai-based organisation. With the magnificent Purana Qila as the backdrop,the artistes,true to their tradition,will travel to seven cities this year. Unlike the two-day festival in Mumbai,the Delhi festival will last a day.

There was a whole community of musicians that was airbrushed from our consciousness. This festival is an effort to give rural performers a platform to be a part of the urban musical consciousness, says Mahesh Babu,the director of Ruhaniyat.

Among the highlights will be a performance by Fareed Ayaz and Abu Mohammad,the famous qawwals of Karachi. They will also perform with their group at the Garden of Five Senses in a festival being organised by Delhi-based organisation,Shama-e-iilm,in collaboration with Delhi Tourism,on Friday. The respect and admiration that I get in India,I dont experience anywhere else in the world, says Mohammad,who will perform Kabir dohas,bhajans by Meera Bai and poetry by Amir Khusrau,Ghulam Fareed and Baba Bulleshah. These Pakistan qawwals claim a lineage to a 700-year-old gharana and are a living heritage and an important part of Delhis composite culture. After Nusrat (Fateh Ali) sahab,they rate as among the finest. Their Coke Studio performance has been lauded by the world, says Sadia Dehlvi,convener and trustee of Shama-e-iilm.

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A range of devotional music will be a part of Ruhaniyat,among them Jikir-Jari by Hafiza Begum Choudhury from Assam,songs by fakirs from Hyderabad and Kabirbani by Mukhtiyar Ali and group. Jikir-jari is similar to baul music in the use of some instruments, says Choudhury,who will also perform borgeets created by the famous saint Srimanta Shankardev.

The event will take place at Purana Qila on Saturday. Entry by invitation

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Surfing Sufi Rhythms

Baul songs,Jikir-Jari and Kabirbani  some of the ways in which the annual Sufi music festival,Ruhaniyat,will hail the Almighty.

Baul songs,Jikir-Jari and Kabirbani some of the ways in which the annual Sufi music festival,Ruhaniyat,will hail the Almighty.