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Journalism of Courage
When 77-year-old Ustad Hakim Khan, a kamiyacha player from the sleepy village of Hadwa in Rajasthan, got to spend six months in Paris for concerts around Europe, and play his 13-stringed instrument’s textured, sonorous sound there, he knew this opportunity would make his little-known “sarangi-like” instrument find patrons. However, he was having a tough time with audiences in India, who had moved on to appreciate more modern instruments and weren’t interested in a folk fiddle made from goat skin. “I had heard that if one’s music is good, people abroad appreciate it and even pay for it. Also, I grew up in a tiny village, never went to school and only learnt kamiyacha from my grandfather till then. I didn’t know what it meant to sit in an airplane or live in a city like Paris. The opportunity sounded great,” says Khan.
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This was in the ’90s and Khan’s music had already made it to Akashvani, a reason why he was chosen. But once in Paris, he wanted to return almost immediately. “Communication was a huge issue. I am completely illiterate and can’t speak in English or Hindi. I just could not figure how to tell them what I needed,” says Khan, who only speaks Marwari. Most of what he speaks is translated by his son Bairam, who is also learning to play the instrument from his father. “I realised home is where I needed to be at. If I could explain myself here, I could resurrect my instrument too,”says Khan, who is participating in the three-day Ranthambore Music Festival, which opens on January 27.
Khan believes that it’s important for people in India to understand their heritage. “The earnings are less as compared to when musicians like me travel abroad. But with four kamiyacha players left in India, it’s important we make our own people listen to it, document it and appreciate it,” he says about the instrument which is made from mango wood and goat’s skin, and is hard to find because few make it these days.
Apart from Khan’s performance, the festival — conceptualised by the NGO Puqaar and curated by Ustad Ma Zila Khan, as an attempt to preserve dying musical forms — will also feature a performance by Kailash Dan, a Dingal poet who speaks this rare dialect. Dingal poetry incorporates heroic writing and was used to raise the morale of the warriors. There will also be a performance by Kuchipudi exponent and activist Mallika Sarabhai and a presentation by London-based classical pianist Karl Lutchmayer. Born to Indian parents from Goa, the pianist’s conversational concert series has been extremely popular lately.
The festival opens with the screening of The Unforgotten Music of Rajasthan, a documentary that pans on some remote corners of Rajasthan to discover some of the finest folk artistes in the state. In the city known for its tiger reserves, the festival will also feature talks by conservationists about preserving wildlife, apart from guided heritage walks, drum circles and music workshops.
