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Journalism of Courage
From the kitchen to a singing sensation, Raj Ghuman is singing through life. Raj Ghuman was one of the many faceless young women living in Canada for fifteen years, bringing up her two children, daughter Harjot and son Amitoj, while husband Ghuman was busy looking after his taxi business. Today Raj is a well known name and face in North America, and not a single day goes past when her song is not playing at one of the 25 radio stations, on the weekends and the television also. The monotony of everyday routine was broken by Raj herself with her music and singing as she went about doing her daily chores. She sang from morning to night, in the kitchen, in the bathroom and every possible place. Since Raj was never allowed to sing professionally by her in-laws, Raj perfected her swara8217; and laya8217;, as she hummed the songs, with no musical accompaniment.
Born in a small town close to Amritsar, in Jandiala Guru, Raj did her masters in vocal music from the Government College, Amritsar. As is the norm in many traditional Punjabi homes, women are not encouraged to sing outside their homes. Her music and singing was restricted to the four walls of her house for 12 long years.
In early 1995 Raj came to Chandigarh and got her first cassette Rab Diyyan Rakha recorded. The style is typically that of sugam sangeet, or light music. Her voice and style is a blend of Noorjehan, Reshma, Surinder Kaur, with the individual stamp of Raj Ghman herself. All the compositions are by Raj and the music is arranged by Chandigarh based Atul Sharma. On return to Canada, a music company bought the rights and distributed it in America, and Europe but not in India. The cassette sold extremely well. In early 1996 Raj also recorded another cassette called Bichua. Ajay Prassan the flutist gave the music, and the song Ni mae sass rakhni bana kae maa, was a big hit.
In 1996 when Atamjit went back to Canada, it was not to Toronto, but to Calgary, where he was directing another play. He had taken recorded music from India, so Raj missed an opportunity to sing publicly. But lady luck smiled, and Atamjit was asked to do another play in Toronto. He staged Rishtaeyaan da ki Rakhiyae Naa, a well know play of his based on Sadat Hassan8217;s well know story Toba, Tek Singh. Interestingly, the play was also an Indo-Pak production. Atamjit got Pakistani music composer Suhail Rana, to do the music, with Raj as the lead singer. Since Atamjit was critical of some of the songs Raj sang, he even wrote songs and tappas for her. In spite of being a popular sound in North America, Raj has not achieved commercial success, since she entered a bad contract. 8220;I have only spent so far, but I have not given up. I am much wiser, and I am working very hard towards achieving excellence.8221;
In 1997 the Pakistani folk singer Parvez Mehndi agreed to take Raj on formally as her guru8217;. He is also a Ghuman by caste, and since Raj was already singing her songs, he met her and personally trained her, staying with Raj Ghuman and her family.
What endeared Raj with audiences in Chandigarh was not only the rich texture of her voice, but the fact that like most NRI singers, Raj has not opted for synthetic sounds, and electronic wizardry, but an adherence to a refined pure Punjabi folk singing, which can be enjoyed sitting without breaking into a dance. There was complete absence of the synthesizer, bongos and octopads. It is not rhythm which dominates her music, but melody and the authentic sounds of Punjabi instruments.
