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Discovering folk song
Kali...
I was born in a village, which is now in Bangladesh. In the village
festival there is singing, so from my very childhood my ear was tuned to this
kind of song....I joined this political movement very young age so I gave
up my studies, and became a full time volunteer for the communist movement.
In a way that gave me the chance to travel thoughout Bengal and other parts
of India also.
I used to work for the trade unions, the sweepers union the tonga union. So during that time I came in contact with so many kinds of singer, folk singer, Tagore singer, all kinds of singers, theatre group singers. And there I realised that they dont sing folk song the way it should be sung. They just made it another variety of song.
My understanding at that time developed, that folk song is not just another variety of song. It's a commentary on the life of rural people, the people who live in rural areas. And in India, if you want to build any sort of cultural movement, these are at least 80 percent of people. That is folk. And all the tribal songs. And in India we have 14 languages, officially recognised, and hundreds of dialects, knocking the door to be recognised as languages.
So before 60s I was not a singer, even in the 60s I was not a singer. At that time also all this turmoil in the communist ideology, after this book came out from China the "Defence of Leninism". I couldn't take it. I was too naive probably to do politics. I actually sat down, and that time after an absolutely active life I become unemployed, nothing to do.
So I concentrated on this music, and then I found that with the harmonium all the tones become very flat, but folk song has a different quality, this travelling note, in Indian they call it sruti. That note, sruti, you cannot write down, it's less than half a note. But between the half and another half if you take your nail on the string you get so many sounds. So that's what we call travelling note. Slide, glide. All the notes touching. Folk song it uses very much. The harmonium has a fixed note .... I found that this folk instrument is necessary, not the harmonium that the city people use. So I picked up this instrument (a gut stringed Dotara) also Ectara Lauwyia. The gourd, the bamboo slat with one string.
Bengali boatmen song
Kali...
The water has different kinds of coasts some are dangerous, so you must know your coast otherwise you'll lose your boat.
Human beings, when you go to your big ports, big markets, shiney markets, fancy market, where the shiney things are bought and sold. Even the big man can lose their head, so you must be careful when you anchor your boat to not lose your head.
This is the song they used to sing after a whole days work, when they come back home, sitting on the stern, particularly in the ebb tide. And he is not singing for any person he is singing for himself and nature.
In most cases I discovered these are actually the organisers of society. This is the cream of their experience, many years experience, these are the organisers of this society. Songs are the way they preserve their experiences, sexual expereince, their love, their sorrows, their hopelessness. The songs contain everything.
Mark...
How would you describe the situation in India today is there an interest in
this kind of music?
Kali...
Everything has become a commodity. And commercialisation is killing
everything, but we could save it, if we had a cultural movement and we could
provide alternative media to fight this commercialism.
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