Baotipara, Faridpur, Bangladesh. 21 January 2006. Kusumbala Mondal and others

1. ore kotha hote ele mago

Artist:
Kusumbala Mondal and others
Composer:

Form:
Umar gaan
Song region:
Faridpur

Baotipara, a village of Faridpur near the town of Bhanga, was the home of the folk poet Banikanta Das and a place of kirtan. We have done fieldwork in this village many times and on this first trip, the women of Baotipara, aged probably between 20 and 45 years, sang songs of puja and wedding songs or biyar gaan. The song selected here is about the goddess Uma or Durga. ‘Where have you come from, O mother, how shall we worship you?’

Women from Baotipara

Uma Sangit is also a popular form of the eastern Bangladeshi state of Sylhet and Ritwik Ghatak has used this form in many of his films, most notably in Meghe Dhaka Tara. Sanchita Roychowdhury, a singer born and brought up in Calcutta, whose father, the legendary folk singer Ranen Roychowdhury’s house was in Sylhet, has a real passion for the music of that land and during an interview with her, she sang for us a beautiful song about Uma’s unfinished meal in her natal home, when her husband, Shib, comes to fetch her and take her back to his house in Kailash song.

Written in 2010.