Baul Fakir Utsav, Jadavpur, Kolkata. 10 January 2015. Tuntun Fakir

1. ami opar hoye bose achhi

Artist:
Tuntun Fakir
Composer:
Lalon Fakir
Form:
Baul
Song region:
Kushtia, Bangladesh

Tuntun Fakir of Kushtia in Bangladesh had come to sing at our 10th Baul Fakir Utsav in Jadavpur, Shaktigarh in January 2015. The tenth year was a very special occasion for us, for while it marked a milestone in the life of the festival, for some of us it was also a closure of sorts, for things were rapidly changing all around us and the festival could not remain as it was in these ten years. That though is topic of a whole separate discussion. Anyway, there was a team of bauls who had come from Kushtia this time.
After the performance tent had been set up, and the sound was in place, Sukanta declared that now he would go around making his own recordings (for The Travelling Archive). So, he went over to where the artists who had come to the festival were staying and made recordings of those informal sessions of singing and talking.

Tuntun Fakir at the festival. Photo: Amit Roy.

Tuntun Fakir has come many times to many festivals on this side of the border. Hence he is not physically so ‘opaar’ as he sings in the Lalon song, not so ‘un-take-across-able’. In fact, he does not care for lawful papers or anything–he is one of those people, like Laila in some ways, who lives in defiance and denial of the border. (Such acts of subversion will become more and more difficult as our cities and countries become more and more walled). Yet, metaphorically, the ‘opaar’ he sings about is the state we all are in, where we are unable to move without help, unless someone shows us the way and takes us across. Tuntun sings in the style of Kushtia, where song is more like a beautifully delivered sermon. He will remind the listener of Khoda Baksh Sai song also of Nazrul Fakir, Ajmal, even Binoy Nath, whom we had recorded way back in 2006, in Faridpur.

Written in 2016.