This recording session was organised by our friend and teacher Salamat Khan, a confirmed bohemian who lives in Faridpur town in the west of Bangladesh and knows the place and its people inside out. For years one of his main passions has been songs of the 19th century poet-philosopher of Kushtia, Lalon Fokir, Faridpur being […]

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, […]

Once again we were in Faridpur. We keep going back to this small town in the West of Bangladesh, ‘closer’ to us than most of the other places where we go. We feel drawn to it; in Bangla we would put it like this: জায়গাটার কী যেন একটা টান আছে। Perhaps because we have very […]

Ali Akbar, a young folk singer from Kushtia, arrived at the home of my filmmaker friends Tareque and Catherine Masud, in Dhaka on this December night when I was staying with them. He had come to the capital to take part in some cultural event. The folk music collector, singer and radio and TV producer, […]