Saturday, June 4, 2011

Did Kabir wish to be heard?

Did Kabir wish to be heard?
Each time the refrain "suno bhai sadho" wove itself into his observations, did Kabir address an audience?

The consensus must be that he was neither insistent nor indifferent : it was upto an audience to hear, analyze, interpret, reject, accept, memorize, cherish.

Raj Kapoor's song in Jis Desh Mein Ganga Bahti hai , "Mera naam Raju..." presents a new-day, cinema version of Kabir's refrain : 'kaam naye nit geet banaana/ geet banaa ke jahaan ko sunaana/ koyi na miley tau ,akeley mein gaana..."

People observe and make their own ballads, songs out of their observations; some do it well, some not so well; and offer these songs, varied false notes, varied versification slips ... but earnestly , hoping some one will hear... and say: that is what I was about to say.

I am neither Kabir, nor Raj Kapoor. I am , not too secretly at all, one of the people who hopes to be heard, but appears nonchalant, influenced no doubt , by ideas of impersonality and detachment.So, let me drop the pretence, and go on to warbling in a middle-aged falsetto. I will no more quiet, my world!

1 comment:

  1. Testing ground. Let me see if this works and some friends manage to visit/see/comment.

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