Dancing with Bauls

Dancing with Bauls

The Bauls are in West Bengal…. in the extreme northeast of India for hundreds of years, perhaps a thousand. They wander the countryside, singing their religious songs. Their beliefs are a mixture of many influences and traditions, such as Hinduism, Sufism and Yoga. They break away from many common Indian beliefs, including the age-old caste system, and the separation of Hindu and Muslim communities.

Baul music is unlike other traditional Indian classical music. In fact, there is nothing quite like this music. There is no sitar or tabla - all of the instruments played are ancient in origin. The songs are simple, and sung with intense emotion. The music is approachable and very enjoyable to listen to. Unlike many forms of Indian classical music, no special knowledge or study is needed to fully understand.

When one goes to Shantiniketan from Kolkata by train one encounters Bauls.They make the journey pleasurable with their song and dance. They sing about contemporary events, modern trends in their own simple rural language.

Those days I was head of Eastern Region of BHEL and used to go by Shantiniketan Express to Bolepur for onward journey to the Bakreswar thermal project which was coming up under WBPDCL then. Once in two months there used to be a major review of the power project by the erstwhile Power minister Dr.Sankar Sen of West Bengal. All of those who were required for the meeting like us from BHEL, officials from WBPDCL, consulting engineers from DCL, Japanese engineers from Fuji, Japanese experts from the consortium leader ITOCHU and the representatives from the funding agency OECF used to travel together by Shantiniketan express AC chair car as that was the only AC compartment in that train. Practically the whole AC chair car compartment on that particular day used to be booked for the project review team.

During one such journey day, the representatives of various companies started trooping in Howrah station to board the Shantiniketan Express for the review meeting. I was there one hour before the departure of the train as that was my style of avoiding failure. We all boarded the train; Dr.Sen boarded the train five minutes before the departure. The train started on schedule, I had a corner seat. I started reading the daily news paper of the day. After about half an hour we were served hot samosa and fresh sweet by our friends from DCL.After about one and half hour or so the train reached Burdwan. Immediately the compartment was filled by various hawkers selling there wares, mostly food stuff. We were served coffee, courtesy DCL.The train started, Prabir of BHEL entered the compartment and searched me out.As usual the Baul singer Karthik Das boarded the train, he started strumming his one string country made guitar known as Ek Tara.

Dr.Sen was fond of Baul song, so every one made way for Karthik Das to go near Dr.Sen.He went near Dr.Sankar Sen.’s seat and started his Baul song. He started with a typical Baul song describing the land of Birbhum from where he hailed. We enjoyed the song. Then he started with a song which talked about Bakreswar power project, BHEL, WBPDCL, OECF and how once that project was made would bring prosperity to the region. The song practically covered all facets of Bakreswar. All were stunned by that song as that song was expressing the mission for which the whole corporate crowd was going to Bakreswar.Every one was nonplussed by that song. They wondered how a half literate country singer can gather such intimate detail information’s and package the same in his Baul song. He got an all round applause.

Dr.Sen called him and asked, “How did you frame this song? How could you get such a lot of details about Bakreswar project?”

Karthik Das ,Baul replied with folded palm,”Sir,we are poor illiterate people but we go round the markets and to various rural gatherings, collect details of the latest happenings and string those to a song. This song is result of such endeavor,” he continued, “sir, did you like the song?”

Dr.Sen replied with a satisfied smile,”Yes, I am very happy as our effort will be known to the common people through your song. I hope you will sing this every day.”

“Yes sir, I will sing this every day,” the Baul replied.

That was a lucky day for Karthik Das as all of us paid him generously.

Before leaving the compartment Karthik bowed at me and I acknowledged the same. He got down at Guskara, the station before Bolepur.The compartment was charged and every one was discussing about the song, they were happy that Bakreswar had become a part of the folk lore. It was an exulting feeling for all.

Prabir came silently to me and said,”Sir, I hope every thing happened to your satisfaction.”

“Yes, thanks for making the event happen. You were late in entering the compartment and my heart stopped beating for a moment but then you entered followed by the Baul and I was relieved.” I said.

Yes, the whole show was stage managed by me. I had advised Prabir to pen a song bringing out the important facts of Bakreswar in simple Bengali language and then put that in a proper Baul musical format. He did that, we caught hold of Karthik and motivated him to sing that song on that particular day for a tidy sum. A day before that Prabir left for Burdwan and got the song rehearsed by Karthik.

After that particular day Karthik knew that if he sang that song in front of us then he would collect more money, so he made it a point to sing that song whenever the corporate crowd for Bakreswar was visible.

All most all the business news papers of West Bengal went ga ga over that Baul song. It was hailed as a novel way of using the local folk singers to advertise the achievement. Some of the local MBA colleges picked up this phenomenon as case study for marketing strategy. Generally advertising agencies are engaged and media is used to highlight the products. Here the folk singers were already available and they were effectively utilized to carry the message to the masses. It is always a cost effective proposition if the existing infrastructure or human resource is gainfully utilized. The Bombay dabbawals move the tiffin carriers through local trains during non rush hours and thus they achieve their goal by utilizing the existing system.

Bakreswar team of BHEL got so much charged up by the success of the song in the train that they got another song written and sponsored Nemai Das Baul for that song. Eventually Nemai Das Baul was proved to be more loyal to BHEL and we adopted him as our very own Baul.Those days no BHEL official function was complete without a Baul song by Nemai Das.