An Afternoon By A River

It was the weekly mela by the river Khwai in Shantiniketan. The local artisans sat by the riverside with their wares. With sarees, kurtas, dupattas, terracotta jewellery and figurines. Artifacts and decorative things made from the most mundane raw materials imaginable, pieces of twigs, leaves and such like. We were quite bowled over. By the designs,the colors, the creative ideas. I asked one of the women, selling kantha stitch sarees and kurtas whether they had any designer on board as the designs and the color combinations were so beautiful. She shook her head in the negative. It was all theirs.

Soon the place was full of cars and people. Buyers from Kolkata and tourists like us. Many were boutique owners, buying up the stuff in bulk and it began disappearing fast.

There were a few baul singers too, interspersed with the vendors. Wandering ,mendicant singers. Clad in colorful robes made of  patch work, with their ektaras and dugdugis. An ektara is an one stringed instrument while a dugdugi is a small drum. They  were singing songs composed by  famous bauls like Lalon fakir and also their own compositions. Songs using simple, commonplace metaphors, rich in philosophical content and meaning. Songs born from the soil, water and air of the land, from the hearts of its common folk. Though I had heard baul songs before, performed on stage and television, it was mesmerizing to hear them there in their natural milieu, surrounded by trees and the river flowing nearby.

We joined some people squatting on the ground ,listening to a pair of bauls. One was singing with his ektara while the other was playing on the dugdugi. Music straight from the heart, simple and joyous! It was  food for the soul, no less.  The audience could not have enough and kept asking for more.

When they finished , people went up to them and gave them money to express their appreciation. And a woman in ragged clothes  came forward and offered them money too.

The baul smiled and said, " A beggar begs and gives money to another beggar. This can happen only in Bengal !"