'Mann Laago Fakiri Mein' by Kaluram Bamaniya

In a radical departure from the norm of pursing wealth and success, in this song the poet Kabir celebrates the joy of poverty, and the beauty of simplicity. But this poverty is not wretched or empty - it is filled with the joy of Raam remembrance. Kabir claims that this joy is far greater than the joys afforded by material comfort or luxury. Saboori, or contentment, is the tool which takes one to fakiri, or the state of being utterly free - free of desires, wants and the incessant need for more!
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Kaluram Bamaniya brought alive this song on the 2nd night of the Rajasthan Kabir Yatra in the village of Napasar, bringing some rural women in the audience to their feet. He belongs to a vibrant tradition of singing bhakti poets such as Kabir, Gorakhnath, Bananath and Meera in the Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh in India.
A special presence on stage in this song is Kaluram ji’s daughter Arpita, singing with gusto while she plays the manjiras. This perhaps best exemplifies how learning happens in the folk traditions - the sounds and styles are imbibed and absorbed through many hours and years of inhabiting shared spaces of satsang, both on and off the stage. Kaluram ji himself started learning at the early age of 9, by accompanying his father, grandfather and uncle on the manjiras. When he was 13 years old he ran away from home and went to Rajasthan, where he absorbed a wide repertoire of songs from an itinerant Mirasi singer Ram Niwas Rao for 1-2 years. Contact Kaluram Bamaniya at: 91-98264-00632, [e-mail], www.bairagkabir.com
Get Kaluram Bamaniya's music at www.oklisten.c....
(Click on Settings for subtitles in English & Hindi. Click ‘B’ on keyboard to remove the black background in subtitles.)
This concert was part of the week-long Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, a travelling festival which toured 7 villages with 13 singers of Bhakti, Sufi and Baul poetry in February 2012. The Yatra was organized by Lokayan in Bikaner (www.lokayan.org) in partnership with the Kabir Project, Bangalore.
This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team (www.ajabshahar.org ; www.kabirprojec...).
Song Credits:
Lead Vocals & Tambura: Kaluram Bamaniya
Violin: Devnarayan Saroliya
Dholak: Devidas Bairagi
Harmonium: Santosh K Pathhundia
Nagaari (Timki): Sajan Singh Parmar
Manjiras & Co-singers: Ram Prasad Parmar & Arpita
Translation: Vipul Rikhi & Shabnam Virmani
Video Credits:
Cameras: Smriti Chanchani & Aarthi Parathasarthy
Sound: Atirek Pandey
Editing: Piyush Kashyap
Sub-Titling: Kabir Khanna
Collection: The Kabir Project
Date of Recording:
February 2012