Diplomat and baul songs? Why not?
I came to know about the former British High Commissioner Mr. Anwar Chowdhury’s penchant for baul songs from others at different times towards the end of his four-year tenure of office in Bangladesh. They said underneath that immaculate three-piece suit he wore and the suavity with which he addressed official business, Anwar Chowdhury had a Bengali heart. He was a diplomat on one side and on the other a lover of the songs of the bauls that paid reverence to the creator in their own gnostic way and talked about the special relationship man had with nature.
I almost forgot about this aspect of Anwar Chowdhury’s personality. But one day, as I was channel surfing at home, I stopped at a local channel when I discovered Chowdhury singing with a bunch of local bauls at a recording studio. And like the bauls he was shaking his head and moving his body with the beat of the dholok and tune of the dotara. Then on another occasion, I saw him singing and dancing with another group of singers on stage at one of the farewell parties for him. A few weeks later, I happened to be at his residence as a guest when I noticed an oil painting of Shah Abdul Karim on the wall. Well, this time I was intrigued to the point of incredulity and thought I would talk with the High Commissioner someday to know about this particular predilection of his we knew so little about. I did not have to wait too long.
About two weeks before he left the country to join his new post in London, Anwar Chowdhury invited some of us to his residence at Baridhara to talk about a few things. There, after a round of exchange of pleasantries, he invited us to watch a video of the baul singer Shah Abdul Karim. He told us in a matter of fact voice that he was a great fan of this singer and that he has translated some of the songs in English. He allowed us to hear some of Abdul Karim’s soul-rending songs. As the meaning of the lyrics and the tune sunk in deeply in all of us, Chowdhury went on to talk about the meaning of this temporal life, the creator and influence of nature on humans that Karim’s songs imparted. He also drew our attention to the richness of the tune that Karim composed.
Chowdhury’s voice trembled with emotion as he showed his deep respect to the baul, the sufi, that Karim was. I could detect pathos in his voice when he requested us to come forward to help this baul who had never shown any greed for material gain in his life. Chowdhury requested us to write about Shah Abdul Karim so that people could know more about the works of the saint like man who had devoted his life to baul songs.
As we listened to some more songs, I could discern that Karim was a singer who constantly searched for his creator. He searched for his creator in nature that appeared with all its magnificence and sublimity at every sunrise and every sunset. He wrote songs as he listened to the whining of wind that blew across the vast paddy fields. He wrote songs as he looked at the endless dark waters of the large haors from his country boat. He wrote songs as he watched flocks of white cranes flying towards the darkening horizon in the distance. Truly, we soaked in the grandeur of eloquence of the songs of the soil.
Today, Shah Abdul Karim is in his nineties. His recent songs talk about man’s ultimate desire at the end of the sojourn - to meet his creator. Karim feels he has come a long way and it is time to start yet another journey. The film ends showing Karim in a country boat, looking out at the setting sun, and singing about how he waits to go to the place where he has come from. Shah Abdul Karim sang on as the twilight faded into darkness.
Source: The Daily Star
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