Archiving with Adit: Kinnauri songs, language barriers and fond memories

(We had the pleasure of meeting a young and budding artist from Kinnaur. The conversation began organically with us asking him a couple of curious questions. Adit's skills as a storyteller organically streamlined the flow and encouraged us to ask more things. An excerpt from the "interview" is given here along with the songs that he happily shared.)

Let's talk about your introduction to music or how did you learn music?

There is a small story, It’s a memory from my childhood, I was barely walking at that time. We have a big family and all of us were home. So I remember we were sitting in the Panthang and Panthang is a very intimate space. It was our ancestral house. There was a lot of excitement because Poltu(Poori) and Haalu kan(Potato stew) were being cooked. So if on

regular days we are getting Roti and Sabji and on one day we are getting Poltu that used to create a lot of joy. And in my home, everyone is interested in food. While waiting for the food suddenly my dad started singing about Poley and everyone joined ‘Poley Poley Poley Haalu kan rang Poley today we eat Poley’. And doing that they started dancing and I was just sitting there, in a second, everyone broke into a dance sequence and some are dancing and some singing and they are dancing around the kids of the house. And they danced till the time the food was not served… So I think the memory of music, and my home’s memory are correlated. So my Papa and Buaji since earlier… I mean music if I say for them then folk music has been primary. So my first memory is also of folk music from my childhood.

I never thought I should learn music now. It has been a constant. And the journey has been very organic, somewhat instinctive because everyone around me loved singing and people who don’t sing are very quick to get on their feet and dance.

Okay, so if we talk about people at your home who sing, what's your memory of them? How did they learn or how are they still connected to music?

I think most of us around the age of 26, 27 or so, we‘ve at least seen a tape recorder or used it, the ones that used to have cassettes earlier. I think in the mid-eighties Papa and Buaji recorded cassettes of them singing. Although I don’t remember playing them myself, they are within my memory and I think they were very popular in Kinnaur for a long time. I remember Papa playing that small Casio(keyboard) and those songs filled in the cassettes … there was a certain rawness to them because they weren’t professionally recorded.

To talk about where they learnt it, I do not know much about Buaji when and why she started singing. But I can tell you about Papa. We’ve always had a big family and of course, everyone stays together. When my father was young it was also the same. So it was like Papa had the responsibility to take cows for grazing to the Pabang. Or wherever cows are taken for grazing. So before going to school in the morning, he took cows for grazing. One year my father’s Tete (grandfather) who was very old suddenly passed away. When they were emptying his room Papa found a brass flute. So he started practising it on his own especially while he took the cows for grazing. That's when his first musical journey started. Kupa is a

plain area you must have heard “Khona Kupa Saring” (plains of Kupa valley), so if somebody is playing the flute at a higher altitude everyone in the village can hear it. So Papa must be playing the flute regularly and slowly everyone started noticing that he was playing well. Then he started to perform at school at functions etc. His initial journey started with instruments only. And then later on in life, he went to college for mouth organ or for guitar and other instruments.

So I think traditional songs have words that are archaic today, can you tell us if you face any language barrier given that you weren’t fluent in Kinnauri?

I have figured out a pattern of songs. It starts with Goli go hona, haya be hona then they talk about Panzey or Zahey (Daughter of the family), then who is the Panzey. But then again every now and then, there are words that I don’t understand. There are words that aren’t

used frequently and we don’t hear them a lot, so I can’t pick them up easily. Apart from the gap in vocabulary, the context is also different. The things being told in songs are very different from today’s time. But If you understand the song like a story of the past then while singing the song I can relate to it more. Understanding traditional songs makes people more interested in them. Because of learning these songs, my Kinauri improved a little naturally.

So what do you think about the current terrain of music in Kinauri? What do you think?

Kinauri music is doing well on the dancing numbers(Dancing numbers pe toh Kinnauri song Dhoom macha rahey hai). Regarding the old Kinauri music, I think if it's reinvented, reinvented in the sense that the meaning of the songs is told in an interesting way, and the story it shares is understood then I think that can be a very good start.

What does it mean to be Kinnaura and sing traditional songs as a young person? I mean you are not singing them professionally but people are appreciating you so much on social media.

My dad was in Hindustan Petroleum and he was stationed at different places. We were in UP for seven years. So the strongest memory I have is that whenever summer vacations arrived… We didn’t have any particular plans of going here and there. The only thing was to pack your luggage and go back home. We stayed in Mathura, in Jhansi, and my father used to drop us off by car, even if Papa couldn’t come to Kinnaur, he would drop us till Shimla and then we would go by bus. But for me, it was all very exciting. This feeling that I am going back home. And because I stayed for so long in the Plains I am used to seeing a particular landscape but going to Kinnaur I am witnessing the Himalayas. I see the water, I see Satluj and I used to get very excited. Satluj’s flow was amazing, so fast and… (Giggling) looking at the back tyres of the bus going out… and the 90 degrees view from the window of the cliff or the water. All those things, it is so vivid in my mind and that first glimpse of that snowclad mountain in the month of June… These things used to strike immediately and it stirred something inside. I mean it used to fill me with joy and excitement.

I believe I have always been a person who loves Kinnaur and its culture. And I try to talk about it more. When I was in UP, I don't know if represented Would be the right term to use,

but I think I was neither able to relate to much that was happening around me nor to what was happening back home. So I was Somewhere in the middle. Where I was part of that and Part of this. Iam always trying to explore Who I am as a person. And in that process, I tend to stay close or try to hold on to whatever I have of Kinnauri culture and my home.

If I talk about my college day. So I made a band with my juniors. There was a bass guitarist, a vocalist and a guitarist. At that time I didn't play guitar. I used to sing. So there was this competition we entered at DTU. It was a very unique Competition. Where you weren’t allowed to sing in English or Hindi. And no electronic instrument will be used apart from the bass guitar. Because the bass guitar is just for the rhythm. I was like why don't we do something with Kinnauri songs? So we have a Faghul Githang. It is specific to Kamru. And its tone is very different. I don't know about other folk songs, but some of the folk songs of Kinaur go out of rhythm sometimes. That is their nature. So Faghul Githang. It was not sitting well into beats. We tried and tried and tried. Then suddenly it struck. Papon has an Assamese song titled “Eibili Muk” It was in good contrast Because it was a fast song. We fused it. And then. In the process of 10 days, we prepared a song. We were doing something new. And I felt that I was not doing it for someone else but for myself. I am feeling much

more represented. They asked the name of the band and we first gave the name of our society. Its name was SEPTUNE. What a boring name. Then I thought of something and we kept the name Kyang Changs. (Children of the fire spark) And the process was so amazing and by performing I felt very good. After that, I didn't have a chance to go on stage. But there are jam sessions that I keep doing. And I tend to record songs. As much as I can. Like you are archiving things. So it is my small way of archiving Songs. I mean. As long as I can do it. As long as my aunt and dad are around.

Picture by Sebastian Schubbe