Varun Prabhakar's Journal

Raghu Dixit Project is my favorite band of late. Raghu’s voice has an infectious energy to it and the content has a rustic quality. The music is based on Indian folk and has rock, blues and Middle Eastern influences. The lyrics are strong, ranging from folksy-light-hearted musings in “Mysore se aayi” to very profound elements of Saint Shishunala Sharif in “Gudugudiya” and “Soruthihudu maniya maligi”. He has the often-attempted-but-rarely-perfected ability to interweave Western and Indian music in fine harmony!

Here’s an interpretation from my friend Preethi, who did a remarkable job in translating the song for me despite the handicaps of the lyrics being in classic Kannada and authored by a legend of the language, Saint Shishunala Sharif. Thanks Preethi, I owe you one.

“Intelligence/Knowledge is a very powerful protective force…it is like the roof of a house. It protects you from all the dark forces like the wind and the storm. If you are ignorant then the roof of your house would leak.

An ignorant soul cannot fight or escape darkness. Our knowledge always illuminates our inner self and the lack of it darkens your soul…

An ignorant mind is like a brain with a dirty worm in it which hinders your progress (climbing up through the torn roof)…

The mention of dry twigs, cotton, dirt, water and mud which flow through your leaking roof and get mixed up proportionately with what is inside the roof maybe a reference to the ignorant self consisting of all the bad or unwanted elements.. (again I’m really really not sure here )

So, basically ignorance is bad force which destroys the protective shield of your soul and allows the bad elements to control your soul…”

Raghu Dixit’s CDs are available in the US from here and his MP3’s are downloadable from here.

Update: Removed the translation from here as it is available on the CD cover.

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