The Mystical Folk Singer

My maternal grandfather died at the age of 44 years. My mother was only seventeen years old. She was studying in the eleventh standard. My older uncle was studying in the ninth standard and younger one in the fifth standard. My grandpa was an electrical supervisor at a renowned electrical company.

They lived in Durgapur, West Bengal. My grandpa was an extremely spirituality inclined person. He was an amateur folk singer too. He used to sing some famous Baul songs, which were very close to his heart. One of them was a song where he used to fell in tears while singing that song. He used to organise Kirtan programs in his household and fed many people with his savings only, distributed clothes and quilts to them.

But suddenly, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. And gradually, his condition became worst. He couldn't survive for long.

When he passed away, that day, when his body was being transferred to the cremation centre from the hospital, my mom asked my uncle, to arrange some Kirtan singers to sing my grandfather's favourite Baul songs. But my uncle was so young that time, he couldn't arrange even a single one. My mom's heart saddened, and her wish was just kept inside her heart.

But, when my two uncles returned after all the rituals, they told my mom a very strange incident that took place at the cremation ghat. "They were preparing the death bed for my grandfather, meanwhile, a bohemian person, who was looking like a Baul singer, clad with shabby clothes, with a Khol(a percussion instrument used in Kirtan), came there, and stood silently. When the body was set ablaze with fire, he started singing. He was singing those very songs which were my Dadu's favourite ones. When the fire came to an end, my uncle thought of going to speak with that singer, but he found nobody there. All of them searched for him, but there was nobody." All of them became very surprised about that mysterious singer.

After somedays, a person came in my maternal uncle's house. He was a local priest of a local Radha Krishna temple. When my uncle told him about that mysterious folk singer, he told, many years ago, there was a mystical singer, who was quite look alike of that folk singer. He was a mystic with some secret spiritual powers. Whenever someone wished to hear his songs, he came to know about that and went to their house. He was a great folk singer. While listening to his songs, people used to fell in tears. Once, he met my grandpa in a Kirtan program. My grandpa asked him to come to his house, and to sing for him also. That mystic folk singer had promised to come to their house. But after a few days, that singer was disappeared to somewhere. Nobody knew where he had gone. He was just lost.

Everybody became silent after hearing this story. But nobody noticed, there was a mystical singer who was passing by their house, that very moment, singing folk songs.