Chalo Hamara Des

Chalo hamara des, come to my country, is one of Kabir's recurring calls. The country he means is not on any map. It is his name for the place a seeker arrives at when the searching quiets down, and in the oral traditions of Malwa and elsewhere, singers have carried this invitation from village to village for centuries, mostly in the voices of people who never thought of themselves as performers.

This workshop takes that call as its starting point. Over four and a half hours, we will learn and sing songs from Kabir, Meerabai and the Sufi kalam, and pay attention to what they are actually saying. Many of these songs begin with ordinary things: a pot, a thread, a well, a lamp, a road. From there they move, sometimes in a single line, towards what cannot be seen or named. We will follow that movement, starting with the familiar and letting the songs take us further in.

The poets did not agree on one way of walking this road. Meera longs and waits. Kabir argues, mocks and asks awkward questions. The Sufis speak of remembrance, of surrender, of the beloved. We will spend time with each of these voices, and notice where they meet.

You do not need to have sung before. These songs were made to be sung together, by people sitting on the ground, not by trained voices on a stage. What matters here is listening closely and joining in.