BENGALURU: In the last few months, the city has seen a rise in artistes who are tapping the vast potential of languages without borders. Dakhni and Bidari are two such languages that go beyond boundaries and identities. For the last century, they have remained under the shadows of other mainstream languages, in terms of literature at least.
Take, for instance, Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota, a vocalist who recently performed Songs of my Ancestors, which is a collection of songs in the language of her late grandmother. In fact, Kothakota has also created the Urban Folk Project, a space which aims to make community experiences more relevant in an increasingly individualistic world.
And the medium of her choice, Bidari, is a mixture of Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, and Dakhni – which itself is another blend of languages and comes from the northernmost district of Karnataka, Bidar, which touches the border regions of the neighbouring states of Maharashtra and Telangana.
“The Urban Folk project is a space to talk about folk experiences because we are so distant from that in the urban setting,” she says. Rapper Mohammed Affan Pasha, aka, Pasha Bhai, who recently performed in Dakhni, at an event organised by the Science Gallery Bengaluru, feels both rap and Dakhni complement each other. In November, Pasha Bhai released his album Bangalore ka Potta (The naive Bengaluru boy in Dakhni) which caused quite a rift in hip-hop circles. “The album highlights how the city raises a child.
From childhood to adulthood, you grow up listening to the city and you keep learning from it. I’m looking at Bengaluru like a teacher,” the rapper explains, adding, “Dakhni is often misunderstood for Shivajinagar Kannada or as a dialect of Urdu, but if you listen to it closely, you will start noticing the difference.” Agrees Sarah Fazal, a radio jockey, who has collaborated with various Dakhni artistes, including Pasha Bhai. “I, honestly, feel the recent trends are reviving a long-lost language very creatively.
People often confuse Dakhni to be a localised version of Urdu but it isn’t. The phrases or words have ingrains of regional ways. For example, ‘Nakko’, a word in Dakhni, has the same meaning ‘no’ in Marathi as well. So, the recent trends are only pumping life into a language that has always had its roots in the chapters of history, ” she says.