There is a whole lot of Kashmir in Yawar Abdal. If you hear him sing, you may feel the flow of the soothing valley winds in his voice, but if you hear him speak, you will realise there’s so much that’s been left unsaid. Maybe it is the language of the music he finds comfort in. Maybe it’s the soul he puts in them while singing. But it hasn’t come easy.
“It has been eight years that I have taken up music as a profession. I wanted to be a musician and also a cricketer. The bat didn’t hit the ball, but I managed to become the former,” Yawar laughs.
The 31-year-old singer-songwriter’s latest release, Dilshad, has been going viral on social media. Fans from across the country are coming up with their versions of the song. Written by Yawar himself, it evokes an emotion of longing for one’s home. Chuss par-shahar yeti bhe gatseha gharai, Doorer yi chonui bhe maa zarai, Maa zarai ma zarai, Gatsheha garai gatseha garai (The city of my home seems far away; I can no longer bear this distance; I just cannot; I simply want to go home). “I don’t know the reason behind the song going viral. It was an honest expression. I think people could simply connect to it. South India particularly has been grooving to the song,” he says.
With no formal training, Yawar’s love for music came from his grandfather, who practiced at home. “I never went to a training school. I remember taking guitar lessons for barely a month. I won’t brag about it, but I am a self-taught artiste. I also write my songs. It is not just about being a vocalist or a songwriter. For me, it is about being a complete package.”
Yawar says that music as a profession was unheard of in Kashmir. Public performances were not encouraged, as it did not reflect well on the family. “Though youngsters are now challenging these notions, taking up music as a profession is not easy here. It was my mother who supported me. She is my rock. My latest song, Dilshad, is named after her.”
He shot to fame in 2017 with Tamanna, a single with lyrics in Kashmiri, Persian and Urdu, drawn from the poetry of Mirza Ghalib, Mahjoor, and Amir Khusrow. The video has over 11 million views on YouTube and is one of the mostwatched Kashmiri songs on the platform. During mehfils, he would stay awake to listen to mystic Sufi poetry. By 10, he was familiar with Khusrow, Rumi, and Kashmiri mystic poets like Wahab Khar, Mahjoor, Shamas Fakir, and Ahad Zargar. “I grew up listening to these poets back home in Srinagar,” he says.
The idea of becoming a full-time musician came to Yawar when he attended an open jam at Muziclub, a music academy run by Pune-based Kashmiri singer, Mohammad Muneem (of Alif and Like a Sufi fame). “I met other musicians there. They told me there are local gigs and they earn money from them. I hadn’t built any profile as a musician or any music videos then—I would walk into pubs and cafes and ask for gigs.”
Yawar performed for free and later started charging `500 for two-threehour gigs.
Now famous, Yawar aims to take Kashmiri music and poetry to the global stage. During a recent performance at the Sufi Heritage Festival in Delhi, where he performed some of his popular compositions, the 31-year-old artiste said he was looking for some familiar faces in the crowd. The crowd immediately responded, “You are our own.” If the magic of music transcends language and landscape, Yawar has now become a magician.