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If one were to imagine a form that might best capture a conversation between seeker and God, this might be it. No weary preliminaries, no pretty embellishments. The waai is a kind of a visceral cry, a weeping, a lament. Waai uses two kinds of voices – the heavy (gauro) and the thin (sanho). The ‘heavy’ is the normal male pitch of singing, but it is this falsetto sanho that strikes the chord of separation – for it is a kind of shriek, or 'loolaat' – a baby’s howl for its mother. Full-grown men weeping in the voice of a child… In this waai, the poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai calls out in the voice of the love-lorn Sohini seeking her beloved Mehar. This famous love legend from the Sindh region comes viscerally alive in the voices of Mitha Khan and Sumar Kada Jat. *** Find lyrics/translation of this song at &title=Sur-Sohini Discover a universe of Bhakti, Sufi, Baul poetry and music at . *** Perhaps the only remaining proponents of this rarest of rare music genres in India, Mitha and Sumar belong to the village of Bhagadia in Kutch, Gujarat, and are descendants of the Jat Muslims from Baluchistan who traversed the rugged terrain and colossal distances through Sindh and brought this invaluable genre to Kutch in Gujarat. Contact Mitha Khan Jat at 91-94269-69447 and Sumar Kada Jat at 91-94293-41481 This waai was shared as part of a festival celebrating the poetry of Shah Latif, organized jointly by the Sindhi Culture Foundation & the Kabir Project, Srishti in Bangalore in November, 2010. The poems projected in the backdrop of the singers are other Latif poems on the theme of Sohini-Mehar, beautifully translated by Anju Makhija and Hari Dilgir, drawn from their book ‘Seeking the Beloved’ published by Katha, New Delhi. Anju can be contacted at anjumakhija17@. (Click on Settings for subtitles in English & Hindi. Click ‘B’ on keyboard to remove the black background in the subtitles.) This is one of a series of uploads for Ajab Shahar, a webspace dedicated to mystic poem and song, created by the Kabir Project team ( ; ). Song Credits: Vocals & Dhambooro: Mitha Khan Jat & Sumar Kadu Jat Script & Narration: Shabnam Virmani Projected Poetry Translations: Anju Makhija & Hari Dilgir Song (Waai & Beyt) Translation: Shabnam Virmani & Vipul Rikhi Poetry Insights: Abdullah Hussain Turk Video Credits: Cameras: Aarthi Parthasarathy & Rebana John Editing: Aarthi Parthasarathy, Radha Mahendru & Shabnam Virmani Editing Support: Dinto Joseph Sound: Sohan K P Graphics & Animation: Shilo Shiv Suleiman Research & Production Support: Namrata Karthik Sub-Titling: Shruti Kulkarni & Shabnam Virmani Collection: The Kabir Project Place: Bangalore, India Date of Recording: 21 November, 2010
