Assam is one of the Eight Sister States of North-eastern India. Known for its rich culture and diverse population, the culture of Assam is a fusion of Indo-Burmese, Mongolian and Aryan influence. It is bounded to the north by the kingdom of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, to the east by Nagaland and Manipur, to the south by Mizoram and Tripura, and to the west by Bangladesh and the States of Meghalaya and West Bengal.

The name Assam is derived from the word asama meaning “peerless” in the now extinct Ahom language. The neighbouring states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya were once part of Assam. The capital, formerly Shillong (now the capital of Meghalaya), was shifted to Dispur, a suburb of Guwahati, in 1972. The beautiful land, known as the ‘land of red rivers and blue hills’ is a little paradise with untouched natural landscapes worth traversing for its pristine beauty.

Major tribes of Assam

Ahom or Tai-Ahom: They are the admixed descendants of the Tai people who reached the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam in 1228.
Karbis: They are one of the major ethnic communities in Assam and especially in the hill areas of Assam.
Bodo-Kacharis (also Kacharis or Bodos) are an anthropological and a linguistic group living predominantly in Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya.
Mising is an indigenous community inhabiting parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Nyishi community is the largest ethnic group and they live in the Sonitpur and North Lakhimpur districts of Assam.
Rabha live mostly in Goalpara, Kamrup, Kokrajhar, Udalguri, and Baksa districts; and also in some places of Bongaigaon, Chirang, Sonitpur, and Karbi Anglong districts.
Rajbongshi or Koch-Rajbongshi is an ethnic group inhabiting parts of Assam, Meghalaya, and northern West Bengal.
Tea-garden community composed of multi-ethnic groups of tea garden workers and their dependants in Assam. They are officially referred as “Tea tribes” by the Government of Assam. They are the descendants of indigenous people brought by the British colonial planters as labourers from the regions of present-day Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh into colonial Assam during 1860-90s in multiple phases for the purpose of being employed in the tea garden industry as labourers.

Customs and traditions

Customs and traditions play a significant role in society and the Assamese strictly adhere to the customs laid down by their forefathers, pertaining to their communities. These customs are beliefs that originated in the past and have been followed ever since, generation after generation. Weddings, births, deaths and festivals in Assam include many customs that are supposed to be followed by all.

The people of Assam always believed in the joint family system and it is still prevalent among both tribal and non-tribal communities. Some of the tribes follow the matriarchal system, which asserts that the mother is the centre of the clan and that her property will be given to her daughters. If there are no daughters, it will be passed to the youngest daughter of her sister. The prevalent custom among the Dimasa-Kacharis is that the sons inherit the father’s property while the daughters inherit the mother’s property. The Assamese use bamboo to welcome guests because of their attachment to the bamboo culture.

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Jambili is a folk-rock band that was formed mainly to preserve and bring back Karbi folk songs that were almost forgotten by the people from district Diphu in Assam. The idea to form a band was conceived when school friends came together and played for the first time, trying to bring back the folk songs that were almost forgotten.

Daniel Engty Kathar of Excruciator fame whose songs are very popular among fans of all ages and has also played with Grammy-nominated band from Dimapur, Abiogenesis, which has performed in Thailand, Russia, Bhutan and Myanmar, is the force behind Jambili. He brought together a few friends and formed the band in 2007. Daniel also played a role in the Abiogenesis Films Enter My World as an Ahom warrior.

Their current line-up comprises Daniel Engty on vocals/kum dengdong/flute /guitars/krongchui (jaws harp), Thong Timungon vocals/Chenkpi/Chenkso/Chenk buruk (all traditional drums)/kum li eng, Talo Tisso on guitars/vocals/chenkpi, Sarlongki Teron on bass guitar/vocals and Sar-im Tisso on drums/chenkburuk/vocals. Verus Ferreira had a telephone chat with the band members. Excerpts.

Can you tell us how the band was formed?
Daniel: In 2007 I accompanied some scholar friends who were recording folk songs and stories for archiving and research purpose to the rural part of our district. I found that only a few elderly people knew our folk songs and many of them didn’t even know the complete versions of many songs which only meant the extinction of our cultural songs which had no written or recorded preservation. So a sudden need to popularize them was realized and a discussion among musician friends led to the ensemble of this venture, to repackage the age-old traditional Karbi folk songs with modern equipments and sounds.That’s how Jambili got ensembled and played its first gig in Diphu the same year in the famous Roots Music Fest of North East India. Jambili with just its first gig got immediate attention and played its second gig the same year on an invitation to Autumn Fest in Shillong. 

Did you guys sing in the local language Assamese, or was it English songs and covers?
Thong: We are from the hill part of Assam where we speak Assamese only as lingua franca and Karbi is spoken in our region. Jambili plays fusion of only the Karbi folk songs and music, though we also have performed Bhupen Hazarika classics and Bihu in our own style. 
Daniel: Well, cover music was out of the question since its origin had a specific motif, but we’d like to pay tribute to the works of legendary musicians from across the seas in our folk fusion way.

How did the band get the name Jambili?
Daniel: ‘Jambili Athon’ is a national or spiritual ‘totem’ of the Karbis that has five branches representing the five sub clans of the Karbi community. It may also mean ‘Jamborong’ or ‘Jarong’ (a traditional Karbi utility sling bag to carry essentials from betel nuts and betel leaves to lime and tobacco to money to pen knife and matches). So, we justify our representing both the meaning as to bringing in spirituality and representation in our music meanwhile carrying universality and essentials in our bags. 
Talo: We had no other name, it was always known as Jambili. 

Were you or any other members in any other bands before forming Jambili?
Daniel: Yes, me and Edward the bass player, were members of Excruciator that played metal music from 1999-2005 and the guitarist Habey Phangcho and drummer Langkai Terang were members of Boycott, the first band to perform Metal in Karbi dialect. We also released an album Voodoo du in 2004. We have also Doloi Terang, the brother of the drummer who played the Muri Tongpo (traditional Karbi wind music instrument) for us and thereby giving shape to the sounds of Jambili in a new direction. 

Have you released any albums, EPs, music videos to date? 
Daniel: First song to be ever recorded with Jambili was a single Drums Struggle Movement (later an amateur music video was shot with a handy cam by a friend in 2011.Though we’ve not released any full length album as yet, we have songs like Kingchili Liberation Front and Kaziranga (protest song against the poaching of one horned rhino in Kaziranga National Park) that were released in 2008 in a compilation album Spell Peace alongside various artistes of Northeast India produced by Henry Martin Institute, Hyderabad. Later in September 2015 we released singles Oso Menthu and Hacha Kekan collaborating with Vishal J Singh of Amogh Symphony (internationally critically acclaimed avante garde instrumental band). We have also done an OST for an after movie of 44th Karbi Youth Festival in 2018 called The Spirit of Hachakan an instrumental track produced by Hongjai (The Karbi Vlog). 
Thong: In 2018 we were selected alongside five other bands from North East India to record two tracks for a compilation album Brahmaputra Raga Jazz produced by Banyan Tree in association with Tata Trusts, Oso Menthu which is a re-work of our previous single.
Sar-im: In December 2019 we released a Christmas song Sining Arecho. In February 2020 we released another single Dei Arnam (a prayer of the Karbi faith) .

Is there any message in your songs?
Sarlongki: Songs like Drum Struggle Movement talks of the passing of our tradition to the next generation through the oral tradition which was practised by the community as there was no written or recorded format of Karbi folk songs, music or stories. The song is also about resisting acculturation and because of the identity crisis situation across the region many youth have been brainwashed to join the arms struggle movements. So this song plainly counters the act.
Thong: Again songs like Hacha Kekan talks about the harvest and the custom to call for a feast to celebrate the abundance of the harvest with the fellow villagers have been depicted, a traditional practice of the Karbis which we still do. 

Are all your musical instruments locally made?
Thong: Yes, all the Karbi musical instruments are locally made. I play the ‘kum li eng’(one-stringed bowing instrument), the sound hole is made from dried gourd and the strings are supposed to be made by rolling out of a kind of tree core and the bow strings supposed to be horsetail hair, but I have made a shift to get the best tone andhave attached an electronic pick up to amplify the volume for live performances. All the traditional drums are locally made. 
Daniel: I play Kum Dengdong (two-stringed banjo kind of instrument) the first string from down up is ‘Deng’ and the second string is Dong; so it’s called Dengdong. 

Tell us something about the Dimasa-Assamese folk fusion music video, and your collaboration with Rajlaxmi Bora.
Daniel: Rajlaxmi is a multilingual folk singer who sings in different indigenous dialects of Assam and she wanted to do this Dimasa song Rajabasa. She wanted some collaboration, and thought that Jambili’s approach to the song would go well. We jumped into it and first recorded Ajanta Charangsa (a Dimasa folk instrumental), then we laid our sound over the Dimasa traditional melody and Rajabasa was ready. The video was done by Kamki Diengdoh of the State of Mind production, Shillong. 

You are not much on social media, so how does one really find you?
Daniel: We have always neglected the most essential part of the music business specially by not being active on social media or releasing any full-length album, so this time around our plans are for a music album, music videos and also make ourselves available on social media with our updates so people can follow our activities; the good thing of all is there are enough material ready to be worked, reworked and released. 

What does the future hold for Jambili?
Daniel: Sometimes we don’t fit in as we’re too folk for some rock concerts and too loud for folk fusion festivals, but again sometimes it’s overwhelming to be belonging to both when appreciation and invitation arrive from both the ends at the same time. By now we’ve also conditioned ourselves to acclimatize to the platforms; (pauses) meaning invite us to any gigs and we’ll be there to rock you.

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The Assam keelback has been rediscovered by a team from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) near a reserve forest on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border.

Herpetoreas pealii was discovered 129 years ago by Samuel Edward Peal, a British tea planter based in upper Assam. Peal collected two specimens of the non-venomous snake from the evergreen forests that made up what is now Assam’s Sivasagar district. The specimens were kept in the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Kolkata, and the Natural History Museum, London. “The species has never been reported since then — nobody knew where it lived, how it looked, and everyone considered it a lost species,” said Abhijit Das, a scientist with WII.

In September 2018, Das was among the five scientists who retraced the Abor expedition — an iconic expedition that took place from 1911-1912 that yielded a rich list of flora and fauna of the Assam region. In this expedition, researchers recorded 400 plants, 270 butterflies, 25 amphibians and 44 reptiles, 239 birds and at least 20 mammals. “We just happened to find this harmless snake while we were surveying the Poba Reserve Forest (RF),” said Das who collaborated with the Natural History Museum, London, to identify it. The species is about 60 cm long, brownish, with a patterned belly.

The snake’s ‘lost’ status has a lot to do with the habitat it occupies — a lowland evergreen forest. “These forests have been selectively degraded during the last 100 years: tea plantations have been made, selective logging has taken place, and other activities such as oil exploration and coal mining,” says Das.

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Tiwa or Lalung is an indigenous tribe of the Tibeto-Burman race whose habitats are mainly Assam and Meghalaya. They are also found in Arunachal and Manipur. Literally meaning “the people who were lifted from below”, Lalung is a recognized scheduled tribe in Assam. They prefer to call themselves Tiwa though in the Assamese Buranjis (Assamese Chronicles), Colonial literature and in the Constitution of India, the term Lalung was/is used.

Tiwas are divided into two groups — the Plains Tiwas and Hill Tiwas — each with rather contrasting cultural features. The Plains Tiwas live on the flat lands of the southern bank of the Brahmaputra valley, consisting of Morigaon, Nagaon, Hojai, Kamrup, Sibsagar, Jorhat, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts of Assam which may be called Tiwaland (Tiwashong).

Culturally, religiously and linguistically the Plains Tiwas have been hugely influenced by the dominant non-tribal population of the plain. Except in the foothills and in rare villages in the plain, Assamese has become the mother tongue of the vast majority of Plain Tiwas. Even in primary school Assamese is the medium of instruction. Though with specific features, their religion has many elements of Assamese Hinduism.

Plains Tiwas follow the patrilineal system of descent. Their patronymics are not derived from their clan’s names but are common Assamese, and plain Tiwas ethnic surnames are like Manta, Dekaraja, Dewraja, Bordoloi, Konwar, Doloi, Kakoti, Deka, Deory, Bhuyan, etc.

The Hill Tiwas are in the westernmost areas West Karbi Anglong district (Assam) or ‘The Ancient Lalung-Tiwa Hills’ and in the north-eastern corner of Ri-Bhoi district of Meghalaya. A peculiar system of descent exists which may be called ‘ambilineal’. At marriage, usually the husband goes to live in his wife’s family settlement and their children take the name of the mother’s clan. This might be called matrilocality. However, due to the influence of neighbouring patrilineal populations it is not unusual for a woman to live with her husband’s family. In such cases, children’s descent is from the name of the father.

The Tiwa tribe belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language of the Bodo-Garo group. Many words have common roots in Tiwa, Bodo and Garo. Grammatically too these languages are similar. In the Hills, the Tiwas use the Roman script as early foreign missionaries wrote religious and literary books, in that script. The Hill Tiwas follow indigenous religion based on the worship of local deities.

The chief festival of the Tiwas are Three Pisu (Bihu), Borot utsav, Sogra phuja, Wansuwa, Jonbeel Mela, Kabla, Langkhon Phuja, Yangli Phuja, etc. During these festivals two types of songs are sung: Lo Ho La Hai — songs of the ceremony of name-giving, wedding, harvesting, etc., and, Lali Hilali Lai — songs of a marriage ceremony, Karam and other festivals. The tribe has one of the richest reservoirs of folk songs and dances in Assam and Meghalaya.

According to 2011 census, the Tiwa population in India is approximately 371,000. Of these, the vast majority are Plains Tiwas. The population of the Hill Tiwas is estimated at 15,000. The 2011 census says that the total number of Tiwas who speak the Tiwa language is only 34,800. They were recognized as a scheduled tribe by the first Constitution (1950) for the State of Assam. The Lalung of the autonomous districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao (North Cachar) were not included. It was only in 2002 that the scheduled tribe status was extended to Lalungs of Karbi-Anglong. Tiwas are not a scheduled tribe in Meghalaya.

A microscopic aboriginal tribe faces many challenges. But they have immense potential, as well. A few are listed below:

Literature: Evidently literature is at the initial stage. Fr Michael Balawan, a Tiwa language pioneer, wrote A Tiwa-English and English-Tiwa Dictionary (With Khasi) in 1982 and Tiwa-English Grammar and Translation. Fr U. V. Jose, SDB, too has contributed immensely to Tiwa literature. In 2014, he brought out the much-appreciated Tiwa-English Dictionary. In 2019 the complete Tiwa Bible, mostly translated by him, was released.
Works of well-known poets, writers and novelists may soon be translated into Tiwa with the aim to have Tiwa as a subject at the secondary, higher secondary, college and university level in Assam.

Education: Education is the biggest tool for empowerment, and is absolutely needed for the Tiwa community. As in the case with a mixed population, most of members of the tribe (including students) are multi-lingual. They are fluent in four to five languages, including English. For a higher education Jagiraod is about 60 km. away and Guwahati is less than three hours’ journey. Shillong too is at an affordable distance.

Economics: The Hill Tiwa tribe practises jhum farming. Minor scale rice cultivation is also done. Other crops produced from jhum cultivation are ginger, pumpkins, chillies, maize, etc. Poor road connectivity is a major reason for economic backwardness of the area. Being in the border between Assam and Meghalaya neglect is too apparent.

Political leadership: Though the Plains Tiwas have the Tiwa Autonomous Council since 1995, the Hill Tiwas is too small a group for any political organization. From the community only one is an elected member of the Karbi Anglong Automomous District Council (MAC). For a molecule tribe to survive and be heard, political identity is both a challenge and an opportunity for the Tiwas of the Hills.

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Rima Das is a self-taught film producer and director. She is a native of Assam and shuttles between her home state and Mumbai. She not only writes and directs features and documentaries but also runs a film-production company named Flying River Films that she uses to support local independent filmmakers. Her films have travelled to multiple film-festivals and have bagged numerous awards in renowned film circles.

Her debut film, Village Rockstars, which bagged a National Award from the President of India this year, has shot the young, self-taught Assamese filmmaker into prominence.

Rima was fascinated by Bollywood films while doing her Masters in Sociology at Pune University. After a brief stint in acting projects Rima embarked on the path of making her first Assamese film Antardrishti (Man with the Binoculars, 2016). The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival the same year and also the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival and Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

Recently, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting organized the screening of National Award winning films for the public and Rima Das’ debut film Village Rockstars was also screened in Siri-Fort Auditorium, New Delhi. The festival was organized in collaboration with the Directorate of Film Festival (DIFF).

What is Village Rockstars about?
My film is set in a tiny village in Assam. 10-year-old Dhunu dreams of setting up her own rock band. A self-assured girl, Dhunu’s vibrant spirit and imagination sets her apart in a world where girls are often expected to be shy and submissive. With the support from her widowed mother, Dhunu joins hands with a group of boys to face the daily struggles of life and realize her dreams.

How did you select your film’s cast and crew?
I never select professional actors and had a small but dedicated crew. Ratnajit Roy has done cinematography; he understood my script very well to reach my vision. Suresh Pai, Amrit Pritaman and Anurag Saikia are all experts in their own fields. Sid Meer is an outstanding actor who has acted in Bollywood films.

Tell us about Village Rockstars shoot.
Village Rockstars is my second film. Three years back, while shooting for my first film in my old village Kalahari, I met many kids and began shooting this film. I had completed shooting entirely on my own from camera to direction and production. My cousin Mallika Das and the children who acted in the film helped me throughout.

How did you shortlist the kids for the film?
I was impressed by those small kids as they showed love for acting, craft of cinema and they know the perfect frame of the film, lighting and mood. These little stars take notes for the next day shooting. It almost changed my life.

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In the centuries gone by, women in India had an insignificant role to play in the field of sports and it was only the men who, like fireflies, brought moments of glory, shining once in a while in some international events. However, there has been a sea change in the past fifty to sixty years as more and more Indian women seem to be hogging the limelight in the world of sports. Athletics, till the 1970s, seemed to be out of reach for the girls as there were hardly any facilities at any level for them.

It was for the first time in the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games that an Indian woman athlete came into public attention. Kamaljeet Sandhu won the gold medal in the 400 metres final to become the first-ever Indian woman to win any Asian Games gold medal. Sandhu and India were fortunate to some degree for in the finals Kamaljeet seemed destined to finish with a silver medal but the Chinese girl ahead of her tripped and fell before breasting the tape and a golden chapter opened in the history of Indian women athletes.

The 400 metres race is one of the most gruelling races run on the tracks. Somewhere between the 250-metre and 300-metre mark, the heart seems to enter into a spasm and one has to overcome those vital moments to get a fresh supply of adrenalin to complete the race. Strangely enough, however, for inexplicable reasons, Indian athletes over the years have performed better over this quarter mile than any other distance on the tracks.

To begin, it was Milkha Singh who ran the race of his life at the Rome Olympics in 1960 and it was only one hundredth of a second that separated him from a podium finish. In the 1982 Asian Games, MD Valsamma became only the second Indian woman to win an individual gold medal when she finished the 400 metres hurdle in an Asian record time of 58.47 seconds. In later years, PT Usha brought laurels for the country in several international events but could never win any gold medal in any global track competition.

Suddenly, a new name has cropped up in India’s athletic world that seems to carry many hopes for the future. It is sudden because in just fifteen months, a teenager named Hima Das has matured from a little-known village girl to India’s first ever woman athlete to win an individual gold on the tracks in any global meet. Hima’s moment of glory came at the recently-concluded World Junior Athletic Championships at Tampere, Finland.

It is not only Hima who was unknown, even the village and town from where she hails had a similar status. Born in village Kadhulimari, in the Dhing town of Assam’s Nagaon district, Hima had her early schooling at the Dhing Public School. Initially, Hima saw her career in football as she played the game with the boys of her school but a physical training instructor named Shamshul Haque advised her to move into athletics. Hima was fortunate in getting the support of the Nagaon Sports’ Association and proved true to their faith reposed in her by winning two gold medals at the inter-district meet.

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Director Utpal Borpujari is a well-known film-maker and media critic from Assam. A product of IIT Roorkee, he won the Swarna Kamal for Best Film Critic at the 50th National Film Awards of India in 2003.

For the past seven years, Utpal has been involved in filmmaking and has made several acclaimed documentary films such as Mayong: Myth/Reality, Songs of the Blue Hills, Soccer Queens of Rani and Memories Of A Forgotten War among others.

He has served on international and national film juries and curated films for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa. Ishu is his debut fiction feature produced by the Children’s Film Society of India (CSFI). As a professional journalist, apart from cinema, he has written extensively on politics, society, culture and literature among others.

Recently, Utpal was felicitated at the 65th National Film Awards held in May 2018 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, when his film Ishu won the award for Best Assamese Film.

Ishwar Prasad Rabha or Ishu as everyone calls him stays in a remote, tribal village in Assam. Ishu is 10, goes to the village primary school, and is always busy with his friends or Bhalu, his pet puppy. And if he is not to be found at home, he is to be found at the house of his favourite Ambika “Jethi” (aunt) next door. Happy-go-lucky Ishu is pampered by his grandmother and uncle and loved by his parents. But unknown to him, dark clouds are descending on this happy world of Ishu. The village “Bej” (quack), declares Ambika as a witch. The superstitious people of the village easily get swayed by him, and burn down her house. Ambika vanishes, and no one seems to know where she is. Ishu, heartbroken, starts looking around. Will he find her? What happened to Ambika? Based on famous Assamese author Manikuntala Bhattacharjya’s novel by the same name, Ishu takes a look at the still-continuing despicable practice of witch-hunting in Assam from a child’s point of view.

When asked about his film team, Utpal said, “I am really fortunate to have A. Sreekar Prasad and Sumon Dowerah, both national awardees; also, musician Anurag Saikia another national award winner who has provided music for hit movies like Dangal and Dil To Hai Mushkil.”

SANTOSH MEHTA spoke to Utpal Borpujari about Ishu after the 65th National Film Awards.

What inspired you to direct Ishu and how do you select subjects for your films?
When I decided to make a feature film, I was keen on starting off with a children’s film because in India there have not been many children’s films made till now. My idea was to make my first feature film in my mother tongue Assamese. Hence, I chose this wonderful story written by popular Assamese author Manikuntala Bhattacharjya. The story, also titled Ishu, attracted me because of its depiction of how a child, through his or her innocence and simplicity, can make a change in the immediate society around.

Is this a true story? Does this social problem still exist?
It is not a true story, but such incidents have been happening in Assam even now. It’s a very sad and crucial social problem, which the state government, social organizations and many others are trying to end. Unfortunately, the superstition is exploited by unscrupulous elements to perpetuate this problem.

How long did it take you to direct this movie? Tell us about the locations.
The film took around one year from start to finish. However, before that the scripting took nearly two years as I wanted to make it as realistic as possible and thus had to do a lot of research and also visit interior areas of Assam. The film was shot in Gaia area of Goalpara district in lower Assam, bordering Meghalaya and West Bengal.

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Papon (Angaraag Mahanta) is a talented singer, composer, programmer, producer, born in Assam. A very gifted music artist, 40-year-old Papon formed an electronic folk-fusion band called Papon and The East India Company which performed in the SAARC Music Band Festival. He has been a part of MTV Coke Studio 2013, has performed at NH7 and many other Indian festivals, and has also appeared in the sixth episode of The Dewarists with Rabbie Shergill.

In 2012, he won the GIMA Awards for Best Pop Album of the Year for his debut Hindi album The Story So Far. In 2012 he won the JD Annual Rock Awards for Best Male Voice of the Year and Best Song of the Year (for Boitha Maro). He has also dabbled in playback singing for Bollywood and is now a successful singer/composer and has worked for some big banner films.  

His film projects have been few and far between — the highlights being the breakthrough Jiye Kyun from Dum Maaro Dum (2011), Kyun from Barfi (2012) and Maula from Madras Café (2013) — but he is now gaining credence as a composer. He has also done work for Bajrangi Bhaijan, Bombay Velvet and Hawaizaada among others. Papon has also composed a dreamy, old-fashioned duet with Shreya Ghosal for Bobby Jasoos.

His initial training has been in Indian classical music and traditional music (religious and folk) from Assam. His experiments include elements of ambient electronica, acoustic folk, ghazals, new-age, and Indian classical music.

In an exclusive chat with VERUS FERREIRA, he reveals his tryst with music, his collaborations and his work in Bollywood.  

Your real name is Angaraag Mahanta. How did it come to be Papon?
Papon is my pet name. Yes, my real name is Angaraag Mahanta. But then Papon has stuck since childhood and somehow it has this zing in it, it’s so catchy and with time the name and I got popular. (laughs)

What about Papon and the East India Company?
East India Company is because all of us are from east of Assam. We were figuring out a name for the band and we just found it. It is actually the Kolkata-based company that existed at that time that came to be known as the East India Company, so we thought we might as well use it. It sounded nice as it also meant a place and area we come from. So when we founded the band our idea was to invade the world with music not with guns, and so we used the name East India Company. We have eight members in the band. (smiles)

Why have we not heard about you all this time?
This could be more because the language is not well-known here in Mumbai and the local distribution and market was more in Assam. It was only a few years ago that Times Music wanted to release my Hindi album. In fact, I have also convinced them to release my Assamese music albums here too. So let’s wait and see how things work out.

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