Essay: The Fantastic Masculinity of Zubeen Garg and Where to Find It

Karna shares a poignant piece on Zubeen Garg, how he became the core reason people started knowing Assam when the author moved out of this state and the lives Zubeen Garg managed to touch.

Back in 2009, when I was living in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, a Tamil friend of mine, who is now a father of two kids, expressed his interest in Assamese songs. I had been captivated by the song “Excuse Me” from the movie Kanthaswamy. I was humming it to myself as he and I entered our college canteen when he told me that it was not a family-friendly song because it concerns a girl trying to lure a CBI officer. He chuckled as he told our common Tamil friends about the oddity of my interest. He is speaking Tamil so that I don’t understand, I thought.

I made him listen to the Assamese song—“Ulomi Ulomi Thake Dui Uthote Hahi” (A smile lingers on your lips)—stowed inside my cell phone’s memory drive, and it instantly became his favourite. Those were the times when mobile handsets were used to either dial numbers or send text messages.