Some of you may already be familiar with my old friend and soul-brother, my alter-ego, so to speak, Baba Pagal Nath Charsi, whose fiery political speech in the crude, street Hindi of barbarous Delhi was podcast on this blog many months ago, and saw record downloads.
Well, here is the good Baba again, this time in a more urbane avatar, in English, with a long song, a lyrical essay that is hilarious, risqué, and political dynamite. The F-word is sprinkled through it like confetti, so Eminem fans will love this long song.
The background to this composition must also be told. This was written in 2004, when the Baba was on the run from the Karnataka State Police, their goon squads, and their hired assassins who disapproved of his peaceful political activism: spreading the Gospel of Freedom.
Afraid for his life, and wanting to send out his final message to his faithful followers, he holed up in a small hotel in a remote mountain village and hammered in out on his laptop. He then jeeped it to a nearby small town, into a cyber café there, and e-mailed it to the faithful few. It is from these records, carefully preserved, that this long song has now been unearthed and is being aired. The Antidote Blog is proud to host Baba Pagal Nath once more: “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”
Good Morning, America is an “immigrant song”: it challenges the visa-passport regime. But it challenges many other forms of tyranny, including, of course, that great tyranny against the Noble Herb.
To enjoy this long song of freedom, click here. It is also permanently featured on the right hand bar, along with all the other free downloads.
I downloaded the stuff.
ReplyDeleteI am seriously thinking about turning Pagal Nath's political speech into a ringtone for my mobile.
is this guy for real? or is he babbling under influence...
"Good Morning, America" is nothing like Baba Pagal Nath's earlier crude podcast. Thankfully it is an essay that one can read, so we are spared the Baba's tuneless "singing". In fact, i found it quite surprisingly good. I would even say it has some literary merit - despite, or possibly because of, the strange delirious tone. And it's really very, very funny.
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