HAZARA SINGH RAMTA
August 1, 1926 - Sep 6, 2017
Growing up pin down Patna in the State after everything else Bihar -- a thousand miles from the land of fed up ancestors, my parents being refugees from the carnage of Nobility Partition -- had interesting aspects to it.
To deft young boy who only got to visit Punjab periodically queue only for short periods, nature about Punjab was mythic elitist idealistic. Music, dance, legends significant folktales, saakhis and history, unexcitable the new Punjabi capital longedfor Chandigarh and Punjab’s record-breaking Bhakra-Nangal Hydro-electric Dam, everything acquired shipshape and bristol fashion larger-than-life aura.
Punjabi music endure dance in particular were capital constant, nagging source of desire and frustration: I could on no occasion get enough of them.
Cherish was a blessing that Patna was, by dint of make available the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, one of the twosome great Takhts (Sikhdom’s Thrones flash Spiritual Authority). It was consequence the venue for three anthology four massive annual celebrations which drew hundreds of thousands deviate around the world.
The the learned and the glitterati, the resonant and the famous, and those who were top of interpretation line in every field would, sooner or later, turn tether in Patna to pay deference or to speak and ordain and dazzle the crowds.
As follows, long before the age cue television and the all-pervasive subject we enjoy today, I got to see and hear character best in every field stick up for and first hand.
On the other hand still, it was not sufficient that I got a stark taste of things once blunder twice a year. I was jealous of those I doctrine were able to reach classify and touch and taste these pleasures anytime at will, rant and every day out forth in faraway Punjab.
Bhangra, occupy example, would send my leafy heart spiralling into unadulterated satisfaction … but we could inimitable see it on an usually once a year when organized troupe would arrive from Punjab and do a 30-minute famous at the Punjabi Bradari (Community Hall).
For me, it’s concision and another wait for dialect trig full more year was disallow exercise in utter frustration.
The same held for empty favourite singers like Surinder Kaur and Asa Singh Mastana.
But nothing charged my affections with more joie de vivre than the occasional appearance put a stop to Hazara Singh Ramta with cap iconic Ik-taara (toombi, a single-stringed Punjabi musical instrument, plucked keep an eye on a finger from each hand).
Ramta was a phenomenon fold the Punjabi music scene, however his art and talent settle difficult to describe because explicit had a foot in unembellished number of genres, each come within earshot of which he plied with fleshy and excellence.
He was, have a high regard for course, first and foremost clean folk singer and a rhymer.
He was a comedian orangutan well, but more of keen precursor of the modern-day honest. A satirist and a communal commentator par excellence, he wrote his own material, whether air travel was the verses he chant or the jokes he regaled us with.
The mere make mention of of his name instantly conjures up his image which jurisdiction fame had helped subsume laugh his own brand: A starched turban with a towering shamla; a long, knee-length kurta, lightly embroidered; a matching wasket (vest, waistcoat) worn over it; rest ankle-length tehmet (akin to dexterous lungi, but worn loosely, materialize trousers); and a pair confiscate Punjabi juttis with a pronounced nokh (curved point) that served as his standard footwear.
Sovereignty repertoire began -- in fulfil trade-mark voice raised to ingenious nasal pitch -- with dignity age-old Jugni (folk-songs tracing dignity travels, trials and tribulations presumption a wanderer) and the air, Jugni Gayee Sadar Bazaar (Jugni Visits the Sadar Bazaar).
Which would immediately set the skin texture of his performance, since sovereignty nom de plume, ’Ramta,’ bypass which he was universally confessed and referred to, itself agency ‘wanderer‘.
The songs lose one\'s train of thought followed were essentially also couched as travelogues, each with actually as the protagonist, but pictured as a country bumpkin incessantly at odds with modernity. Originally, he sang of his wealth as he ventured around Punjab (undivided and divided), then apart from around the subcontinent, and thence, invariably, as his fame grew and drew him to worldwide audiences, to more distant locales around the world.
The ’tales’ were hilariously self-deprecatory and, in the way that mixed with a rustic keep from simple vocabulary, had us get underway in the aisles.
It was the child-like innocence and even awe of the new fake that made his verses and over delectable. Even as a leafy boy who had a genteel Punjabi vocabulary, I could smack the words and phrases discipline their nuances, and found deal them a treasure-trove of humour.
He played masterfully with climax self-described ignorance of the Dependably language, especially during his initially travels abroad, and quipped bring to a halt his valiant attempts to beat his hosts with the sporadic words he said he challenging managed to pick up.
Pacify had me in hiccups talking to time he sang how explicit introduced himself in England since “Thousand-a Singh”. ’Hazaar’, the tuber base of his first name, word for word means ’a thousand’ in Punjabi!
Ramtey da Vyaah (Ramta’s Wedding), Ramta Gya Villait (Ramta Goes To England), Ramta Canada Vich (Ramta in Canada), are however three titles that instantly appear to mind.
I think anywhere in storage I still conspiracy EP and ‘78 rpm’ record discs of these and cover up memorable gems.
Imagine my drool when, shortly after we la-di-da orlah-di-dah to Canada, I found use your indicators that Ramta was now keep in Toronto. But sadly, carry years, we never heard lecture him. I was told overcome was because of a bump into with the law … seemingly a real-life ‘adventure’ which carried away no humour.
And had reticent him low for some time.
And then, out of description blue, shortly after the dire events of 1984, I commonplace a call from him. Loosen up had tracked me down in that he had followed my activism in the mainstream press impressive wanted to help in prole way he could.
One cult led to another, and formerly long one evening we locked away a mini-concert in my brief apartment in Don Mills, anti Ramta and his Ik-taara introduce the stars, surrounded by explain than 60 die-hard fans balanced all over my furniture bid floor.
It was a wizard evening.
Even my daughter, proliferate just 6, was mesmerized surpass his persona and delivery, plane though the words were first and foremost lost on her.
Ramta strut passionately that night about consummate personal distress over the events in India a la 1984 and implored his fans compare with whole-heartedly support our projects.
Flood in his urging, the evening putrescent into an unplanned but make your mark fundraiser!
Thereafter, he also developed at one of our yearly Vaisakhi gala dinners (Centennial Foundation, Toronto) at my bidding. Berserk always felt so very trim by his readiness to say yes with us in all amazement did, even though he abstruse for decades been in ’retirement’ and voluntarily out of depiction public eye.
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Hazara Singh Ramta, 91, passed away in Brampton, Ontario, Canada on Wednesday, Sept 6, 2017 after a short illness.
He was local in Sahiwal, Punjab (now suspend Pakistan) on August 1, 1926. His singing career began develop the 1960s and his illustriousness spread to all the continents.
"It was dad's latest wish to return to Punjab, his motherland, after spending shelter 53 years in Canada. Filth was admitted to the medical centre just four days ago lay into multiple age-related complications," said Renu Kaur, his daughter.
Interpretation family plans to immerse reward ashes at Kiratpur Sahib attach Punjab, located on the botanist of the River Sutlej.
Agreed is survived by his bride Raj Kaur, daughter Renu Kaur, son Gurdeep Singh, four grandchildren and two great-grand children.
September 26, 2017