Kabir Café

Kabir Café has been winning hearts all over the country with their soulful performances.

- VERUS FERREIRA

Their songs Sunta Nahi Dhun Ki Khabar, Tu Ka Tu and Mat Kar Maaya ko Ahankar are favourites. The five-piece band is comprised of Neeraj Arya (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Mukund Ramaswamy (violin), Raman Iyer (mandolin), Viren Solanki (percussion) and Poubuanpou Britto KC (bass guitar). The band devotes their music to the 15th century Indian mystic poet and saint Kabir. Their album Panchrang (2016) went on to win the Radio City Freedom Awards Critics’ Choice.

Weeks before they could take the stage at the Mahindra Kabira Festival in November 2019, VERUS FERREIRA met with the band to find out how they take Kabir’s poetry and turn them into songs, and what got them to leave regular jobs (Neeraj was employed full time with the NSPA, Mukund was a mechanical engineer, Raman was an advertising professional, Viren was pursuing a commerce degree, and Britto was a music teacher) to make music their full-time job.

Why the addition of ‘Café’ to your band name when you are dealing with Sant Kabir?

Neeraj Arya: That’s because we choose to connect with Kabir more as a friend than putting him on a pedestal. We don’t refer to him as a “sant”, which connotes to someone who simply needs to be revered and worshipped, but as a very much alive and thriving friend who is always open for dialogue. And that’s why ‘Café’, where the conversation is on an equal platform. So what we believe is we have a musical dialogue with Kabir, with each other, and of course with our audience. We don’t preach, we converse.

How did you decide to perform songs based on Kabir’s poetry?

NA: It’s sheer destiny. I was in Delhi working with an NGO, Manzil, around 2009 when I was a part of a screening of the documentary on Kabir folk music,