Songs of change

[1]

Since music transcends the language barriers, it becomes a perfect medium to put across a message. And that is what the “male feminist”, Rajat Kalra does. The 29-year-old engineer formed the band Naked Naga and has been creating music to speak up for gender equality.

Following the shameful gangrape incident, Rajat is planning to re-launch his “anti-rape and anti-dominance anthem”, Praballya Ki Bhook, which was released on the International Women’s Day and is an online hit.
The lyrics of the song are in pure Hindi, which according to the musician adds strength to it. Praballya means dominance and bhook means hunger. “It took me one year to write, compose and perfect the anthem. I looked into the history and I found some agonising stories about the plight of women. I spoke to my female friends who said they have constant fear of being vulnerable to crimes owing to their gender,” he says.
But the real impetus to take up the cause was a newspaper report that said one woman is raped in the NCR every day. “Since then, NCR has been the ‘National Capital of Rapes’ for me. I decided to discard all my love songs and contribute to the society through meaningful musicals,” he says.
“Not many of my friends supported this idea as the venture wasn’t at all commercial. However, I preferred to keep this great cause over and above any material desire,” says Rajat, who’s an accomplished tabla player and guitarist and a writer.
But what does it mean to be a male feminist? “Feminism in no way means condemning the male fraternity to favour women. It simply means ‘supporting equal rights and opportunities for women. And if someone opposes this, they surely must be condemned. Although I have experienced that being a male feminist one has to face many exaggerated opinion differences, that doesn’t deter my spirit. God made me a man, but I was made so in a woman’s womb and this is enough a reason to respect women. It is important to understand that the word ‘woman’ comprises the word ‘man’,” he says.
Interestingly, the young techie accomplished all this, along with a full-time corporate career. “After I get home in the evening, I rush to my home-studio for my jamming sessions, which lasts until late night hours. Music is meditation for me and cause is the soul,” says Rajat, who’s pursuing MBA, and uses Internet to promote his music.
“The social media and YouTube is the perfect medium for me as I am able to reach the youth of the country,” he says.