This author's new book pays homage to Kabir with a translation of his songs

Anand has been singing and translating Kabir poetry for over a decade

Anand's first brush with Kabir was in school, with a doha that we've all heard as children "kaal kare so aaj kar aaj kare so ab/pal mein pralay hoegee bahuri karegaa kab". He promptly drafted a parody: "Aaj kare so kaal kar kaal na aave ab/ pal mein pralay hoegee kaahe kare kachhu ab (Why rush now, there's tomorrow, there's day after/ if the end of days is nigh why even bother?)"

It wasn't until years later, in his mid-thirties, that he discovered Kabir, the non-conformist, who championed the exact opposite of the values highlighted in the dohas taught in school textbooks. This Kabir is not to be found in books - it is more prominent in the sung-and-heard tradition called Kabiri, comprising bhajans and poetry performed across India by folk artistes. And it is this Kabir that Anand pays homage to in his translation, The Notbook Of Kabir (Penguin), released on December 1.

Prahlad Tipaniya

The Kabir found in these songs shows disdain for bookish learning: "Pothee paDh paDh jag muaa panDit bhayaa na koy/ Dhaaii aakhar prem kaa paDhe so panDit hoy (The rut of reading won't make a pundit/ If you can't love, you just won't get it)". The poet's emphasis on valuing love over an insistence for puritanical knowledge struck a chord with Anand, whose anti-caste sensibilities had prompted him to turn his back on Carnatic music and its puritanical Brahminism after close to a decade spent in formal vocal training.

"Carnatic music is a closed brahmanical system. It shut its doors and ears to what it called northern Islamic influence. It thrives on rules, not principles. The whole discourse is on purity. I got tired of it and gave up music, because by then I was embracing Ambedkar and had begun to question caste in every sphere," says the author.

Anand discovered the non-conformist Kabir in his mid-thirties while listening to folk singers such as Kaluram Bamaniya

Wherever possible, he used only his first name, to shun the Indian practice of using surnames as a caste-identifier. He quit his job as a journalist in savarna-dominated media houses and set up the anti-caste publishing house, Navayana.

"Then, Kabir sang his way back into my life," says the author. "I started listening to the many ways in which Kabir was and is sung across North, Western and Central India by [folk singers] Prahlad Tipaniya, Kaluram Bamaniya, the late Kumar Gandharva, Mukhtiyar Ali, as well as the Fariduddin Ayaz-Abu Mohammed Qawwal brothers from Karachi, among others."

Where the rigidity and exclusionary practices of Carnatic music had disenchanted him, Kabir's honesty and irreverence for caste and religion won over Anand, like so many others before him. It's no coincidence that most Kabirpanthis or practitioners of this poetry-in-song tradition hail from oppressed castes. Dalit icon Dr BR Ambedkar, too, was born into the Kabirpanth.

"I felt I should translate the Kabir songs that I was beginning to sing," says Anand, whose translations are just as unconventional as his 15th-century poet-guru. Each song or poem is first written in the Nagari script (used to write Prakrit and Sanskrit), followed by a transliteration and then - in English - his take on the verses, which is informed by his years of study and work in the Ambedkarite space. "My time with Kabir has happened parallel to some 25 years of immersion in the writings and thoughts of Babasaheb Ambedkar and several anti-caste thinkers before and after him. This also helped me see how the sung-and-heard Kabir I was drawn to uses many Buddhist ideas and concepts," says the author.

Rather than go the literal route, Anand chooses to translate the spirit and emotions of Kabir's words, including crafting rhymes and puns in the English translation: Daas kabeer jatan se oDhee jyon ki tyon dhar deenii chadariyaa jheenii jheenii jheenii (The cloth Kabir bears knows no wear and tear/ He holds the warp of love with the weft of care).

That's also why he veers off-script wherever the poet is introduced as "Das Kabir" in the songs, instead referring to him as "Boss Kabir". "Kabir offers truths too bitter for the tastes of caste elites. So one tames him by calling him a ‘Das' or servant. It's like a sugar coating for a bitter pill, painting him as a servant of the very god he is denouncing," says Anand. "I say no, to me, Kabir is not a ‘Das', he's a boss."

Listen while you read

. Many of the songs translated in the book feature on a playlist of performances by Kabirpanthis, curated by Anand on this link: https://t.ly/-VNS2

. Also, watch Anand's musical performance in the city last month here: https://bit.ly/49h0WZf