In the low-lying wetlands of northeastern Bangladesh, where
the Kalni river winds through Sunamganj district and the land floods every
monsoon before drying into golden paddy fields, a farmer once sang songs so
deeply felt that they outlived the poverty and obscurity of his birth and
became part of the permanent soundtrack of Bengali culture. That farmer was
Shah Abdul Karim, remembered today as Baul Samrat, the Baul Emperor, one of the
greatest folk musicians and mystic philosophers Bangl...
