Watch: Rahul Rajkhowa’s new song is also against injustice, over the floods in Assam
‘Water water water everywhere. Not a single drop to drink, but do you care?’
Frustrated at the apathy towards the Assam floods, which have killed at least 79 and affected over 17.43 lakh people in 26 of the state’s 32 districts, singer-songwriter Rahul Rajkhowa turned to his passion project: writing a song about it. “I thought the national media wasn’t covering it enough. When it rained heavily in Gurugram and people couldn’t get to office, it was a very big deal on the news,” he told Scroll.in.
Rajkhowa feels that even though most people live their lives on social media, no one wants to discuss real problems. “Our state tourism brand ambassador for Assam is Priyanka Chopra, and it bothered me that she didn’t show any interest in the floods. The least she could have done was posted something on Twitter or Facebook. It would have made such a difference,” he said.
Instead, Rajkhowa and his friend Himanghsu decided to use the tools at their disposal to call attention to the devastation. The two-man team left on an expedition to the flood-affected areas of Assam to shoot The Flood, a new music video. “We travelled extensively around the state, and tried to visit many villages, even though most of them had been submerged and thousands of people had been displaced. ” With some local help, they were able to talk to a number of villagers and capture their plight. “The crisis they have gone through is very humbling”.
Although he has a modest following online, Rajkhowa is confident that the song will strike a chord with viewers. “I did a small interview in Assam, and the next thing I know is that I have 2000 likes on my Facebook page, and at least 30 people have downloaded my video and uploaded it to their own channel,” he said.
The musician has lent his voice to other relevant issues in the past few months, with music videos on mob lynching, rape jokes and the Vice-Chancellor of JNU. He hopes that after listening to his music, people will feel encouraged to start a dialogue. “For every 2000 views I get, even if 100 people are actively engaging in discussion, that’s more than enough for me. It’s better than no one doing anything,” Rajkhowa said.