no god came to save meno prophet came and made me free you came and took my life in holdit was like dust and you made it gold had lockdown not clipped the wings of dhamma wings a 10yearold rock band that spreads the teachings of dr b r ambedkar and buddha through its music this freshlyborn paean to ambedkar titled we are because he was would have travelled from navi mumbaibased singer kabeer shakyas lungs to audiences hearts during their customary annual show on april 14 however this ambedkar jayanti like the one spent in lockdown last year will be quiet for shakya and his fivemember ambedkarite buddhist gospel band whose past performances on the occasion have not only prompted rustic boys into asking if they could touch the alien instrument called the guitar but also once propelled a bespectacled octogenarian woman in vardha to plant an appreciative kiss on their former lead guitarists forehead dhamma wings dhamma is pali for equality would not have come to be if not for a thai monk at a monastery in bihars bodh gaya who asked the young shakya what turned you to buddhismi didnt have an answer recalls shakya who was undergoing a threemonth course to be a monk as it was a rite of passage among those in his buddhist community the question pushed shakya then a student of computer science down the philosophical rabbit hole of buddhism and ambedkar a series of books that buoyed him with their clarity how can someone be so precise mused shakya feeling let down by indian societys myopic understanding of the leader internationally he is celebrated as a beacon of knowledge but india still associates him with one community he did a lot for the upliftment of those like us but he also did a lot for womens rights and other issues says shakya who decided to spread his message by enlisting his favourite weapon the guitar initially he would wander into slums and strum for strangers at the time people had seen folk musicians in maharashtra who sang ambedkar songs but they had not seen anyone play an ambedkar tribute on the guitar soon in 2011 long before dissent art would become a thing dhamma wings complete with a keyboardist bass guitarist and drummer was born they met fame in 2015 when their video homage to the social reformer titled jai bhim se koi nahi tha mere liye unhone apna jeevan tyag diya aandhi tufano se ladte rahe mujhe apne pairo pe khada kiya went viral followed by their modern rendition of the late marathi poet wamandada kardaks famous chandanyachi chayya from pusad a tribal yavatmal town which had one tv set to plush gated communities in powai the band has performed for all as a strategy the musicians alter the medium if not the message in karnataka we perform in kannada in delhi we perform in hindi when the japanese pm visited gujarat in 2017 we performed for him