salon with rahgir the travelling bard an event recently held at gyaan adab featuring rahgir enthralled the audience with his unique set of poetry songs and stories inspired by his travels and his life as a wandering musician we caught up with him for a quick teteateterahgir is his pen name and it perfectly explains sunil kumars thoughts and dreams he is a travelling musician who has travelling across 16 states with just one mission to spread meaningful messages through his songs and poetry at schools religious places cafes street park or anywhere where he would find someone interested in hearing him out born in kandela a village near jaipur rahgir started his journey at an old age home after he quit his wellpaying it job in pune it was his passion for writing and an urge to get himself heard that he decided to become a full time travel musician i loved to write so i picked up a guitar taught myself i started following bob dylan and many other travel musician on internet he says most of his song are about love social issues peace and antiwar songs and his travel experiences my music is appreciated by an older crowd that seeks meaning in every songhe began writing poetry while still in college and unlike many newage poets his poems focus on child marriage womens safety and war amongst other issues when my poems began receiving recognition i decided to branch off and give melody to these words to reach a wider audience he sayslast year he completed a 4000kmlong journey as he hitchhiked across seven states and yes he performs for free people are welcoming and so i never needed to set up a camp someone always offered me an accommodation and food and hence i have some amazing stories to share i need money only for travel which people give when i perform on street i get about rs 6000 a month and thats enough for my survival he sayshe carries a guitar and recites poetry ghazals and soft songs all in hindi i use music to bridge the barriers of language and culture it was once that i was strumming my guitar on top of a mountain cliff in dehradun and a few kids who had seen the instrument for the first time i taught them how to hold the instrument and few basics and such experiences is what keeps me going he saysrahgir follows an atypical performance style he begins each performance by reciting a poem written by him which introduces the audience to the song that he will perform i still consider myself a poet and so i use the medium to establish a connection with the audience before presenting my music i believe that organic interaction is more credible the satisfaction of watching a live audience clapping to my music is greater he addsthe young musician has created over 200 original compositions in the last two years commenting on his song