Bhopal Ram moves around the Pushkar camel fair playing Ravanatta, a stringed instrument, with his wife Kailashi who sings folk songs along with Bhopal. They come Ganaida in Pushkar. There are many such couples who offer a live performance of folk music at the camel fair.

Bhopal is dressed in white long shirt and dhoti and he has a huge colourful turban on his head. Kailashi wears the local Rajasthani dress consisting of a ghagra, choli and chunri which she uses to veil her face partly.

Ravanatta is a stringed instrument. A full fledged ravanatta has 17 strings attached to a wooden base. It is a two bit instrument. The second piece looks like a wooden bow which too has a strand of entwined strings. There are some small metallic bells called ghungroos tied to this instrument. Music is generated by rubbing the bow on the base instrument. These strings are waxed from time to time to facilitate smooth flow. These 17 strings are tuned with the help of 15 aluminium knobs and 2 wooden knobs. Some less expensive ones have fewer strings.

Bhopal also makes Ravanattas and sells them. He prices them between rupees 1,000 and rupees 3,000 a piece depending its quality and the number of strings on it.

Apart from this, they are also commissioned to sing through the night. On such occasions, they sing Pabhuji Maharaj Katha which has some 500 verses on their Guru Pabhuji. Between them, Bhopal and Kailashi also own a scroll painting that measures some nine meters and depicts the history of their Guru Pabhuji.

The other popular folk numbers they render are Hansla, Behen Bhai, Beyaoni, Maharaj, Maasa, Ghoomer, Kesaria Balam, Ramdeoji Beora etc.

On an average, they make anything between rupees 2,500 and rupees 3,000 a month. Sometimes, when they are really lucky, people give one, two or three hundred for one short sitting. In the months when they do not make enough money, they borrow from their friends and return the money when they earn some surplus amount.

Bhopal started playing at the age of 10. He learnt how to play Ravanatta from his father Mange Lal. His family has been into this for three generations.

They have four children—three boys and one girl. The boys are aged seven, five and three. The youngest one is a girl. She is two years old. None of them has been initiated into this. Bhopal says they are too young. He hopes to initiate his eldest son when he attains the age of 10.

For a small sum of rupees 100, they sang over 15 songs to the accompaniment of some soul-stirring music from Ravanatta. They didn’t ask for the money. It offered it to them out of sheer appreciation. But, they were more than happy with what they got. From this, you can make out just how simple these people are. I thoroughly enjoyed their uninterrupted live performance of folk music for over an hour.