In 1999, while driving back to our home in Tinsukia from my grandparents’ place in Sibsagar, my mother bought Zubeen Garg’s album Pakhi . Although he had already become a sensation by then, it was my introduction to the man who would go on to become one of Assam’s most prominent cultural icons. For the entire four-hour journey, it was only Pakhi and Zubeen Garg’s voice accompanying us.

In Pakhi (feather), Zubeen Garg explores themes of freedom and captivity. The feather becomes a metaphor for the human condition – caught between the desire for absolute liberty and the reality of various constraints. The haunting melody accompanies lyrics that speak to the universal struggle between authenticity and social expectations.

The lyrics encapsulate the existential anxiety of displacement

See Full Page