Famous Bundelkhandi folk singer dies
Renowned Bundeli folk singer Deshraj Pateria, credited with composing a record 10,000 folk songs in the last five decades, died of cardiac arrest at his home in Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. He was 67.
Late Pateria has become synonymous with Bundeli culture with his folk songs still being heard in whispering tones sung unmindfully by farm workers during agriculture operations
in the whole Bundelkhand region covering Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
“His folk songs spell magic on people of Bundelkhand as well as connoisseurs of folk music in the country”, editor
of a Bhopal- based local daily, Rajesh Sirothia, who hails from Bundelkhand city of Sagar in MP, observed.
Born on July 25, 1953 in the village of Nandini in Chhatarpur district, late Pateria did a degree in music in applied music after completing his higher secondary. He had later landed a job in the state government’s health department.
He gave his first performance in public in 1972 and four years later, he was offered to sing folk songs in All India Radio in Chhatarpur. His first cassette hit the market in 1980 and since then he never looked back.
“In his death, the world of music has lost one of its stars”, chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.