Part-time migrant worker now Kalahandi’s favourite rapper

Clad in a faded white vest and dark bermuda shorts, his shaggy hair falling over his face, Duleswar Tandi does not fit the image of a tattooed and pierced rapper. But as the rap beats start playing in his mud-walled and red-tiled house, this 27-year-old from poverty-stricken Kalahandi transforms into rapper ‘Dule Rocker’, and lets his angst emerge.
Tandi, a resident of Borda village in Bhawanipatna block, has emerged as migration-prone Kalahandi’s favourite rapper.Himself a part-time migrant worker, who is often jobless, the singer is making waves with his searing lockdown raps sung in Kosali, Hindi and English. Some of the tracks, like ‘Hashtag Farmer’ (bus jumla hi jumla hain, system yeh khokla hain) and ‘Doctor’ (amar Ram-Allah-Jisshu gyan daktar), take up the difficulties faced by specific sections of the society. However, it is his latest track, ‘Sarkar jabab de’, that has gone viral with more than 400 likes on Facebook and over a 100 shares on the site.
Tandi completed a BSc in chemistry from Government Autonomous College, Bhawanipatna, in 2013. The degree, like most in Kalahandi, was of little use to him. “I didn’t fare too well. I am not into studies. Besides, from 2012 to 2014, both my parents were ill,” said Tandi, adding that he moved to Raipur in 2013 with a group of boys from his area in search of work.
“I have travelled as a migrant worker to Kerala and Chhattisgarh, among other places. In Raipur, I wiped tables and worked as a newspaper delivery boy. In Kerala, I did odd jobs to survive. So I know what prompted migrant workers to walk for hundreds of kilometres to reach home,” Tandi told TOI over the phone from Borda, adding that he was now without work.
The track’s first lines make Tandi’s intent clear. “Garbhabati ma pete gute chua dhori kina, hajar hajar kilometre khali paa-de chali kina‘ speaks of migrant women workers, many of them pregnant, who made the arduous journeys home. From the government’s decision to allow sale of liquor, to its frequent addresses to the people of the state, nothing is sacred for Tandi in his ‘Dule Rocks’ avatar.
Tandi’s work has caught on fast in Kalahandi, part of the historically impoverished KBK or Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput belt of the state where outbound migration, especially to brick kilns, is very high. The migration is seasonal in nature, with people leaving around October-November, and returning home around monsoon the following year to take up agriculture. Some, like Tandi, head to Raipur; others go to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
“In Kalahandi, degrees mean nothing. Unemployment is very high and most young boys travel with groups of others like them in search of work. Some of my own friends, who held master’s degrees in sociology, worked as rickshaw pullers in Raipur,” said Tila Kumar, a sociology professor at Delhi University and a native of Nuapada (part of what was undivided Kalahandi). “This boy (Tandi) is using his own experiences, which are the same as that of countless others like him, to critique the system,” Kumar added.
Tandi, who lives with his mother, began writing rap songs early in life. “I don’t know when I started it. I was always doing this, for as long as I can remember. In fact, I didn’t even know that what I was doing was called rap,” said the scheduled caste singer who discovered the world of rap as a student of Government Autonomous College in Bhawanipatna.
Tandi, who says he composes all day, has performed with a group of rappers in Punjab and is a huge fan of Divine (Mumbai-based rapper Vivian Fernandes). “I left Punjab because I found the rap battles there very aggressive. Most battles would end in fisticuffs,” he said.
“During the early days of the lockdown, we did not have enough to eat. My uncle, aunt and other family members helped us. Sometimes we forage in the forests for food. This is what I want to do now, write about people like me,” he said, adding that he was helped with Rs 30,000 by Ollywood singer Humane Sagar during the lockdown.
Tandi’s new-found fame has seen him open an account on Twitter, a platform he says he is not familiar with. It has also resulted in him getting offers from local musicians, but he sounds wary of accepting any. “I know they will give me a lot of money, but they’ll make me write about alcohol and women. I will never do that,” said the rapper.