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A true voice of Lalon songs falls silent

Amanur Aman, Kushtia
Baul Abdul Karim Shah, considered one of the last voices of the original tune of Lalon songs, passed away at his residence in Kushtia yesterday. His exact age is not known because he forgot the year of his birth but he was above 85 years.
Shah devoted a lifetime to Baul music tradition and was the first Baul to receive Ekushey Padak. He first visited the Lalon shrine in Kumarkhali upazila at the age of around 20, and accepted Baul cult. Since then, he had spent most of his life there.
During his long journey with folk music, Abdul Karim created a huge band of adherents. He was the direct guru of popular Lalon singers Farida Parveen and Bazlu Shah.
Shah did not receive institutional education like Lalon, the late 18th- 19th century preceptor of Baul asceticism and composer, singer of the songs.
Shah was born at Anjangachi village in Kushtia's Mirpur upazila. He breathed his last around 8:00am at his residence at Chourhas Canalpara village, 4km north of Kushtia town.
The devout singer played an important role in spreading Baul music across the country. He was a trainer with Fakir Mahin Shah of the Lalon Mentor Fellowship Project that was initiated by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy for the years 1996-98.
Little was known about the bard's early life since no writings about him were pre-
served. It is said that he also sang Pala Gan, narrative folk ballad, following in the footsteps of his father.
The mystic singer often claimed to exponents and journalists that he had memorised 2,000 out of around 2,500 devotional songs composed by Lalon. Shah won Ekushey Padak for his outstanding contribution in the field of Baul music in 2011 in arts categories.
Suffering from various old-age complications, he was admitted to Kushtia Medical College Hospital on April 19. He was advised to move to Dhaka but he refused more treatment. "He often told us that he had run out of his days,” his wife Rizia Khatun toldThe Daily Star.
He was then taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital at the initiative of the Social Welfare Department on May 3 and received Tk 2 lakh from the prime minister's fund. "We brought him home on June 4, as doctors told us he was beyond any treatment intervention," said Rizia.
As per his last wish, Shah was buried at the house of his disciple Akmol Shah at Kamarpra village in Mirpur upazila, 25km from his home, said Shah's wife.
Baul Abdul Karim Shah is not to be confused with Shah Abdul Karim, a folksinger from Sunamganj, who died in 2009.