"Voh kaunsa des se, jahan chithi na Sandesh hai", these are some very simple words in Haryanvi, a language considered to be rude or a language that hits hard, because of its authenticity and no censorship. Now a lotof people may be confused about the meaning of the first line. Well, these are the first few lyrics of a Ragini where the son is asking his mother about where his father is, which part of the world it is where there is no way to reach him. The song continues and ends at a point where the mother answers her son by saying "yoh voh desh se, jadete lautke nahi aate hai".
Haryana is one of the most culturally diverse states of India with multiple annual festivals about which no one knows about. The diversity of this state is mentioned in every folk song of Haryana also known as Ragini. There is this misconception regarding the folk songs of Haryana. People think that the culture of Haryana is limited to "Hat ja tau pache ne" to artists like Sapna Chaudhry dancing to "teri aakhyan ka yo kajal". I get the hype of the songs but to be honest that is the pop culture of Haryana not the culture of it.
Ragini is the musical play where multiple characters are involved together to sing and dance to display the emotion of their character. Usually, the Ragini portrays the conversation of 2 characters on stage who convey their emotions in the form of singing poems on the same scale. Usually, the conversation has 3 parts, a slow verse, a hyped-up chorus and bridge, and a slow chorus to end the song. This culture of Ragini is persistent in Haryana for over a century now. It started as a small quarrel between the family members and someone got an idea of displaying how a normal day to day life of the families of this state looks like.
In this state when there is a quarrel in between the family members, the neighbors of this state peep into their house to entertain themselves. Now after the idea of Ragini, this entertainment was established for everyone on the stage with some music. The Ragini consists of debates amongst different characters of the same or different families with musical instruments like harmonium, dholak and matka, where matka plays a crucial role. Even if you know the language the poems are so deep that sometimes even, you will still be likely to confuse yourself as to what exactly is being portrayed.
One of my favorite Ragini is where the Mother in law is comparing herself to her daughter in law, and is complaining to her son (audience) about how the daughter in law is not helping her in daily household work. The main aim of these Ragini is to portray the conversation where both of them diss each other in an as funny way as possible. Now I will leave you with some of the lyrics where one of them dissed the other one, the aim of which is to confuse you or rather let you think hard.
"murga pidha bharda dekha, Sher ragani ga rayaha, Khargosh kare panchayat raat mein, totta kapde dho rahaya"
"bas isi teri lugayi aayi, pachtava mane ho rahaya, dekh ke rang is bahu ke, girgit bil mein so rahaya"
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