"Lokan ne apniyan tepaan toori wale kotheyaan ch sut dittiyan san. Ke hun gaun wala ta mar gya. Hun tape kihne sunani hai (People had thrown their cassette players in rooms meant to store cattle fodder. For them, the singer was dead. For them, his death had rendered cassette players useless),” says cultural activist Gurmeet Singh, when asked how Punjabis responded to the killing of the singer Amar Singh Chamkila, who was just 27, in March 1988.
His remarks aptly describe, at least metaphorically, as to how Punjab’s rural hinterlands mourned the death of the wildly popular singer, who had almost become mainstream of Punjabi singing, even though the content he offered could never – neither before nor after him -- become a part of the mainstream Punjabi singing.
