▪️ Lokesh Verma, Malkapur (Betul)
Faag Geet: Phagun is the twelfth and last month of the Hindu calendar. This is the month of joy. The songs sung in this are called Phag. Earlier farmers used to organize Phag festival in the joy of ripening crops. With the passage of time, the style of celebrating the festival of Holi also changed. There was a time when every village had a Holi. On the night of Holika Dahan, the people of the entire village used to celebrate together by singing and dancing. After this, the next day, they used to throw colors and gulal.
Now there is neither enthusiasm nor enthusiasm left in the festivals. Now people also celebrate the festival by giving greetings and best wishes only on social media without leaving the house as a formality. On the contrary, some villages still keep their traditions alive. This is the reason that the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of the festival is visible there. There the atmosphere of the whole village is filled with excitement.
Faag Geet: Malkapur village near Betul district headquarters of Madhya Pradesh is one of these rare villages. Here, from the festival of Shivratri itself, gatherings of Phag begin to take place. Lokesh Verma of the village, who preserves Phag songs in copies, says that the tradition of singing Phag has been going on for years. The youth of the third generation have become proficient in the singing of Phag under the association of Girdharilal Mahto, the oldest singer of Phag who kept the tradition alive. While singing Phag, the memories of the ancestors also become fresh. Phag songs describe the playing of Holi, the beauty of nature, the love of Radha-Krishna, Shiva-Parvati and Sita-Ram.
Girdharilal Mahato is the head of the troupe that keeps this tradition alive in the village. They tell that Phag is a folk culture through which uneducated and semi-educated members of Hindu society used to worship Lord Shiva, Shri Ram, Shri Krishna. The festival of love is celebrated till Rang Panchami with laughter and laughter. In the olden days, when the farmer used to come back tired in the evening after working hard in the fields for the whole day, then the fun of Phag’s gatherings used to remove all his tiredness and refresh him.
Anirudh Patel, the fag lover of the village, says that the first Holi festival is celebrated by lighting a bonfire and singing fag songs around it. At that time liquor was completely banned. Along with worshiping God, they used to celebrate the festival by singing and dancing as entertainment. Hugging was done by applying gulal to remove complaints. Today TV and mobile have pushed back pure folk culture. The youth is getting entertained forgetting the folk culture on the tunes of film songs and DJs in a drunken state.
Akhil Verma, the main young Phag singer of the troupe, says that even though the songs of Phag do not resonate in other villages now, this tradition continues in our village and will continue in the future. Nikki Mahato, Shrikant Verma, Neeraj Verma, Pushpa Malvi swing the fag in the troupe to the beat of their dholak. Wherein Lalla Chowdhary, Latesh Verma, Premkant Verma, Manish Parihar, Arpit Verma force you to dance to the chimes of the manjirs.