Balochistan’s mystery benjo man, part 1
Lives Less Ordinary
BBC
4.6 • 814 Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2024
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The epic quest to find an elderly Pakistani musician and his unusual stringed instrument
Daniyal Ahmed is a flute player and anthropologist who spends his time searching out and documenting folk music across Pakistan. In 2018, he was mesmerised by a video clip of an elderly man – described as a “poor fisherman” – expertly playing a benjo, an obscure stringed instrument that looks like a cross between a guitar and a typewriter. So began Daniyal’s hunt for this mystery master musician.
Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Maryam Maruf
Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation. |
| 0:06.9 | It was an extraordinary news story. |
| 0:09.1 | The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny, |
| 0:13.7 | mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared. |
| 0:18.0 | One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. |
| 0:20.7 | We're still looking for Lucan. It's honestly one of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for |
| 0:21.6 | Lucan. It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime. I'm Alex Fontunzelman. This is |
| 0:27.7 | The Lucan Obsession. Listen on BBC Sounds. Let me introduce you to the Bolochi Benjo. |
| 0:40.5 | It's a stringed instrument that looks like it's related to a typewriter. |
| 0:46.5 | And if it's played by the right person, it sounds like magic. |
| 0:53.2 | I was a spellbound. I knew that this person is special. His sound is out of this world. |
| 1:03.1 | I was like, wow, who is this guy? Where is he? I need to go find him. |
| 1:10.9 | From the BBC World Service, this is lives less ordinary. |
| 1:16.1 | I'm Mabina Zah, and today how a video of an elderly man playing the banjo |
| 1:21.4 | sparked a four-year hunt around Pakistan. |
| 1:24.6 | My father always, you know, he was like, no, no, no, you're crazy, you're going to go |
| 1:28.8 | to Balochistan looking for a Belogh. |
| 1:31.6 | You know. |
| 1:34.9 | Over two episodes, we'll hear about a cross-country road trip and the Wandering Shepherd |
| 1:40.1 | who became an unexpected music start. |
| 1:47.3 | Our starting point is garage. |
| 1:53.3 | And just off one of the main streets, tons of traffic. |
... |
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