Q: What do the Buggles have in common with Rabbi Shergill?

I was over at the MTV Desi website today trying to figure out how to get hired. Maybe I’m a bit out of their demographic. I am pushing up on the big 3-0 but I am mos definitely cooler than Carson Daly AND my full head of hair is easily spike-able. If word gets out that I am only in it to get close to a certain VJ, my chances will be totally shot. In case you were wondering, this is what they dropped first. Video Killed the Radio Star it ain’t (thankfully):

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The video for “Bulla Ki Jaana” relects the core values of MTV Desi’s audience and captures the panaromic sweep, breathtaking variety and secular beauty of South-Asian and Indian life. Having grown up in India, Rabbi is not technically bi-cultural, but his grasp of the human condition, the ache and kick of life, influences that range from Bob Dylan to Sufi mysticism, and the struggle to sing the unsung hero’s song, qualify him as a truly multicultural artist who deserves to be heard around the world. “Bulla Ki Jaana,” like MTV Desi, is iconoclastic, trippy, mysterious and inclusive, striving to create new emotional connections between cultures.

Naturally, I immediately jumped to the lyrics to figure out MTV Desi’s “core values,” to see if I’d fit in.

TRANSLATION

BULLA KI JAANA

A Kafi written by Sufi Saint Bulla Shah, sometime in the 18th century

(Bulla! I know not who I am)

(Bulla! I know not who I am)

(Nor am I the believer in mosque)

(Nor am I in the rituals of the infidel)

(Nor am I the pure in the impure)

(Nor am I inherent in the Vedas)

(Nor am I present in intoxicants)

(Nor am I lost nor the corrupt)

(Nor am I union nor grief)

(Nor am I intrinsic in the pure/impure)

(Nor am I of the water nor of the land)

(Nor am I fire nor air)

(Bulla! I know not what I am)

(Nor am I Arabic nor from Lahore)

(Nor am I the Indian City of Nagaur)

(Nor a Hindu nor a Peshawri turk)

(Nor did I create the difference of faith)

(Nor did I create adam-eve)

(Nor did I name myself)

(Beginning or end I know just the self)

(Do not acknowledge duality)

(There’s none wiser than I)

(Who is this Bulla Shah)

(Bulla! I know not who I am)

That’s some deep stuff. It does in fact mirror my core values. I know who I am. My real question is who is this kid? He’s pictured on their website. I think they forgot to check his core values at the door.

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18 thoughts on “Q: What do the Buggles have in common with Rabbi Shergill?

  1. Video Killed the Radio Star it ainÂ’t (thankfully)…

    That was actually a very funny, flip, mutinous way for MTV to launch. Remember, in the beginning people doubted the whole concept. Who’d want to watch a short film about music? Music was auditory.

    So we know who buggled the radio star. But who killed bhangra?

  2. That was actually a very funny, snarky, mutinous way for MTV to launch

    Agreed. But the song still sucks. 🙂

  3. In my mind, and in my car We can’t rewind, we’ve gone too far

    Oh-a-aho ohh..

    love it.

  4. I was over at the MTV Desi website today trying to figure out how to get hired.

    Dude, there have got to be better ways to meet Niharika Desai.

  5. Was curious about Rabbi Shergill, but it was not to be…

    Sorry, video is not supported for Macintosh computers at this time.

    Where are all these technology-savvy desis, eh?!? Not like I don’t already have the Mac version of Winblows Media Playa anyway. Fie on them.

  6. Oh hey I’ve been meaning to get a copy of Rabbi’s album ever since Atanu Dey of Deeshaa brought it to my attention. Junoon fans will note the connection to the Junoon song Bulleya, on the album Parvaaz, based on the same Sufi poet.

  7. Note: Requests for celebrities’ contact info…will be deleted

    I guess this is not the place to ask for Niharika Desai’s number. But I have this to say — what’s with the lyrics in the brackets?

    Does it signify some kind of psychedelic subconscious mumbo-jumbo ?

  8. The brackets just signify that it is the English translation. The original lyrics are unbracketed on the website.

  9. Anyone has the lyrics of the song “Ghalla Gurian” from Punjabi MC’s Album-MC. Does it refer to Bulla ..as in Bulla Shah ??? anyone That is an amazing song !!!

  10. Rabbi was discovered by Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal’s brother Minty. But no one was willing to make an album with him.

    Anand Surapur ( somewhat of a dude in the adfilm circuit here) agreed to shoot the video and also launched Phat Phish Records. Instant hit. Disclaimer: I shoot pool with Anand at the pub

    I saw Rabbi live in concert. The success has gone to his head, big time. The guy performs Bullah Ki Jana three-four times in a show.

    the CD is quite nice, though. I was playing it all the time until I saw him live.

  11. fadereu,

    he HAS to sing Bulla three times becoz Phat-Phish has gone “Phat” on him and not made any other video of the 8 other interesting songs nor actively promoted them in any way. So his audience does not have a clue about his other tracks. He is trying desperately to sqze other songs but it takes time. Give him that much at least.

  12. Has anyone seen Rabbi’s new video for Jugni – I just saw it today and was curious to hear others’ thoughts.

  13. MMM….the song doesn’t suck at all..deeellisshh….

    i saw jugni! i prefer the way he did bulla, but he looks sssooooooooooooooooo cute with the guitar hanging out with the bathroom mirror. hubby and i balst the cd whenever we’ve the chance, which is most fo the day. i’ve laso had the luck to find 2 copies of the cd, with 3 extra songs on it. (found it on ebay.) no one else seems to know of them, and they’re not listed on the case, also have no titles…they seem like a secret hidden on it.

  14. forgot – i also like that guy with the glasses on the mtv desi site…he’s kinda eerie, yet fun!