Kashmir Tent-Radio Musician Lifts Earthquake Survivors’ Spirits

With traditional Kashmir songs and the deep resonating sounds of the rabab — a guitar-like instrument — Rathar, a popular radio presenter and musician, is reaching out to the survivors of the October 8 quake that killed 87,000 and left more than 3 million homeless with the message that life must go on. The building housing the radio station was destroyed in the earthquake, so now the recording and broadcasting studio and other departments are located in tents set up on the lawn of a damaged building that housed the local radio and television stations. He plays his rabab as if in a trance, his eyes closed and his fingers plucking at strings in rhythmical waves. Most of the time, he sings of love, of the beauty of his homeland and Sufi Muslim poetry.