Ram Achhaibar

A 55-year-old artist from Ayodhya, Ram has been learning music through Keherwa, a traditional art form of music, but is on the brink of extinction from the cultural arts of Awadh. At the young age of 12, he started learning to play the Manjira taking inspiration from his grandfather. He has been working hard towards achieving mastery in his craft and pursues it with great passion. He considers his father and grandfather as his Gurus and speaks very highly of their teachings and calibre in the field of music. Most of his songs are thus, written, composed, and sung in a similar style. Apart from Manjira, he has also gained expertise in playing another side rhythm instrument known as Huduk. He believes that he has inherited music from his ancestral lineage. When he was a child/in his youth, he would try to imitate the elders in his family and thus picked up the Manjira and never stopped learning. He also knows how to sing apart from Manjira and has performed in various locations within the state. Apart from being a trained folk singer and percussionist, he has also performed ‘Nautanki’ as a part of his cultural expertise in various places around Ayodhya, making him one of the most experienced and versatile artists within the region. He lives in a family of five people and has two sons and a daughter. In his view, the folk musicians in India are being neglected by the system, and so the art forms are gradually vanishing. Despite all his responsibilities, he strives to keep developing his craft and dreams to create an impact in the field of music someday in the future to see himself succeed through the art that he loves so much. 

• Awadh
• Uttar Pradesh