It was a different evening. Different, for it was when silence seemed to have over-powered the symphony of life. Different indeed, for quite unexpectedly, I had to face a man who felt his life had come to a standstill. When I visited his Rehabari residence, the usual welcome gesture was absent on his face. And to my utter surprise, I had to face, perhaps the most ungraceful question I have ever faced.

"I don’t think we’ve something in us for which you should come to see us. We’ve done nothing. And if we would have done, then we would have never remained in this position", commented the man while I tried to squeeze myself on a cozy sofa beside him. For the next couple of minutes, we kept on sitting without exchanging any words. The pair of tablas the dugdugi, the harmonium, a guitar, ceremonial photographs and the trophies in the showcase seemed surround us. Suddenly he broke his silence and said, "Can you tell me, who are today’s culturally enlightened people? Those who travel abroad twice a year to give performances? Are they really so much talented? I have doubts, I know many of them who have the capacity to manage everything, right from the authorities to the organisers abroad. But frankly speaking, I don’t have that capacity and that is the saddest part."

And yes, it is of course the saddest part for the down-to-earth, traightforward Rameshwar Pathak, the legendary folk singer, whose greatest asset is his simplicity that has brought him to this famed position. Hailing from a sleepy, interior village called Nagaon in the lower Assam district of Barpeta, it has been a long journey for Sri Pathak but his amiable nature has helped him in overcoming all difficulties that arose on his way. Son of a farmer, Rameshwar since his childhood discovered music as a part of his life.

But how did he get influenced to become a folk singer? "I never started as a folk singer, but it is the people, my listeners on whose demand I have tried to take Assamese folk songs to a height", said the singer. The year was 1946. The senior students of the Nagaon Nimna Buniadi Vidyalaya were preparing themselves to receive the school inspector, with a song. "The rehearsals were going in full swing and we, the juniors kept on watching our seniors while they were busy in the rehearsals. Slowly, the song they were going for, became so familiar to me that every day after coming back from school I used to sing it at home," reminisced Sri Pathak. "On the previous day of the inspector’s visits the head master of the school called on the participants for the final phase of rehearsal. He asked any one from the participants to sing the song alone. But nobody stood up and the head master got confused. At that particular time my father was watching us. Suddenly he told our teacher about me. The head master then told me to sing the song. At first though I got nervous, I prayed to God and started singing. When I finished, the head master kept on looking at me for some time and then asked me about how I learnt the song specially when I was never trained. I answered him and immediately I was selected to sing the song on the inspector’s visit. That night, my father inspired me tremendously and he told me never to get scared. The next day when the inspector visited our school, I sang Khaticho Madhava pranare bandhava bhakati omiya diya. I was then in the first standard and just a kid. The inspector saw a little boy singing a song without any mistake and he appreciated me very much and later presented me a sum of two rupees. That was the beginning of my singing career," recollected the veteran singer.

Passing the matric examination in the year 1958, Pathak went to the M.C. College, Barpeta and began concentrating on music while he continued his studies. "During my college life, I attended numerous Baithakis (traditional occasion of singing and enoying on the previous day of a marriage ceremony). And to speak the truth, I have learnt a whole lot of techniques from these Baithakis." However, that was the time when he learnt borgeets from maestro late Dayal Chandra Sutradhar.

In 1961, the inter-college youth festival was held at Guwahati and it was for the first time that M.C. College was participating in the festival. On that very occasion, Pathak topped in the borgeet, adhunik geet, bhajan and ghazal categories which inspired him tremendously.

Immediately, after appearing in the BA final examination he got a call from the Assam Police to join as an Inspector. "On that very occasion a friend of mine called Lohit Choudhury came to know about this and he snatched the call letter from my hand and while he tore it, he kept on discouraging me saying that he wouldn’t let me become a police man," informed the singer.

However, in December, 1963 Pathak joined the city’s Arya Vidyapeeth Higher Secondary School as a subject teacher. It was an altogether different environment where Pathak had to fit himself, which he did with excellence and within a short period of time, Rameshwar Pathak became popular among his students as well as his colleagues as a great singer. "My colleagues always inspired me and among all of them, I can never forget Afjal Hussain who pressed me to give my audition for the All India Radio, Guwahati," he added. Within a short while, Rameshwar Pathak became a familiar name for the listeners of radio and invitations began coming to him to perform in every nook and corner of the state.

However, it was in the year 1973, that he accidentally came in contact with the person with whom he shares the pride of lifting folk songs to the ultimate height. It was exactly the year, that he came in touch with his wife Dhanada Barman, now Dhanada Pathak. "I was in the third and final year of my graduation course, when one day my elder brother Sri Hem Chandra Barman pressurised me to give my audition for radio and when I finally agreed to it, I felt, I should be guided some way. Knowing my position, my brother took me to Rameshwar Pathak whom I knew and had heard many a times before. He guided me for the audition and I was selected and it was only after one year, that I was married to Sri Pathak," recollects Dhanada Pathak.

And from then onwards, the perfect couple continued making waves with their magnificent renderings of the folk tunes in never before styles. Dhanada Pathak originally comes from a culturally enlightened family of Barpeta who owned a Jatra party in their home called "The Rowly Opera". Her elder brothers were actively associated with the opera in many ways. They acted, sang, played instruments like the dotora, flute and others and initiated the functioning of the opera. So when she got married to Sri Pathak, their association nourished their individual dreams that had by the time taken an united shape. Today, for the masses, Rameshwar Pathak and Dhanada Pathak are among those few people of the state who are considered as doyens of Assamese folk music. With a number of gramophone records and over a hundred and fifty audio cassettes under their belt, they are the people who presented Assamese lokageet (folk songs) in duet and chorus style for the very first time, and in that way they can be called pioneers in the field.

As it was to happen, slowly, success began knocking at their door. "In Assam there is no such place where we haven’t played. We have even performed in far off places like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Orissa, Himachal, Calcutta and ofcourse the Northeastern states. During the Bihu season, we get invitations from such interior places that we have to refuse them due to problems of transportation," remarked the couple. But are they satisfied with what they have derived out of life. For Dhanada Pathak, life couldn’t have been more meaningful than this but as far as Rameshwar Pathak is considered, it seems to be rather frustrating.

"When I auditioned for the radio, first of all I sang a modern Assamese song. At that time Kamal Narayan Choudhury was the judge. When I finished my number, he scolded me a lot and remarked that I was sacrificing a bright career by opting for modern songs which in one way discouraged me, but on the other hand inspired me to concentrate on folk music," fondly remembers Rameshwar Pathak. But the present scenario pains him a lot.

"These days, sincerity seems to be an ordinary word. If I would have concentrated on modern music I could have earned a lot, so much so that I coulf fulfil my children’s needs and dreams. But, it is the music of the beggars, and as you see my position is no better than that. It does not mean that I haven’t done hard work, with devotion. But it is time that is strange. I never sang for money but it really pains me when even now people demand free shows from me. Specially when I am a heart patient and have gone through a bypass surgery," lamented the singer. Unfortunately, in 1997 Sri Pathak met with a terrible accident in front of the city’s Rabindra Bhawan in which his upper jaw was broken. And when he went outside the state for treatment it was discovered that he immediately needed a bypass operation. "Only the previous year, I had retired and for me it was a gargantuan task to arrange two three lakh rupees for treatment. But somehow I managed to arrange the sum and I should thank our Chief Minister for donating rupees eighty thousand generously towards my treatment. But now, as I am a retired person having no source of regular income, still people come to me demanding free performances. They do not try to understand that I have to pay my accompanying artists. I can sing free for them but if I do not pay my hands then they will stop playing for me. This attitude of the people pains me a lot," said the man in a rather depressed voice.

Awarded with the Sangeet Natak Akademi award in the year 1997, Rameshwar Pathak was selected for the Artist’s pension of the state government the same year.

A couple who have contributed richly towards the development of Assamese folk music, and who has shared the stage with legendary artistes like Manna Dey, Shyamal Mitra, Purna Das, Arati Mukherji and others, Assam and the Assamese people owe a lot to them.

"It is the people for whom we sing. If they are satisfied, then it is the highest pleasure we could ever gather for ourselves," said Sri and Smt Pathak together. And for them, all their listeners can do is hope, that Rameshwar Pathak and Dhanada Pathak will scale new heights and will take Assamese folk songs to the forefront of the world music stage.