বাংলা 
English 
Babu Sunil Karmakar was born in Barnal village under Kendua thana of Netrokona district. His father was Dinesh Karmakar and his mother Kamala Karmakar. At only seven years of age, song had already taken hold of every drop of his blood.
At that time a grand musical soiree used to be held at his village home, Barnal village under Kendua thana of Netrokona district. From the neighbouring village came Ustad Jalal Uddin Khan, a once-famous Baul artiste. Listening to his songs, the seven-year-old boy named Sunil could not keep his mind at home. Again and again he would run across the river to the neighbouring village where the ustad lived.
But fate suddenly snuffed out the light of his eyes. And with that, Ustad Jalal Uddin Khan passed away, leaving behind the charms of this world. Yet destiny yielded to the strength of his spirit.
Although he embraced blindness, the Baul artiste Sunil Karmakar never gave up his love of song. Instead, at the tender age of eight he took discipleship under Ustad Israil Mia, the chief disciple of Ustad Jalal Uddin Khan.
By the age of only fifteen he had learned to play the behela (violin), dotara, tabla and harmonium, and he became a fully professional artiste. From the time song entered his very veins, he began setting to melody the unpublished songs of Ustad Jalal Uddin Khan one by one — a number that now stands at nearly eight hundred.
It is known about Baul artiste Sunil Karmakar that some two hundred songs still remain to be set to tune. Cassettes of his songs have also been released on the market. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the anti-British movement in 2000 he travelled to India, and in 2002 to America, besides visiting various other countries.
When the future of today's Baul artistes comes up in conversation, he laments bitterly, saying: just as our jatra (travelling theatre) has come to a halt, perhaps in the same way our Baul art will be destroyed. The politics of bombs is destroying the very courtyard of our thousand-year-old culture. If the government had given us a little support, perhaps the golden age of Baul artistes would have returned.
At present he lives with his family at Amlapara in Mymensingh town. For many years he has been living here with his two sons, Bishwajit and Prosenjit, and his wife. Although his elder son Bishwajit and younger son Prosenjit love their father's songs, they are busier with their studies than with music.
His wife and two children love music too, though they are not involved with it. But his younger brother's daughter Priyanka loves her uncle just as dearly as she has held on to his songs since her very childhood. To preserve the heritage of song and as the successor of Baul artiste Sunil Karmakar, Priyanka continues to sing Baul songs alongside her studies.
