বাংলা 
English 
Living much in seclusion, Fakir Abdul Karim Shah is seventy-seven years old. Born in the village of Anjangachi under Mirpur thana of Kushtia, this sage sang walking along, playing the one-stringed ektara in one hand and the dugi at his waist. As a boy he took part in pala-gan with his father Jhumur Ali Joaddar.
Though he began with pala-gan, in that very boyhood he turned to Baul song. After his father died when he was fourteen, he began singing Baul songs on his own. He had no institutional training in music; the guru himself was his institution. After his first teacher, his father, passed away, he successively mastered the doctrine of Baul song under Abdul Moksed of Anjangachi, Tasher Fakir of Daultapur, and Bihal Shah of Alamdanga.
Devoted to Lalon, at a certain stage of his sadhana this sage attained khelafat. In his view, Lalon's songs are songs of the soul, where his murshid dwells. He sang in various places at home and abroad, going many times to different regions of India, including Birbhum in West Bengal. Long of frame, this sage sang while dancing. Nearly two thousand Baul songs were committed to his memory.
At present he is the only guru who sings the largest number of Lalon's songs in the original tunes. He once lived in Jessore, and later came and settled at Poradaha in Kushtia. Since then he has stayed there; his wife Rizia Begum does not sing herself. As age has advanced, Abdul Karim can no longer walk very far alone; he gets out of breath. With his wife Rizia Begum beside him he would come to the Akhrabari now and then, sing, and return. He could no longer earn a living; at one time he received a yearly allowance of six thousand taka, and for a long while that too, for some reason, remained stopped.
It was amid great hardship that Fakir Abdul Karim Shah lived on. In 2007 he received the Lalon Smamanna Padak from the Lalon Academy. Before that he had received the Lalon Mentor Fellowship from the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. While, neglecting the true tunes, attempts were being made to sing Lalon's songs in all sorts of ways, that poor seventy-seven-year-old young man, Fakir Abdul Karim Shah, went on singing Lalon's songs in the pure tunes...
Ferry me across, O merciful Moon.
Forgive me my offences
In this prison-house of this world of becoming.
Fakir Abdul Karim Shah sang Lalon's songs all his life. Lalon's bhav-philosophy was his sole object of devotion. He taught songs to students. He worked tirelessly for the development of the Lalon Academy. Beyond the country's bounds, he sang in America, France, London and India, from land to land. In recognition of his life's work and sadhana, the Baul Abdul Karim Shah received the Ekushey Padak in 2011.
Baul Abdul Karim Shah's wife Rizia Khatun said,
'In the last part of his life he was worn down by want of money. For the cost of my husband's medicines I even begged. But in the end I could not save him.' Khadem of Lalon's mazar Mohammad Ali Shah informed,
Baul Abdul Karim Shah spent his whole life on Lalon and his songs. In return he received nothing. That a Baul decorated with the Ekushey Padak should pass away without treatment, I cannot accept.'
Amirul Islam, general secretary of the Kushtia District Shilpakala Academy, informed,
The aged Baul artiste Karim Shah sang Lalon's songs in the proper manner. He taught Lalon's songs to the students of the Shilpakala. That he should die in this way for want of money is painful.
The eminent Lalon researcher Dr. Abul Ahsan Chowdhury said,
'Fakir Abdul Karim Shah was the most important artiste. He worked all his life for the development of the Lalon Academy. Yet in the evening of that artiste's life we could not stand by him.'
Dr. Salek Masud, specialist in medicine at Kushtia General Hospital, informed,
Karim Shah had a problem in his lungs. Several tests were done. But it would have been better had he been admitted to the Dhaka Chest Disease Hospital and given improved care.
A few days before his death, Baul Abdul Karim Shah told this reporter at the hospital,
'I want no medal; I want to live eating twice a day and receiving proper treatment. After receiving the Ekushey Padak, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave me one lakh taka. With that money I raised a tin-roofed room. I have married off my two daughters.' He said further, 'May no other Baul ever have to suffer as I have.'
The Ekushey Padak-winning Baul Abdul Karim Shah is no more. On Tuesday morning, 10 June 2014, he died at his home in the Chourhas area on the outskirts of Kushtia town. He was ninety years old. He had long suffered from various diseases. Most recently, on 24 April, with a lung problem he was admitted to Kushtia General Hospital. Doctors then advised taking him to Dhaka for better treatment. But for want of money that was not possible. In the end, largely without treatment, in want and neglect, the ektara of his life snapped and he went to the land of no return.
Fakir Abdul Karim Shah | Fokir Abdul Korim Shah
