বাংলা 
English 
The Baul Abdur Rob Fakir, also known as Gopal Shah. Dark-skinned and small of stature, Rob Fakir slings his dotara around his neck and sings with an unmatched flair. In his words -
The taciturn Rob was nearly 79 years old. His father loved the saintly gurus; as a boy Rob rode on his father's bicycle to Lalon's Akhra. It was there that he met the masters and exchanged thoughts. Even in his last years Rob Fakir rode his bicycle to the Akhra house in a white punjabi, a dotara wrapped in velvet slung on his back.
Deep as his voice was, sweeter still rose the sound of his dotara. When he played the dotara, the listeners watched fixed and unblinking. His songs added a different dimension to the human mind.
His devotion to his guru, the ustad Abdur Rahim Bayati, was boundless. As a boy Rob would secretly take coins from his father's pocket and spend them on his song sessions. Like his father, he too worked at Kushtia's Jagati Sugar Mill on a modest salary. Rob took initiation from one who bore the same name, Rob Fakir - full name Abdur Rob Fakir, aged and venerable, who has his own sanctuary in Khalishakundi. This gruff-natured guru shaped his disciple exactly as he wished.
He heard Lalon's philosophy and hidden sayings from that guru himself. Rob Fakir sang all over the country; besides that he sang many times in many foreign lands - India, Nepal, London, Sri Lanka, Singapore and America among them. He taught songs to many, including Anusheh and Shahanaj Beli, by hand.
Why does he remain on Lalon's path? Asked this question he replies -
"One must stay on that path" - that is why I remain.
Unexpectedly, on the 23rd of Shraban in the Bengali year 1423 - the 7th of August 2016, Gregorian calendar - at one o'clock on Sunday night he breathed his last at Kushtia Sadar Hospital. He was buried at his own home in Baradi, Majampur, Kushtia. He had been ill for quite some days.
