Rohtak girls' bhajan hit on social media

ROHTAK: In an era when music lovers prefer to listen to movie songs, some girls of government school at Sanghi village in Rohtak district are hogging the limelight after their Haryanvi bhajan was uploaded on YouTube.It has gone viral and they have been flooded with requests for live performance.
The bhajan 'Bata Mere Yaar Sudama Re', which is about the reunion of Lord Krishna with his childhood friend Sudama, is hugely popular among the state's older generation.
The girls, Vidhi, as lead singer, Isha, Rinku, Muskan and Manisha, had sung the song at a function in Kurukshetra University in July 2016. Haryana agriculture minister Om Prakash Dhankar had even given them Rs 31,000 as cash prize for their splendid performance.
Somesh Jangra, a music scholar from Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Rohtak, and a music teacher at Sanghi government school, said he uploaded the bhajan video on YouTube. “To my surprise, the video has been viewed by more than 80 lakh and shared by more than 20,000 times on Facebook,“ said Jangra, who gave music for the devotional song. Daughter of a farmer at Ghilod village, Vidhi has had no formal training in music. “My mother had gone to attend a satsang (discourse) two years ago and made me learn the bhajan after coming home,“ said Vidhi, a student of class IX. She sang the song before Jangra, who composed music for it, to be sung at a school event. It was later selected for the Kurukshetra university function.
Vidhi said that when she and her friends sang the bhajan for the first time in February 2016 in school, they were awarded Rs 500 by principal Jaipal Dahiya. Later, Jangra composed a remix version. When it was sung at the MDU, it was appreciated by everyone.