If even one person is changed, it has been worthwhile


Last week the 4000th post was uploaded to An Overgrown Path. All those posts amount to a total word count of 1.6 million. As a comparison the Qur'an contains 77,449 words and the King James Bible 790,676. And the onslaught continues today with a post about the art of the Afghan rubâb. The raga is usually thought of as a property of the Indian sub-continent; but it is also found in Afghanistan, a country with a rich culture that is unfairly overshadowed by Western-inflicted notoriety. On the featured CD from the Smithsonian Folkways label, rubâb virtuoso Homayun Sakhi - born in Kabul but now living in exile in California - with Afghani tabla player Toryalai Hashimi essays two ragas that exhibit influences from both India and Persia. A concert video of Homayun Sakhi can be viewed via this link, and there is a useful introductory documentary featuring him below.

Despite millions of page views, An Overgrown Path most definitely has not changed the world of music. But as BBC presenter Libby Purves wrote - "To run radio you must be like an old-fashioned publisher, a 1930s Gollancz or Faber and Faber, working on faith and idealism and wanting to share what you yourself love. All that you can do is make - and publicize - the best and most passionately well-crafted programmes you can think of. Ratings have to be watched, but calmly and with a sense of proportion. You have to believe that if even one person is swayed, or inspired, or changed, or comforted, by a programme, then that programme has been worthwhile".



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