Ram Anup was 12 when he first came to Mumbai in 1991. He fell from a mango tree in his village in Jaunpur, and his bade pitaji (father’s elder brother) brought him to Mumbai for treatment. To pay for his treatment, Ram Anup started working in a metal-craft factory in Jogeshwari for Rs 17/day. He had six younger siblings back home, says Ram Anup, making his income crucial to the family.
Ram Anup’s family history is integrally connected to Mumbai’s mills. His father and 3 uncles migrated to Mumbai in the early ‘70s and found work in the mills. When the mills closed, it shattered his father, who, he said, never fully recovered — he wasn’t able to return to full-time work. Ram Anup speculates that 8-10 villages in Jaunpur were hurt by the mill closures and till now their descendants are struggling to recover the same level of stability and prosperity they once felt.
Ram Anup got married in 1998 but since he didn’t have his own home, he left his wife back in the village. This was the first time he started composing his own songs about sexual longing.
Ram Anup was always interested in music and says he soon started performing with a Thakur saab, who lived a few rooms away from him, at jagrans in slums across Mumbai. Once he was 18, he started driving a taxi in Mumbai. He even found a community of taxi drivers who wrote songs, played instruments and recorded them. That’s how he met the panditji who writes songs for him now. Ram Anup got married in 1998 but since he didn’t have his own home, he left his wife back in the village. This was the first time he started composing his own songs about sexual longing. These spoke about a woman’s sexual longing for her migrant husband settled in Mumbai.
“Aap din bhar toh kaam mein taleen hoti hongi, par raat mein aapko bechaini nahi hoti? Aapko mard ki zaroorat nahi mehsus hoti?” (In the day you will be engrossed in work but don’t you feel restless at night? Dont you feel the need for a man?)
He came to Nala Sopara in 2000. His singing did so well that he got his own room in 2011 and took up music full-time. Most of his shows are held during bhoomi pujans or festivals and are usually sponsored by local builders. He mostly sings Bhojpuri songs because that is Santosh Bhuvan’s speciality.
“Santosh Bhuvan has done every one of us a lot of good,” says Ram Anup. “Rickshaw drivers, paanwalas and fruit sellers have become builders here and now drive nothing less than a SUV. … People say that when slums were demolished in Mumbai, Mumbai started settling here. Nobody here says we live in Nala Sopara. We live in Mumbai.”
