LAHORE, May 15: Korah Baghat, a 27-year-old resident of a remote village in Cholistan, describes Lahore as a ‘wonderland’. “The folks of this city are wonderful people. They shook hands with me, embraced me, sat with me on the ground, shared food and water with me in one pot,” the folk singer from Kunda Fareed village in Cholistan told Dawn.

“People in settled areas near the desert (Cholistan) don’t treat the Bhel tribesmen like this. We are untouchables there, can’t sit if they are standing. The men of my tribe work the whole day as labourers and can’t ask for the wages.

“The people don’t buy vegetables from us. They prefer to give water to a dog than us,” he said before leaving the ‘wonderland’ on Saturday night.

Baghat travelled for the first time in his life by a train to reach Lahore to perform in the Cholistan Festival, being held at Alhamra lawns from Friday.

Travelling by an air-conditioned bus and seeing multi-storey buildings “much bigger than the tellas” (sand dunes) were unique experiences for him. “The tellas continue moving from one place to another, but these (buildings) remain at one spot.”

Four months ago, Baghat gave his maiden performance in a city — Bahawalpur — at a function organized by the Cholistan Development Council.

“No one taught Baghat how to sing” was his response when asked which ragas he knew. He gets a big round of applause whenever he renders folk songs like Main aan rohi da dasi, Tairi shehr di aay rihaish,” said Farooq Ahmad Khan of the CDC, which organized the four-day festival.

The CDC, Mr Khan said, would give 50 per cent of the price of goods sold at the festival to the artisan who made them. The rest of the amount would be used to run the three free schools and a dispensary set up by the council for the Bhel and Maigwal people in Cholistan.

He said medicines at the health centres, set up by the government in Cholistan areas near cities, “expire every year and not given to the people. Doctors have been posted at these centres but hardly anyone of them bothers to go there and examine patients.”

Mr Khan proudly showed a book of alphabets that the CDC published for the children living in remote areas of Cholistan. “It is the maiden effort, the first non-formal book which has Seraiki alphabets with synonymous words of Urdu and English.”