PESHAWAR: The innocent dance steps of Jagraj Singh, a fourth grader, on a popular Pashto tune drew attention and appreciation of people as his video got viral soon after it was uploaded on Facebook.

The family of little Jagraj Singh has been living in Peshawar for decades. He showed his rare talent on the wedding event of his uncle Prof Amritpal Singhheld recently in Peshawar. His dance video took the internet by storm. The video, he is seen in performing on rabab beats, has crossed million viewership.

Gurmeet Singh, who played rabab in the video, told this scribe that it was the occasion of wedding ceremony when he was invited to entertain Ajeet Singh, a guest from India, as he had visited Pakistan after 25 years for a family reunion. He said that the guest was taken to Bara tehsil of Khyber tribal district and the bazaars of old Peshawar city.

“To show our respected guest how happy our Sikh community has been living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and how do we love our culture, I played a few popular tunes of attanr (Pashto traditional dance) on rabab,” he said. He added that a participant uploaded the video on Facebook and soon his wall began flooding with comments from Sikhs around the world.

Jagraj Singh said that he had never thought of such a thing. He said that he loved local Pashto music, especially attnar tunes on rabab, and he just took a few steps that naturally matched up with the music and the camera captured those movements that earned him instant popularity.

“I am so pleased to know that our Sikh community has been living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with peace and even enjoying local culture. The steps of the little Sikh boy really impressed me because he seemed to have imbibed the very spirit of local culture,” said Ranjeet Singh, based in UK.

Jurmeet Singh from Germany said that wearing a blue shirt, white pants and a black turban, the boy really lived up to traditional Pashto folk dance as the participants cheered on.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2021