There are sheets of snow all over the Bumburet valley, the largest of the Kalasha Desh in Chitral. It’s a very hot October in Karachi and yet I’m feeling cold just re-watching the first video from Coke Studio Explorer. Through clips of the producers’ journey through dirt tracks, you also get a sense of how remote this location is. Producers Zohaib Kazi and Ali Hamza have travelled to one extreme end of Pakistan, in the coldest time of the year, looking for music from one of the oldest, yet least exposed, communities in the country — the indigenous Kalasha people.
Over there they uncovered one of the biggest gems of this season for the music show: friends Ariana and Amrina. Their rendition of their local folk song Pareek (Kalasha for ‘Let’s go!’) spread like wildfire across the internet causing quite a stir even before the season officially started.
Because of its remoteness, there are only some parts of the valley that have cellular coverage. Some residents have to travel a little farther away from their homes just to make a phone call. To speak to the girls, I had to prepare beforehand: drop a text, wait for them to see it whenever they happen to be within range — that could take a couple of days — and then figure out a time for them to be together at the right location for the call.
Ariana is the first to talk. The clarity of the call is surprisingly good. Excited to share her experience, Ariana talks breathlessly into the phone whereas the more shy Amrina is prone to bursting into giggles in the middle of her responses quite frequently. Ariana is the taller of the two whereas in the video one can see that Amrina has a constant twinkle in her eyes. Best friends since they were born, they’re around 15-years-old now and do everything together. Their responses reflect their simplicity and the unrestrained joy and unbridled enthusiasm in both of them. It’s contagious. I couldn’t help smiling throughout our conversation.
Two Kalash girls from Chitral became a sensation on the latest season of Coke Studio. Icon catches up with them to find out what makes them tick ...
“Before my name used to be Farsi Gul,” says the artist now known as Ariana. I heard you changed it because you’re a big fan of Ariana Grande, I tell her. “Yes, but also because I wanted to change my name anyway,” she responded. “And so I kept Ariana.”