Sufi music lovers in Kashmir adhere to the sound cassette

Srinagar, India – Farooq Ahmad Shaksaaz presses a button on the 1970 cassette player, and with large machines in the machine. Khayat Al -Kashmiri was also installed.

Shaksazaz, a tailor in the Kashmiri city of Sarrenagar, inherited his passion for local Sufi music from his grandfather alongside a strictly preserved group of vocal cassette tapes from the seventies, which he often listens to while working.

It is part of a customized small community believed to be the cassette tapes is the best way to listen to Sufi music and archive Hindi -controlled KashmirWhere the music inspired by the local and middle Muslim saints was a deep expression of spirituality and emotion. Many people resort to music for spiritual guidance, or seek an escape from long periods in the region Street and closure battles and security clips.

For decades, the cassette players carried the hair of the Sufi saints and the Sufi tunes of Kashmiri tools such as Saranji and Santor, and it has been local rituals for a long time to gather around the warm homosexuality. Even today, traditional Sufi music pools in the region are often recorded on the coordination of the disappeared sound, which was widely used from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Although music is increasingly available in digital formats, many Kashmiris say it is better to hear it on cassette tapes.

“There is a unique thing about this device that plays for me records of spiritual evidence,” said Abdul -Ahmad, who is the carpet. “It is a sacred ritual in itself to press the operating button for the cassette operator to listen to a song on the spiritual head.”

Several loved albums were released by local recording stickers during the peak of the audio cassette, but the spokesperson of this type still brings tape records to the gatherings. Digital recordings are often not welcome in these night music sessions, as Sufi music lovers say they collect the distinctive sounds of different tools.

“It is a different experience to listen to music on a tape recorder,” said Abdul Hamid Khan.

However, with the erosion of tapes and more music moves to digital broadcast platforms and smartphones, the deep -character and personal listening experience of cassette has become more difficult.

Many families were forced to separate with their players due to mechanical failures, while others are struggling to preserve the dear cassette groups, some of which carry rare records and cannot be dispensed with generations. Some university schools turned into their old records to protect future generations.

Only a few stores in Srenajar, the main city in the area, records of tapes or empty tapes, the availability of spare parts and the skilled repair technicians have diminished significantly.

A handful of mechanics in the Kashmir Valley still meets the needs of a dedicated collection of Sufi music lovers, which are hard -to -rest -ranging machines by the beloved Japanese brands such as Sharp and Kenwood in the last century.

Mohamed Ashraf Matto, a mechanic studying self -employment, has spent years in keeping a decades -old cassette player running even when spare parts become increasingly rare. He purchases non -functional recordings to extract useful ingredients, and manufactures some parts by himself to keep their customers’ devices continuous. Once it is fixed, a well -performed tape recorder is sold at a price ranging between $ 150 and $ 850, depending on his brand and condition.

Shaksazaz, a lifelong Sufi music lover, launched a “personal mission” to preserve the legacy of the cassette tapes.

He said: “It is a bridge for the past, a way to stay in contact with our spiritual and cultural roots in this world of modernization and digital ever.”