Matters India reporter

Siliguri, Sept. 28, 2021: A leading Nepali-language folk singer on September 29 enthralled a group of multi-ethnic, multi linguistic and pluricultural students in Siliguri, West Bengal, with her songs and cultural inputs.

Navneet Aditya Waiba was a special guest performer at 7th annual cultural festival Hay Fever organized by Salesian College Siliguri English department.

Siliguri, commercial capital of North Bengal, is also an international hub town bordering Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan.

Waiba is daughter of the late legendary Hira Devi Waiba, the pioneer of Nepali folk music.

After the death of mother Hira Devi in 2011, Navneet and her younger brother Satya teamed up and began work to revive, protect and popularize authentic traditional Nepali folk music thus keeping the family’s age old generational musical legacy alive.

The duo are the only artists in the Nepali folk music genre who sing and produce authentic traditional Nepali folk songs without adulteration or modernization using mostly organic and traditional Nepali music instruments.

A former flight attendant based in Hong Kong, Waiba started her career in folk music in 2015, after her mother’s death.

Their songs mostly reflect on women’s issues, conflicts and difficulties in the Nepali society.

“In all my original folk music compositions, I keep the element of closeness to nature like trees, rivers and hills,” says Waiba, who addressed as many as 50 students and faculty.

“I would like to inspire the younger generation to go back to the roots we belong to. I feel that the songs will bring back those memories,” Waiba adds.

Waiba was born to Hira Devi Waiba and Ratan Lal Aditya, and was raised in the hill town of Kurseong, Darjeeling in West Bengal.

Both she and her brother grew up in a musical environment owing to their mother and grandfather Sri Singh Man Singh Waiba who also happened to be their mother’s musical mentor.

The brother and sister duo re-arranged and re-recorded Hira Devi Waiba’s songs and in 2015 they handpicked Hira Devi Waiba’s most iconic and popular songs.

They named the album ‘Ama Lai Shraddhanjali – Tribute to Mother’ and released it on November 3, 2017, at the historic venue, Patan Museum in Kathmandu Nepal.