Homeland Calling: Musician Tarun Balani's upcoming album Kadahin Milandaasin sings to his Sindhi roots

When Delhi-based musician Tarun Balani set out to make a new studio album, he found himself enveloped by the warm memories of his homeland, Sindh, where four generations of his family lived before migrating to Delhi, post-Partition. While Balani has never lived in Sindh, for him, his grandfather, a photographer, was its  living manifestation. Some of his belongings he held to his heart—the vintage Yashica 635 box camera, black and white photographs, his watch and stories written in Sindhi. The latter has found its way into the music video of his upcoming album Kadahin Milandaasin.

“The album title was inspired by the lyrics and poetry of Sindhi poet Shaikh Ayaz, specifically his poem Tiri Pawanda, which includes the line ‘Tade Milanda Si’ meaning ‘We will meet then.’ The poem, reflecting on Partition, inspired me to tweak the line to ‘Kadahin Milandaasin’ which means ‘When will we meet?’ It’s sung by me as a metaphor for the lost homeland, for my grandfather, whom I’ve never met but have always admired and been deeply inspired by, and now also for my late father,” Balani says beginning our conversation about the album. The album comprises seven tracks —  ‘Lajpat Nagar Sometimes’, ‘Kadahin Milandaasin’, ‘The Laburnum Blooms’, ‘Sailaab’, ‘Locusts Are Descending’, ‘Samadhi’, ‘For Every Man Saved A Victim Will Be Found’.  

In search of lost culture

Balani’s family migrated from Naushahro Feroze, Sindh, to Lajpat Nagar in 1952. With it, they also lost fragments of  Sindhi culture. “After migration, we never spoke about Sindhi poetry, writing, or its contribution to modern literature. The Sindhi community is complex and hybrid, with multiple layers and dimensions. Perhaps that’s why it has taken me all these years to finally discover my personal connection to its culture, art, music, and literature — through an extremely personal lens,” he says, adding that this quest to understand his community made him trace back his grandfather's life. “I was probing why my grandfather did a diploma in arts in Karachi, and what inspired him to become a contemporary artist and photographer. I grew up around his artwork in our house. I still have about 400 black and white photographs that he took. As I’m going to turn 40 next year, and my grandfather was 40 when he passed away in a road accident, it’s almost serendipitous to bring this album now. In fact, his art studio in Lajpat Nagar is my music studio — as an insignia of remembrance.”

The album’s tracks are composed by Balani. Further joining him are frequent band collaborators whom he met at Berklee College of Music in Boston in 2010 during his undergraduate music training. “Adam O’Farrill is on trumpet and electronics, Sharik Hasan on piano and synths, Olli Hirvonen on guitar, and I am on drums, electronics and vocals,” says Balani. The album cannot be boxed in one genre. It takes references from New York jazz, notable Sindhi singer Haider Rind’s music, and Japanese minimalist modern composer Ryuichi Sakamoto’s tunes. “It melds electronic, alternative music, to impressionistic piano soundscape,” Balani adds. 

Life at a refugee colony

Balani was born and raised in Lajpat Nagar. He dedicates the first track from the album ‘Lajpat Nagar Sometimes’ to the refugee colony, which is home of migrants from Afghanistan, Africa, and Pakistan, amongst others. “Lajpat Nagar has always been a safe haven. Further, as Sindh was ruled by various rulers like Persians, Hindus and Sikh rulers, we adopted the cultural nuances of all of them. For instance, at Lajpat Nagar, we’d go to Sindhi temple Dharam Darbar to Lal Sai Mandir, and also had Gurugranth Sahib. We celebrated Navaratras and Diwali but also had friends who celebrate Eid,” he says, adding, “But as I was growing up, I realised not many know about my community as we keep a low profile. We tend to keep to ourselves. Moreover, our representation in popular culture is skewed, often portraying Sindhis as mere wealthy traders.”

The representation troubles him as there’s more to Sindhi heritage. “There are powerful voices in Sindhi modernist art, poetry, and music, such as dramatists like Gobind Malhi, author Popati Hiranandani, and poets like Sheikh Ayaz, whose revolutionary and deeply humanist poetry still resonates. Then there’s Sindhi Sufi music, anchored by poets like Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. My grandfather was part of a generation of Sindhi artists in the 1960s who engaged with modernist aesthetics and created works that were layered, political, and emotionally nuanced.” He also refers to the Sindhi culinary scene with dishes like Saibhaji, Koki, Daal Pakwaan and Sindhi Seyal Besan Tikki, cooked by his family and often relished by friends from various other communities. 

He adds that there is also a “quiet resilience” in the way his community has held on to its language, traditions, and values despite displacement. “So much of our heritage lives in oral history, family archives, folk forms, and everyday rituals. Kadahin Milandaasin is my way of engaging with that richness — of digging beneath the surface to find and share the stories that rarely get told.”

Kadahin Milandaasin will be out on May 16 via Berthold Records on all audio platforms and vinyl.