Kandi kandi din katailam

The following tarana is from Aleya Banu, a 39-year-old housewife and mother of five, living in a shabby thatch, hiding with other Rohingya families at the hilltop close to Naitong para (village). She had come with her family to Bangladesh from the Buthidaung township of Arakan in 1991. As she explains the song in her language:

This song tells about what we encountered in Arakan. Our life . . . our memory about our homeland. We could not tolerate the persecution (julm) any more. . . . We had to leave our place. This tarana is all about that feeling.

Although the context of this song is about life in Arakan, it was later reproduced by their popular local singers to depict their displaced life in Bangladesh in a bid to keep their memories alive. To Aleya, this song reflects her own life in Arakan. Watching her sing, it was difficult to overlook the intensity of her facial expressions and emotional involvement with the song, magnifying her frustration and insecurity in life, and her resentment articulated as the song’s lyrics.
The word dor (fear) is used eight times in this song, in nearly every stanza, to explain why they had to spend a lifetime crying in their own homeland.
Specific sources of fear mentioned are the torture at the hands of the Burmese government, the military men, and the Mogs (Rakhines). It raised the issue of difficulty living in a land surrounded by Buddhist Rakhines who are entitled to all the economic, social, and political facilities in life, while the Muslim Rohingyas remained completely deprived. In particular, it raised the issue of hunger caused by poverty, especially when watching their babies starve to death. It also indicates their joblessness and poor economic condition in life due to discrimination in education and job opportunities between the Rakhine and Rohingya communities. All these indicators of discrimination painfully exemplify the hierarchical relationship between the powerful and the powerless in society.
The song is a perfect reflection of their stateless life. It illustrates the traumatic experience of why and how they were forced from their homeland. It clearly expresses their sorrows and frustrations in life, and certainly shows their resentment
towards the Burmese government and its military as well as towards the local Rakhines.
It challenges their domination, especially in asking the question “why”. This mode of articulation certainly shows that something went very wrong for them. It serves as a painful memory of their homeland and how their lives have changed. The song is targeted at refugees who share similar experiences.

Farzana (op.cit.)