A two-day music festival marking the 94th birth anniversary of the living legend Baul Shah Abdul Karim begins today at Ujandhal under Dirai upazilla of Sunamganj, according to a press release. The festival has been held annually (during the first week of April) for the last 10 years. Shah Abdul Karim is considered an icon in Bangladesh. He has written and composed about 1,500 songs. Bangla Academy has translated his songs into English and he was honoured with the prestigious Ekushey Padak in 2001. Karim's songs such as "Agey ki shundor din kataitam," "Bashonto batashey," "Krishno aaila" and "Maya" have gained enormous popularity among a cross section of music lovers. Several urban singers have also shot to stardom by re-arranging and remixing the maestro's compositions. Karim's songs follow the tradition of Sufism and stand out for their extraordinary metaphors, message of secularism and depiction of divine love in simple words -- explaining the mass appeal of his music. This festival is a chance for the rural folk as well as the Bauls to pay their respects to the bard. This year the organisers of the event expect over 50,000 visitors. [Note: There are two songs by this Baul poet, Abdul Karim Shah, on my CD-ROM, in two different video clips. They were collected by Dr. Carol Salomon, who devoted years to study and writing about the Bengali Baul poets, and who kindly permitted me to include them on my CD. Sadly, Dr. Salomon recently died (March, 2009) in a bicycle-auto accident in Seattle, where she used to bike to work at her job teaching the Bengali language at the University of Washington. I post this article as a humble memorial to her work with Abdul Karim. JK]