Literary Voyage

Those who dare to think deeply are rarely accompanied; they walk with shadows, not crowds. Nietzsche knew this and his words—“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you”—were less a caution than a confession. Century later, in a different corner of the world, that same abyss seemed to gaze into the life and art of Zubeen Garg. A singer adored by millions, yet forever unsettled, he spoke of nothingness and even quoted Nietzsche. It felt dissonant—how could an artist rooted in Assam’s cultural soil echo a German philosopher of despair? Perhaps it was not dissonance. Perhaps it was inevitability. To draw similarity between Nietzsche and Zubeen is not to impose Western philosophy upon Assamese music. It is, rather, to recognize that the human search for meaning transcends geography. The questions Nietzsche wrestled with—identity, despair, creation after collapse—were the same fires that forged Zubeen’s art. In his melodies, musings and silences, one hears the same urgenc...