My husband introduced me to Sidhu Moosewala songs a few years ago. Sharing the same surname, he took great pride in listening to his songs and had the feel-good factor once he sang ‘Sidhu’ in his buoyant songs. Everyone ironically felt he was one of our own selves. There’s something upbeat about his songs that everyone caught its cadence beyond generations, beyond race and put Punjab on the global map of music. His songs were strung with simple yet striking lyrics to which every generation could relate. ‘Dollar’aan wangu naam sada chalda’ remained my favourite; it made simple people feel like the dons of their areas. It had the power to reverse the mood board to another high. Often as a cleansing palate between arguments, my husband would sing – ‘Sirr toh uddan fly kardi, ucchiyan ne galan tere yaar diyan’. I almost felt it was written for me.

‘Jatt da muqabla, das fer kithe’, he said-. But it never really constrained to only jatts; it resounded with people across races. You could be anyone, but you couldn’t miss tapping to its tune. My driver often put his foot on his accelerator once this song played in the background. This is what his songs gave us. Unfortunately, that is all we have left of him.

A rising star, all of 28 years, he entered politics in the latter part of his career. Interestingly his clips from his rally featured all of his weighty songs. It was hard to imagine a Jat poet! He was true to his image – an undaunted yet a people person, a simple yet deep thinker.

Ironically he went away in broad daylight, boldly staring at his death, in his majestic Thar and among the canopy of his friends. But we choose to remember him as a dulcet musician, a powerful lyricist and a larger-than-life man. Dil da nahin maada, saada moosewala.
As we bid goodbye to our very own Punjabi Rockstar, let’s choose to remember him as an admirable inspiration to our youth. A simple lad hailing from a village Moosa in Mansa, who rose from the very bottom, went on to sing his songs and wrote them too. From singing in cars with his friends and then making it to pop charts with rappers like Drake and Champagnepapi mourning his loss. He’s left us behind with his world of music we cannot forget, his legacy, vision for his people and a message he sang in his songs which says – ‘Mehnataan di khaiydi hai, tan hi seena taneya.’ ( we earn and eat, that’s why we stand tall with pride). Tere putt nu star aakhde, sidhu moose ale nu star aakhde. Always.