Papon: 'Lockdown helped me realise that we needed to slow down a bit'

Singer and music composer Papon is a nature lover. In his words, if we quote, "My love for nature is so intense that music comes second to me." The singer says that his love for nature reflects in the kind of music he churns out and the projects he associates with. "I am closest to nature. I love nature more than music. I have taken this

lockdown

positively and have kept myself busy making good music and at the same time, spending time with my family, particularly my children. But the only thing that I have missed is going to the hills or forests. The day things become normal again, and we are able to move freely, I'll straight away go to the forests," he says.

"If you see my past work, the first album which I did Jonaki Rati had one song titled, Phagunore Uroniya Baa, which was about the month of Phalguna (February). I got immense love for the song. Not just that, in most of my songs, you will find some connection with nature. I also use a lot of metaphors from the environment in Assam," he adds.

Papon

Recently, he was part of a song titled, Dhakk Dhakk Dharti, composed by Shaan and penned by Swanand Kirkire which was released on the occasion of World Environment Day. The song is produced by Bhamla Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO and is supported by the United Nations and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Papon hopes that the coronavirus-led lockdown has made people realise the importance of nature. "We have played with nature for a bit too long now and things must change. Hopefully, we have learned, and people have become more cautious about their carbon footprint and the future of the planet," he says. Quite vocal when it comes to saving the environment, Papon tells us that even when he was a child, he made sure that he never wastes water. "I remember as a kid, when I used to brush my teeth with the tap open, my dad would point out my mistake and ask me to not waste water. Now, it's difficult for me to see people wasting energy, be it leaving the lights on or leaving the tap running," he says.

Opening up on his lockdown experience, he says, "It has been great. I have discovered a lot of new things about my kids, which I would not have otherwise. They are learning music from me, and aren't constantly glued to TV and smartphones. This lockdown has helped me realise that we were deep in the rat race and we needed to slow down a bit. The lockdown has helped us to get off the wheel and escape the rat race, at least for a while. We have gone back to basics and started valuing everything more now."