Mukesh Jaji calls himself a “writer, storyteller, dream weaver” on social media. Around 50 km north of Delhi, India’s capital, he sits on a charpoy, leaning against a wall in his farmhouse-cum-music studio on the outskirts of Sonipat. Green fields of prosperity surround the 32-year-old bespectacled lyricist, who writes Haryanvi songs.
Confined to a wheelchair for a decade following a road accident, he speaks about the rapid growth of Haryana’s music industry over the past decade. “Pehle Haryana mein shadiyon mein dus gane Punjabi to ek Haryanvi bajta tha. Ab ulta ho gaya hai! Ab dus Haryanvi to ek Punjabi bajta hai, (Earlier in Haryana, at weddings, 10 Punjabi songs would play for every one Haryanvi song. Now it’s the other way around! Now 10 Haryanvi songs play for every one Punjabi song),” he says.
