Rajkhowa won singing prize in Delhi

If soccer got ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua the job of a railway porter in 1978, singing earned fellow rebel Arabinda Rajkhowa the first prize in a folksong contest in New Delhi in the early 1970s.

If soccer got ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua the job of a railway porter in 1978, singing earned fellow rebel Arabinda Rajkhowa the first prize in a folksong contest in New Delhi in the early 1970s.

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The 53-year-old Rajkhowa, who met Barua while studying BA in a college in eastern Assam's Dibrugarh town, was an adept folksinger that specialized in Dihanaam, a genre that was developed by 15th century saint-reformer Srimanta Sankardeva.

Barua had accompanied Rajkhowa to Delhi for that college-level folksong contest. They returned to create a different music six years later.