A Muslim singing ‘bhakti’ hymns still awaits his pension

Nagpur: Sharana janara sadhuruya (good hearted devotees), sings Babusaheb Nadaf, a rendition of Shiva’s devotional song in Kannada. Sporting a beard and skull cap, 70-year-old Nadaf sat alone on the footpath opposite the South Central Zone Cultural Centre (SCZCC) at Civil Lines on Monday. The office was closed on account of the holiday for the consecration of the Lord Ram idol at Ayodhya, delaying by at least one more day Sadaf’s dream of getting a pension awarded to folk artists like him.A body under the ministry of culture, SCZCC is among seven centres established in the country to promote arts. It also patronizes folk artists. SCZCC, which has its headquarters at Nagpur, covers Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Karnataka, from where Nadaf hails.