Our first stop is the All India Radio (AIR) office in Indore, since the station maintains an extensive database of folk musicians. The officials there are a little wary of the two people standing before them-a 34-year-old entrepreneur and a journalist. After all, they don't expect out-of-towners to just land up one day at Malwa House and start enquiring about folk music. But Shefali Bhushan, one of four partners who run beatofindia.com, a website dedicated to folk music, is used to cold calls.

Bhushan scouts for untapped potential by combing the countryside and records them live on an IBM laptop connected to four low sensitive mics. An analog to digital mixer then uploads them onto the website. This time she intends to record the folk music of the Malwa belt. We primarily set out in search of Kabir panthis (Sant Kabir's followers who sing songs set to his verse) but also come across Sunderakhand singers and Sant Singhaji worshippers...More