PukhtunWomen

Once there was a king who loved music dearly and to satisfy his appetite musicians from far and near would flock to his court and he would shower them with gold.

A poor man who was down on his luck decided he had nothing to loose so he went to court to petition the king. As luck would have it he happened to walk in at the same times as a group of new musicians arrived. He was steered in to the section reserved for visiting musicians along with the rest of them. He was served a warm meal and given comfortable accommodations.

The next morning he was told to get ready along with the other musicians to perform in front of the king. He tried to slip away but found no opportunity to do so. As he was being hurried along , he grabbed a broken instrument from a drunk musician and was thus presented to the king.

While the other musicians performed he just stayed in the background and pretended to strum along with them. When the performance was over he was showered with gold and treated to a feast along with the others. And so he decided he could live such a life.

As time passed he got comfortable enough to even come to the front during performances. Life was good and like all good things it had to come to an end.

The prime minister seeing the king so shamelessly squandering the coffers on the myriads who came through the gates suggested that the king only reward those that really entertained him and bid farewell to those who did not pass muster.

The musicians as usual were gathered in the kings hall when an order was given to the performers that each one was to perform solo. Thus the performers were separated, those with talent were asked to stay and others told to leave.

Our friend who had till recently been down on his luck was terrified and tried to leave but found the doors barred and silently waited to be called out and be discovered a fraud. When his turn was near he had an epiphany and so he boldly came forward and pretended to tune his instrument and then strum. The court fell silent and looked a little confused at him. The king ordered him to explain himself.

He looked up pretending to be shocked and surprised and said, “I am the shamil baja (compliment to the harmonium), my performance enhances the music of the maestros performance. If you would only call him and hear him play with out me and then with me those with refined hearing can hear what a difference my performance makes.”

A harmonium player was called and first he supposedly performed with out the shamil baja and next with the shamil baja. Afraid to be called anything less than those with refined hearing and tastes everyone agreed that he in fact did make a big difference.

To this day it is the name applied to anyone whose purpose you cant figure out. Then you smile and say, "oh, I think I found my Shamili Baja"