Phule nagar, Aurangabad.
Sakhubai started singing because of her father. Her father used to play string instruments. One of the songs of Vijayanand Dada is “A bundle of wood we used to carry and that we are not carrying because of you Bheema!” “That is exactly how I was living that time. We used to carry a bundle of wood used to sell in the market. One day I went to a place to sell where I heard a madam singing a song of Babasaheb. I was looking at her when she was singing and then she caught me. ‘She said hey why are you looking at me like that? Are you listening to my song?’ I said yes. She asked, ‘will you sing this song tomorrow?’ I said yes. Then she sang and I listened accurately because I am illiterate and I sang the song as it is the next day. In the year of 1975, we witnessed the event of Wamandada Kardak. I listened to the song of Wamandada ‘ पाहत झाली प्रभा म्हणाली भीमा जयंती अली’ and I started singing Wamandada’s songs. I sang the poems of Dada, Siddharth Jadhav, Pratap Singh Godade, Vijaydada Jadhav. They did an important job of spreading the songs written by Dada and others to awaken the society.”
She says, “I’m illiterate अनाडी . I can’t read or write. I listen to music and put it firmly on the computer (pointing towards her forehead).”
He (Wamandada) used to run his party in various villages in the 70’s and 80’s. And those women were the only ones to participate. Once the song was sung on the radio, they had to sign. And she learned to sign. Siddharth Jadhav composed the song. She learned to sign, but she is no longer ignorant
“I have received many awards but once Dada’s companions would not let me sing and Dada said, ‘Let the lady sing, she sings her songs.’ This is the highest award for me.”