Getting up predawn to eat food and then to remain on fast till sunset, has never been an easy task for the Muslim community during the month of Ramadan. After iftar, or breaking of fast at sunset and then a mass prayer called Tarawih that ends close to midnight, leaves those observing fast very less energy to again wake up predawn and repeat the cycle.
To wake the fast observers or ‘rozedars’ as they are addressed, there used to be a group of people; volunteers or faqirs who would sing sehri songs from 2 a.m., and pass by the alleys.
Delhi had a rich culture of sehri singers from time immemorial, a tradition which is now lost. Earlier, even known musharias in Delhi used to be held till the sehri time, sehri food used to served to the poets and the audience. In one such mushaira, recalls noted theater personality Sayeed Alam, a couplet was written to attract the audience during Ramadan,
Mushaira bhi hai, sehri ka intezam bhi
Salaee aam hai, yarane nuqtadan ke liye
(This mushaira is with sehri arrangements, 'friendly' critics and commoners are welcome for both)
Azhar Mohammad Khan, an 80-year-old a resident of Jamia Nagar, moans: “ Ab to voh riwayatain hi khatam ho gayin (Those traditions are no more). In Mughalpura, Khurja, tolis (groups) of people belonging to Ansari and Qureshi Muslims used to compete with each other on whose sehri song was better. Qamar Chand, a famous poet himself would sing sehri songs. Some were so talented that they would create sehri songs on the spot. Rich people used to take turns to feed the sehri groups at their homes. As times passed by, the groups vanished and only an old faqir would pass by our homes singing the importance of fast and sehri. Delhi had a rich sehri culture earlier, now it is no more.”
Agrees Ayesha Khanam, an elderly lady from Gadhdha Colony, Jamia Nagar: “The sehri singers used to sing soulful ghazals written on sehri. These ghazals were either given to them by any shayar (poet) or some of them had calibre enough to write themselves. They often used to distribute shorbet too. But for the last 10 years or so, no sehri singers pass by our homes in Delhi, we have to wake up by setting an alarm.”
Echoes Afshan, a mother of four and a resident of Darya Ganj: “Till five years ago, some sehri singers used to pass by our homes but they wouldn’t sing naat or qawwali but just shout out to people to wake up for sehri by saying “ O rozedaron, sehri ka waqt ho gaya hai, uth jao ” (O’ fast observers wake up. It’s sehri time).
Ruing the absence of such sehri singers, noted poet Javed Akhtar breaks into a sehri song nostalgically. “In my childhood days, sehri singers used to sing in infectious tune... utho rozedaron, ye zehmat tumari.., I feel sad on the loss of such traditions because of modernisation and industrialisation . Ab thehrao nahi raha (there is no maturity/stability in people ). Where are those mehdi songs, majha (haldi) songs, shaadi songs? Now even in marriages filmi songs are played. It’s not a good news for a culture. ”
Notably, only few poets and writers have written about sehri in their creations as compared to Ramadan.
Therefore even in history there are less references to sehri. Mehmood Farooqui of Dastan-goi fame recalled noted poet Rangeen's couplet that hints at a mother’s request and blessings to her child to wake up at sehri;
Uth te hain pichle pahar raat ko kha kar sehri
Shauq se rakhiyo tu kal roza, main tere vaari
(Do get up post midnight for sehri, do fast, my blessings to you) Till some time ago, mosques in Muslim areas would call out to people through a loudspeaker, but now only two sirens are blown to indicate beginning and end of sehri time.
But in small towns such as Asansol, Meerut, Agra, Bulandshahr, etc., sehri singers still wake up people in select areas.
