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Evening of nostalgia and hope
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The concert for peace and harmony held recently by the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy was marked by some mellifluous renditions in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi by Seema Sehgal and her children and sharing of travel experiences to Pakistan by people.
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BREAKING BARRIERS: Seema Sehgal had the audience enthralled.
UTHO UTHKAR, gira do bich ki diwar ko, ho jayega aangan do guna tumhara - Rise, and break this wall in your midst; so your courtyard may become more expansive. And so rang the spirit of the evening at the concert for peace and harmony at Ravindra Bharathi on May 20. Singer Seema Sehgal - and her children, Kartikeya and Parvati - enthralled the audience at the programme organised by the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy. It was surely an evening to question a moment of the history of both these nations; and to remind ourselves that though territorial boundaries between the two nations have come to stay, the hearts of the people are still united.
As Anil Sehgal, who conducted the programme announced, "the wall cannot be broken, no doubt, but its height can be shortened." The auditorium was packed to capacity as the audience were enraptured in nostalgia by the mellifluous rendition of some of the choicest selections from Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi verse. Seema dedicated the evening to "all those innocents killed in riots, and in senseless violence," and lines from Iqbal's verse, mazhab nahin sikhata aapas me bair rakhna...
The beauty of every kind of poetry - be it the Sufi compositions of Kabir, Nanak, or Baba Farid, or couplets of Sardar Ali Jafri and Pakistani poet Ahmed Faraz - was enhanced by the sheer depth and grace in her voice, which reverberates with Pahadi essence. In fact, in quite a few of her compositions, Seema retained influences from Pahadi folk tunes, adding a touch of pure classical to it, in a lovely blend. The pain in Ali Sardar Jafri's ghulam tum bhi the kal tak, ghulam hum bhi was given its true meaning through an equally melancholic tune from the valleys. Seema started the composition, in fact, saying, "the pain of the valleys of Kashmir is inherent in this pahadi sur." In fact, the choice of different beats, and meaningful pauses made in between gave each word the weight it truly deserved.
Then there were Nanak's avval allah nur upaya, kudrat te sab bande, ek nur so sab jug upjya kaun bhale kaun mande; Kabir's sadho dekho re jag baurana; Baba Farid's mere bukkal de wich chor-chor. Bad sound coordination marred some of the early part of the concert, however. One of the high points was the rendition of Pakistani poet Hassan Ahmed's really short poem, Chata Minute - a satirical free verse on the futility of violence and the quintessential question of `what next'- ek Jung-e-danishvar ne kaha, hum panch minute mein har shahar ko rakh bana denge.ek diwana yeh sunke hansa, phir aalam-e-wahshat mein o jung-e-danishvar bata, jub panch minute ho jayenge, phir chate minute mein kya hoga! Prime Minister, Vajpayee's poem, Hum jung na hone denge also figured in the programme. Seema ended the programme (with the audience calling out `encore') with Nida Fasli's poem, insane mein haiwan yahan bhi hain, wahan bhi, allah nigeban yahan bhi hai wahan bhi set to a light, fast-paced tune.
Besides ghazals and songs, the evening also saw people sharing their experiences of their visits to Pakistan; and this included His Excellency the Governor, Surjit Singh Barnala, who chose to go beyond the written speech, and shared his nostalgia with the audience. He recounted an experience on a train travel to Lahore, where at a particular station; he met a man from his ancestral village in Punjab, who turned out to be the son of their family's laundry man. The Governor stressed time and again on these experiences, joys of love and bonding that connected peoples and hearts despite the walls that have been built across. He also recounted an episode where some Muslim people brought the Guru Granth Saheb volume placed on their heads and offered it to the Governor on one of his visits.
Haji Sajjad - a lecturer here whose wife and family stay in Pakistan - said the names of colonies in some parts of Pakistan are still named after Indian place names. And Sayyid, an architect, who recounted his travel to Lahore and Rawalpindi in 1980, proclaimed that the moment the bus to Pakistan is re-introduced, he will be the first one to pay a second visit to the country. Dr. P. M. Bhargava said the role of people like Seema in bringing about amity and dialogue between the people of the two countries cannot be underestimated. Music and poetry, and nostalgia can indeed go a long way in these times of war and hatred and that was the message of May 20. COVA, Play for Peace, Youth Trac and Saheli were among the other organisations that helped co-ordinate the programme.
R. UMA MAHESHWARI
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