Dedicated to Hazrat Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar, the patron saint of Punjab, and the pir of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, the three-day Jahan-e-Khusrau-2017 enthralled music lovers even as lot of foreign nationals were seen swinging to the beat at Arab Ki Sarai, adjacent to Humayun’s Tomb.
The festival saw a bevy of artists from Malini Awasthi, Sonam Kalra, Daler Mehndi, Hans Raj Hans, Ani Choying Drolma from Nepal, Murad Ali, Ustad Iqbal Ahmad Khan, Satinder Sartaj, the Viuna Music Ensemble (Iran), to the young and upcoming Deveshi Sahgal (Delhi), and Smita Bellur (Bangalore). The festival came to Delhi after a gap of two years. “The gap happened because of the resources,” says Muzaffar Ali, “and it is back because people so wanted it to be. They along with lot of friends came together to put the festival once again on the Delhi calendar. And, of course, my team that understands Sufi so well and its requirements make all the effort worthwhile.”
The haunting ‘Mann Manan’ was composed for Jahan-e-Khusrau especially, reveals Sonam Kalra of the Sufi Gospel Project who began her performance this year with this track. The centuries old ramparts of the monument lit with diyas and lamps under the starlit sky and subtle lighting echoed with the strains of ‘Mann Manam Naman Manam, Ashique Bekhabar Manam, Mann Manam Naman Manam, Arife Bahunar Manam’. The mystic magic and the soulful voice of Sonam continued with ‘mai hosh mei hun toh tera hun’. “For years before I started singing, I used to come with my mother to listen to Abida Parveen and she surmised it all for me,” reminiscences Sonam, for whom the “entire process of singing Sufi is lovely. Jahan-e-Khusrau is pure ibaadat for me”.
Daler Mehndi who began with “Bismillah” and went on to sing “Allah hu”, has been associated with Jahan-e-Khusrau since 2005. “It was only in 2008 that I seriously started singing pure Sufi. I don’t sing about aashiqui or the romantic part of addressing the lover but only poetry that talks about aashiqui with the supreme power.” He cites that Baba Sheikh Farid was the only saint who sang only for Allah; the other Sufi singers sang for gurus as well. He received the Rumi Foundation World Sufi Music award for Oneness at the fest
Guiding youth
Jahan-e-Khusrau gives Ali a platform to mentor youngsters like Smita Bellur. Says Ali, “Mentoring is not easy. It’s a process that goes on. Har aadmi ko apni manzil ki talaash hai. Mentoring gives me a different kind of high.One doesn’t know whether the person is ready to receive guidance or not; whether one is talented enough; and one should not have too much ego. Only then do things become enriching for the performer as well as the audience.” With the festival over, Ali is busy handling the threads that need to be managed with “lot of new music that the festival brings. All that needs to be recorded.”
