Message delivered

Sufi singer Fareed Ayaz loves his paan as much as he loves singing to deliver uparwala's message

Fareez Ayaz

Talking to Pakistani sufi singer and qawwal Fareed Ayaz is like sitting through an interesting class in music, general knowledge and a bit of math. At an informal gathering in Lamakaan discussing music, Fareed takes turns to question the audience and test their general knowledge. His intention in doing so is “to explain what I am discussing better. I have a good command in various languages. But some things are best explained with examples,” says Fareed.

Ustad Ghulam Fariduddin Ayaz Al-Hussaini Qawwal better known as Fareed Ayaz is a Pakistani Qawwal but has his roots in apna Hyderabad. “I was born in 1952 and in 1956 we shifted to Karachi. Since then I have been living there and visiting the city/country when I am invited to perform. In a way my music brings me back here,” he says.

Belonging to the Qawwal Bachchon Ka Gharana of Delhi, Fareed stresses that people take support of gharanas in the wrong way these days. “Gharana is not a person or the famous person under whom you have been tutoring. Gharana is a school of thought. I don't feel the need to flaunt my gharana because I believe in my music and I have absolutely no

ghalat

feimi about myself and my performance. That's because as a child I was told by my father and guru, ‘leave music for one day, music will leave you for a month.' Those who lack confidence in their work take the support of

gharanas . I was awarded the title of ‘Pride of Performance' in Pakistan. At the award function I said, ‘my audience bestows me with this title at every performance, this title for me is a piece of gold,'” Fareed explains as he sips

chai . Dressed in his signature simple

kurta and pyjama with a

teliya rumal hanging from his neck and Fareed's stone studded sindhi

topi , the singer also says, “while we are performing we are doing nothing but delivering Allah's message to the listeners. Qawwali or sufi music should be able to touch senses in a human being. Only then the singers know what they are singing,” he stresses and says he believes there is no language to Sufi music —“

hain toh bas message.”

A heavy paan chewer, on being asked how many paans he chews on an average, Fareed says, “A few years ago it was 150-200 a day. Now I don't count. Maybe this will give everyone a rough idea —‘I am awake for 12 hours but chew paan for 24 hours. How? When I sleep I nudge my wife, she understands, wakes from her sleep, makes my paan and nudges me back, then I understand and simply open my mouth, once the paan is in I fall back to sleep',” he laughs.

Along with his music and clothes, Fareed travels with his paan, because according to him God has only promised us food “ uparwala Karachi paan ka wada toh nahin kiya , so I carry them with me.”