The Organic brew; pakistan, photography, qawwali, poetry & a general acerbic sentiment.

Having read about the couplet engraved in Anarkali’s tomb in Lahore allegedly composed by prince Salim (later to become Jehangir) the hunt to find the original farsi began in earnest.
I was despairing of my chances, when at long last, I found the ode to a woman who’s story has long been such an integral part of South-Asian folklore; and one which I’m not quite sure why, I’ve always found very facinating. To my mind, its certainly unsual as far as the many many stories of ruined love go - an urbane setting and a purposeful extinguishment in contrast to the rural force majeurs of the others.

A google should tell you more than I ever could about the story, but that which ye shall not find is this couplet:

“Ah! could I behold the face of my beloved once more, I would give thanks to my God until the day of resurrection.”

Befittingly, its signed Majnun Salim Akbar. Majnun being the archetypal lover in South-Asian tradition, driven to distraction by his love or rather, Ishq (I suspect there is a distinction, probably because of the sullied reputation Love enjoys in the English) for his beloved.

The Supreme ishq album also sported a song on the subject, which was for a time very famous in Pakistan - if only for the fact it was the most expensive most video ever there video ever produced (and magnificently ruined by Shoaib Mansoor’s cringeworthy tawdriness*).

I found this on Google’s cache of: http://groups.msn.com/msnpakistan/general.msnw?
action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=46835&LastModified=
4675527638612698973

*not that some mindless Bollywoodesque ‘picturisation’ is always a bad thing
The complete essay on the Tomb I’ve attached below (more…)

The last post and all that talk of foaming at the mouth mullahs reminded me of Bulleh Shah’s ‘Jana jogi de naal’.

An excerpt:

9) Parrh parrh aalam faazal hoya
[He] Read a lot and became a scholar
10) Kadee apnay aap nu parrhaya ee naee-n
But [he] never read himself
11) Ja ja warrda mandir maseetee
[He] goes enters into the temple & mosque
12) Kadee man apnay which warrya ee naee-n
But [he] never entered into his own heart
..
17) Ra-tee jagay-n tay shaikh sada way-n
Religious scholars stay awake at night
18) Parr raat nu jaagan kutay, tay to utay
But dogs stay awake at night, higher than you
19) Ra-tee bhonko-n bass na karday
They don’t cease from barking at night
20) Fayr ja larra-n which sutay, tay to utay
Then they go sleep in yards, higher than you

21) Yaar da buha mool na chhad-day
They [dogs] don’t leave the beloved’s doorstep
22) Paway-n maro sow sow jutay, tay to utay
Even if they’re beaten hundreds of times, higher than you
23) Bulleh Shah utth yaar mana lay
Bulleh Shah get up and make up with the beloved
24) Na-een tay bazi lay ga-ay kutay, tay to utay
Otherwise dogs will win the contest, better than you

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/sweets/poetry4/jogee.htm

For those even slightly interested in modern paki. pop might be surprised to see an uncanny resemblence between this and Noor’s new song ‘Kuttay karay taaun uttay’. Although Ali hamza (who authored the lyrics) seems to insinuate that the ‘just came to him’.
Bulley shah and Noori - I must admit, even I didnt see that coming.

I may be pre-empting it here, but it seems that the new Fuzon album is going to be a bit of a disaster. I guess it all started when they began composing jigles for hard-boiled candy (the candyland fuzon toffee i think it was called) which made then few friends, especially as they held Jami–who is considered to be one of pakistan’s best video directors, including the much acclaimed, strings dhaani–to his contract and forced him to make the ‘branded’ video to go with the song.
He was obviously disgusted, and to anyone who would care to listen, he would describe in excruciating detail-how fame had gone to the band’s head, and this was the guy who really put Fuzon on the map, with Akhian, long before Saqib Malik came along with his opus Khamaj.
The other problem was perhaps that given the very specialized genere that Fuzon has been exploring, they are obviously constraigned in what they can come up with. Although the debut album was diverse, it did leave an aftertaste of .. well this striking resemblence between the songs.
And now the the video for a new song, from the upcoming album had just been put online at muziq.net, and its very very dissapointing.
Pretty much the same stuff that you found in most of the songs from the last albums, only a little more trepid, cliched and slightly bollywoodesque - as far as tawdry poetry anyways- i had to switch off when he started crooning ‘ teri khushboo yuunn sataati humeein..’

Ah! Collaborations! What can you say about them? So much promise, such an amalgam of talent-and yet, almost always the sum of the parts never seems to equal the whole. They emerge from the production studios like the proverbial white elephants and fans from both sides don’t know where to look, or who to blame.

Caution was however, thrown in the wind in the face of the much touted peace moves between India and Pakistan. The duo from Karachi took the cue and arrived in India post haste to get the peace pipe bubbling. (more…)

As much as I want to stop publicizing my opinions on events that I don?t even have the patience to suffer through-I could not resist sharing a few words about the recent Indus Music awards, ?Pakistan?s first music awards?.
(more…)

Abrar has throughly dissapointed with his latest instalment in the majajani series- Nachhan mein uuday naal; and thats putting it mildly.
The darling of the paki-punjabi/bhangra scene shot to fame with a single song, billo, which catapulted this then geography teacher at lahore’s Aitcheson college to instant stardom. And it was recognition that was well deserved, his lyrics were always fresh, often funny and sometimes even poignant.

“aanday jaanday teeshan thay kulffiyan khaawan gay”
-Billo
(more…)