Events like Jashn-e-Rekhta that promotes and celebrates the spirit and eloquence of Urdu is here, to be held in Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts from 17th to 19th February 2017 for all the individuals who like to aloof themselves from the ‘hu-halla’ of the daily chores.
Each morning I wake up to listening Faiz’s ghazals, sung by some eminent singers and my day would end with a ghazal by Ghalib in the night whereas my roommate loves listening to Coldplay to such an extent that she has put his ‘Hymn for the weekend’ as her alarm tone. We are two different people with absolutely poles apart tastes in music. She would by no means listen to music of my taste until, she fell in love with a poet .She wanted to convey her love in a different manner this time so she asked for rather unusual yet romantic, when I introduced her to faiz’s popular Urdu Nazm ‘Yaad’. “ Iss qadar pyaar say ai jaan-e-jahaan rakha hai .Dil kay rukhsaar pay is waqt teri yaad nain haath” she sung this piece of extract from the Nazm to him and he couldn’t have been more happier . She had hit him right in the feels, after all. Though, the relevance of such eminent poets is superior than expressing love. They remind us of the fact that sanity still prevails somewhere inside us, it might have been secreted deep inside due to ‘no- string, no-feelings’ culture but it’s still there. It opens up and brings back the tight bound emotions hidden, to the surface because music like ‘Tera pyaar pyaar pyaar, hukka bar’ doesn’t have the ability to make you feel thrilled and contended for a longer period, whereas the works by Nida Fazli, Ghalib, Faiz, Sahir Ludiyanvi, Dushyant kumar etc mature with time and people have started valuing their works more and more. Autonomous Platform such as coke studio and events such as Jashn-e-Rekhta have calmed down the ignited curiosity of the hungry people.
The other day one of my friends said that you’re so messed up; you wear jeans, short skirts and put earphones, wherein you would listen to ghazals and nazms which are contrary to your modern appearance. Music defines your ‘cool code’ today and rarely the choice….
We must be thankful to people like Anurag Basu, who recently made ‘Stories by Rabindranath Tagore’ in reach of the masses, which helped get toxins of ‘sasural simar ka’ get out of our head for some time.
The saturation point has come, where people are recognizing the significance of good literature, good lyrics and are taking a swing from the noisy ambiance to serenity, which is a welcome and much awaited move.