Attempts to do justice in words to an artistic performance are feeble at best, but I will attempt it regardless. This was the third time that I have been priveleged to listen to Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammad Qawal and hamnawa in the last 1 year, and every time the experience has been more pleasureable than the last. I must commend the organizers at the Center for a superbly arranged event this time as well.
Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammad have been able to combine great poetry with great singing to deliver a transportive experience to the listener. However, it is their obvious devotion to the art of Qawali itself, as well as to the poetry and the deeper meanings they are able to convey so simply and beautifully, that makes listening to them such a powerful experience. For a few hours, one is taken away to another place and time, where the realities of our prosaic existence do not intrude, and our minds are soothed by the glorious words flowing around us. And it ends all too soon and we go back to a daily existence that is made perhaps a little more bearable as we think back to the experience and the other places it took us...
I must end on a note of praise for the people of Toronto, who participated in a manner which would have made Khusrau proud...
1 comment:
I recall your description of the poetry coming at you like a phuaar. Sometimes gently like mist and at other times like a heavy shower.
Farid Ayaz similarly describes his recitation of the qawwali like a flowing river with waves that at times are gentle and at times large, vigorous and intense. Kucch amad hee issi tareh hoti hai andar sey, jhonkey aatey hein kabhi halkey sey, pyar sey aur kabhi josh-o-kharosh sey.
Bohat khub! Thanks for your comment Shshryar.
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