Posts Tagged songs

Jab Koi Piyar se Bulaye ga

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Music and Love share a primordial bond. None other than the legendary and a genius of our times Allah Rakah Rahman, better known to the world as A.R. Rahman appreciates it at a much deeper level. The composer who has been honoured by the world and the subcontinent, he is a follower of the Chishty school of Sufism.

After a glorious career path and adding melody to South Asian music, A R Rahman has set up a music conservatory in India dedicated to none other than Khawaja Ghareeb Nawaz of Ajmer. Two letters, K and M, are lucky for Rahman and also reflect his devotion to the great Saint, his teachings and all-encompassing spirituality.

This is perhaps why his latest composition for the film Jodhaa Akbar – Khawaja Meray Khawaja – is a matchless piece. It is subtle and moves at a pace akin to that of a lover’s – slow yet impatient, heavy and full of yearning. It is a separate matter that the film-maker turned it into a nightmare of pop-Sufi icons – whirling dervishes in medieval Ajmer and with fake beards.

Here is the Khwaja Meray Khawaja’s amazing track. Ignore the video – just listen to it. For lyrics and their competent translation.

May God bless AR for his music and search for the path.

My other favourites from A R Rahman are found below:

Kehha hi Kiya (Bombay)

Dil hai chotta sa (Roja)

Jiya Jale (Dil Se)

The list goes on – so more later

Found these two poems by Lalon Fakir – the singing mystic of Bengal who echoes Bulleh Shah, Kabir and the tradition of Bhakti.

A Strange Bird

Look, how a strange bird flits in and out of the cage!
O brother, I wish I could bind it with my mindís fetters.
Have you seen a house of eight rooms with nine doors
Closed and open, with windows in between, mirrored?
O mind, you are a bird encaged! And of green sticks
Is your cage made, but it will be broken one day.
Lalon says: Open the cage, look how the bird wings away!

Casteism

People ask, what is Lalon’s caste?
Lalon says, my eyes fail to detect
The signs of caste. Don’t you see that
Some wear garlands, some rosaries
Around the neck? But does it make any
Difference brother? O, tell me,
What mark does one carry when
One is born, or when one dies?
A muslim is marked by the sign
Of circumcision; but how should
You mark a woman? If a Brahmin male
Is known by the thread he wears,
How is a woman known? People of the world,
O brother, talk of marks and signs,
But Lalon says: I have only dissolved
The raft of signs, the marks of caste
In the deluge of the One!

Translated by Azfar Hussain

More details on Lalon are below: (more…)