I have so far written about
Red-wattled and Yellow wattled Lapwing –Vanellus
plovers, both are quite common though found in different terrain one preferring
water bodies while the other dry shrubby. White-tailed Lapwing (Vanellus leucurus) is a migrant that
breeds in Baluchistan to further north into Russia. This bird winters in the
vicinities of water bodies in North West part of India. This one was spotted in
Sultanpur Bird sanctuary in Haryana. Get down at FICCI Chowk Metro station,
proceed to bus adda and catch a bus/shared auto towards Farruqnagar, it’s on
the way. During winter it’s teeming with migrants, and is a great place to
spend the day. So here I was, on a sunny crispy morning, there is a prime spot
that not many are aware. As you enter take the right turn, though it’s against
the sun so may not be good for photographing. Walk further and the terrain
turns bleak, shrubby, walk still and cut into left, a narrow path through
acacias and you have a marvelous view of the lake, what’s more a lone tree
provides a vantage cover. After few hours of training my binoculars, trying to
identify and locate (omg where is the elusive Baikal teal…hard luck boy!!), few
hours and I was flipping through a book of poetry I was carrying. It’s about
that time that this dainty little bird landed few meters from me. Within
moments it was searching for grub in all likely and unlikely places, turning
mud, scrutinizing the fallen leaves and so on. What a fragile looking busy bird.
Surreptitiously, I took out my camera (very appropriately placed for 70-300mm
lens) and was busy clicking. Just about that time a solid ant found it an
opportune time to give me a solid bite!! So here I was feverously defending my
butt, startling the bird and alerting all the birds in the region, one more
click and the bird was gone, a wave of birds flew away from me, ending my brief
rendezvous with White-tailed Lapwing.
The enchanting world of Qawwali
The first reference of Qawwali to
me was school day festivals in north India where Qawwali was obligatory
presence, later I saw these in popular Hindi movies. Though last few days I
realize that many popular references may have trivialized Qawwali (Hindi movie Director Vishal Bhardwaj owes an apology to Qawwal community. He should be ashamed of himself) and worst may
have ghettoized it in popular imagination of people. Nevertheless it does have
exhilarating presence in our culture.
Qawwali epitomizes what is described as milijuli tehzeeb or sanskriti –an expression of syncretic culture, as a means which
brought people together irrespective of religion or traditions or even class.
It is a unique musical fusion and over the period blended into local styles.
Qawwali is so energetic that it is molten force in motion. It is as if the poem
has leaped out into another poem another space. Qawwali in its egalitarian self
is aligning powerful with powerless. In its spiritual self it places love above
god, it’s all pervading. It is said that one who dies during a qawwali his soul
has travelled to other places, leaving the shell of his body behind.
Qawwali as a form of music has
its roots in Arab and predates Islam but in its present form is very much Indian subcontinent in its origin. Qawwali has references in style of singing
of Qawwals, Qaul (Arabic) is an "utterance (of the prophet)" and
Qawwal is someone who often repeats/sings a Qaul. The Qawwal or traditional
performer sang Sufi music in shrines and took devotees into trance only through their voice. The
accompaniment is always bare minimum, a quintessential harmonium and clapping
of hand, then ofcourse tabla. It slowly builds up to trance inducing heights
offering unique spiritual experience, the ideal goal being that of mixing as
one with the divine. One essential
aspect of Qawwali which differentiates it from any other form of music is that
the singer is aware of the audience and therefore constantly gauges and
responds, he will repeat, innovate, stress on those part that seems to evoke
intense response. It is the strand that
builds the electrifying energy, a live wire to and fro that is unique with
amazing space for originality. The
crests and troughs of energy flowing in a language that is simple and easy to
associate, in a setting approachable, among the crowd, makes Qawwali a very
compelling social and intensely personal experience.
I came across these lines from
one of the websites “The qawwal often dwell on one phrase or sentence,
indicating both the obvious and hidden content by emphasizing and repeating
various words and syllables, taking the audience into the discovery of hitherto
not obvious meanings. A spinning wheel thus changes from a household instrument
into the wheel of life or the wheel of hope depending on the shift of emphasis
in one sentence. Repeating a sentence until all meaning is exhausted and it
becomes meaningless. Through this technique, semantic reality is negated and a
purity of form is created. It is often this element that transcends linguistic
barriers”.
Qawwali is part of Sufi mysticism and is believed that Amir Khusrau
(1253-1325) brought innovation in its form and content, very much influenced by
Persian ritual sama –mystical musical
gathering. The word Sama is still
used in Central Asia and Turkey to refer to forms very close to Qawwali, and in
Indian subcontinent the formal name used for a session of Qawwali is Mehfil-e-Sama. The great Amir Khusrau
was instrumental in popularizing, improvising and bringing uniqueness into
Qawwali. It was on account of this
contribution that Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya gave him the title of Mufta ul Sama. There is evidence that
qawwali predates Amir Khusrau, the great Sufi Masters of the Chishtiya and
Suhrawardia Orders were admirers of the qawwali and the Saint Hazrat Outubuddin
Bakhtiar Kaki is said to have died in 1236 while in a musical trance induced by
a Qawwali. Nevertheless it cannot be denied that Khusrau’s contribution was
nothing short of seminal, indeed he used local language sometime even
seamlessly combining different languages like for instance this one I came
across: Zihal miskeen makun taghaful, Duraye naina
banaye batiyan where each couplet has the first misra in Persian and the second in Brij
Basha which so effortlessly flow into each other. Prolific Khusrau composed many
such verses in both Persian and the local dialect of Brij Bhasha. By doing so,
he laid the nucleus of Urdu poetry. One can say Amir Khusrau was the founder of
Urdu language. In
her book “The Book of Nizamuddin
Auliya”, author Mehru Jaffer writes: “… Khusrau published his first
volume of poems before he turned twenty. He wrote panegyrics on seven
successive kings of Delhi, introducing a new genre in poetry, that of the
historical epic. Khusrau also introduced a novel strain into the existing
Persian tradition of poetic forms of the masnavi by recounting certain events
of his own time in long poems. His style of lyrical poetry and ghazals contains
many elements that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were to become
characteristic of the Indian style...” Khusrau’s contribution to cultural
framework of northern part of Indian subcontinent was quite significant, indeed
in many ways it’s foundational. The more
you know more amazing it gets, I am shocked that he only has a passing
reference in school syllabus!
Qawwali had a mesmeric pull over
the masses, in the bhakti tradition of 11th century that was
prevalent in north India it was easily accepted. Qawwali is ecstatic in nature,
it is spiritual as well earthy therefore enjoyable. It is exotic yet relatable
and inclusive. Sufi music lends itself not only to a religious interpretation
but it is a cultural interpretation as well. In many sense Qawwali follows a
tradition of Takhrar loosely
argumentation (“it is the opening of an argument. This is not just the opening
of an argument in surrender but through surrender there is a re-discovery of
the self. So there is a re-positioning of the self as well which is happening.
You lose the self at one level and at another level you recover a different
self altogether” Madan Gopal Singh).
This brief write-up on Qawwali
will not be complete without mention of great Nusrat Fateh Ali khan, the
legendary Pakistani Qawwali singer who brought fame and notice to Qawwali as an
art form. There are many unsung heroes
too who carry the legacy and tradition of Qawwali, trying their best to
preserve and conserve this increasingly neglected art.
(The picture herein was taken at Understanding Qawwali, a one day
symposium. The Qawwals are nephews of Nusrat Fateh Ali. The other picture is of
weekly Qawwali at the Dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Nizammuddin Auliya’s that is
performed every Thursday, quite appropriately between the tomb of Auliya and
Khusrau. The painting of Auliya and Khusrau was taken from Jashne-e-Khusrau exhibition at National Archives).
From my scribble pad
A horse is a wonderful animal
It tips and tops on its toes
One step here, one step there
A graceful bow and still for
applause
All in all a dancer in repose
A singer in silence
