Music in Pakistan

Nice Hamid, really enjoyed reading it :)

To the author:

Your last paragraphs deserve their own thread lest their force find insufficient expression. I agree that the opposition to music prescribed by so many Muslims is a tragedy. It has warped Pakistani culture considerably. But all Muslims suffer somewhat under this yoke, if only because such blind opposition to music engenders much hypocrisy and ruin.

Though music may be a matter of taste, so that beauty is in the ear of the listener; beautiful music cannot be denied by the one who knows it. So the opposing listener must harden his heart to that beauty and to the joy which follows. Opposing the source of that joy, the listener curses himself by refusing to admit the joy to his heart, and curses others by teaching a distrust of that joy.

One result is the virulent hypocrite who listens avidly in private and craves the very joy he so vociferously condemns in public. The other is the bitter and equally accursed heart that perversely reacts to joy with loathing. The first encourages the curse on the second. The latter in their numbers enforce the curse of the former.

What of those who hear the beauty and refuse the craven paths of the hypocrite and the ruined, but instead profess the joy of music as good? Such a person may blame his faith, when what that person really has is proof that those persons who claimed to be guides had lost their own way.

But I think that the advocates of extreme opposition to music face an ever-growing backlash from those who see in such proscriptions reason to oppose all of the extremists’ positions. It will be a good day for Pakistan when such extremists are forced from the fore.

***********************

When I was a college student, I met non-desi Americans who were fans of ``Indian classical music.`` They did not like Hindi movie music because they saw it as too commercial. They preferred their Indian music a bit too dry for my taste.

We could find common ground in Western music, but I think it would have been fun to explore then our musical tastes in Indian and Pakistani music in the way that you have done.


whistler#47
Trishul was a great movie! ;-)

tahmed32#46
Blue Eyes had an aura, but his lack of regret does not do him credit if you know much about his life. Now Dean Martin on the other hand, well, he sang from the ache in his soul.

``Pundit Ravi Shankar would be nothing without GURU Ustad Alimuddin of Calcutta.`(whistlingwoman)

u mean Ustaf Allauddin Khan -- hope ur not blaming him for Nora Jones

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nasah #45 I have no regrets. More accurately, I should say, as the Frank Sinatra song goes:
``Regrets I have had a few,
But then too few to mention...``

tahmed

so do u regret not sowing wild oats all over USA, Canada - Egland and the Subcontinent - or u regret -- not one of urs became Nora Joes?:-)

Bangladeshi Rocker Studying in America
*********************************

By TODD DVORAK, Associated Press Writer

GRINNELL, Iowa - Back in Bangladesh, he has a hit rock
album.

But at a small, liberal arts college in the middle of
Iowa, 23-year-old Yasir Mehboob is studying economics
and computer engineering, hoping for a job that will
keep him in America.

As a senior at Grinnell College, he is far removed
from the emerging music scene in Dhaka, where he began
playing nightclub gigs with adult bands in his early
teens.

``My mother never liked that part of it,`` jokes
Mehboob, who began playing keyboards at 11 and joined
a band three years later. ``She didn`t like that I was
hanging out with adults and getting exposed to alcohol
and all that stuff.``

With his bookish looks and polite demeanor, Mehboob
hardly fits the rock `n` roll image. Even in photos in
his band`s CD, he`s the one without the dark
sunglasses and tough-guy look.

nasah #34 After reading of the sexploits of musicians Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (per hamid #40 below), I do believe I have developed a sudden interest in becoming a musician myself.
As my friend in college used to say, instead of majoring in the business admininstration, we should aim to become poets or musicians or artists. We could then screw women in every town. And if someone questioned us, we would give that wild-eyed-genius look and quietly say, ``I am an artist. This is what I am expected to do in my free time.``

hamid_81 #40
It only shows that we should not try to make gods out of ordinary human beings. Both Indians and Pakistanis have a tendency to find a hero and than idolize him/her as possessor of all virtues.
Ravi shankar is a great musician. He will not become ``greater`` musician by claiming part of her ``daughter`s`` fame. Still majority(all?) of south asian news papers sang eulogies to him by writing about his connections to Norah Jones.
Same tendency also results in everyone demonizing same heros if they fail on any count.

harimau at # 36:

``Quite a few universities in India offer degrees in music, meaning Classical music. None of this is due to pressure by Classical musicians. It is the duty of the universities to offer diverse programs of study to the student body.``

I was writing from the point of view of an educational system failing to give due respect to performing arts. In Pakistan an example can be drawn from environmentalists. Pakistan`s educational system now includes courses or at least topics of environmental conservation. This is due to the efforts of WWF, IUCN, Pakistan Conservation Foundation, etc. who constantly lobbied to get the field covered in one way or the other in Pakistan`s elementary and secondary level of education.

Another example is envronmentalists` successfully lobbying to get a Masters program started in Environmental Engineering at NED University, Karachi.

#37 by Saminasha
Samina Shah Sahiba!
Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan are extremely notorious of having children in every part of the world. Wherever they went on tours they made sure to impregnate a woman. Anoushka and Norah know each other very well. If you go to this website, www.anoushkashankar.com, you will find some pictures of them together. It really amazes me how Panditji finally settled down to teach Anoushka. He has hardly ever spoken to any of his other siblings. I guess it is the need in him to emphasize upon the world how great a musician he was after he is gone, in case it forgets.

MIELD FARSHAL EXPOSED

Our resident field marshal quotes this guy as a symbol of neutrality, unbiasedness yada yada ...... And this charlatan is BRIAN CHOUGLEY.
GENTLEMEN, OPEN YOUR EYES AND READ THIS PIG BELOW AND ....



http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_26-2-2003_pg3_2

Pakistan is on a winner’s wicket. India has courageously refused to back the Bush war. So, obviously, President Pervez Musharraf must join the war party. His price should be an immediate demand by the US that all Kashmir should be ceded to Pakistan. (Get it in writing.) Not only will Mr Bush teach India the lesson that “You are with us or against us” but his action will add enormously to tension in the subcontinent and probably cause major conflict. Cool and awesome.

Ref Androscoggin #33

[27 by jay on February 24, 2003 7:09am PT
Norah Jones takes Grammys by storm

WASHINGTON: Sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar’s American daughter Norah Jones won a record-equalling eight Grammy Awards on Sunday to lend the music world’s biggest night a light Indian note
-------------------------------------------------------------------

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF INFLATED BOOK KEEPING HABIT OF HINDIANS.

Everything is Indian .........when only 2/3 of india is BHARAT ...... ]

Hasn`t the other 1/3 defined itself to be ~India? So why this late realization that Pakistan is also historically part of the land called India?

Jaya Sahib,

Actually Norah Jones and her sister are the stuff of high mythology; two sisters who are the daughters of a renown genius, both very talented and enjoying some degree of success. Ravi Shanker`s daughter born into wedlock is distinguishing herself as a sitarist while Norah has said that her father has not been any presence in her and her ma`s life really...Shankar Sahib has not handled this one well...I wonder if the two young women have met?

Ref ahmadzai #35

[Also, I believe that if the classical musicians were united in their cause, they could have easily made representations for including classical music in the course offerings in one of our universities.}

Quite a few universities in India offer degrees in music, meaning Classical music. None of this is due to pressure by Classical musicians. It is the duty of the universities to offer diverse programs of study to the student body. In fact Classical music is likely to attract less than 1% of the students that Engineering attracts but that hasn`t prevented universities from offering both.

Hamid Mahmood at # 16:

``The classical musicians have been keeping their knowledge in secret because the people don`t want it. If the people want the knowledge they should go and ask for it. If then they don`t get it then I can understand that it is the fault of classical musicians. ``

I regret responding to your message with delay.

I think that the people who want the knowledge are approaching the classical musicians. Tina Saani has done it in 80s and Raheem Shah has done it in this century to give you two examples. My point was that classical musical schools have not been opened by any Ustaad in visible areas to get public attraction. I mean if I am interested in learning guitar, why should I have to look in nooks and corners of residential streets to learn it. On the other hand, there are pop music centers that can be seen in crowded business areas to attract folks.

Also, I believe that if the classical musicians were united in their cause, they could have easily made representations for including classical music in the course offerings in one of our universities.