Shadows from the PresentWomen, Youth and Pakistan

It was a wonderful welcome gift! Having just moved to the Netherlands from Pakistan, it was a memorable treat to go to a rare performance of the ghazal king in The Hague. I grew up listening to ghazals of the Punjabi legend Jagjit Singh. It was truly a delight to finally hear him live.

It was two decades ago that Jagjit Singh had performed in the country and now, on the occasion of the Immigration Day (celebrated by the local Surinamese community), he was to be part of the celebrations! On top of that, Jagjit sahab was celebrating his 70^th birthday this year as well as five decades of ghazal singing. Singh had set himself the target of giving seventy concerts this year. This one was the twenty-ninth.

The concert went well over three hours. He started with his popular number Main nashe mein hoon, which at some point in the song he changed to “mein satar ka hoon.” Although he mostly kept the show to popular ghazals like Hosh walon ko, kaghaz ki kashti, tera chehra, chaudvin ki raat, Pyar ka naghma, Ahista ahista, honton se, he also did a few Punjabi numbers too including Mitti da bawa (originally sung by Chitra Singh.)

What was remarkable about this show was that Jagjit Singh introduced on stage two local artists and invited them to sing with him. It was a surprise because a) I had not bought the 100-euro ticket to hear others sing and b) even though the duet with the female vocalist Seeney mein sulagtey reminded the audience of the good old Jagjit Singh and Chitra Singh days, the male vocalist was “differently gifted”, in my opinion.

I still wonder how Harry, the male local singer, made it to the stage with the legend Jagjit Singh because even the sound system people seemed not to like the combination. After hearing the first ghazal, tum itna jo (one of my favourites), Harry’s microphone would go silent whenever he attempted to ‘sing’. (he did sometimes hit the ragga, in his defense) He tried his hand at honton se chulo and tum na jaaney kis duniya mein. Luckily (for the audience) there were some technical glitches in the sound system. The awkwardness got so obvious that Jagjit, sympathizing with Harry, then chose to sing “tum ney badley hum se gin gin key liye” (on revenge) mostly pointing at the technicians at the back of the hall. Jagjit’s sense of humour remained integral in the midst of the depressing topics of the songs. It sparkled throughout the show. He didn’t sing many of his newer and less popular ghazals, but nonetheless it was a magnificent evening.