May the magic live on

It was a leisurely Sunday afternoon in the lovely Delhi winter weather when I climbed up to the attic with "grand plans" of cleaning the store room of my house. It has been couple of years since I moved into my new house, yet I never really bothered to clear the clutter in the store. So today was going to be the day to toil.

I entered the store & the first thing that caught my eye was this huge carton. I opened it to find my favorite gadget from the eighties – my SONY audio tape deck, whose DOLBY sound and auto-reverse features aroused fair share of envy among my school-day friends. Besides the deck and speakers, the carton had dozens and dozens of audio cassettes. Almost instinctively I started examining the tapes and realized that over half of my tape collection comprised of Ghazal – all my favorite artists, their albums, rare concerts and compilations - I was admiring this antiquated treasure of mine when suddenly a guilt set in. I asked myself: When was the last time I listened to Ghazals? Was it few months back; maybe it was a year ago and perhaps it was a few years back?

I surely had been ignoring this magical form of music, which only a decade ago used to be my favorite. But really, it appears as if most of India is ignoring Ghazals these days!! There are no budding Ghazal poets or singers today; there are hardly any new Ghazal albums that have come out. Even for established artists, the music stores are merely selling old albums or worse "remixes".

Yet interestingly, it was here in India where Ghazal attained its prime glory. The genesis of Ghazal harks back to 6th century in Persia and it was introduced to India loosely by various visiting Sufi mystics and more formally by Mughals, who patronized this as a performing art in their courts. Originally an Arabic verses, Ghazal in India has been endorsed in many languages primarily Urdu and also Pubjabi, Kashmiri, Gujrati and even English. The Delhi school of Urdu Ghazal has produced such maestros as Mir and Ghalib. Ghazal in its essence is a poetic expression comprising rhyming couplets. With melancholy and love (both divine & earthly) as its predominant themes, Ghazal aroused popular interest amongst many an upcoming singers. Traditionally Ghazal was sung in Hindustani classical styles in ragas, taal, thumri and khayal, however last century saw simplifications done to Ghazals, which further increased its popularity.

In post-independent India, Ghazal continued to enjoy enormous popularity. Poets like Faiz, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Kafi Azmi, Bhpendra Nath Kaushik carried on the poetic tradition while likes of Majrooh sultanpuri, Sahid Ludhyani and more recently Gulzar infused Ghazals with popular media of Bollywood film music, giving it mass recognition.

In contemporary India (particularly in the 80s and the eary 90s) Ghazal singing created a niche space for itself in middle class society. Ghazal concerts were very popular and artists – both in India and Pakistan continued to progress its popularity. Especially artists like Jagjit Singh, who for the first time experimented with use of western instruments like guitars and soft drums in Ghazal singing, gave it a mainstream light music identity. Ghazal’s popularity soared. I remember my dad and his friends would often spent weekend hours discussing politics with round of drinks as Ghazals played in the background. As a teen, I developed a keen predilection for Ghazal, a musical form that nicely complemented my new found passion for grunge rock. I would save up my pocket money to buy one 1 rock album & new Ghazal album a quarter.

In the last decade or so, with the dawn of the digital age, Ghazal has begun to loose its popularity. Today, in this supersonic era, where we are spoilt for choice of entertainment, dished out at snap of a finger, taking time out to listen to Ghazals seems like an indulgence.
To quote Ghalib

"wo anaasir mein eitdaal kahan"
- translated to English "the elements today no longer have the same moderation"

Today who has the time for such an indulgence !?! Well at least I do – for the rest of the Sunday afternoon, I halted all my plans of cleaning the store –went back to my room – searched for my Ghazal mp3 collection and was lost in the magical music. I suggest you try & do the same and may the magic of Ghazal live on.