Yet no award for the song of harmony

Crossing the small dense shops and food courts in both the side of confusing narrow lanes of Basti Hazrat Nizamuddin area in the capital, it is the house of 84 yr. old Qawwali singer Ustad Meraz Ahmed Nizami, one of the eldest Qawwal in the country. Nizami family is carrying the trend of Qawwali and entertaining audiences with this charismatic and melodious form of music from more than 700 yrs, but still did not receive any award from the Government of India.

“We are the family members of Amir Khusroo’s prime disciple. Our family started singing Qawwali eight decades ago, and still we are holding the flag with out receiving any award from the government,” said Ustad Nizami, the present head of the ‘Qawwal Baccho ke gharana’ or ‘Delhi Gharana’, originally formed by Amir Khusroo in Chisti order.

Qawwali is the popular form of Islamic Sufi music, which originally came India from Persia, (present Afganisthan) in 13^th century by the Sufiss Amir Khusroo. Khusroo is credited to create the modern form of Qawwali by fusing Indian classical with Persian traditional music. And till the era of its introduction , Qawwali became the voice of communal harmony and brotherhood. “ We believe in brotherhood, and through our music we want to spread this message to everyone. People who comes to listen Qawwali, their happiness is our ultimate gain” said Saqlan Nizami, the youngest son of Nizami family.

Saqlan, is the member of generation next Qawwals, who are trying to conserve the real form of this traditional music following the foot prints of their great great grand fathers in today's era of Bollywody Indi-pop songs. According to them, it is the real good quality of Qawwali, which still impress audiences in present era , and will carry the charisma in future also, with out hampering its real form. But still the artists from this area of art are unsung. None of the Qawwali singer receive Padma award , they want to know the reason. “ Government of India always give preference to other form of art and music. Even they give Padma award to Saif Ali Khan, but none of the Qawwali artist, who actually deserve it” Ustad Meeraz Ahmed Nizami said with anger.

The Qawwali maestro has not only a strong grief in music; he is a fluent speaker and singer in various languages such as Urdu, Farsi, Arabic and Parsee too. His book ‘Sufi music in India and Pakistan’ is recognized as one of the finest research work on Islamic music. But yet he has not received any award, or any financial support from the government.

After completing his weekly Qawwali performance in the Hazrat Nizamuddin Dargah, another senior Qawwal of the city, Gulam Hossain  urged, “ Government never recognize the real talent, and for that till now none of the Qawwali singer receive any of the Padma award.” Gulam has entered in this profession in way back 70, and is engage with the All India Radio since 1991. “ We went door to door, but nothing happens. We are facing financial problem, and neither the government nor any NGOs coming up to help us,” the grief came out from the artist.  

Though the Indian Council for Cultural Relation (ICCR)  organize Qawwali shows in across the world, but still there's no award for them.  

When Delhi is gearing up for its 100 yrs birthday celebration, how will it be possible to forget those singers, who are the inseparable part of this city, and trying their hard and sole  to preserve this traditional art.  

Please Don't make it headlines again

What are the headlines today? Is there any blast or terrorist activities in the main page? No its not. Now its time for Parliament adjourned , FDI in retail sector, Lokpal bill and others, but there's no news, no fruitful steps to protect common mass from terrorist activities. But all headlines may change tomorrow morning, if some misshape happen. Then also Parliament will adjourn, but the cause will be different, it will call as mourn for the people lost life in terror attacks. All the electronic media then will post there OB van 24 *7 in blast spot, forgetting their quarrel about foreign investment, and others, and its right also. But its not right for that painful time only, people's life always deserve more importance than anything. But alas! the reality is different. We all devote our complete attention to the national security, only when any blast hit a place, and take people's life.
Today I went to Nizam uddin Dargah, one of the most popular tourist spot in Delhi. The dargah is the very familiar place for international tourists, specially on Thursday. Tourists from different religion and place come and pay their tribute to Nizamuddin Saheb. Thursday's Qawali performance in Hazrat Nizamuddin is a worldly famous live quali  performance. And here, that crowded place,  today I found the lack of security ,  system. Surprisingly, I have seen only one police person was standing near the front door of dargah, but I failed to discover his colleagues there! He was standing very carelessly, as standing there is only his duty, not checking people coming there. And this is true , that he has nothing to do there,except standing and looking people with bored eyes.With out any proper equipments, and proper security force, is it really very easy to protect people?
The place could be a very easy terrorist target. Do  you ever think how many life will be under threat, and how many family so far? After every blast or terrorist activity, from our 'Honorable' Prime Minister to local MPs, are busy to show their faces in TV channel, saying that tight security will protect their 'beloved' countrymen from any of such incidents. And suddenly security system starts work very efficiently, but usually the entire system comes to their same old track soon. Same unawareness in almost every main place.I just fail to understand, why only security system become tight in some black days, like 26/11.What our security heads are thinking, that these terrorist groups will implement their plan only on those marked days ?