A Commemoration of Ghazal and Geet in San Francisco Bay Area

By Haroon Ahmad, Hayward, CA

On Saturday, June 26, 1999 an intimate crowd of serious ghazal and geet enthusiastic spectators delighted itself to an evening of graceful elegant poetry and skillful harmonious music.  The event titled “Sham-e-Ghazal” presented by Super Travels, Newark, CA featured two of the much-celebrated semi classical Pakistani artists Khalil Haidar and Gulshan-Ara-Syed.  The event formally initiated at 9:00PM by Syed Sarwat of Super Travels expressing gratitude to the turnout for their presence and by apologizing for the delay.

Khalil Haidar was the leading performer of the night to take the spotlight; he managed to capture the hearts of the public in attendance with his opening ghazal “Kiya Tujhe Preet Ho Gai Hum Se”.  Khalil Haidar, raised in the much traditional and historical city of Lahore, now resides in Karachi first found his calling to music during his early school days where he became an imperative partaker in events like Bazm-e-Adab and Naatia Mushaira.  However, it was a PTV show called Star Night in 1990 that featured then still a very young Khalil performing the ghazal  “Nai Kapray Pahin Kar” which took him to new heights in his pursuit.  The ghazal became such a hit overnight that Khalil’s album featuring it was sold out of the market within a couple of days following the broadcast of Star Night.  Since then, Khalil has produced ten semi classical albums, and his long-term plans comprise of music related ventures in Pakistan.  He is very optimistic about the future of Pakistani music, as he believes that music has very powerful centuries old traditions embedded in it.  Khalil has a lot of praise for performers like Mehdi Hassan, late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Pervaiz Mehdi.  He is further not shy to attribute his fame to the support of his family and friends, his ustad Sadiq Hussain and last but not least, his fans. In addition to the two ghazals mentioned earlier his selection for the night also included: “Main Khayal Hoon Kisi Aur Ka”, “Is Rang Key Kapray”, “Jab Raat Gai, Teri Yaad Aye”, “Kainday Nay Naina”, “Akailay Na Jana”, “Yaar Dadi Ishq Atish Lai Hai”, and “Dam Mast Qalandar”.

Khalil Haider Gulshan-Ara-Syed

The second performer of the night was Gulshan-Ara-Syed, whose talent unquestionably matches that of any other topnotch semi classical performer of the Indo-Pak sub continent.  The lady who is a graduate of the Dhaka University made her first appearance in a show titled “Khushboo” from PTV Islamabad in 1980.  Since then she has bagged not only countless major achievement awards in Pakistan including the ever-prestigious Nigar Graduate Award, but in late eighties India also crowned her “Queen of Ghazal”.  Over the years Gulshan-Ara-Syed has launched thirteen cassettes of ghazals and geet, and has mastered the skills of performing in thirteen languages of the globe including Chinese and French.  In spite of all those accomplishments, the lady still feels she needs to reach new heights in the musical arena.  During the conversation with her in regards to this article, she paid great homage to her ustaads Ghulam Mohammad Khan and Riaz-Ud-Din Khan as well as to her idols Mehdi Hassan, Fareeda Khanum, Iqbal Bano and Ghulam Ali, and of course to her caring fans.  Gulshan-Ara-Syed started her segment with “Tumharay Sheher Ka Mausam”, which she dedicated to the city by the bay, San Francisco.  After that it was Dagh Dehlvi’s ghazal “Meray Kabo Main Na”, followed by Khwaja Fareed Sabri’s Kafi in Rag Darbari “Ishq Da Jalwa – Subhan Allah” which became one of the highlights of the event.  Soon she succeeded those with Kalam by Faiz Ahmad Faiz and Ahmad Faraz.  Next it was a set of high tempo lok geets in Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi, Pushto and Bengali.  All of the lok geets created an energetic state among the presence, and were followed by another trademark song of hers “Chun Chun Kaliyan Main Gajray Banaoon Gi”.  Subsequently the audience experienced the prominence of her talent with a Thumri “Kahey Ko Jhuti” and a ghazal in Darbari “Dil Laganay Ki Kisi Say”.  Also, the ever-accomplished Tabla Nawaz, Mohammad Omar Qureshi of Pakistan Radio was at his finest by cutting the beat of the tabla at the utterance of the word “Bus” in the ghazal, thus making it yet another show stealer number. The last ghazals of her segment were “Gham-e-Dil Suna Nay Ko”, and “Hum Tasavor Tera” by Amir Minai.  Gulshan-Ara-Syed ended the show with another lively number “Ho Lal Meri”.  Few years ago, Gulshan-Ara-Syed’s presence in the world of semi-classical music came close to being non-existence.  In case that would have transpired, the domain of that genre of music would have suffered a great loss.      

Both performers of the night were very much overwhelmed by the enormous response they have received from the US based Pakistani audience, and would treasure a chance to perform live again in front of them.  Besides the vocalists, Mohammad Omar Qureshi and Mehboob Khan did a superb job at Tabla and percussion.  Syed Sarwat deserves a big hand for bringing such a quality musical performance to the sangeet lovers of San Francisco Bay Area.  Further Ms. Raana Faiz of Hamrahi radio program deserves acknowledgement for her efforts in making the show a success.  Ghazal and geet buff living in other cities of the United States are highly encouraged to catch this one of a kind show in their locales.