Disabled singers mesmerise audience

The biggest problem disabled persons in Pakistan are facing is that the social environment and the people’s culture are mostly hostile to them. The disabilities of many them are aggravated by the society’s attitude. The lives of a large number of people are spoiled and their potential for making progress in life is lost because of people’s habit of looking down on those with slight impairment, while treating it as the mark of their identity and a dominant feature of their personality.
Taking an initiative to provide these special persons a platform to showcase their special yet hidden talent, the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) organised an opportunity to them at a glitzy auditorium the other day that proved to be a night to remember. The PNCA in collaboration with Ministry of Information and Broadcasting arranged the musical evening ‘Special Evening with Special Singers’ to bring them into the mainstream.
The disabled singers included Aaliya Rasheed (blind), Rafia Bano (lame), Naoman Mirza (both legs paralysed) Shehzad Alam (lame), Attaul Qadeer (blind), Furkan Ahmad (blind), Muhammad Yaqub (blind) and Mirza Muhammad Abbas (blind). The presented ghazals and songs, including national and from Pakistani movies, mesmerising the audience with their stunning performance. Taranjeet Singh, wearing pink turban, conducted the programme and amused people with his rib-tickling jokes whenever he jumped up to the stage.
Singh also shared some information about the disabled persons in Pakistan and their achievements, saying a record number of job opportunities had been created in the country for special people with the maximum percentage of disabled employees. “These special persons have won the record number of awards in sports for Pakistan that no other country has won for them, and they have performed much better than to those with abilities,” Singh said.
Starting the programme with his resonating voice, Shahzad Alam sung a ghazal ‘Raat phaili hay tery surmai anchal ki tarah’, followed by Attaul Qadeer with ‘Aaj kala jora paa, sadi farmaish tay’. Muhammad Yaqub also enthralled the audience while singing ‘Ho sakay to mera aik kam karo’. Naoman Mirza sung ghazals ‘Husn walian nay jeena haram keeta’ and other items, like one of the hit song of today ‘Bismillah karan’.
The pick of the night was, however, Rafia Bano, from Hazara area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She started of with ‘Sada hoon apnay piyar ki’, a ghazal originally sung by late Madam Noor Jehan. Bano with her resounding voice spellbound the crowd while singing ‘Sayyo ni mera mahi meray bhaag jagawan a gia’. The ‘Cuckoo of Hazara’ as she is known, Bano finished off with another ghazal, ‘Gham-e-dil ko in aankhoun sey chalak jana bhi ata hai’. She also sung ‘Tha yakeen kay ay gi ye rataan kabhi’, ‘kadi tay hans bol way’, and ‘May tenu Samjhanwan ki’.
Aliya Rasheed from Lahore, who got education in classical music from India and is currently teaching the subject at the National College of Arts (NCA) Lahore, presented classical raag dhurbat. She also sung ‘Makkay gia gal mukdi nah, jay na dilo mukaiay’, a sufi poetry from Bulleh Shah. Junaid Iqbal, a veteran journalist and a classical music lover, while talking to this scribe said the voice of Aliya, a learned young lady, was not absorbing for the audience.
“Raag Dhurbat is one of the most difficult raag and she has done full justice with it but there is a lack of coordination between the singer and musicians; that’s why this devotional raag failed to attract audience,” Iqbal commented. Aliya also sung few ghazals of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, like ‘Lazim hay kay hum bhi dekhain gay’ and ‘Mujhsy pehli si mohabbat meray mehboob na maang’. She ended the performance with ‘Aye puttar hattan tay nahi wikday’, – another inspirational song in the background of the Defence Day.
Ahad and Oheed, two youngsters among the audience, said these singers were not only the role models for the disabled people but also for others.
“The disabledd persons who gave music performances have all the potential to be recognised in their distinctive spheres,” they said.