Adil Najam
I got this picture in my email recently. And it made me feel all good inside.
Taken a few days ago in Islamabad at a Pakistan National of the Arts (PNCA) event it shows Ustad Medhi Hassan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan – both on wheelchairs – greeting each other and reminiscing about days gone by. What I like best about this is that they are both so clearly happy. Mehdi Hassan, in particular, looks much more frail than one remembers him to be, but unlike so many recent pictures we have seen of him, he is smiling and happy. And seeing that makes me happy too.
Naveed Riaz, who sent me the picture, had the following verse to offer as commentary on the photogrph:
Kya Hum Say Pareshaan Khushboo Thee, Ya Bund Hain Ab Kaliyon Kee Tarah?
Kya Misl-e-Saba Avaara Thay, Ya Ghar Say Nikalna Mushkil Hai?
Maybe our readers can offer their own commentary – in verse or in prose.
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I have lost all my huge business & money & have become penniless myself, thanks to my friend. Otherwise I would have spent any amount to have never let Mehdi Hassan Sahib go through any such ordeals as he is going through or be dependent on anybody else.
He is Godsend & I have no words to explain the status & admiration that my heart feels for him. I feel ashamed that he was born in Pakistan, & this ungrateful nation is so indifferent to his condition. Was he born in some respectable country he would have been treated like somebody almost worth worshiping.
May God wake up this maybe the most illiterate Pakistani nation. They have always treated their heroes, men of honor & respect & who have sacrificed so much for them like dirt & always followed the wrong people & leaders, that is why God keeps shaking them by making the other nations treat them like dirt, though to no avail so far. But maybe God has more mercy on them & really wakes them up through some miracle.
I can only pray since no wise or sagacious words have any effect on these deaf & dumb Pakistanis.