The grave of the ghazal maestro is in poor shape.—Fahim Siddiqi/White Star
KARACHI: Those of us who use Facebook to remain in touch with our friends and are music lovers may have seen a short video in which Malika-i-Tarannum Noor Jehan is seen at a concert praising the talent of the inimitable Mehdi Hasan. The Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kundera in his essay on painter Francis Bacon writes that when one artist talks about another, he is always talking (indirectly, in a roundabout way) about himself, and that is what’s valuable in his judgment.
Noor Jehan in the video articulates that those who are born with a melodious voice basically belong to a family whose ancestors had in the past distributed pearls in charity. This is no mean praise. Individuals such as Noor Jehan and Mehdi Hasan are, as the cliché goes, born once in a lifetime. Sadly, they are no more in this mortal world.