I was singing at Hanuman Mandir and religion didn’t matter, says Ustad Ghulam Ali

Ghulam Ali at his concert in Siri Fort auditorium.

Faasle aise bhi honge, ye kabhi socha na tha… Pakistani poet Adeem Hashmi penned this ghazal in the late ’60s, when the trauma of the Partition was still fresh in people’s minds. So when ghazal singer Ustad Ghulam Ali sang this piece some years later, ghazal lovers of India cocked their ears to their gramophones and tape recorders. So last month, at the famous Sankat Mochan Hanuman festival in Varanasi, in an evening of firsts, the same ghazal resonated on the banks of river Assi. Located inside the Banaras Hindu University campus, the famous Hanuman temple, one that rings with the sounds of the evening Ganga aarti and chants from the Hanuman Chalisa everyday, had strains of this lilting melody soar up as Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali paid a tribute to Ustad Bismillah Khan on his centenary. “It was quite an experience. It always surprises me, the amount of love people have for me and my music. It’s so overwhelming. Nobody cares about politics and our tumultuous history when music makes an appearance. Ye allah ka karam hai, ki sabne Hanuman Mandir mein ghazal ko pyar se suna. I was singing a ghazal inside the Hanuman Mandir and religion didn’t matter,” said the 74-year-old singer, who also sang at a sold out show in Delhi’s Siri Fort Auditorium on Friday after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Titled “The Hook”, at the performance which was partnered by Big FM, the musician’s fans came in droves. “In Delhi, the Ghalib ki nagri, the pleasure to sing is different. People connect extremely well with poetry and music here,” said Ali.

Born in Sialkot and named after Indian musician and Patiala gharana’s iconic name Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Ali vividly remembers a makeshift concert outside Lahore Shahi masjid where Khan would sit on a charpoy and sing “without a care in the world”. Ali’s father, who was a huge admirer of Khan’s music, requested Khan to take his son under his tutelage. Khan obliged but “not before I rendered my version of his Saiyan bolo, tanik mose raha na jaaye. He hugged me and left me in the care of his three brothers who still lived in Pakistan and hadn’t moved to India”. This was followed by a stint at Radio Pakistan and numerous concerts that followed, ones that reached India through 74 rpms and later audio cassettes, ones that whirred in agony after numerous replays that followed. “Those were different times.

There was no television and no internet. It took a while for me to understand the love people had for me on the other side of the border,” said Ali, who visited India for the first time in 1980 and stirred up love and wistfulness of a lost age for us in Chupke chupke raat din aansu bahaana yaad hai in BR Chopra’s Nikaah (1982), apart from concerts that had connoisseurs and commoners queuing up outside concert halls for a unique style of ghazal singing, one where the nitty gritties and complexities of Hindustani classical music were melded with that of ghazal singing. This was also a time when ghazal had changed from a genre rooted in a cultured set-up of old nobility and was embracing the popularity of the masses. “At that time Bollywood, once, gave me my kind of song and I sang. Ghazals were at their peak then in terms of popularity and Chupke chupke just aquired a different status. Not sure if I can manage the acrobatics that take place today in Bollywood. Will try if a song that suits my voice comes my way,” said Ali.

But it wasn’t just the people’s loyalties that Ali bought. He still hasn’t forgotten an early morning phone call in Bombay’s Taj Hotel during his first visit. “I woke up with a start and picked up the phone. The voice on the other end said, ‘Main Rafi bol raha hoon’. I ignored and said, ‘Kaun Rafi?’. ‘Ji Mohammad Rafi,’ the mild voice from the other end replied. He was calling to invite me over for breakfast. A visit to his house in Bandra, almost one hour later, had him so excited that he wore one slipper and came out to hug me. One can’t forget these gestures. One can’t forget this nation and its love. Politics can’t do justice to what we, the artistes, have felt for each other,” says Ali, whose 75th birthday later this year in December is already being looked at as an occasion for much celebration in India. “It’s been 62 years since I have been singing now. I will keep doing it till the last breath,” he says. We will keep tuning in.