India, Pakistan Sing at Each Other
Indian outfit Aisi Taisi Democracy and a band led by an Army officer in Pakistan tackle subcontinent politics through poetry and music.
Mujtaba Ali has sung the lyrics penned by Muhammad Hassan Miraj
Gaali dena ab chhod bhi do,
baitho kuch kaam ki baat kare
Kab tak bandook banayenge,
bachho ko ab kuch dhyaan bhi dein
Na Bhutto ka na Gandhi ka,
ye tera mera funda hai
JUST when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was briefing the press in Delhi on the NSA-level talks, a Rawalpindi-based Major in the Pakistani Army, Muhammad Hassan Miraj, was penning these lyrics. He wanted “to make sure that the talks happened at least at some level”.
Titled Aisi Taisi Hypocricy, the political satire is a counter-narrative to an Indo-Pak piece on the same lines by Indian outfit Aisi Taisi Democracy. Both songs are poetic parodies-cum-messages set to the tune of RD Burman’s Mere saamne wali khidki mein from Padosan.
Miraj sings, “Mere saamne wali sarhad par, sunte hain ki dushman rehta hai. Sattar baras hone ko hai kuch ukhda ukhda rehta hai.” Sung by Mujtaba Ali, the song has gone viral on both sides of the border and in many other countries.
“I heard the song created by Aisi Taisi Democracy and was impressed. I thought we must respond. It’s not just you, even the people of Pakistan want peace. While I was writing, we had the press briefing by Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz, followed by Sushma Swaraj’s press conference about the talks,” says 33-year-old Miraj, who is also a writer of stories about the Partition. The song was released on Facebook by Miraj since YouTube is banned in Pakistan. In a matter of minutes, Indian fans put up the song on YouTube.
The Pakistani Army hasn’t had anything to say on the song yet. “They encourage me to write,” says Miraj, who writes travelogues when travelling with the Army. In the past, Miraj has been posted in Siachen and patrolled the LoC in 2005. “Uski sab filmo aur gaano mein mujhe dehshatgarh dikhaate hain/ Yahan mere school mein teacher bhi use dushman keh kar bulaate hai,” he writes.
Miraj’s family didn’t migrate from India but he read Amrita Pritam’s works on the Partition. “Everyone said Hindus killed Muslims and Muslims killed Hindus. No one spoke of the old tonga guy from Chakwal who saved a Hindu family, or a Sikh, who hid a Muslim girl and raised her as his daughter,” says Miraj.
Sanjay Rajoura, who wrote the track with Varun Grover for Aisi Taisi Democracy, says that it is the timing of the song that makes it so special. “And the fact that it has been written by a Major in the Pakistani Army. This is a ‘talk’ through the medium of internet that didn’t require any protocol or a dossier.”
“He is politically incorrect and makes the song sound like a polite complaint. We are stoked with the response,” adds Rajoura. Meanwhile, Miraj concludes with a satire on the subcontinent’s politics — Tum Dubai mein bande jama karo/ hum Cheen se pyaar badhaate hain/ tum BJP ko ballot do/ hum Mulla se jaan chhudaate hain/ Wahan RSS ki sena hai, yahan Zaid ka manjan bikta hai.
Suanshu Khurana is an award-winning journalist and music critic curr... Read More
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