Protest Melodies

While in prison,Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz had penned this famous nazm in a letter to his wife Alys.

Written by Suanshu Khurana
April 3, 2013 03:01 AM IST

2 min read

Chand roz aur,meri jaan! Faqat chand hi roz,zulm ki chaaon me dum lene pe majboor hain hum

While in prison,Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz had penned this famous nazm in a letter to his wife Alys. The song eventually became one of the more eloquent songs in the history of protest music. On Monday,the nazm resonated inside Stein Auditorium at India Habitat Center with the opening song by Swaang,a Mumbai-based group comprising actors,musicians and writers,who work in Bollywood in various capacities. We all,predominantly,work in Bollywood,but Swaang is how we relieve our guilty conscience. For us it is a way of creating an alternative and a more positive culture that the youth of today can relate to, said Swara Bhaskar,who was at the helm of affairs at Swaangs performance. Apart from the poetry of Faiz,the group also included original writings by other members of the group. Manwa is a song about child labour while Crazy Lazy Legs was a satire on the groups own armchair activism. Their Punjabi number,Ma ni meri,a tribute to the Delhi gangrape victim,has been extremely popular and was sung at the event.