LAHORE: When she walked slowly onto the stage towards her seat, Farida Khanum looked fragile and apparently old enough to be on verge of senility, however, she was a totally different person when she candidly started addressing the audience as soon she took her seat.

It was the second day of the Festival of Arts and Literature at Alhamra on Sunday and she was in the session, dedicated to her, called “the Love Song of Pakistan.” It was moderated by Ali Sethi while Ghulam Ali was also invited on the stage to be part of the talk. It was the only session perhaps in the whole festival that was packed with the music lovers who wanted to listen to the legends talk.

Farida Khanum talked about the days when as a child she was not very fond of singing, however she got great teachers who transferred her their knowledge in the best way possible. In Radio Pakistan, she met Z.A. Bukhari who helped her grow as a singer, giving her more chances to sing her heart out.

To a question why she shifted towards ghazal singing, leaving classical, Farida Khanum said she had precedents of the likes of Roshan Ara Begum in classical singing who were beyond any competition or even hard to follow, besides the art was too tough for her.

She explained the intricacies of Ragas, especially Raag Aiman, which was used in many of her compositions including the famous Shaam-e-Firaq Ab Nah Pooch, Aai Aur Aa Kay Tal Gae.

Furthering the point of Khanum, Ghulam Ali said Raag Aiman and Raag Bhairvi contained all the compositions of the world and music from all the languages and cultures. He also explained both the Ragas and how they functioned, saying that Raag Aiman was first composed by Amir Khusro.

Ghulam Ali explained the classical singing through a Bandish. He said natural talent was the foremost requirement for singing, which could be nurtured through training. He stressed training for singing, saying that they had their seniors and Ustads who taught them even how to pronounce words while singing a ghazal. They were fortunate enough to have great composers and poets around them, he said, adding that one of his famous compositions, a Nasir Kazmi ghazal, Dil Main Ik Lehr Si Uthi Hay Abhi, was composed by Altaf Sahib at the Radio Pakistan. Farida Khanum also sang a portion of Aaj Janay Ki Zid Nah Karo.

Farida Khanum paid tribute to Reshma, who passed away on Sunday, by singing her famous song Hai O Rabba Nai O Lagda Dil Mera, in a way that nobody else, except Reshma, could sing it. She said Reshma was a great singer who sang from her heart, adding that she herself used to sing Reshma at home.

Ghulam Ali said Reshma was a simple person, narrating an incident that happened about a decade back in the US, where the folk singer complained to him that her promoter had not paid her for a concert that she came for though she later got the payment with Ghulam Ali’s help.

The session was the best part of the whole event though Ali Sethi, again and again, interrupted Farida Khanum and Ghulam Ali, instead of letting them talk, to show his knowledge of the history of ghazal and Khayal singing, sometimes only asking them for affirmation of what he said.

RAZA RUMI: In the session on “Delhi by Heart: Impressions of A Pakistani Traveller,” by Raza Rumi, Aitzaz Ahsan said, in a light tone, the book was not about Delhi, it’s about Raza Rumi while emanating laughter from the audience.

Kishwar Naheed and Madeeha Gauhar were the other speakers besides Raza Rumi himself.

Mr Ahsan further said the partition remained a haunting subject both in India and Pakistan and Rumi’s book was a treat for those interested in the subject. Rumi did not only write about Delhi as his landscape was wider and it spread across the subcontinent. He said the book contained many layers and its structure was arbitrary, non-linear, emotive and full of observations about everything from trees, plants till ancient monuments. Raza went into the time tunnel and reappeared in the company of the regal Mughals, he said.

Rumi said the people, both in India and Pakistan, were denying more than a thousand years of history before 1947. Geographies could make and break but civilisations remained the same, he said, lamenting that history was being distorted in the subcontinent. He said out of 2,000 ancients monuments in Delhi, only 1,200 survived while 400 to 500 ancient monuments in Lahore, especially those related to other religions besides Islam, had been lost. This all happened due to nation states that both India and Pakistan became after the partition, saying that pace of removing signs of “unwanted history” was more fast in Pakistan than in India.

Rumi said the youth in India, just like Pakistan, was being misled by the media and rightwing politics, adding that they wondered whether girls in Pakistan went to colleges, thinking that there were the Taliban in every street of the country.

A controversy arose when Kishwar Naheed “corrected” Rumi that first national anthem was not written by Jagan Nath Azad as pointed out by him. At this point, Aitzaz Ahsan jokingly interrupted by saying, “Kishwar, Kitni Khoobsurat Baat Ki Tum Nay Tasheeh Kr Di.”

Madeeha Gauhar said Rumi’s book was hard to define as he had juxtaposed personal anecdotes with actual history. Both Madeeha and Kishwar Naheed read out passages from the book.

DISSENT IN MEDIA: A session, Dissent in Media, was held on media ethics and censorship.

Ali Dayan, Saroop Ejaz and Aeysha Siddiqa were among the speakers.

Ali Dayan said there used to be rules in the print media before the onslaught of TV channels and they used to be so careful that they avoided using the word “rape” in the news, lamenting that there were no such rules in the mainstream media now. However, he said, censorship by the government or any of its agency was out of question. He said the media was not keeping any difference between news and opinion.

Saroop Ejaz said the electronic media in Pakistan was still at its nascent stage and things would settle down with the passage of time, saying one had to be weary of censorship.

Ayesha Siddiqa said Pemra regulations, if applied properly, could be effective, however it had been misused until now. She said currently there was no balance in evening talk shows as they called one person with a different view from the mainstream narrative and two or more people from the other side, who all attacked the person, differing with them.