Raag Bhairon Aischa Aimon Dawar Aziz Sumaira Khan
Raag Bhairon Aischa Aimon, Dawar Aziz, Sumaira Khan, Faizan Khan, Taimur Khan
Dramatis Personae • Tradition • Outrage • Strings
Tradition There is much to be said on both sides, they say – in fact, on all sides. And what are we, this morning, raving on this wooden stage? Tradition? Outrage? Strings? Do we matter? How do we matter? And does it matter, in some meaningful way, whether any of us do or do not matter? Even in our own self-conscious age, I feel rooted like a banyan tree. I speak and dream the wonders to which we could belong. I invoke the values of our land – the value of its daybreak and plight, of its promise that my goodness and values shall nestle here, at least, like a tatter of taste. To believe all this, is my fate, and to believe like this, today, is to fledge questions – is to feel lonesome and proud. What is this home where I define a home? What is this lair of warmth that shelters my values, my goodness? Disbelief and spite do not liberate because they do not answer my questions – because they are not my home. When I realize the nobleness of my belief, I say, “So what if there is much to be said on all sides!”
Outrage Why sound this sound of a primeval toil, And this, the toil’s old murder in our bones? Retrieve its segments of maternal soil, Become that marvel of a world in tones? This clay of ours – in rounds we do not reach, In lineaments we did not mean to rake – Returns us to a wave of wordless speech And flourishes in firmaments, in wake Of resonance that may somehow surmise A potter’s hand, resplendent in her day, Makes failings of a helpless night devise A gentle measure for a gentler way. Is what we do – that trifle – greatly ours? What spawn of strings conceived a span of stars?
For Khaldunia ~ With Special Thanks To Ms. Rabia Ikram
For Khaldunia ~ With Special Thanks To Ms. Rabia Ikram
- Slides: 21