Indo-Pak Friendship

Jammu singer mobilises funds for Faiz Ghar, Lahore


Jammu, July 11 
When a school going girl and budding singer of Jammu, Seema performed before legendary Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz during one of his visits to Punjab, it got her accolades and a congratulatory note from the poet. The child artist was deeply touched by the encouraging gesture of Faiz Sahab.

Moneeza Hashmi (left), daughter of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and Seema Anil Sehgal. A file photo

About the Singer

Seema is  eldest daughter of Sahitya Akademi awardee and eminent Dogri poet Yash Sharma. She is presently settled in Mumbai.

In February 1999, the then Prime Minister, A B Vajpayee presented her solo album “Sarhad” dedicated to Indo-Pak amity as a national gift to Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharief during Lahore summit. The album was based on poetry of Jnanpith awardee Urdu poet, Ali Sardar Jafri.

Ashutosh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 11

When a school going girl and budding singer of Jammu, Seema performed before legendary Urdu poet, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, during one of his visits to Indian Punjab, it got her accolades and a congratulatory note from the poet. The child artist was deeply touched by the encouraging gesture of Faiz Sahab.

Many years down the line, the same Seema, now Seema Anil Sehgal, noted peace singer of the sub continent has been paying melodious tribute to the romantic- revolutionary poet by singing concerts in USA on the invitation of Moneeza Hashmi, younger daughter of Faiz, whose birth centenary is being celebrated around the world. 

While her next concert is scheduled on July 16 at Maryland in USA, Seema held first concert at Long Island in New York on June 25. On the occasion, Bisaat-e-Yaran, a music album of Faiz sung and composed by Seema was also released.

The funds raised through the concerts and sale proceeds of the album would be used for the upkeep of ‘Faiz Ghar’ – a non profit organization run in Lahore, Pakistan to keep the memories of the poet alive

Talking to the Tribune over telephone from New York, Seema said: “Faiz Ghar is a project of the Faiz Foundation Trust at Model Town, Lahore where Faiz lived his last years. It aims at promoting the humanistic and progressive ideals of the late poet.  It is also a platform for the lovers of Faiz to see the manuscripts and other personal memorabilia of the poet, get materials for their research works related to Faiz besides interacting with fellow artists from across the world”

“Poetry and music recognize no physical boundaries created by the man. My music and the poems of Faiz belong to the people from all nations irrespective of their caste, creed or religion,” she commented.

The opening concert was the highlight of the three-day-long International Urdu Conference, organized by Khalil-ur-Rehman, an Urdu journalist of the US and a leading light of the conference and presided by Dr Taghi Ahmed Abidi, an Urdu scholar based in Canada.

“Seema is the only Indian singer who is making her contributions to raise funds for Faiz Foundation Trust,” said her husband, Anil Sehgal, who is accompanying her through the tour.

Anil said, “When Moneeza heard Seema singing at New York, she was so enthused that she elicited a promise from the singer to sing for Faiz Ghar in Pakistan later in this year.”

Revealing an interesting Faiz-Jammu Kashmir connection, Anil said: “Faiz shared a special relation with J&K. He was a close friend of Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, grand father of Omar Abdullah, chief minister of the state, who solemnized the marriage of Faiz with Alys, a British journalist with Leftist leanings. During the wedding, Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah elicited a promise from Faiz that he will not marry another woman as long as Alys was living and married to him. As we all know, Faiz kept his wedding vow.”

“It is interesting to note that Bilqis Christobel, the other sister of Alys, married Mohammed Din Taseer, a friend of Faiz. Their marriage too was solemnized in Kashmir by none other than the great Urdu poet Allama Iqbal who was a close friend of Taseer,” he added.

About 'Bisaat-e-Yaaran', he said: “This album contains ghazals and nazms of Faiz. The masterpiece of the album seems to be ghazal: Jamegi kaise bisaat-e-yarraan…, which gives the album its name. This ghazal has been exquisitely composed in Raag Pilu and very evocatively sung by Seema.”

Prof Jagannath Azad Pak’s first national anthem was written by Indian  Ashutosh Sharma Tribune News Service Jammu, August 15 "Aey sarzameen-i-Pak zarrey terey hein aaj sitaron sey tabnak! Roshan Jeh kehkashan sey kahin aaj teri khak!!."("Oh the land of Pakistan, each particle of yours is star-lit. Even your dust seems brightened like a rainbow.”) Prof Jagannath Azad, a Lahore-based Hindu poet and scholar of Urdu who wrote the first national anthem of Pakistan, has more than 70 books to his credit but his dream of getting “Rudad-e-Iqbal”, anthology of Iqbal’s philosophy and poetry could not go into press due to his sudden death in 2004. The manuscript of the anthology is with his son, Adarsh K Azad, a businessman based at Greater Kailash in Jammu. “I am willing to spend as much as possible but none of the scholars or academicians from an Urdu background is evincing interest in getting the anthology published,” Adarsh rued. “My father would often recall that he was surprised after his colleagues in Radio Pakistan, Lahore, approached him and told him that Jinnah Sahib wanted him to write the national anthem. They confided that “Qaid-e-Azam wanted the anthem to be written by an Urdu-knowing Hindu. Azad was of firm belief that Jinnah Sahib wanted a secular Pakistan," he recalled. “He wrote the national anthem on short notice --- just two days before Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14 and it was approved by Jinnah in a few hours. It was sung for the first time on Pakistan Radio, Karachi, which was then the capital of Pakistan,” he said. However, his song remained as Pakistan’s national anthem for a year and a half. After Jinnah’s death, a song written by the Pakistani poet Hafiz Jallundri replaced the first national anthem. "Due to communal tension in both east and west Punjab, my father’s friends suggested to him to migrate to India,” he said and added, “Consequently, he settled in Delhi in September 1947 and later came to J&K on the request of Sheikh Abdullah.” “My father-in-law always supported India-Pakistan friendship like his counterparts and friends in Pakistan Qatil Shefai, Josh Malihabadi and Hafeez Jallundri,” said social activist and Azad’s daughter-in-law, Reenu Azad. “He was a simple person, always engrossed in his thoughts. He was a non-political person with a firm faith in Hindu-Muslim unity. His ideology has great influence on us and it keeps guiding us to stand for humanity,” she added. The head of the Urdu Department in the University of Jammu, Prof Soab Inayat Malik, said, “He was the first researcher who introduced Iqbal in the right perspective in India. Azad discovered several facts about Iqbal and disclosed that Iqbal belonged to a Kashmiri Pandit (Sapru) family. He was given the title of Hafiz-e-Iqbal. He brought J&K on the literary map of world and was considered as ambassador of Jammu University. “Imtiyaz-e-Pakistan, the highest literary award of Pakistan, was conferred upon him during Zia-ul- Haq’s regime,” he said. Speaking over his unpublished work, Malik said, “The department is willing to offer any services to Azad’s family and we would be highly grateful to them if they seek any kind of help for its publication.”