Twilight for the old and gone, new generation steps in!
By: M S Nazki
The Indian Army puts up yet another show where it was joy and fun after an expansive medical camp! It was a musical evening as the twilight spread its wings and stars were on the sky to give the acoustic effectand music the sound ones!
-‘One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. This was said by Bob Marley. Marley and the others did not play any instruments at that time, and were more interested in being a vocal harmony group. The music genre had begun and that of the modern times, though music has had a great legacy from centuries since Seikilos perhaps wrote an epitaph for his wife in first century AD in Greek! That is as far as I could get but Victor Hugo said it perfectly, music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent. The great festival which had all the ingredients and spices to be one big occasion in Mendhar proved that and it was all due to the meaningful and energetic flamboyance of the Krishna Ghati Brigade and the ever effervescent 10 J&K the famous fighting unit of the Indian Army. As the number suggests, I mean ten they are the specialists and masters of all games! This one was about loving the people whom we in J&K call as Awaam!’
-‘Pradeep Khanna is a hyperactive soul. A man who loves the Nation and the people and has seen kids grow up in action and trouble torn zones! He was an educationist in fact retired from the profession but a skilled man as far as fine arts go. That too needs precision and timing. This man had it in abundance! He did not sit idle after retiring, moved on towards a new tomorrow and that was to involve the growing up kids, both boys and girls to move forward and shed off the wretched memories behind! None but ourselves can free our minds was the basic tenant he took to build up a new society of the fine arts loving kids. And thus came in the great institution in the District Poonch, ‘Saraswati Kala Kendra’ where right in the beginning at every lesson for the day the great hymns with musical effects and impacts are rendered, ‘Saraswati vandana/ and the deep lighting presentation! It was done today too!’
-‘The program presented was immaculate as far as the choreography went. The kids both boys and girls performing the routine were an excited and exuberant lot. They were not doing it for materialistic gains but for the people who could give them that ecstatic applause that the performance was worth a place in the memory of the brains who watched the show! Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible was what the greatest army of all, the Indian Army was saying though not in words but by displaying thet love for the people matters!’
‘Some people have lives; some people have music. The people in District Poonch and Rajouri, include,Surankote, Budhal, Nowshera, Jhangar, Lam, Beripattan, Sunderbani love music and believe that, life is for the living and death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.’ I knew it from the times I was in Class twelve! This is a long time back when I walked through the gates of Degree College Poonch up from my professors’. I used to stay in a one room apartment that one of my teachers Mr. Vaid had given me where the morning routine was difficult (later he made one)! My father knew him but I did not except for the fact that he was a fair looking man, tall and a talkative man who loved maths and I did not! He lived in the same locality where Anup Kishen Dhar lived (Later he became a General but if I remember correctly went to 5 Para! He probably could have forgotten me. I would never,’the story of 300 Bucks will be a reminder!’ I still owe him! This happened back in 1979! But he loved a Punjabi singer Ramta and the man’s were loved by locals all over Poonch! I never knew at that time that I would be writing a story on what I just put as a scribbling note in my diary in my formative years’!
Pradeep Khanna presented the show as he was anchoring it in his own inimitable style! He is a master of ceremonies, a loveable gentleman and a Nationalist to heart and as Social Worker Er Mustaq Ahmedsaid, down to Earth! He is a familiar face in all top functions when dignitaries visit District Poonch. He has monitored shows of thePrime Minister Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, the Indian Army, Jammu and Kashmir Police and you name any occasion or any place in District Poonch and Rajouri, he is the man with his reverberating voice and interesting anecdotes on the speakers microphone! A couple of days back he was in the magnum opus being put up by Krishna Ghati Brigade! Pradeep Khanna and his band of brothers and sisters were there to give a memorable musical performance acknowledged by all!
This was what happened in the grand colorful show which had eight items and all depicted the unity in diversity. They rendered a musical show which was absolutely localised and included music of the plains, Gojri, Pahari and other mountainous tribals in District Poonch! So much of an amazing almanac of lyrical and musical fantasy of the historic district!
Saraswati Kalakendra is a cultural organization led by Pardeep Khanna , Khursheed Rather, Sanjay Sharma, Prem Parkash, Rameez Rather, Shabnam Praveen, Ruksar Kosar, Shahista Majeed, Shabina Kosar, Insha Majeed, Rubina Bano, Soniya , Mohd sadeeq and Toheed Ahmed. In fact all that form the galaxy of super stars of the District where they were born to do big things!
It has always been said and would be so in the future is the fact that after silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. I throughout my life have been the student of literature and it could be of any country and I have my favorites like anyone would have, but to end this piece I will recite the great lines by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from his classic, ‘Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship’ and the line is ‘one ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.’ That is precisely what Krishnaghati Brigade is teaching the locals who are fun lovers of simple things! The crowd from Saraswati Kalakendra knows that! Just ponder over this small fact, you’ve gotta dance like there’s nobody watching, love like you’ll never be hurt, sing like there’s nobody listening, and live like it’s heaven on earth. This was something that someone told me years back and the princess was a beautiful place called Poonch!
