Sunday, October 25, 2009
By Shahid Shah
KARACHI: Sohrab Faqir, the great Sufi singer of his times, left hundreds of thousands of listeners mourning on Friday. He was 73. Faqir was suffering from cancer for the last many years.
Sohrab Faqir was treated in the Jinnah Hospital, Karachi, for more than a couple of weeks, where his health deteriorated and his son took him back to his village, Talpur Wada, on Friday, where he left the world forever.
Sassui Palijo, Minister for Culture, Government of Sindh, called his death a loss of Sindh. “He was the voice of Sindh,” she told The News in a telephonic interview.
Sohrab Faqir Khaskheli was born in 1934 in Khairpur. His father Hamal Faqir was a good singer and a disciple of Khush Khair Mohammad Faqeer.
Faqeer received his primary education and left the school, as he was fond of music.
He took yaktara and started singing along with his father and uncles, when he was just an eight-year-old.
He was sent to Khan Sahib Khetay Khan in Rohri, where he took formal training of music.
His teacher said nobody could be a great singer unless he knew how to play tabla or dholak, so Sohrab Faqir started playing tabla with his Ustad.
He was not fond of publicity and did not seek singing on radio. The best is always chosen, so he was picked up by radio directors.
When he was singing a Sufi song at the shrine of Sufi Ali Mohammad Talpur, former Station Director, Radio Pakistan, Khairpur, Syed Allah Bux Shah Bokhari, and Producer Jahangir Qureshi booked him for the radio. They had come to listen to the Sufi music.
His first song from Radio Pakistan was, “Galian prem nagar dian, hazrat ishq ghumayam.” This song made him famous all over the province.
Usually dressed in orange costume known as Gairoo, Sohrab Faqir coloured his beard with Menhdi, matching with his costume.
Famous for singing in group of Faqirs, he got more respect from his listeners for singing at the shrine of Sufi Shah Inayat Shaheed. He made the listeners whirl by singing in groups.
He had been to Britain, Norway, Belgium, Germany, Holland, France, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Iran, India and other countries.
He received several national and international awards, including the Sachal Award in 1991.
Sassui Palijo, Minister for Culture, Government of Sindh, said only a few singers of mystic music were left in Sindh and Sohrab Faqir was among the top.
She said he was at the last stage of cancer and unfortunately they could not do much for him.
He was under treatment on the expenses of Sindh government and had been receiving Rs 15,000 stipend per month since February 2009.
Palijo agreed that the Culture Department was not doing much for the benefit of artists.
She said Culture Department did not have funds in its hands and it took a lot of time to get funds released for artists.
“More time was wasted in files,” she said.
The Sindh Culture Department, for the first time, had got a budget of Rs 200 million approved for the Artists Welfare Fund and they were waiting for its first instalment to be released in November.
The Culture Department severely lacks fund. “Sometimes, I have given funds to artists from my own pocket,” said the minister.
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