‘Mausikaar’ encourages artistes, entertains music lovers

Islamabad: It was an enjoyable musical evening arranged by ‘Mausikaar’ a trust established to preserve and promote classical and semi-classical music and singing the other day. The hosts were Doreen and Sohail Kiyani, who made the beautifully maintained lawn of their home available to arrange the function.

The weather seemed to have finally settled for ushering in a long hot summer but the evening was still pleasantly cold. The grass in the lawn had already become velvety emerald and the hosts must not be appreciating the way it was being trampled!

But we hope it would soon revive its beauty as nature is so good to heal its wounds with a little care. And the ‘Kiyanis’ appeared to be plant and flower lovers and they must be aware as to how to restore the damage.

However, as the evening progressed it appeared that the sacrifice offered by ‘Kiyanis’ was worth it. After the first round of exchange of pleasantries, mingling of guests, introductions and a ‘hi-tea’ to enjoy, the real ‘action’ started.

Hameed Khan, a well-known ‘rubab’ player from Swabi, the KPK, strum the strings and the air was filled with the tune of popular Pashto song ‘zama janana mar wa be kay.’ Accompanied by Atish Raheel on ‘tabla’ he continued to present a few more popular Pashto folk songs before he made way young and promising singer, 23 years old, Atif Sunny. He was joined on ‘tabla’ by another young artiste, Sajawal Khan, 27-years of age.

Sajawal Khan started learning ‘tabla’ from the famous ‘tabla maestro’ Ustad Ajmal Khan, and later he became the disciple of Ustad Naimat Ali Khan of the famous ‘Panjab Gharana’.

Atif Sunny, with traditional ‘harmonium’, started off very well with the popular Multani kafi ‘sanwal mor maharan’ composed in Sindhi Bhairvi and the next they presented Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s famous song ‘teri aankhoon kay darya ka . . .’

The function was flowing beautifully and the audience was enjoying listening to the live music, an opportunity that is becoming more and more rare, and enjoying the renditions. But then there was minor malfunctioning in the sound system and one speaker stopped working. The incident disturbed the two artistes and the lost the grip on music as well as singing.

They quickly regained the rhythm and continued to perform and but there was a visible change in the audience’ level of interest. However, it was indeed a nice live musical evening arranged by ‘Mausikaar’ which was enjoyed by the guests.

The guests included some diplomats, retired bureaucrats and businessmen. The prominent were the Ambassador of Portugal Joao Costa, Ambassador of Oman Hilal Al Abri, Dean of Diplomatic Corps and Ambassador of Turkmenistan Atta Jan, Defence Adviser of the British High Commission Brig Ben P. Edwards OBE, Ambassador Nasir Ali Khan, Ambassador Salahuddin Chowdary, and the Union Councillor of Jhatta Hathial, Irfan Ahnmad Kiyani.

The Executive Members of ‘Mausikaar’ present on the occasion, receiving the guests and managing the show, were Faiza Zafar, the Vice-President, Shzia Shah, Mehreen Khan, Almina and Nauman Muhammadzai.