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the-south-asian.com October 2003 |
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October
2003
Exhibitions Metcalfe's album of
Technology
Lifestyle Sushmita Sen Literature
Lehngas - a limited collection Books
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Malka Pukhraj - SONG SUNG TRUE Translated from Urdu by Saleem Kidwai ; 2003 Publishers: Kali for Women
The title of the book looks like a take on the title of the song Song Sung Blue – [ Neil Diamond] . This is a translated memoir from Urdu [ the original Urdu memoir has not been published ] of those rare breed of female semi-classical and ghazal [& dadras & thumris] singers from the Indian sub-continent. Malka Puhkraj – is famous for her rendition of Hafeez Jallandri’s poem – "Abhi to Main Jawan hoon ….." [ something similar to the French Charles Aznavour’s soulful singing of the song "Yesterday when I was young"………… After reading memoirs of Sopranos such as Maria Callas , Malka Puhraj’s memoir seems almost devoid of her actual music and as a singer of ghazals. About 50 % her 377 page magnus opus highlights her singing for the Maharaja of Kashmir whom she meets at the age of nine during a visit to see his coronation . The other curious aspect of her memoir is the absence of dates of major milestones of her life. Nevertheless it is still an absorbing piece of document , shedding a lot of light on the lifestyles of the Maharajas of India , whom the British carefully left alone in their own decadence , whilst the British carried out the task of carrying out their Imperial and Colonial duties over the people. There are 50 short Chapters – some as short as 2 pages [Ch. 30 – "The Maharani of Cooch Behar", Ch.42 Rani Billaraun ] . So too are her sentences. It appears she follows the Kansas City Star newspaper dictum for Ernest Hemingway writing style and its evolution that resulted in a Nobel prize for Hemingway.. Keep it short and simple. The major theme of the book is the Royal treatment that she receives at the hands of the Maharaja of Kashmir , Hari Singh the last ruler of Kashmir. The book is dedicated to him and to her husband Shabbir Hussain Shah [ or "Shah Ji" as she calls him] who appears to be a district land Revenue Collector and later moved to the Food Department during the days of the British. Shah Ji later becomes a Secretary to the Rehabilitation Minister. Whilst her days as a court singer were economically secure, she does not hide her humble beginnings . Born to a farming household in the village of Hamirpur Sidhdhar in the kingdom of Jammu & Kashmir , she gives no dates – assuming her current age to be about 82 years , her birth date would be around 1920. The birth is difficult and a clairvoyant Baba Roti Ram is called in for assistance . He gives her mother a "Pakori" to eat and tells her that the baby girl will be a "malika muazamma" – great empress . Hence her name Malka from the Baba and Pukhraj [Topaz] which her aunt [ who she says was very affectionate and fond of extreme cleanliness- scrubbing each coin she got with sand and rewashing dishes and not let anyone sit on her bed…..] Her father was a Pathan, given to gambling and drinking . Her education was entrusted to the husband of a distant cousin of her mother [ Gulzar Hussain ] who taught her Persian and Urdu. This Ustad had a shop, which ultimately Malka Pukhraj starts managing, selling paan, cigarettes and syrups. A precocious child, Malka says she learned faster than the boys around her. She was entrusted by the Ustad to manage the shop and she had the business sense to start charging twice the usual rates for the items that were sold . Her singing teacher was Ali Baksh, the father of Baade Ghulam Ali . He was a master of Sindhi bhairavi, the Sindhi kafi or khyaal . As soon as she finished her teaching under the Ustad, her mother’s ambitions and her aunt [ whose husband provided ice on the trains running from Delhi to Jammu] made her go to Delhi to continue her education. In Delhi she learned her dancing and singing under Ustand Mamman Khan . Once Malka returned to Jammu , that is where she is spotted by the Maharaja. Thereafter there is no turning back. The book is quite an insight for all of us who have some desire to learn how people lived in the Indian sub-continent in the earlier part of last century. There is the largesse of the Maharaja of Kashmir towards Malka Pukhraj, and her narration of the exotic and rich clothes he gives her, including a platinum [ she thinks it was silver ] jewelry set after his return from England, and the hunting trip for wild game in the Dal Lake and the forests in Kashmir. There are fascinating narratives by Malika about the Maharaja of Alwar with his retinue of eunuch courtiers and the Maharaja of Patiala whose drinking style was to give rise to this day of the " Patiala Peg" . Her last chapters are also a true rendition of her second son who seems to sponge off her and is given to forging her signatures to appropriate a lot of her land which she had bought in Lahore’s suburb of Garden & Muslim Towns. Once her husband Shah Ji passes away she calls upon the famous minstrel singer "Reshma" to come and stay with her and keeps asking her to sing the song that Reshma is so famous for " Hayo Rabaa , nayon lgda dil mera …." .These blues [songs ] help her get over Shah Ji’s passing away. Before I tell you the whole book, I must stop. This is a gem of a book and a sheer delight to read in spite of its few shortcomings. As the saying goes, an old man / woman is entitled to a few secrets and Malka Pukhraj is certainly entitled to them. ***** |
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