By Nirupama Subramanian
ISLAMABAD: As India and Pakistan prepare for talks on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt, three Pakistani peace activists, one of them a well-known name in music, have come up with a song urging the leaders of the two countries to “talk, talk and keep talking” to solve the region’s problems.
The song titled “Gul karo bhai gul karo/ Conversolutions” is in Punjabi and has been written and sung by Arshad Bhatti, an activist for India-Pakistan peace, along with Arieb, a high-profile singer-cum-activist, who has composed the music for the catchy number.
Arifa Mazhar, a member of the Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, provides the female voice in the song, which says there is “no problem, no quarrel that is too difficult to talk about or to which a solution is not possible,” and urges talks for a resolution to “all problems, our problems.”
The objective behind this song, Mr. Bhatti said, was “to project the voice of the dispossessed,” as only peace between the two countries could ensure a better life for them.
“What we want is more fluent conversations, and the free flow of ideas, people and mangoes across the border,” said Mr. Bhatti, a former civil servant whose other claim to fame is his much-written-about, politically themed restaurant Civil Junction here.
“ Jung saazish nakam karo, aman amaan ko aam kar, Jung bandi ka ehad karo, Karrwattan ko shehad kar, tajarat pe kaam karo, safar te visaaam karo, budzani ko raam karo, Atom bomb tamam karo, Sehat safai ghurbat ka, Ik paidaar sa hull karo ,” go the lyrics of the song.
It translates: “Make those who conspire to war unsuccessful, bring about a no-war policy, sweeten your rhetoric, work on improving trade, make travel easy, put the bomb behind you, and work for health, cleanliness and the eradication of poverty.”
The song is part of a 14-track album that Mr. Bhatti and Mr. Arieb are working to complete, and which the former described as “the voice of resistance and passion.” He calls it a political commentary on Pakistan’s 60 years, and most of the songs spoof masculinity and bravery, “two themes that have dominated Pakistani politics and produced monsters.”
A worshipper of Pakistan’s revolutionary poets Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Habib Jalib, Mr. Bhatti said his songs were an attempt to “contemporise the language of resistance,” so that it became accessible to the common man.
(Submitted by Pritam Rohila)