There are some people who live for themselves and some for others. Although some believe that living for others is also living for oneself, because to some it provides the ultimate satisfaction to be of use to others. Amongst these are some who try to be good to earn credit and want people to boast about their goodness on their behalf, but some do good for the sake of goodness. One such person I know is Irfan Kiani aka Lala. A brief intro to him for those who don’t know him is that he is Hadiqa Kiani’s brother and has managed her career for all this while. I think that he ended up managing a lot of other careers at the same time unconsciously. My introduction to him was when I took my album “Huqa Paani” to Indus music’s office back in the day where he was in charge then. He wanted to listen to how I sang and put a condition that if I was be sura or untalented he would be of no help. I made him hear my song “ Dekha Sung Taeray”. He put the head phones down after listening to it and asked me to come with him. Since that day till last night when Lala drove me all the way to Behria town to get me my studio panels for my studio from Ali Mustafa’s studio, Lala has been one of my major sources of guidance, help and support in my career, hence I would publically want to thank him. Why publically, because I feel that some people’s contributions to the industry are too loud to be kept silent about . These knights fight in the dark and then disappear after the war has been won leaving the Princes to enjoy the glory. Lala has been a major source of help for many musicians and artists in the industry. He’s the one who sat outside the vocal booth while and Abrar-ul- Haq or a Dr. aur Billa recorded vocals for their famous numbers and would decide for them what vocal takes to keep and what not and how to render a line. Apart from all this, his intricate observation into various styles of singing, lagao of “sur” and music production is a study in its own domain. I personally thoroughly enjoy having open frank religious and philosophical discussions with him. I think by my description of him you must’ve perceived of him as some old cranky man, but he is a young malang with long hair and a fantastic sense of humour and you can’t do anything but laugh with him. If you want to hear what he sounds like he sang a song in Hadiqa’s new album called “jab say tum gayay”.
I read it in pieces but I could relate to it as yesterday i saw one of our leading artists sitting on a news channel claiming his bravery as to how he was the only one to have appeared on the show to speak against Taliban and all the others are cowards .I chose to sit and witness a very naive conversation where the suggested idea was to “speak” to these suicide bombers and convince them that it is not Islamic to blow themselves up and they should come on the right path. I fail to assimilate that how could we ignore the current and the historical geo political and economic aspects that directly co-relate to the evolutionary in culmination of this phenomenon, over the last many decades, alongside the massive blunders done by our leadership. We created a monster in decades and expect it to disappear in days. Not possible. And certainly not by putting a hand on their shoulder and saying” dude, this is not the real Islam. Come to the right Islam”. What world are we living in. All that you see is politically driven by international economical interests rather than religion. Religion has been used throughout history just to safe guard these interests. Not just Islam but Christianity at one time and also other religions. It’s no rocket science.
In a recent show that i did on Dawn with Wajahat namely Talk Back, some thought my answers weren’t as aggressive and i was too docile for the nature of the interview. What i would like to mention here would be that the way/means through which an artist fulfills his social responsibilities are different from how a political/social activist would. The way an artist speaks about them is different than how a socialist or a politician does. Secondly, some artists (all over the world)are more inclined into gaining public sympathy through announcing their social and moral efforts and perhaps sometimes use it for their personal benefits. I certainly don’t want to belong to that category and I do not enjoy pronouncing my good deeds. I believe if you do something good, it can never go unnoticed as per the law of nature. Although after my mother saw that interview she got on my case that why did you not mention all those events and times that you did all those things for all those ngo s, i.d.ps, Shaukat Khanam etc. and the song against terror “yeh hum nahin.” I had no answer except that “I forgot”. And you know what… “I actually did”. There is an old saying “NAIKY KER DARYA MEIN DAAL”. But I did mention them now so I don’t know if that is good or bad.
But is my request to all of you. Kindly stop the hypocritical behavior. Stop trying to show off how good you are by counting the number of nafals you read and showing off how many Rozas you kept. Goodness lies in its implication in your day to day life, not the merry act. Try to please God’s people and god will be pleased automatically. Stop cursing India when you yourself sing their songs, love to watch their movies, love their stars and given a visa would want to go to Mumbai/Goa everyday.
Learn to Love. Love everything and everyone, because it is nothing but an extension of you. God resides in every heart, he rides on every soul. Don’t disappoint him further with your meaningless appeasement that would matter little to him. We as a nation need to stop putting each other down all the time. Learn to support. Learn to lend a hand .Appreciate your enemy’s good qualities and learn to wish him well in eventuality. Bind together. Produce. Learn. Progress. , Learn. Progress. This is not something new that i say. It has been said by many since thousands of years. All i am saying that open your hearts to that voice. Not because it’s time to do that,but to know that the time to do this was always there, but you are here in that time only for now!
Ok so you can now follow me on Twitter. My friends finally convinced me that it’s the new thing to stay in touch with your fans and i’ve gotta be there. So i guess i am now. Let’s see how efficient i am though. So follow me @ www.twitter.com/alizafarforu
Life is funny and life is sad, but it’s also so many other things.
Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.
From the world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: “Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease”?
To this Arthur Ashe replied:
“The world over — 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis,
500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam,
50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to the semi final, 2 to the finals,
when I was holding the cup I never asked GOD ‘Why me?’.
And today in pain I should not be asking GOD ‘Why me?’
Sorry haven’t been able to write here for a while but you can subscribe to our you tube channel and i shall be in contact with you from there now mostly. It’s alizafarnet. I think it’ll be fun to have fans post their videos in response to my videos so we can have a virtual interaction. Love Ali
I know it’s been long but as most of you must’ve heard the news, i was busy getting married to my long time love Ayesha It was much more fun than i’d thought it would be. She’s so cool that being married is more fun than being single actually and i would like to admit that i wouldn’t have been half the man that i am if it wasn’t for her love and support. Allah nazar na lagayeh bhaee.
Besides that i’m off to Houston tomorrow for the show on the 15th and Chicago on the 16th (details of which are shared on our web site main page i guess) Also coke studio final episode on it’s way. I’ve done a new song “nahin ray nahin” .I had written it 7-8 years ago and one day while going through it again i thought why not do this one at the studio.Hope it brings pleasure to your souls. I’m much grateful to all the love that you people have showered upon me for my performances at the coke studio. I try to improve each time for you guys that’s why it takes me time to come out with more and more new stuff coz i believe in quality more than quantity and i would hate to disappoint you guys. Forgive me for times that i have, i’m only human
Sudeep Basic chords for jaanay na koi are G major with a touch of C and D major with a touch of G note on the last e string. It then progresses to A min for sanchai on the verse that says the “ hum ko “, then G maj on “ raastay mein” and back to A but this time A major for “ dekho jaana kitney” and finally to D major 7 on the word “ door” . These were the chords for the Astai meaning chorus. I’ll try to upload a video while playing it to make it easy for you before I leave if I get time and Khadija relax, life is too short for all this stress. Enjoy. Happy independance day in advance in case i can’t write in between .Make yourself and this country proud ! Love to you all my fellow friends .
So sorry for not writing for so long but it’s been crazy busy. Even now i was packing for a flight in a few hours but thought must write to you guys write me off :)
First of all thank uuu soo much for all the birthday gifts. Madeeha thank you for the books.
I am thrilled to see the response on ” Dastaan-e-Ishq”. As i had written earlier that there was an unusual exprerience that had happened and will talk about it later . Well even now all i can say is, that it is something that can only be felt and not described . But i am very happy with what coke studio has brought to our generation. I love the performances by all my fellow artists and want to thank them and the entire team of coke studio for giving our people including me something to be proud of besides the 20 20 world cup !
…. And did you see that ! i made some videos from my phone while we were busting those stumps and my friends screaming with joy and bouncing off the walls. Will try to upload some day ! way to go Pak team !
There is so much to write . Too little time .
Oh and ofcourse the shift in brand. The blues and the Jazz ! Well i could assume that people would be shocked and confused and contrive various stories as to how and why it happened . Well hear it from the horses mouth.
I had worked for telenor with dedication and sincerity that even they would vouch for and we shared a mutually benificial relationship for 3 years. But recently my last contract expired with them and i was offered a new one from Mobilink . Simple !
Now i am also for the opinion that had the campaign come a few weeks or months later, it would’ve been easier to understand the dynamics but since i was flying out of the country to tour so we were only left with shooting the add before i left which meant asap . But i wish all the best to Telenor and it’s team and a happy farewell. Infact i would also like to appreciate those young boys and girls spending timeless hours at call centres and various other jobs, be it any brand, and hope that one day all those youngsters grow up to have their own companies :) As for the future … get ready to Jazz up !
See some of you on the Toronto show on the 12th ! Happy living .
Back from a fantastic show in Geneva and a great trip. Switzerland is breathtaking, extremely peaceful and calm. A few friends drove me to France for a birthday dinner . I so wish Pakistan gains this level of tranquility . We’re planning something for the people of Swat . They need us the most at this moment . Will update on that soon . For now check out the video clip i recorded for you guys while there …
p.s Thx for all the lovely b day wishes on the forum .
So whoever wants to fly in for the show is more than welcome . 18th is my birthday so plan to stay on and party and then return unless we plan to move on to Greece for a show which we’re workig on and may be London to relax for a few days with friends . I could use a small vacation . Chaos
Right , so I hear some of u wanted to read about my childhood or silly school stories including jman from the last blog’s first post . Ironically an old school friend tagged me today in a few group pictures of me with my pals back in school .
It certainly suddenly did bring back a lot of memories, however the ones related as to where those pics were taken , why they were taken , how or who took them , certainly don’t exist in my memory anymore . But I do remember something strange though, which is , that i had developed a lot crushes on a lot of girls at a lot of different times from school including teachers , although none materialized …. whoops ! But they were very harmless and innocent crushes … like the ones you see in movies … the flowers and the teddy bears and the cards and the valentine’s day and the chocolates . Yes , the kiddy kind . I also remember we used to have “ opinion books “ and “ slam books “ where we all used to post our comments on eachother . Can u imagine , we needed a book to tell eachother how we felt for who . The most frequently used comments for me were “ cute n nice “ “ cute and nice “ and “ cute , nice and a good artist “ I used to get so irritated … like come on guys .. wasn’t there anything more ? e.g “oh my god he’s so sexy … I wanna tear off his clothes when he’s reading the physics chapter 8 out loud ! can I ? ”
Also there was a lot of mystery and talk revolved around the “ s “ word , but since this is a public forum I shall refrain from talking on that . Untill next time . Happy S …
It was much more fun than i’d thought it would be. She’s so cool that being married is more fun than being single actually and i would like to admit that i wouldn’t have been half the man that i am if it wasn’t for her love and support. Allah nazar na lagayeh bhaee.
