PakistanвЂ™s most famous qawwals today, the duo raced through the chartbusters and seemed taken aback when asked for a couple of the less mainstream qawwalis. It wasnвЂ™t the troupeвЂ™s best performance even the singing was strictly competent at best. But the auditorium was too thinly populated to justify this excess. The stage was admittedly glorious: an 18-foot bank of flowers fronted the dais in a blaze of saffron, magenta, vermillion and white. Even the thought of a midnight-to-dawn performance was exhausting. The heat wave had flambГ©ed Karachi and left in its wake scores of limp, muggy nights and listless, shuffling people. But I never вЂgotвЂ™ qawwali.ДЄnd yet the memory of a Farid Ayaz-Abu Mohammad qawwali at the National Academy of Performing Arts has triggered an inexplicable longing for home. IвЂ™m endlessly fascinated by the human voice as a musical instrument, fancy myself quite the amateur singer and was learning to play the tablaВ once upon a time. My ignorance is fairly inexcusable: I lived in Karachi most of my life, grew up at a time PTV aired qawwalis at prime time and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a global sensation.

IвЂ™ve missed my nieces and friends resented the weather and public transport fantasised about dhaaga kebabs and missed having someone to make tea in the morning.Д«ut nothing worthy of a flashback other than the memory of a qawwali last Ramzan.Д¬onfession: IвЂ™m a qawwali neophyte I вЂdiscoveredвЂ™ the genre at T2F just two years ago. Rarely have I missed вЂhomeвЂ™ in the nine months since I moved to Toronto.

Pakistan qawali