Abida Parveen, the great Sufi singer, maybe the greatest of her generation, is talking to me from Islamabad.
Well, actually, she’s talking to Umair Jaffar, performing arts manager for Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum. The Museum is co-sponsoring a rare Parveen concert this Sunday along with the concert’s venue, Roy Thomson Hall.
Through Jaffar, I’ve asked Parveen a question about how secular, Western audiences react to her intensely spiritual, devotional music. The two of them launch into a passionate, intense, lively conversation in Urdu over the transatlantic phone lines. As I listen to this beautiful dialogue, which I do not understand, I feel that I’m participating in this funny, deep, personal conversation from the sidelines.
More than five minutes later, Jaffar tells Parveen that he’s going to try to translate her answer for me. “Are you still there, Robert?” he asks. I laugh, and so does he, at the impossibility of his task. And from across the world, sensing our conversation, Parveen laughs, too.
More at the source: May 12, 2016 – The Globe and Mail
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Ismailimail 