{"id":4185,"date":"2020-04-26T13:08:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T07:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=4185"},"modified":"2020-04-26T13:19:32","modified_gmt":"2020-04-26T07:49:32","slug":"of-small-joys-of-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/of-small-joys-of-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Small Joys of Childhood."},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>\n

Nostalgia <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ode to Surnaivoul <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Z.G. Muhammad <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our childhood\nwas full of rhythm and cadence.  On\nlooking back, sometimes for their cheerfulness, I\nfeel envious about my b0yhood, childhood\nof children of a whole generation born in the fifties. Despite, the voices of the dissent then\nalso asphyxiated and atmosphere of insecurity looming large, it was the\nbeats, bells, and whistles that soared our hearts with joy. In the wee morning\nhours, it was jingling and tinkling of\nbells of goats and ewes and whistles of goatherds from the shepherd Mohalla,\nnear my school that woke us up. Or, it was\nlilting tunes of Santoor <\/em>and Saz-e-Kashmir<\/em>, coming out of baithaks\n<\/em>of some of the elite houses at a distance that made us toss aside our\nquilts. In the late evening, it was\nhaunting melodies coming out the flute of jilted lover Gul, that made us peep through a latticed window into the street to see his fingers dancing on the pipe. For many years, till his what I\nwould love to call as \u2018Keats\u2019s death\u2019, it was a  routine for this young man to walk on the street outside our home playing\nmelancholic-melodious tunes on his flute \u2013 he returned\nfrom\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026. when we were in bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music, during\nour childhood, was a part of us, it was\npart of our all festive occasions- social and religious. It was part of our mystical experiences and \u2018penance-processions\u2019\nand collective supplications. Of, all the musicians, it was Surnaivoul<\/em> \u2013 the clarinet player that\nwas our Benny Goodman and Pied Piper. He made us, all children of the mohalla\nto jump and jostle and follow him to every home. On Eids, and other religious\nfestivals, in early morning hours accompanied by a turbaned<\/em> drummer, sometimes\nby a bacha <\/em>a boy dancer dressed in\ngirls dress arrived in our Mohalla. For bacha\nnagana, <\/em>being a legacy from the\nAfghan rule, and patronized notoriously by then the powers in the State in our\nchildhood, many people did not recognize as a part of our folk but saw it as\ndecadent. On Eid, the Surnaivoul <\/em>and\nhis team of artist arrived immediately after the morning prayers- perhaps they\nmade it to the city from different\nvillages one day earlier. On entering into our compound, it was a drummer, who hit his drum with his drum stick\nlouder than usual, till children gathered around him. Then the Surnaivoul <\/em>to the accompaniment of drum\nbeats played on his clarinet first a nait<\/em>– a hymn in praise of the Prophet,\nfollowed by some melodious folk songs and songs of Rasul Mir, like Cholhama Roshay Roshay Roshay, Posha\nMadano<\/em>. My friends and I to the annoyance of elders followed them into many\nhomes and enjoyed the music. Out of eagerness,\nI sometimes requested our folk musicians to allow me to play the clarinet- on\noccasion they did oblige. Every home paid them for their performance both in\ncash and kind. It would be a rupee or a bowl of rice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The clarinet\nplayers and drummers in our childhood were an essential part of our social\nmilieu and cultural landscape.   Today, many sects see\nit as a pagan practice, but in our boyhood during floods, famine, drought and other calamities taking \u201cpenance-procession\u2019\nto the Astana of Hazrat Sultan and making \u2018collective supplications\u2019 in open\nground or at the Astanas of various saints were\na routine. The clarinet players and Dumhal Faqir<\/em> were always part of these \u2018penance\nprocession\u2019. The Dumhal Faqir made supplication to Allah for ending of natural calamities in their style. In our childhood,\npeople strongly believed that for their innocence and absolute faith in Almighty their prayers were granted favourably. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncontingents of  Surnai<\/em> players used to be part of the Martyrs Day processions and\nother functions of the state.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nostalgia <\/p>\n

Ode to Surnaivoul <\/p>\n

Z.G. Muhammad <\/p>\n

Our childhood
\nwas full of rhythm and cadence.  On
\nlooking back, sometimes for their cheerfulness, I
\nfeel envious about my b0yhood, childhood
\nof children of a whole generation born in the fifties. Despite, the voices of the dissent then
\nalso asphyxiated and atmosphere of insecurity looming large, it was the
\nbeats, bells, and whistles that soared our hearts with joy. In the wee morning
\nhours, it was jingling and tinkling of
\nbells of goats and ewes and whistles of goatherds from the shepherd Mohalla,
\nnear my school that woke us up. Or, it was
\nlilting tunes of Santoor and Saz-e-Kashmir, coming out of baithaks
\nof some of the elite houses at a distance that made us toss aside our
\nquilts. In the late evening, it was
\nhaunting melodies coming out the flute of jilted lover Gul, that made us peep through a latticed window into the street to see his fingers dancing on the pipe. For many …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-take","category-kashmir-talk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4186,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4185\/revisions\/4186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}