A tribute to Zeb and Haniya and a journey with the waves of Pakistani music

Last week, I heard the sad news of the death of Haniya of Zeb-Haniya fame. It suddenly took me back to the late 2000s and early 2010s How wonderful their songs with melodious lyrics set to beautiful tunes had made many memorable evenings with my friends and wife. We had a borrowed projector that projected the high-quality (of the day) videos on our white wall and we would spend evenings listening to the wonderful Coke Studio songs composed by Rohail Hyatt.on repeat mode. For us, Rohail was ARR equiv. It has always been a bit more exotic to listen to Pakistani music.

This got me wondering, that Pakistani music/ musicians have always enthralled the Indian sub-continent over many years. Without going to the times of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, the first wave of good Pakistani music influence on our radios was from legendary singers such as Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb. The wonderful songs of Chupke Chupke by Ghulam Ali and Qawallis of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Reshma’s Lambi Judai are rendered by new-age artists across India even today.

The young Nazia Hassan and Ali Haider scintillated the second wave in the late 80s and early 90s. They were must-sing-a longs in all college day celebrations and hogged the per-liberalisation days on the national TV channels and audio video cassettes.

The next wave was marked by the Bollywood movie songs of the romantic voices of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and Atif Aslam which were downloaded by the young Y2Ks and played in their Winamp players.

The fourth wave was surely the explosion of Coke Studio which filled all our Youtube recommendations for many years. This probably was a rediscovery of the old melodies even for Pakistan. With Coke studio churning out fantastic numbers of Atif Aslam like Jalpari to Zeb and Haniya and Meesha Shafi and Arif Lohar and the ever-legend Abida Parveen making us go crazy for a new Sufi way of music! Pakistani musicians surely had more to offer.

But despite gate-crashing birthday wishes, the state of Pakistan proved that their music alone was the positive thing coming out of Pakistan.

The latest wave comprises of the feet-tapping Punjabi numbers of Pasoori and likes which even my 7-year-old daughter and friends, can't resist at their birthday parties.

In all my journey from cassettes to YouTube, Zeb and Haniya have a special place in my heart because of their sweet melodies like Chal diye, Palmonia and Nazar Aayle to name a few. They also featured in a Bollywood movie with ARR. Even today, their songs remind us about love in its nascent stage in our lives and how it can blossom between two individuals.

…Aas wohi dil mein liye

Is aarzoo mein hum jeyein

Tere haath thaam kay

Lo hum bhi chal diyeyee

Hum bhi chal diye…

Music plays an important part in my life and thank you Haniya for partnering with Zeb and giving me some memorable loving moments from the initial days of my marriage and Pakistani music to the joyous moments with my daughter.