Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

A Celebrated Legend – reminisced


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his, on 13th October, is the anniversary of a ‘great universal celebrity’ having an immense number of fans, surely in millions of billions and more, all over the world, regardless and irrespective of their gender, creed, faith, religion, language, color, race and geographical boundaries. All love him, respect him or even worship him like a god. Some call him with prefix-titles such as ‘Doctor’, some say this man ‘Professor’, some say him ‘Ustad’ or ‘Guru’. Some know this man from the titles conferred upon him by his fans or journalists, such as ‘Shahenshah-e-Qawwali’, ‘Pride of Pakistan’, ‘Superstar of Music’, ‘Messenger of Peace’, ‘The Legend of Music’, ‘A Man Called Qawwali’ and this list goes on and on. Some recognize him as a bulky-bodied and calm-faced idol, lost in his work with serenity, relatively ignorant of his surroundings, looking like Buddha meditating while sitting on a peaceful rock of a lonesome mountain. This celebrity, god, doctor, professor, ustad, guru and idol, is undoubtedly, none other than the legendary “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan” – the great son of our beloved motherland Pakistan.

      Nusrat was born on October 13, 1948. His ancestors migrated from Afghanistan to sub-continent and later to Pakistan in Lyallpur, now Faisalabad, after partition. His father, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, was also a great Qawwal and instrumentalist of his time and took active part in the Freedom Movement by disseminating the message of Allama Iqbal given in his poetry, by performing “Qawwali” – a 600 years old tradition of the family. Nusrat’s real name is “Pervez” and “Peji” in defaced form. His father’s first intention was to make him a doctor or engineer. But Nusrat was very much fascinated by his family business and had great enthusiasm for music. Therefore, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan started to teach him the secrets of music. He acquired expertise in playing Tabla from his father and also some of raags. After the death of his...