Love and Revolution – Part I
November 16, 2008
lovechangeI remember when noori launched into the mainstream (2002), our tag-line was that we are a clear departure from soppy love songs – that we had consciously decided to stay away from the lovey-dovey track, because all that was coming out in the name of love was total crap, and that, especially in these times, the needful was to bring about change at a different level. To focus on the minds of people (youth in particular) – try to make them think responsibly and to dream purposefully.
I’ll be very honest. This was all Ali Noor’s idea! He’s the one who had always been inspired by revolutionary western rock music and the progressive writers’ movement (a la Manto, Premchand et al).
I must also confess here that the first idea in this direction (again) was provided by me – when I wrote the lyrics for ‘Mein’. But honestly, I was not at all aware about it: Noor had made this melody and he asked me to write words for it; I wrote spontaneously, Noor did all the interpretations and, right there and then, we found a new purpose for noori!
I was in awe, firstly at the fact that he mmanto2ade something I had just written off hand into something really grand (a big ego booster for me), and secondly because this brother of mine has a mind that works at the speed of light – the conversations we had that day (somewhere in 1996) opened a brand new chapter for both of our lives! … Although it still took me another 6 years to assimilate it, he was already at work starting that very day…
Truth is that I have never (and I mean this) on my own initiative written a non-love/message/social-change oriented song. It has always been in collaboration with Ali Noor. Whereas Ali Noor kept writing more and more such songs, all with his own initiative, while I was busy partying at college/university (I rejoined him in the effort once again in 2002, when we had to pen down some remaining songs for SKMHJ).
Ok, I wrote ‘Jo Meray’ on my own – which isn’t much of a love song, but then, that song doesn’t have any lyrics to start with!
And this brings me to point out a major difference between Noor and I: he is a real life person, who works with (and hence comprehends) tangibles mostly – he dreams, but his dreams are practical dreams – like becoming a rock star, changing society etc.
I, on the other hand, am an abstraction freak. I have my own world, full of romanticism and highly impractical agendas. From the age of 3 to 15, I have spent more than half my day, roaming outside in my lawn, talking to myself, telling myself that one day I will be this super hero, with supernatural powers etc.
I still have these ‘unreal’ dreams by the way. But I have learnt how to refine them and make them more in sync with the knowledge fund of our time (and that of the ancients too).
Secondly, I have come out of my ‘love thyself’ syndrome to quite and extent, and have tried to link my dreams with humanity in general. Yes, today I dream of a future human being, with capabilities and potential far beyond what we have today… I love mythology, and I love the supernatural!
My dreams may not be real-life, but they are future-life for sure!
Lastly, in retrospect, when I wrote Mein, I think I wrote it about myself and my elevation from all the issues of reality. But Noor interpreted it as the Story of a Mad Man - even the video (which was never shot) was planned out like that. And look at me, I have never even told Ali Noor that I wrote it with myself in mind!!! I guess he will find out, himself for the first time, with this post.
Gee man… thanks for calling me a psycho!
And I guess that also answers the question that ‘who’s right?’ in all this… right?
yin_yangNo! … this is not a question of who’s right and who’s wrong. In fact, this difference is the very basis of what makes us brothers gel so well.
We are like the yin and yang. Even our stars made us like that!
It will be interesting for the reader to know that Noor and I are equinoxes. Our birth dates (23rd September and 21st March) are those very days of the year (give or take some approximations) when the duration of night and day is the same! And while I mark the beginning of Spring, Noor announces the coming of Autumn (the two most beautiful seasons of the year). …
… Man I am taking this vanity thing beyond limits!!!
I am gonna stop here
or I’ll lose total control…
I have something else to say as well… I am not finished yet. But I will give you respite, and give myself a day or so to recollect my thoughts…
As always, I wanted to write something else, and went in another direction altogether :P
I suffer from vanity for sure!! … Any prescriptions??
link:
Love and Revolution ? Part I ? says?..
Ali Hamza's latest official blog entry: Love and Revolution – Part I
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