At a time when India and Pakistan are involved in war of words over Kashmir, there is one man who has determined to take music as a soothing medium for the fettered relations between the two countries. Pakistani Sufi singer Ustad Khadim Hussain Warsi has decided to tell the great inspirational love story ‘Heer’ on the Independence Days of India and Pakistan. His decision is in sharp contrast to the call given by the radical outfits of Pakistan to observe Indian Independence Day as ‘Black Bay’. Waris Shah had given the message of peace and love in the land of undivided Punjab. He must be a sad man today and must be regretting about the partition. Expressing his desire to teach ‘Heer’ both in Pakistan and India, Warsi said people need to be taught the significance of peace. Music bounds no boundaries. It is still the people on both sides of the border who crave for each other and the music. They have not come out of the shadows of those dark days which turned the history of Indian sub-continent. Emergence of Pakistan on religious lines has not gone well for the region. India was there even before the partition. It was Pakistan which was carved out of it. Even today after six decades the malice has out grown to become number one enemy of India. Waris Shah’s poetic verses have kept the people bound despite such political chasm. Music has no boundaries that is why an individual like Ustad Khadim HussainWarsi has taken the route of Sufi music to apply a soothing balm to the heightened tension between India and Pakistan. Hope Kashmiri separatists, who are spearheading the protest in Valley for the last 28 days which has claimed more than 50 lives and put the normal man’s life into hardships, take a leaf out of such rich history to bring calm and serene back to the stir-torn Valley.
