Gold that went through fire
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Swarn Noora's songs of love and longing, bringing the message of Sufi saints of yore, carry in them also the imprint of a feisty woman's struggle to realise her reason for being, finds ANJANA RAJAN in this conversation with the singer from Punjab.
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Capital discovery... Sufiana Kalam singer Swarn Noora.
WHEN SWARN Noora presented Sufiana Kalam and folk music of Punjab to an appreciative crowd seated on the rows and rows of chairs set out on the plaza of the India Habitat Centre and spilling out in all directions, her solid voice, clear and honest and full of myriad emotions, reflected the story of her life. Isn't art the experience of humankind? And to the imaginative in the audience who had heard of her path to becoming a performer, Noora's songs of love and longing expressed as much the struggles of an artiste whose voice was nearly quelled, as the tribulations of the lonely seeker of God as the Beloved.
It was Beat of India, the recording label and online music company that discovered Swarn Noora, deep in a Jalandhar basti. While she was a known name there, singing on All India Radio and various TV channels too, besides touring to neighbouring States like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and others, no big label had recorded her, and she remained aloof from the `elite' circles that have a hand in making singers into stars. Hopefully, with the launch of three albums and the live concert that accompanied the event, that will change now.
But Swarn Noora's drama began much earlier. Daughter of a famous classical singer, Bibi Noora, young Swarn, as she was originally called (the mother's name being attached to hers as a stage name), inherited her rich voice and picked up singing without actually being trained. Her mother did not want her to sing professionally.
"Then I got married," relates Noora. "In our biradari, it is not considered good to perform. My husband was a wonderful Sufiana singer. His guru was Master Rakha Ram of Rawalpindi. My husband told his mother he would like me to perform with him. But she said, `Beta, you sing. If she also sings, people will talk. They will say mother and daughter are professional singers. So let her stay at home'."
Mysterious illness
The verdict given, Noora kept house while her husband and his troupe travelled and performed. "After that, my mother died," she continues with little trace of the turmoil she must have suffered and which caused her to fall ill.
"A lot of money was spent on my treatment. All kinds of medicines were tried. Finally my husband asked me, `Gal ki hai?' What's the matter? No matter what we do, you are not getting better."
Swarn Noora with her troupe in New Delhi.
Noora knew her remedy. "I told him, `I want to sing with you.' He said, `Oh, what is there in that? Go ahead and sing!'"
The reversal of her fate was as simple as that, but the road remained arduous. "I knew how to sing, but I didn't have any idea of singing in rhythm, along with tabla and dholak. He began teaching me. Haule haule (slowly), I learnt. When I made a mistake he would slap me," says Noora. There is no resentment, only gratitude. "I didn't even know what music was. He taught me with so much perseverance, and had me auditioned as an artiste of All India Radio."
After eight years of training under her husband, Master Sohan Lal, she began performing with him. In 2001, he died, but not before Noora was ready to continue as a soloist. Travelling to Poonch, Lucknow and other centres, she earned fame and as well as automatic upgrades in her AIR rank.
Today, Noora is married to Nicchattar (Sohan Lal's younger brother), who accompanies her on percussion and vocals. She travels with him and her two sons Dil Bahar and Gulzar, who are part of the troupe. The accolades that greet them everywhere, however, have not changed the simplicity or the directness of her message. She sings because she must.
In Noora's own words, "Malik jab kisi ko swar bakshta hai, woh kisi ko nahin poochta. (When the Creator gifts someone a voice, He does not bother about anything else.)"
Photos: Rajeev Bhatt.
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