music – Mehreen Javed

The trendy word ‘passion’.

Published on November 4, 2015 by mehlodiusLeave a comment

I read a wonderful piece of literature by Mark Manson around last week detailing the perils of defining our ‘passions’. It genuinely hit very close to home for me. I sometimes am caught in the politically correct storm of tirelessly justifying what I do, and, very frequently I am catching myself forcing myself to drown so I can ‘learn’ about myself just so I can answer the questions of other people..

Living in a family of Muslim background, I have worked my way into trying to do music. I never saw music as a problem, or, a struggle – as much as society plays it out to be a ‘struggle’. It can be, I guess, I can understand that. I can definitely see for some people why it can be a struggle to ask for something that they feel that their parents cannot understand. There are always struggles that we feel that we cannot speak to our parents about, or, things that we feel we are unsure how to phrase to the people that we love. But, never in my life have I seen fighting for music as a problem. It always seemed right for me to do – and whatever for me that is right is not a problem to ask for. I am in love with what I do, and merely even writing that sentence gives me pleasure that I am to say that with much confidence.

Life is a little too short to not try everything, and, to back away from things that you are too afraid to destroy. We spend moments, eons, fractions of minutes to calculate why something is not right, or, how our actions can be mislead or misinterpreted. And, that mere fear of our intentions being miscommunicated has held us all back from our desires and has dumped us in the pile of ‘could have been great’ – which (in my opinion) is worse than ‘failure’.

At some point of everyone’s lives, we have always been frightened of the height of the mountain before trying to taking on the trail. The purpose, we believe, is to get to the top – when really, that mentality always makes us miss the point completely.

Getting to the top is not conquering the mountain, in fact, the mountain belongs to no one.

It is not the mountain that needs to be conquered.

It is you.

“This is Pakistan: An Exhibition to Explore Pakistan in Sydney”

Published on April 11, 2015April 11, 2015 by mehlodiusLeave a comment

I was fortunate enough to be asked by both the Consul General and Consulate of Pakistan to join this campaign in spreading the word for a unique artistic exhibition titled “This is Pakistan” presented by Anjum Ayaz.

The purpose of the exhibition was to highlight the different flavours, colours, faces, artistic and cultural modes of Pakistan through images and sound.

I, as an aspiring artistic curator visited this exhibition moreso out of curiosity than out of formality of the invitation (which was generous of both the Consul and Consul General of Pakistan). If you have lived in Sydney long enough, you will know that there is a great deficiency in cultural and artistic exhibitions which come from local artists that are based in Pakistan. So, when the opportunity arised, I definitely did not pass it up.

The exhibition in itself was mainly represented as a pictorial.

There were miniature sculptures, small embellishments and remembrances of jewels that hindered right back home to the essence of what Pakistan is. I daresay, this was quite fitting to host it on the eve of “Pakistan Resolution Day” which commemorates the passing of the bill for an independent Islamic State in the days of the India-Pakistan separation.

The main attraction for me though (as the musician) was to meet and listen to the performances of the regional instrumentalists that had flown in from all the different provinces/states of Pakistan.

For everyone that is unaware of Pakistani geography, each state has their own multicultural culture, and, also has their regional dialects. There was a musician from each of the five Pakistani provinces present with their instruments – and oh my goodness they were amazing.

Such a sight is never witnessed where you are able to witness and experience the sounds of your home country in Australia. These instrumentalists came from folk areas and backgrounds. Hearing them play was a luxury that not many human beings are granted.

My favourite musician was definitely Shahid Malang on the Rubab. He had the most charming expressions when he played, and, his interactions with the tabla player made my heartstrings contract. I become incredibly fond of someone when their hearts come out onto their instrumentation and into their craft. The joy was exploding in his eyes when he touched that Rubab, and, it had enchanted the audience into watching him play onstage.

When you see two musicians communicating with subtle cues like head nods, eye wiggles, and smiles when they have hit a musical peak, it really shows the sign of great communication.

A performers’ language is an unspoken understanding

The concept of Pakistani arts in Australia has been incredibly under-recognised in the past. The most Pakistani events would have for cultural components is local, or, international musicians come in and belt out 2-3 national songs, and that would be it. There are very less events that choose to stage a tableau, a spoken word, poetry or artwork.

As much as I value music, it was refreshing to see something different come to life. It was an experience seeing Pakistani artwork being on display in an overseas institution.

For me, as an artist, I got to witness and personally engage with the people that are now being the curators for the image of our country. It’s an opportunity to speak to them and ask them how they came about to learning their craft, what struggles they have faced within their artistry, how do they feel carrying this responsibility and honour of their provinces.

I would like to thank the organisation “Koocha-E-Saqafat” for coming forwards with a Pakistani-Arts platform in Sydney. It is people like you who are preciously preserving our traditions and bringing our artists into Australia to deepen the understanding of Pakistani Arts into modern society. I would also like to thank Consul General Mr Abdul Aziz Uqali and Consul Mr Shifaat Kaleem for inviting me on the campaign for this exhibition, and, for generously inviting me as a guest.

The experience was one and truly invaluable.

I’m proud to be Pakistani.

What I do, and what I sound like:

Published on February 7, 2015 by mehlodius1 Comment

By profession and trade, I like to call myself a musician.

My parents brought me up predominantly on no music at all, actually. They were surprised to see my affinity towards it when I grew into my age, and then, I started to learn my instruments by ear. Back then, there was dial-up internet and floppy disks – not like today’s YouTube videos and detailed tutorials on learning music (which is fantastic, by the way).

Music from our culture was acquired by ear – which I am learning now by ploughing through the academic literature that is out there. I guess, sometimes I attribute the way I learned my instruments has a link to my background.

In saying that, I want to share a video a friend and I collaborated on for the #JamNominate! hashtag that surfaced on social media mid-last year.

Enjoy.

The ‘First’ Initial Post

Published on February 2, 2015 by mehlodius4 Comments

I am slightly awkward at timing my posts, and, pretty illiterate as to how to operate a blog. Even after having a Tumblr since 2008 (back in the day when ‘tumblarity’ was a thing), I still have not acquired the skills to be popular, or, to achieve solid readers.

Nonetheless, I have always believed that good content will always be read, heard or shared. The world out there has millions of readers who are always thirsty for content. Content makes up our cyberspace out there, and, it is for readers like you that people like me live.

My entire purpose of this blog is to clear the mental blocks in my speech and acquire a basis for intellectual discussion. The structure of this blog is uncertain as well, as I am purely using this for personal purposes. I would like to gradually share my opinions, essays and works to develop my academic language, and, possibly hear from you all out there what you would like to read.

I like to address inquiries as well, given that they fall under my academic discipline so I may correctly address the topic.

For now, I guess this suffices as a good obligatory ‘first post’.

Cheers.