Reshma, a well-loved singer in India and Pakistan, died in November of this year in Lahore.
Subhash Ghai used her voice in the film Hero, which featured one of her most famous songs, “Lambi Judai”.
During her career she was invited to meet Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
In October 2002, Reshma performed at the Brunei Gallery in London to a house packed full with Pakistani expatriates.
In 2004, she recorded “Ashkan Di Gali Vich Mukaam De Gaya”, which was used in the Bollywood film Woh Tera Naam Tha, and was also a hit record in India.
Reshma championed the cause of Indo-Pakistani Friendship. In January 2006, she was one of the passengers on the inaugural Lahore-Amritsar bus, the first such service linking both parts of the Punjab since 1947. The bus had 26 passengers in total of whom 15 were Pakistani officials, and Reshma had booked seven seats for herself and her family.
I will forever be grateful that I was introduced to the utility and beauty of hand crafted products early in life - from the symbolic motifs sewn into the coarse linen fabric of Croatian traditional wear to the colorful Kilim carpets that decorated the parquet floors in my grandmother's living room.
I treasure the memories of my grandfather teaching me how to protect myself against the "evil eye," the smell of the flower stalls in the open air market where my grandmother bought produce early every morning for the day’s meals and the summers spent at my great grandmother's where the village wags would come to gossip over thick, black Turkish coffee in her cool stone kitchen.
Someone noted that "For all of us that want to move forward, there are a very few that want to keep the old methods of production, traditions and crafts alive." I am a fellow traveler with those who value the old traditions and folk wisdom. I believe the knowledge they possess can contribute significantly to our efforts to build a more sustainable world - one that values the individual over the corporation, conservation over growth and happiness over wealth.
December 26, 2013 at 10:57 am
Reblogged this on Rashid's Blog.
December 26, 2013 at 8:21 pm
Reblogged this on Voices and Visions.