A Singer and his Religion – who competes?

This week Aamir Hafeez was eliminated from Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.  It created a very sad and avoidable situation.  His brother and family went on a rage rant accusing other participants of not being good singers and also bringing in the example of Musarrat, Amanat Ali and Raja Hasan – implying that Muslims are discriminated against in reality shows.  It was really a sad situation – specially with someone like Amjad Ali Khan there.

I personally have been a great fan of Raja Hasan but his singing had limited dimensions.  Areas that he was strong in, no body could even touch him.. Period!  But, he was not the same in all the areas.  Amanat, on the other hand, was good and had a very easy singing style (clean singing – as Ismail Durbar rightly said) but he was not, in my humble opinion worthy of the top spot.  Between, Raja and Aneek, I really think that Aneek was certainly the most versatile.  In fact, he probably happens to be the most versatile singers I have seen. Ironically, many people held his technical correctness against him as if just because he cannot get it wrong technically, he doesn’t have any “feel”, which was a BS.  Aneek was anyday the best.

And, honestly, if there was indeed anything negative against a minority singer, then Harpreet Deol was one who should have felt bad.  He kept on improving and bettering himself and yet no one ever gave him good remarks.  I was as much longing to hear a standing ovation for him as he was. I wonder where he went wrong?  I was always a fan of his.  But until the end he never got appreciated!  He even started to say that but stopped short.  That showed his greatness.

Now, there is a website of Raja Hasan fans which goes on to thrash Zee all the time!

And for this episode, many people go on to thrash Sonu Nigam for his remark on Aamir’s brother’s attitude as “Jis thaali mein khaya – usi mein ched kiya”.  To properly understand his remark you have to appreciate and empathize with his struggle as a singer.  He, despite being much better than really second class singers of his initial days, had to go through such humiliation at the hands of lousy Music Directors and others.  For years he had to anchor this very program and it was only after many years that he got his due.  For someone who literally defined this stage, he would surely feel that these kids have had it really easy – which he has mentioned as well.  For such kids – who get a heads up in their careers so easily due to this platform, to turn around and spout anger at this program is like spitting at the very platform that helped them.

Compared to this the leaving of Rohit and Vasundhara was very painful as they were top class yet they were dignified!

Honestly, I felt really bad for Aamir.  I honestly feel that he has a great future.  But his family due to their own cobwebs are bent on destroying it.  If he wants a future in singing, he should immediately start to learn singing seriously and hone his already good voice.

This same attitude was on show when Azharuddin was named on match fixing along with Ajay Jadeja and Kapil Dev.  Now, with all due respect to Azhar, he or any other player ever in Indian cricket, except Sachin ever came close to Kapil’s cricketing class and caliber.  Yet, he had to go through this unnecessary and shameful episode in his life.  But what plea did Azhar take?  That he was being named because he was a minority!  What about Jadeja?  He is from probably the greatest cricket family in Indian history – of Duleepsinhji and Ranjeetsinhji.  He still went through all that treatment.  Azhar got severly criticized and had to retract back him statements.  But it all left a bad taste in the mouth.

Why can’t we keep this feeling of victimization out of this competitive world?  This sort of behavior is a detriment to those who work hard to compete on their own merit. There are many others who compete on merit and win.  Just because of this behavior, there are enough people who start to attach this kind of attitude to the entire community and start behaving negatively.  In any case, there are enough people in India who are convinced (of course, incorrectly) that Muslims just empathize with Pakistanis and will side with them when it comes to the wire.  Like those famous cricket match incidents.  Aamir’s father’s burst and bringing Musarrat and Amanat in actually strengthens all that.  Such victimization mentality becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  It is like a vicious circle.  The more I think I am victimized, the more I will do things that other will be convinced I am “different” and anti-community, so will start victimizing it.