MY DARLING SINGER PASSED AWAY
Reshma has been called the “ The Daughter
The Desert. “ Coming as she does from the desert country of Bikaner. She was discovered
by Saleem Gilani of Radio Pakistan who was struck by the beauty of her husky, forlorn
– sounding voice. Her repertoire has grown and though kafis and devotional songs
remain her forte, she is equally adept at ghazal singing. She was honoured with
the Pride of Performance Award in 1982.
The cinema song ‘lambee Judaayee’ is her magnum opus.
Reshma (1947 - 3 November 2013) was a renowned
folk singer of Pakistan, who was also very popular in India. She died on November 3, 2013 in Lahore,
Pakistan, after suffering from throat cancer for a long time.
Reshma was born in Bikaner,
Rajasthan to a Banjara (Gypsy) family around 1947. Her father Haji Mamad
Mushtaq was a camel and horse trader from Malashi. She belonged to a tribe
which had converted to Islam. Her tribe migrated to Karachi shortly after the
Partition of India.
She did not receive any formal
education and spent much of her childhood singing at the mazars (shrines) of
the mystic saints of Sindh.
When she was twelve years old,
she was spotted singing at Shahbaaz Qalandar's shrine by a television and radio
producer, who arranged for her to make a recording of "Laal Meri" on
Pakistan radio. She became an instant hit and since that day, Reshma has been
one of the most popular folk singers of Pakistan, appearing on television in
the 1960s, recording songs for both the Pakistani and Indian film industry, and
performing at home and abroad.
Some of her famous numbers are
"Dama Dam Mast Kalandar", "Hai O Rabba nahion lagda dil
mera", "Sun charkhe di mithi mithi cook mahiya meinu yaad
aunda", "Wey main chori chori", "Ankhiyan no rehen de
ankhyan de kol kol".
The last was used by Raj Kapoor
in Bobby, "Ankhyon ko rehne de ankhyon ke aas pass", sung by Lata.
Her fame had crossed the border, thanks to pirated tapes. She was able to
perform live in India much later, during the 1980s when India and Pakistan
allowed exchange of artists. Subhash Ghai used her voice to great effect 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.
She still loves going to the
mazars, where several of her pirs (holy men) reside. She has been visiting Pir
Mushtaq Hussain, Pir Shafqat Hussain in Okara for the last twenty-five years.
She also visits the mazar of Shahbaz Qallander. She once said in an interview,
"I was born in a family of saudagars in Rajasthan in a small settlement called
Bikaner. I don't know the year I was born but I was told that I was brought to
Pakistan when I was a few months old in 1947. My family would take camels from
Bikaner and sell them in other areas, and bring back goats and cows from
elsewhere to sell at home. I belong to a huge clan of gypsies. We were forever
travelling around. Though a lot of us have now settled and taken up permanent
residences in Lahore and Karachi, whenever we feel restless we pack our bags and
move on."
In October 2002, Reshma performed
at the Brunei Gallery in London to a packed fall of Pakistani expatriates her
daughter Khadija and Umayr also performed. 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. 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.
Reshma was diagnosed with cancer
in the 1980s, in later years her health deteriorated, leading President Pervez
Musharraf to come to her aid, giving her one million Rupees to help pay off a
bank loan, as well as putting her on a secured assistance of 10,000 rupees per
month. He also helped her secure a plot of land for herself, but that did not
go through due to the change in government.[9]
Her last residence was in the
area of Icchra in Lahore Pakistan. She was a pure vegetarian.
Her younger sister Kaneez Reshma
is also a professional singer. Her Health has deteriorated to such an extent
that she was hospitalised in Lahore Pakistan in Doctors Hospital on 6th April
2013, the caretaker government has elected to pay all her medical expenses.
Reshma remain as a legend forever……
Check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogZ_L8WQWvw
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