The recall factor is a twist in the story! It changes the way you are looking at life at a given moment. I instantly emerged from my boredom last Friday afternoon, when I switched to PTV, and found myself listening to one of my favourite sepia-tone number by a young and sonorous Sajjad Ali, and pretty and smiling Benjamin Sisters.

Yeah, well, actually, I happened to tune into a weekly show from PTV that plays old farmaishee songs! And the song was Ae rooh-e-quaid aaj ke din. The brilliant composition was by none other than Nisar Bazmi! The poetry, or should I say ‘lyrics’ were by Mehshar Badayuni, one of the most appreciated poets of the middle decades of the 20th century. The edge-on, sonorous decibel of Sajjad, even at that juncture in his early career just put you in the right frame of mind for the rest of the day! The way Bazmi Sahab has put in the short bursts of chorus voices in this number remind you of one of his other sterling hit, Yeh watan tumhara hai, which being totally different from this one, applies just the changes in higher and lower musical planes to make it a pure melody.

PTV in Bhutto’s time was full of innovative numbers all the time, which continued to defy the boredom of Zia’s time in the Eighties. Later, after Globalisation rules applied, only the so-called modern, western music had a field day, while other music was exiled from the proliferating channels!