What began as a spontaneous, personal response months ago as poet and translator Pratishtha Pandya listened to the iconic song by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, became a collective journey when artists from different parts of India, of different generations, communities, and gender came together.
Pratishtha writes of this collective experience in the form of a poem:
Whose song is it anyway?
He whispered a song
in the ear of the night
in one lonely corner
She hummed the song
for the nightingale to hear
Who said it loud
and set it afloat
for the crickets to mock
for the bats to pluck
for the trees to rock
for mountains to echo
for the winds to carry
to the shores of light at bay
Whose song was it anyway?
Translated into Gujarati by Pratishtha Pandya, Harish Meenashru and Gulam M Sheikh.
Translated into English by Sarvat Fatema.
Gujarati composition and vocals by Prachi Vaidya (Dublay).
Painting and illustration by Labani Jangi.
[Special thanks to People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI)]
