An open letter – a clarion call
By Ramesh Narain Kurpad – Rafiaarenkay / rameshkurpad (gmail)
Rafi Sahab with his awards
Dear Rafi fans / bhakts from near and far away land – I have voiced myself vehemently in my own country through this beautiful dedicated Rafi website, but in vain – the Indian fans in India are meekly whispering “ alas Rafi Sahab cannot be conferred Bharat Ratna since he is no more and he cannot be given posthumously.” – says who?
Now this letter is being addressed to all international fans / bhakts who are not living in India they may be Indians – Pakistani’s – Bangladeshi’s – Afghani’s – from UAE – Saudi – America – Canada – UK – Europe – New Zealand – Australia – Germany – France anywhere.
All international Rafi fans / bhakts – if your nation has shown an inclination / love for Rafi Sahab and expressed that they wish to and love to honor Rafi Sahab with a civilian award – then please do so – the time has come.
The government of Pakistan has already expressed categorically that it wants to award Rafi Sahab with one of its prestigious awards – they should do so at the earliest as the time has come.
The Indian government has not even come as close to even ever mentioning Rafi Sahab’s name at any given time and hence the Bharat Ratna is far from happening.
Rafi Sahab is such a huge name – that – none can attach a tag like “ begging for an award “ – as he is above all awards available in the world.
I have always maintained that the Lord God – came to this earth in the form of a singing Rafi Sahab and hence the universe is left with a mass treasure trove of his songs.
One could float in balance and just keep drifting listening to his renditions whether it is love – pathos – separation – about the nature – about divine feelings – his songs leave a magical spell which keeps all moving things spell bound – simply lost in totality.
Ramesh Narain Kurpad
Irrespective of the song – you can imagine a smiling Rafi Sahab – his countenance radiating an everlasting joy never to fade away.
His songs evoke Godliness, friendliness, love, brotherhood, positive vibrations, even the ones who had drifted into a path of destruction and evil have come back to becoming normal nice humans – just by listening to Rafi Sahab songs – their minds eternally changed.
He is the true embodiment of love – passion – romance – poetry – ghazal – shayari – highest of musical traditions – divine singing.
None of his songs are easy to sing – the most difficult of compositions have been made to appear easy when it flows out of the lips of Rafi Sahab – mortals have tried and failed to achieve desired effect when they tried singing his songs.
Millions have failed to sing even the Alaap. Many aspire to sing his songs and they do so – simply because they are mesmerized by Rafi Sahab, his songs and his singing.
My dear international fans from far flung nations the world is blessed to have got a perfect human being like Rafi Sahab – the almighty came in the form of Rafi Sahab – sang – won over the hearts of billions of humans and set a benchmark so so high that none could do any better and none could match.
There never can be another Rafi Sahab. A sincere request to you all to lobby in your respective countries – Rafi Sahab for international awards.
This request is being made – as the union of India has deserted this great son of the soil.
Jai ho jai ho jai ho – Rafi Sahab
Tussi vakai great ho
Adaab Rafi
ahmed kutty sahab,
thank you very much for having voiced your innermost sentiments wherein i would go a step further and say you have just echoed my sentiments.
binu nair jee of rafi foundation – mumbai – is a pioneer – veteran rafi fan and extremely intelligent and highly resourcefull.
about ” rafi fm ” station dedicated – cud be floated – gud idea.
binujee are you reading – please give in your thoughts or inputs.
about bharat ratna – you can see – i am different from others – i have a mind of my own – my feelings are to special for me.
though the authorities are :-
DEAF, DEFIANT AND DELIBERATE
i will never give up.
ramesh narqain kurpad
respected ramesh saab,
there are plenty of rafi saab’s songs are unheard by
majority of people including rafians and i am one of
the unlucky fan.recently one of my friends who is
from mumbai and happends to be a rafian told he
did not hear the rafi saab’s song “yeh dunia patang
nith badle ye rang” so far.if this is the case for a
person living in mumbai,the chances to hear many
rafi saab numbers are limited to fans like me since
i am from kerala.
i think the present central government will not do
anything for conferring “bharath ratna” on rafi
saab.recently from a fm radio station the song
‘teri ankhon ke siva duniya mein …..’ played and
the rj announced it is sung by kk.some of the
listeners including me corrected it by sending sms
to the fm station.i heard some people are trying
to do like that. (instead of rafi saab as the singer
they are announcing it as kk.)
so in short is there any chance to have a fm station
“fm rafi” mainly to promote the songs of rafi saab
and his songs for which he deserves?can we think
serious about this?i still remember when rafi saab
died in July 1980,one of the fans requested through
print media to ply a rafi saab song every day at a
particular time from vivdha bharati.
My dear international fans from far flung nations the world is blessed to have got a perfect human being like Rafi Sahab – the almighty came in the form of Rafi Sahab – sang – won over the hearts of billions of humans and set a benchmark so so high that none could do any better and none could match.
ramesh narain kurpad
posts 103 and 104,
raja and prerna,
correct me if i am guessing wrongly but you sound like ” youth ” who are just about flotating and experiencing ” rafi sahab ” in his infantile state – visa vis his divine singing.
reams and reams of poetry and prose cannot encompass ” rafi sahab ”
we are just ordinary ” pedestrians ” trying to experiemnce this ” earthly wonder ” who later exited this earth as an ” avathaar “.
i do not wish to bore you two., and gladly leave you with your wonderous thoughts about our avathaar.
JAI HO RAFI SAHAB – TUSSI GREAT HO.
ramesh narain kurpad
sir, i fully suppopr your article. i also feel that it is not easy to sing his songs. i have been laerning classical for past 6 years and i lnow he is a wonder. so what if he is no more? he is always in my heart.. whenever i sing, rafi saahab is always in my mind. i admire many more singers like lataji, ashaji, pt. bhimsen joshi, pt. jasraj, sonu nigam..but rafi is rafi..he is the only one who could sing difficult songs like “o duniya ke rakhwale”..no other singer can sing..if singers like lataji, ms subbulaxmi or pt bhimsen joshi can get bharat ratna, then rafi saahab should get world ratna (if that award would have existed)
Shri Ramesh Narain Kurpad Ji
I am new to this forum but have seen lot of articles and comments expressed by rafi fans and I am totally impressed and visiting this site daily many times just to read the comments and listen the songs of rafi sahab.
in your post 101 you very correctly disclosed the fact that it is not easy to sing rafi sahab songs. Even some times I try to sing his songs (simple songs) as it looks outwardly, my vocal chords keep paining after singing his songs. Then how Rafi Sahab had sung so many songs with so much ease. Is it not the wonder!
God blessed rafi sahab with such a sweet voice and its fragrance we are still feeling in the air.
Thanks for your lovely article. I fully support you sir. I think you too one of the pillars of Rafi Forum…….
Raja
Millions have failed to sing even the Alaap. Many aspire to sing his songs and they do so – simply because they are mesmerized by Rafi Sahab, his songs and his singing.
None of his songs are easy to sing – the most difficult of compositions have been made to appear easy when it flows out of the lips of Rafi Sahab – mortals have tried and failed to achieve desired effect when they tried singing his songs.
ramesh narain kurpad