Article by mohdrafi.com

Continued from the previous part.

Mr. Yoosuf Rasheed, a Malidivian; a devoted admirer of Rafi Sahab. He works as a clinical assistant at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hostpital in Male. A huge black and white poster of the legend decorates the bedroom of Mr. Rasheed. He feels proud that he managed to restore the poster while it almost got destroyed while lying at the bottom of a cupboard in his flooded room during the heavy rains in April 1991. Spending Rs. 300/- this poster was transformed from a small photograph he cut out from a magazine, which he generally would keep in his wallet. This 29 year old fan has a collection of CDs and cassettes more than 1,500 sols and duets of Rafi Sahab.

The Maldivians were introduced to Rafi Sahab with his 1947 hit single Watan Ke Raahmein Waten Ke Naujawan Shaheed Ho that appeared in the soundtrack of the hindi movie Shaheed. It was his late brother that introduced Yoosuf to Rafi Sahab by playing Rafi’s songs continously in his home. Yoosuf now listens to more than 100 songs every day and records them for free on tapes to friends who wants to listen to Rafi Sahab. “Anything for Rafi” he says. Yoosuf is one amongst many locals in awe of Rafi’s prodigious singing talents. In addition to CDs and Cassettes of Rafi Sahab’s songs, his passion is to collect photos and other information on Rafi Sahab. He has collected more than 50 pages of information on the legend. He estimates that he has only 5% of Rafi’s songs; almost 1500 singles and 500 duets approx.

He adds that he cannot go to sleep listening to Rafi’s songs; he gets too absorbed in it. He remembers that when Rafi Sahab passed away in 1980 the whole Male was quiet when the news of his death reached. He was only 5 then.

He is sadded with the current outcry about not much information about the singer’s life on the Internet. Internet has all information other than a detailed indepth analysis on the legend. Also the music production houses do not release old unheard songs of Rafi Sahab. He finds it extremely difficult to get hold of such rare treasures.

He plans to create a website dedicated to Rafi Sahab. He has already dedicated an email id in the name of Rafi Sahab – mhdrafy@hotmail.com. He requests all his relatives and friends; also the Indian doctors at the hospital to bring him cassettes and CDs of Rafi each time they make a trip to India.

Yoosuf also maintains fairly good collection of Rafi Sahab’s immitators. Inspite many claim that Sonu Nigam immitates the legend well, his personal opinion is towards Mr. Ashok Katar and Abdul Hannan Moosa Didi. He finds their voices are more inclined towards the legend. He also adds that it is almost next to impossible to make a 100% replica of Rafi Sahab.

Mr. Yoosuf was in touch with mohdrafi.com and was active particpiant in multiple discussions in Meri Awaaz Suno yahoo groups, untill a year or two.

This blog was published on Saturday, December 31st, 2005 at 6:48 am and Last modified on Saturday, December 31st, 2005 at 8:45 am and is filed under Meri Awaaz Suno. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.