Rock & Roll Jihad

My undergraduate life was full of South Asian music- old and new Bollywood songs, Indian classical music, Indian pops, Pakistani qawwali, Strings and Junoon. Since I started learning Urdu as the major subject and got curious about the art and culture behind the language, I left almost everything behind that I had followed earlier.

Until I turned to eighteen, the path of my life had been focused on piano and Western classic music. My generous parents, who are music lovers and who wished me to be a musician or at least a piano teacher, offered me the prestigious education at the most famous music school in Japan from the age of five. I am very grateful to them. 

With my feeling of guilty to have chosen the completely different path from what my parents desired and my strong curiosity to learn the new world, I intentionally put myself immersed into South Asian culture for the six years of my undergraduate life including a year to study Urdu at University of Delhi and three years for a once-in-lifetime project of ‘Hiroshima Ki Kahani’, Urdu stage drama tours to India and Pakistan, for which I played the main role and had a privilege to meet and to culturally exchange with intellectuals, artists, officials and students of the same generation and to be on major newspapers and TV news. I dedicated myself for the project as I wanted to compensate what I might have lose by switching my path 180 degree.

As the time of graduation approached, I was still not quite sure what I exactly wanted to do next, but I had to decide my future while I was still studying in India(because there was a fixed period of time for recruitment for new grads), so I randomly sent job applications to Japanese companies that have branches in India, and luckily, I got an offer from a famous company and started to work with its international sales department.

I enjoyed travelling and working with people from different places of the world but maybe naturally and unfortunately it did not work for a long time someone like me and I moved to London to study Indian classical music and kathak, one of the main South Asian classical dance forms, where I got much more into the art forms and I was astonished by the diversity of the city. And that was where one of my lovely friend, who is an American musician and researcher of Pakistani music introduced me the book, ‘Rock&Roll Jihad’. I bought the book online but it has been in my book shelf for the past eight years! I finally had a chance to read it now.

I knew Junoon since 2004 and I used to listen to their music on my professor’s recommendation but this book taught me the depth of their music. Junoon songs to me was a very unique fusion music from Pakistan sung in Urdu to have made me feel like that I am a very special listener to discover some undiscovered music. However, after reading this book, I realised there had been much more to know behind the sound and them, junoon, and now it does make sense why their music sounds so strong and resonates in one’s mind for long time.

I spent almost ten years as a blind dance student or dancer, seeking and learning at the best place to acquire the esoteric knowledge and techniques of the dance form. Unknowingly in search of the beauty and placing myself in an unhealthy environment for the past years, I had been vulnerable and blinded and did not pay any attention to anything other than dance. 

So I had no idea what has been happening in the neighbourhood country I was in and I feel so ashamed for my ignorance and indifference. It was only almost a year ago since last summer, I started to look and think about the real world, international relation and social issues around the world after the blind period of dance practice followed by the ephemeral happiness or dream from which I unexpectedly had to wake up.

The book tells us the unimaginable struggle, efforts, twists and turns and the magical achievements the artist had gone through. It also matches my dream to contribute to the world with the power of art and culture. In this unpredictable time of pandemic and being insecure of uncertainty of my future, this book of brave story written by the strong-willed musician offered me great courage to look up. 

One more thing that I would like to mention here is the fact that this book reminded me of my junior at my university, whose pet name was ‘majunoon’,(one who is obsessed by junoon) the origin of the word from junoon(madness). Majunoon dedicated his life to South Asian music. He used to travel to India and Pakistan for field research to regularly publish magazines from his sophomore year, he then continued postgraduate studies and often worked with other music researchers and lovers of ethnomusicology. But in the summer of 2011, the life of the young passionate soul was suddenly ended by a car accident. I couldn’t believe the news but when I went to offer flowers at the place of the accident, I had to admit the fact. He was in the mid twenties. His life was too short. Having finished reading the book on Junoon and remembering Majunoon, I am asking myself what I can do in the rest of in my life with what I have seen, experienced and been endowed with.