Among the Sufi poets

by Veenu Sandhu / New Delhi March 26, 2011, 0:19 IST

Anita Singhvi has been invited to sing at the Urs of Nizamuddin Auliya. She tells Veenu Sandhu about her life in music.

The air is thick with the fragrance of roses. Narrow alleyways lined with colourful shops that sell perfumes or offerings to be made at the shrine of Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya lead to the dargah where the saint and his disciple, Sufi mystic Amir Khusrau, have been resting for centuries. Close by, at Khwaja Hall, a gathering is in place. The hall is filled with men, many of whom are wearing four-cornered bright yellow caps (kulah), the kind Nizamuddin Auliya and his disciples used to wear. There is only a handful of women in this room, and they all sit in one corner. Facing them, at the far end, are the speakers, who, like everybody else, are seated on the floor. Among them is a woman wearing a saree of as bright a yellow as the caps. “That,” she later says, “was a coincidence.”

Read the entire article at: Among the Sufi poets. In it Khwaja Hasan Nizami, the Shajada Nasheen of the Nizamuddin Dargha speaks about women in Sufism. His words, and more importantly, his actions in honoring this wonderful singer, are welcomed by this author. Khwaja Nizami is a friend of my order, where the Darghas of our Murshids lie side by side, our hearts are joined as well.