New Delhi hosts Sufi music festival

New Delhi, Feb 27(ANI): Rabbi Shergill, a singer from Punjab, performed at Jahan-e-Khusrau - Sufi music festival held against the backdrop of Arab Ki Sarai, Humayun's Tomb complex in the national capital.

The festival is an invaluable addition to the city's cultural calendar, and commemorates the death of famous Sufi poet Amir Khusrau.

Shergill performed along with Masaka Ono from Japan, Sanam Maryi from Pakistan, and Samandar Khan and Group from Rajasthan on Friday.

"Sufism can't be closed in a box, it is a course of life. It has achieved many milestones and it will achieve many more. It contains Baba Bulleh Shah (a Sufi poet), Sheikh Farid (another Sufi poet). Sometimes A. R. Rehman is in it and some times I feel even Jimmy Hendrix's music is contained in it," Shergill said.

"It is a wave in which one can take a dip and everyone should be given freedom for that," he added.

The festival is the brainchild of director-designer-writer Muzzafar Ali, and it is also a celebration of ideas, and instruments, languages came about to reinvent the spirit of Khusrau.

"It (Sufi music) is a thing that celebrates love, it is not a new thing. If it is re- invented, and is presented in a nice way, it will spread more love," Ali said.

The highlight of this year's festival is Begum Abida Parveen, a famous Sufi music singer.

The festival is on in the city from February 25 to 28. (ANI)