In praise of diversity

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: what she brings to her songs.

She says that “delving deeper into Sufism would reveal that there is hardly be any scope for fundamentalism.” From time immemorial, Sufism has brought people together and “for once, let’s again bring people from all cultures and religions together on a stage instead of projecting gory pictures of bloodshed and people mourning the loss of there kith and kin across the world,” says Khan.

Zila for empowerment

The first woman in her family to take up music as a career, Khan strongly advocates women empowerment. While purdah has been a part of Hindu as well as Muslim culture, Khan broke away to follow her career.

She believes that it is essential to have a pure heart and soul and only then will one be selected for spreading the philosophy of god. She claims to be the first to put the thoughts of the early Sufi saint, Hazrat Rabia Al Basri 717–801 of Basra in modern day Iraq. And she believes that god had found her to spread these thoughts among mankind. “I have that clean vessel where such pure thoughts could reign. There have been great singers before me who could have sung her thoughts, but I was the chosen soul who got the opportunity to sing them.”

“The fundamental question is — what do I stand for? I stand for making my life useful to others, helping others live in an atmosphere that I have been brought up. It is not about singing alone. It is a a highly disciplined kind of lifestyle where you can feel the strong connectivity with the lord.”

Building futures

For the moment, her attention is on ZHK-Ustadgah, or place of the ustad, the institution she has set up in Kerala. This institution is not only for music, but other creative disciplines as well. Underprivileged children between the age of seven and 25 are enrolled on the basis of talent for aesthetics.

Students here stay four years, learning their art from renowned teachers. At the end of their course, they perform somewhere outside India. Sustaining this home would not be a problem as ZHK-Ustadgah: One World Festival, would be held eight times a year, of which four would be in India, where artists would be performing and displaying their art.