<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picture this scene from the 2014 Hindi movie \u2018Haider\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The darkness of the night has shrouded over the streams of Jhelum. Overcrossing the dreary Chinar stands few lonely homes, bereft and abandoned. It\u2019s the \u2018Mamaland\u2019 \u2013 Indian army\u2019s prisoner detention center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tearing away the silence of the night emerges a song, <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Qafas udaas hai yaaron, The song is being sung by Dr. Hilaal Mir (played by Narendra Jha in the movie), who has been held captive by the Indian army for doing his duty – treating an injured who happened to be a militant, a terrorist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n By treating a terrorist, Dr. Hilaal too became one himself and is hence languishing in the detention centre pining to return home. His body bruised and battered as a result of physical torture in the camp, his mind weak, its resolve bent with the force of the unbearable. However, his heart seeks refuge in this song, written by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, immortalized by Mehdi Hasan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018Gulo\u00f1 me\u00f1 ra\u00f1g bhare b\u0101d-e-nau-bah\u0101r chale With a feeble body, this infirm man sings his \u2018homecoming\u2019 song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That night, amidst the screeching silence of the obscure night in the detention camp, another jihadi – Roohdar (played by Irrfan Khan) quietly heard Dr. Hilaal sing..<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hilaal could never return home. Later, his body was traced from the many graves covered under the thick layer of snow by his son Haider (played by Shahid Kapoor). <\/p>\n\n\n\n A celluloid adaptation of William Shakespeare\u2019s \u2018Hamlet\u2019, this particular scene in Haider, directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, where the son after hearing of his father\u2019s disappearance is frantically looking for his last remains, not just perturbs us with its goriness, it also makes us cringe in fear of the ghastly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘I’m going there to see my Mother The year was 1862, the Civil War of America was at its peak. It was the Libby Prison at Richmond, Virginia, infamous for the overcrowded and harsh conditions under which officer prisoners were kept and was also known to be the place form where prisoners never returned alive. Let\u2019s try and picture this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A little while later, both of these soldiers would be placed right in front of the firing squad. They know they would die, leaving behind this beautiful world and its people forever. Minutes before being dragged from their cell, the soldiers sing this homecoming song one final time, cherishing the moments spent together, re-living their unfulfilled desire to return home. They sing along while others in the Libby prison listen to them. Over a period of time, the song came to be known as the \u2018Libby hymns\u2019 and also gave birth to a new genre \u2013 \u2018war folk\u2019 songs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Later David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan wrote a book called \u2018The makers of the Sacred harp\u2019 (an authoritative reference work that investigates the roots of the Sacred Harp, an American musical tradition that emerged in the 19th century), where they mention this song and their authors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Such was the power of its words and the emotions it evoked, that the song became a universal \u2018homecoming\u2019 song. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘I am just a poor wayfaring stranger Though these two songs from two different parts of the world, couldn\u2019t have been more different from each other, however, it is in its ability to give emotional solace to the languishing prisoners who pined for their homes, that its universal appeal lies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The universal emotion of love, affection, brotherhood and harmony bridges all geographical barriers making one seamless world where Srinagar and Richmond betray similar ethos, Mamaland and Libby prison cannot be differentiated anymore and the songs of homecoming across the world do not have any strings that are discordant with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2020, Sam Mendes\u2019s \u2018War Epic 1917\u2019 received 3 Oscars for cinematography, sound mixing and visual effects. The song \u2018I am just a poor wayfaring stranger\u2019 is almost the soul of the movie which tells the story of two young British soldiers during the First World War. Maybe Thomas D. Newman\u2019s music could have fetched another Oscar in their kitty, though it didn\u2019t happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The song of homecoming, the universal appeal it carries within and the melancholy that binds it with the rest of the \u2018wayfaring strangers\u2019 will be the stuff of the legends. It will continue to encourage and infuse all those who have left home and all those who wish to come back with its inimitable spirit of hope and courage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (The above is a translated piece from the original article written in Bengali by Journalist and author Prasenjit Dasgupta.)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (A translated piece from the original article written in Bengali by Journalist and author Prasenjit Dasgupta) Picture this scene from the 2014 Hindi movie \u2018Haider\u2019. The darkness of the night has shrouded over the streams of Jhelum. Overcrossing the dreary Chinar stands few lonely homes, bereft and abandoned. It\u2019s the \u2018Mamaland\u2019 \u2013 Indian army\u2019s prisoner…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[29,26],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/bdmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/bombayduckmag.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/PujaArticle.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Safa se kuch to kaho\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chale bh\u012b aao ki gulshan k\u0101 k\u0101rob\u0101r chale\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n *******<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
She said she’d meet me when I come
So, I’m just going over Jordan
I’m just going over home\u2026’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two officers sit facing each other inside the dark dungeon. Both awaiting their hour of death. Unspeakable torture has been carried out on these two captured soldiers. They know that they wouldn\u2019t be able to return home anymore, will never see their families again, they would die in this cell without getting to see the faces of their fathers, mothers, sisters, wife and children one last time.
Despite the bruises, they hope against hope to live and sought refuge in the solace of a song,\u201d I\u2019m just a poor wayfaring stranger\u2026\u201d
They sing in turns, one sings, the other writes down the lines over the walls of the prison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, nor danger
In that bright land to which I go\u2026’ <\/p>\n\n\n\n *******<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n