I took Waqar over to Sindhology. Besides visiting the museum, I needed to take photos of a book in the library there so that I could get some friends in other cities to see if they could find a copy to purchase. It is the first volume in a series of books by Agha Saleem, translating the verses of Shah Latif with Sindhi verses, followed by Urdu then English.It is interesting. Looking at the rest of the volumes, which I was able to find. If I had these books when I created the script in Urdu, it would have saved me the previous two months, and yet I feel the poetic form in which Shaikh Ayaz translated the text is more beautiful as poetry than the Urdu in this book, though he scraped away at so much of the depth of the original Sindhi. It is possible that if I read the Agha Saleem book in Urdu, I may not have jumped into this project as Shaikh Ayaz’s Urdu poetry is very beautiful.
I’m torn on this. In any case, both these translations are the fruits of incredible amounts of effort and time on the parts of all those involved in making them possible and for giving me a way to connect to Latif’s poetry, I am eternally grateful to them all.One of the challenges of libraries in Pakistan that I have been to, is that you can’t actually browse. There is a card catalogue, but essentially you need an author name or book title which you give to a library worker who goes back to some dark catacombs and eventually emerges with the book. This makes it impossible to know what treasures may be there. I prefer to go with a subject and then see what else is in that area of the stacks, but you just can’t do that here.
Anyway, I took photos of the book I was after, as I knew the title and author and then we walked over to the museum. I love walking around the museum. It is a rare institution that showcases a taste of several cultural scenes, handicrafts, historic artifacts as well as contemporary personalities and contributors to Sindhi culture.The rest of the day, I was researching online and making phone calls to try and get the music for “Risalo” back on track. The two female singers were a huge disappointment after wasting money on rehearsals for them. They could not even read the first few lines without skipping several words. They are literate and able to read, but lack the attention to detail or care for practice that is needed to make this work. Yet they are not lazy either. They spend much time and effort performing all over, which is grueling. I think it is more a reflection on their own process for the music they typically sing rather than a judgment on them. It still angers me to no end. So I have scrambled to find other possible singers.I am always a month away from finishing this task. My beard is rapidly going gray in spots. I feel strongly about abandoning this project and burning every shred of work put into it thus far, but then Saqib dropped by with some kheer his mom made, and I listened to old recordings by a singer that is practicing one section of the film and another that I am trying to line up a meeting to sing Sur Sorath and despite it all, I have a reason to continue on this.
The delays, disappointments and brick walls would be easier to deal with if I was not out in a desert town, away from wife and family, and without a job that I could at least feel secure in continuing to earn with. At some point, the accumulation of delays and issues will result in my having to abandon the project and return home to a job. I am prolonging that day as much as I can by living quite miserably, but if I can’t, despite my best efforts to move this train forward, then Shah Latif can rest in dusty books for another few centuries until another fool thinks to do something. Here’s hoping it doesn’t come to that.