By Sarwar Kashani,IANS,
Srinagar : Farooq Abdullah is apparently aspiring to be a musician now. Though not as good as he is at striking political chords, the doctor-turned-politician of Jammu and Kashmir is learning to hold frets and plucking the strings of the guitar.
In a 1.13-minute video on Facebook, the former chief minister of the state is seen playing a guitar and singing two lines of Hindi song “kaise kahenge hum, kahan kahan kahan kahan – yeh zindagani bahut hi chhoti si kahan kahan”.
Like the musical instrument itself, Abdullah, 72, has always been a celeb with versatility. As a guitar is used in a wide variety of styles of music – from death metal to country to classical and everything in between, the entertaining politician of Kashmir has donned many a role in his life like the guitar he is holding in the video-clip.
Once known as a man about town who loved the company of Bollywood queens, Abdullah, a trained physician, is a good dancer who loves to sing – may be in bathrooms only and has been an heir apparent to his father late Sheikh Abdullah’s political legacy. He has been chief minister of the state thrice.
A great crowd puller, Abdullah is a good orator also, who may be loved or hated by the media but has never been ignored for whatever he does on and off the political stage.
In the short video, the father of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is seen sitting in the lawns of what seems to be his private residence in posh Bhatindi in Jammu.
Wearing a blue-stripped white shirt and black pants, the veteran politician is getting the basics down and is being instructed by a tutor, not shown in the film.
But he is finding it a bit difficult. Not able to understand which string and fret combinations correspond with which note, Abdullah drops the guitar. But as relentless a politician he has been, he restarts again and this time plays better and sings the song in a bit of a husky voice.
With a Punjabi accent, the instructor praises Abdullah’s musical mediocrity by saying “fantastic… grand sir… awesome sir”.
But he has a lesson for Abdullah also. “Sir, kuch nahin hain sir. Jo aapke haath main beat hain na sir, sir woh upar waale haath ka kaam hai, neeche waala haath sahi hai….” The instructor tries to make him understand the guitar tabs and how to place fingers correctly on the frets, even as he praises his picking of the strings.
Abdullah also acknowledges his weakness. “Neeche wala haath theek hai, upar wale haath ko theek kar do (I can pick better but you teach me how to hold frets). And Abdullah promises to gift his tutor his Spanish guitar next time he visits him.
Abdullah, the National Conference chief, is the party’s nominee from Srinagar constituency.