LAHORE, April 7: A Kashmiri singer and composer from India made the audience spellbound by rendering the Ghazals and poems of maestros at the Punjab Institute of Language, Art and Culture on Saturday.

Seema Sehgal brought forth freshness of the choicest poetry to her perceptive listeners through her mellifluous voice in a highly evocative style at a special evening arranged by Faiz Foundation in collaboration with PILAC.

The stage was tastefully decorated with flowers set in life-size vases. The backdrop of the stage reminded one of the architecture used to prevail when poetry and literature were part and parcel of routine life, layers of arches leading to a miniature golden gate was aesthetically designed in the backdrop.

The singer while playing on harmonium and with live orchestra around including violin, guitar and tabla opened the evening with Faiz’s poem ‘Meray Milnay Walay.’ The audience was generous enough in praising the singer for her classy singing. Ms Sehgal then sang a number of other poems and Ghazals by Faiz such as ‘Meray Dil Meray Musafir’, ‘Bahar Ayee’, ‘Shaam-e-Firaq Ab Na Phuch’ and Jamay Gi Kaisay Bisat Yara.’

Being from Jammu Kashmir ,the singer also provided a rare opportunity to an eager audience to enjoy a folk song of Kashmir. Ali Sardar Jaffri’s famous poem ‘Ghulam Tum Bhi Thay’ was an absolute experience for the audience.

The evening went extremely well except the mosquitoes in the PILAC auditorium.

The singer has since long been putting efforts to promote peace through her music, a peace album, Sarhad.

The album consists of poems by well-known Indian poet and film critic Ali Sardar Jafri. The poems are sung and composed by Seema herself.

In 2006, Seema was honoured with prestigious Hakim Khan Sur Award for national integrity. She is the only Indian singer felicitated at the prestigious Harvard University, Boston, USA.