Reviving Pashto folklore through tappay contest
PESHAWAR: ‘Ya Qurban’ singing competition organised by the provincial culture department and taking place in seven divisions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has not only encouraged talented folk singers to show their mettle, but also encouraged people to tweet their inner feelings.
Celebrities like Reham Khan, former wife of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan, perhaps aware of the unique competition taking place in “Naya Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” also couldn’t help tweeting her feelings, “Ma de Topai pa Sar Ganrala.. Da Jeenako pa War Paida Wraka ( sic. Dooba) de Karma”.
Those who are familiar with the Pakhtun culture could read between these lines what she was hinting at. This ‘tappa’ or folklore conveys well the feeling of disappointment when one misunderstands someone from their gentlemanly appearance. Such a tweet after a much-talked about divorce is loaded with deep meanings and feelings.
Since it is a tradition that one can sing along and respond a ‘tappa’ with another meaningful ‘tappa’, Dr Salma Shaheen, a Pashto poetess specialising in ‘tappa’, couldn’t help speak for Imran Khan – as he himself might not even be aware what a ‘tappa’ is and most probably he can’t read Pashto.
“Yaari de Zor Khabara Na Da, Janan ta Waya Khula Sama Khwazavina”, Dr Salma Shaheen, tweeted a ‘tappa’ which fits any embittered relation well since it implied that one can’t force others to love, ‘so my beloved you better stop blaming me’.
In just two-liner ‘tappa’ one can convey the meanings, says Dr Salma Shaheen
“The interesting thing about the Pashto folklore (tappa) is that in just two simple-worded lines one can convey the meanings,” says Dr Salma Shaheen, former director of Pashto Academy at the University of Peshawar who is a known poetess and has compiled some 35,000 written and unwritten folklores (tappay) into two volumes.
Singing ‘tappay’ is in the very nature of Pakhtun rural life and as old as Pakhtuns which according to researchers is some 5,000 years old nation. Some 85 per cent of ‘tappay’ were sung by rural women while they sang of their life’s hardships, their romance and lost love as they grinded wheat or watched men working in the fields. In the serene village life, men while harvesting or irrigating fields sang ‘tappay’.
A ‘tappa’ starting with syllables ‘Ya Qurban’ not only balances the verses, but also brings a melody which could be heard far and wide when folks sang in open fields. This was like live entertainment in rural life and in fact the only entertainment during weddings in villages. Women sang of romance and love by singing and even creating ‘tappay’ according to the occasion. When they felt suppressed they sang folklore of tragic end of innocent Maimoona on how she was killed on just a suspicion like women who are still being killed in the name of honour.