Ever since the legendary Lata Mangeshkar’s positive message for Karachi’s singing rickshaw driver Master Aslam went viral, the talented vocalist has been in the news almost on a daily basis. Nearly every TV channel has interviewed him and he has even met some high-profile government officials. All of them have promised to help Master sahib if he adopts music as a profession.

In fact, Indian singer Daler Mehdi offered to buy him an apartment either in Karachi or Lahore. It remains to be seen whether all these promises are kept, because if they aren’t kept then both the media and the artist community will lose credibility. The former more than the latter, probably.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, May 1st, 2016