ISLAMABAD, March 16: Shakespeare likened music to the food of love as he said in his famous lines: If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.

Another poet said of music and music makers: We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams.

Hailing from the family of businessmen and politicians, Mehfooz Khokhar is a nonetheless professional musician by vocation and God-given talent, although he does not belong to a Gharana as such.

Ustad Khokar is certainly “a dreamer of dreams and music-maker” par excellence. His is a melodious voice as is apparent from his first album.

The Ustad, who has penned one of the most outstanding books on classical music, entitled Raag Saroop, is a classical vocalist. He does not belong to any professional Gharana but so adept in semi-classical music that he is known today among the leading professional vocalists. He knows the classical Raagas and music at the tips of his fingers. Hence he holds great respect among the lovers of the classical music for his command and mastery over the classical music in the South Asian subcontinent.

In his 518-page book, Ustad Mehfooz Khokhar, has amassed a wealth of music of the subcontinent in its entirety.

Reading through the great mass of musical treasure most of which is known through the traditions of music dating back to centuries of classical music in the subcontinent, from the oral history of music as well as knowledge passed by the generations of musicians and their families spread all over the subcontinent and Afghanistan.