I loved her voice.

Although I spent my teen years in Pakistan I had little interest in classical music, deeming it for parental listening only. Once I went off to college in the US, I discovered and embraced my roots, as many of us do when given the choice.

My favorite memory of Iqbal Bano is sitting in the NYC apartment that my newly-out friend shared with his flatmates.

He said, “You’ve got to listen to this tape my Dad just sent me from Lahore.”

He popped the tape into the deck and there she was, her voice melting away the heat and din of New York, transporting us to a room where people sat against cushions on the floor listening to poetry, their appreciative “Wah! Wah!” studding the cool night like stars.

Her voice was a bridge between the home we had left behind forever, and the place to which we did not yet completely belong.

May God grant her the joy of His Visage and the peace of His Presence, ameen.

inna lillahi wa inna illeyhi raji’oun - We belong to God, and to Him is our return

—

Related:

ATP’s Payaal mein geet hain – a celebration of her life

And Iqbal Bano’s famous rendition of Faiz’ Ahmed Faizs poem Hum Dekhenge (click here for translation and transliteration):

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