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Describe the atmosphere and live music at a local pub, restaurant, festival, church or temple, club night.... inspire other people to check it out!
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Musician: Yusuf Mahmoud
Location: Southall, West London
Instruments: voice, tabla, harmonium
Music: Afghan/ Sufi
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HOW I CAME TO THIS MUSICÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýWHERE I PLAYÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýA FAVOURITE SONG |
  
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 ÌýÌýListen (8'20) to an audio feature recorded at Yusuf Mahmoud's house in Southall. Presented by Reem Kelani. (Broadcast on Radio 3: 29/1/02)
ÌýÌýListen to Tchun Djaney Kharabat played by Yusuf Mahmoud (voice, harmonium) with his father Ustad Asif Mahmoud (tabla).
A favourite song:
I grew up in an area of Kabul called Kharabat. It was next to the palace of the king, who built the neighbourhood 200 years ago for the musicians who used to perform in his palace. All the musicians and people involved in the music industries -- dancing and everything -- lived in Kharabat.
It was very famous all over Afghanistan. Everybody looked forward to going one day to visit the place where all these respected musicians and dancers lived. They used to hear them on the radio and see them on the TV, but they wanted to go and meet them personally in a coffee shop. Wherever we go the people ask 'Can you sing Tchun Djaney Kharabat.' That means my heart becomes as Kharabat.
Kharabat has two meanings: one is this neighbourhood called Kharabat. But the real meaning, in Sufiism, is somewhere where you can go and have some peace for your soul and some happiness for your heart. You can just go and leave all the world behind - you are the king of yourself.
There are some steps and rules before you get into Kharabat. You have to be clean inside, have respect for your elders, be open and big inside. For example if you see someone who is thirstier than you are, you should pass on the water to him. They don't like you to be too 'religious', saying 'I'm praying five times a day…' If you're doing it for God, then God is watching you - you don't have to show it off to me.
Later on, the song shows what happens when you get into Kharabat. They believe, in Sufiism, that we are a drip of water which has been separated from the sea. But once it gets back to the sea it's not that drip any more -- it becomes the sea. So they believe that we are a drip of water from God. Once we die, we get back to that sea, and we are God. We go back to God.
I still have the spirit of Kharabat in London. The family of musicians is a universal family all over the world, and within this family I always find Kharabat. Wherever I find musicians, Kharabat is there.
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