Dutch Ambassador Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, exceptionally thin and tall, is very easy to talk as representative of Holland. He is innovative and always finds attractive ways to introduce his picture postcard nation to the people in Pakistan. Early last fall, he did so by holding a flower show and the flower that his country represents is Tulip in whose cultivation and trade it excels the world over.
To attract his guests and make them more curious, he invented the slogan of bringing the "Tulip back to Pakistan".
The flower is a native of Turkish highlands that attained world fame in the Netherlands where the Dutch experimented on developing it in size, shapes and colours. They still do it and the latest, though by accident, is the development of the Black Tulip - not red blood black but jet black.
The slogan that adored every invitation Ambassador Koninkrijk sent out made it a native of Pakistan and the curious guests braved the evening chill that the late fall brings to Islamabad and came in large numbers to see the variety in the open lawns of his residence.
But on Friday evening, he celebrated the arrival of new year plus the assumption of European Union's primacy for January but having another surprise for Pakistanis.
It was Zalubai, an ageing folk singer from the lesser known highlands of Frontier, who can rightly be called the Reshman of the Mountains.
The first Reshman, the folk singer came from a nomadic family that roamed the Cholistan desert and was crowned as the "Melody of Desert" (Naghma-e-Sehra), while Zalubai, popularly known as Zarsanga (golden songs) hails from the tribal Tank, that sits in the arid and scorched mountains of Dera Ismail Khan.
Zalubai and Reshman, besides age, have many other traits in common - both are nomads, both are dark in complexion, simple and rugged tribal habits and completely illiterate.
"I can't as I am unable to read", she insists.
Surrounded by five equally rugged instrument players, who caused more awe by the heavy Thaap (beat) of their Tabla and the overly tuned strings of Rubabs, Zarsanga sat very dwarfed and diminutive their crescent singing Tapas and songs she has made popular.
Khyber Zalmai (Youth of Khyber) her opening number enthralled even those who did not understand Pushto. The song addressed to the youth, not of Khyber only, but the whole region depicts loyalty and portrays the social traditions of the Pathan culture.
For who understood, it was moving experience to hear it in her powerful voice, but to those who were not conversant with the language swayed under its impact.
Two diplomats, a Sikh from the Indian High Commission and an East European cleared enough space near the improvised stage to have a tango on the rhythm of the powerful music.
Then came the sublime and tender "Ro Ro Kaida kadamauna" (walk tenderly because underneath lies my heart), a 'sandarey' that could stand up to any love song in Seraiki or Urdu or for that matter in the mother of all languages, the Farsi.
And then the Pushto Tapey (Bolian in Urdu and Mahiay in Seraiki or Punjabi) like "Ma Jannan Ooseegi ghur da passa" (my love resides on that mountain) is a famous gypsy song in which the Koochis (also called Pawindas - the migrant Afghan tribes - speak of the traditional nomadic life.
Then ending with "Zma Daa Kharoo Jamoon Yara" (my love in yellow attire), a Sufi song, expressing blind faith in God through the power of love.
The evening ended with a brief address by the Ambassador, thanking the unusually large number of guests who braved the weather under an especially erected Marquee that a huge gas burner tried to keep warm and also the aroma of Shawarma - the Turkish-Arabic berbecue sandwiched in the Middle Eastern Ghubas leavened oven baked bread and small kababs.
Zalubai or more so Zarsanga inherited the art from her family. She was discovered by someone who heard her perform at a wedding in Lakki Marwat in the neighbouring Bnnu district and he introduced her to the electronic media.
She has performed in the US, UK, Paris, Germany, Belgium, UAE and the old Iraq and her songs are frequently broadcast over the radio and television.
She hold a Pride of Performance and Presidential Award, besides many prizes at home and abroad.
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