It is a Kafi poem (a style of Punjabi, Sindhi, and Siraiki poetry) written by the great philosopher and Sufi Poet, Bulleh Shah. It has made its way to several adaptations but the timelessly classic one is Rabbi Shergill's version.
This Rock-Sufi concoction induces a wave of nostalgia of the times when you'd adjust the reels on the cassettes, when you'd wait for your favorites to feature on the radio channels, MTV VH1, a world devoid of the Internet, and most importantly, Music was meant to evoke different perspectives instead of cringing about repetitive hooks
One day the world read Karl Marx, and we were communists. Then came Adam Smith, and we were capitalists. One day the world bowed down to the supremacy of the whites, then they revolted against the subjugation of blacks shouting 'Black Lives Matter'
One asserted a caliphate, the other wrote a constitution. One preferred meritocracy, the other went for reservation. One wore white to nuptials, the other wore it to the graveyards. One buried, the other cremated. One consumed at the tertiary level of the ecosystem, the other preserved every inch of life
For one, I was a son, for the other a partner, for some a friend, to some a citizen. We live with this eternal Dichotomy of Identities. If we can't encapsulate into one, how could the creator be? How could he be compartmentalized?
Na main bhet mazhab de paya
[Nor did I create the difference of faith]
Na main aadam hawwa jaya
[Nor did I create adam-eve]
Na koi apna naam dharaya
[Nor did I name me]
The way I interpret, Bulleh Shah has written this from the creator's point of view. He has been asked by the one dissected now and then, 'Bullah Ki Jana, Main Kon' This is an earnest attempt by art to dissolve the borders, and bring together a world that's been fragmented in the name of Faith, Caste, Creed, Gender, and parameters that could go on. Hence proving that art has no bounds
This year demarcates from the others by putting the whole world on a pedestal of crisis and these classics still fixate it to its roots by bringing all of us under the same roof.
By Ayush
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