Lyrical, delicate and powerful, ghazals are poems set to music. They were created in Persia 1,000 years ago and traveled to India 400 years later. Although most are ballads, some can be danced to, and they all have to do with love: falling in and out of it, flirting, melancholy, or even the love of one’s land.
Kiran Ahluwalia was born in Northern India and raised in Canada where she grew up listening to ghazals. After getting her MBA, and a brief stint as a bond trader, she left the corporate life to return to India and study the ancient musical art form.
She released her first album four years back, won the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy for her second, and has just released her third. Today we learn more about this ancient art form and hear it performed in Kiran’s own cross-cultural style.
Guests:
Musician Kiran Ahluwalia. Her new CD is “Kiran Ahluwalia.”