It was much later that one got to see Habib Wali Muhammad. His first introduction to music lovers was through his recordings of the two ghazals -- Ghalib’s Yeh na thi hamari qismat key wisaale yaar hota and Bahadur Shah Zafar’s Lagta nahin hai jee mera ujre diyaar main. One wondered who this vocalist was and what he looked like.

It was in the 1970 elections that he appeared on national television to sing Faiz’s ghazal Dono jahan teri mohabat main haar key, wo jaa raha hai koi shabe ghum guzaar key. And one got at least to put a face on the voice of Habib Wali Muhammad. Before this nationwide exchange of video recordings, the four stations of Lahore, Islamabad, Karachi and Dhaka telecast their own programmes which were viewed by the local audiences, as the range of the transmitters was rather limited.

It is likely that he may have made an appearance on Karachi television before nationwide election programmes in 1970.

It was television that rendered prosaic the mystery of what the person looked like whose voice one heard either on the radio or on 78 rpm records. This intriguing mystery drove many to the radio stations where they wanted to see what the person, almost a daily presence in their lives, looked like in flesh and blood, while many scouted for photographs of these broadcasters in some of the show business magazines that were published.

The Radio Pakistan also published its own magazine Aahang and people’s curiosities were satiated by looking at the photographs of their favourite voices.

These ghazals were not broadcast from All India Radio or the Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation for sure but were probably either heard from Vividh Bharati or Radio Ceylon which would broadcast popular music including film Indian music because it was not possible to do so on All India Radio which discouraged such music and encouraged classical or shastriya sangeet.

Habib Wali Muhammad actually moved to Pakistan in the latter half of the 1950s, and usually kept a low profile, not pushing himself to perform willingly in public or on platforms like television.

He should be given credit because reaching a certain level for an artiste, who is not from the family of musicians, is an achievement in itself. There was a reason for his occasional performances because he was only a part-time vocalist -- a Sunday singer, an amateur performer. Music was not the sole occupation in his life and he had other interests as well -- and that proved to be a dampener as far as his music was concerned. He was not forced by the peculiarity of his circumstances to realise every opportunity that came his way or what he struggled to create for himself. He was much more selective and content with recording very few numbers in his entire singing career.

Despite being aware of the pitfall of falling into the standard argument that poverty and suffering are the true instruments of creativity, there may be a modicum of truth in it. While avoiding the absolute nature of the reasoning that dire conditions are necessary for the creative act, it may be said as a half truth that an artiste burdened by freedom of choice is not pushed to perform like the one afflicted by dire economic reasons. For, other than the creative urge and talent, the objective environment or the economic condition of the artiste too are major motivating factors. Not being able to perform means not being able to look after the family.

Many artistes are thus pushed to achieving excellence because this is the only way that they can survive -- because, if they are not the very best, it is like falling in the throng of thousands of second class artistes. Usually amateur performers do not face this dire situation. They never push themselves and do not really toil in achieving excellence. Habib Wali Muhammad’s talent may have suffered principally on this count.

He lived the formative years of his life, which is the decade of the 1940s, in Mumbai and also got proper music training from Ustad Latafat Hussain Khan of the Agra Gharana. He took part in the music programmes of the college where he was noticed and asked to sing on a number of platforms.

Film music was the rage then with K.L Saigal leading the pack among the male vocalists and many were experimenting with the ghazal as classical forms were meant for niche audiences.

For a long time, the two above-mentioned ghazals were his only recognition and he was appreciated by a small circle of music admirers who found him as some kind of a link between the ghazal as it was sung in the first half of the 20th century and then as it was developing to be sung in the second half principally by the vocalists from Pakistan. When he sang more popular ghazals, like Kab mera nasheman ahle chaman gulshan main gawara kerte hain, he appealed to those among the wider audiences who see no qualms in retaining the ghazal as sung in the mujra tradition. And, when he rendered the geet, Aaj jane ki zid na karo, it only reasserted his more populist credentials.

Some of the popular numbers that he sang were later also included in films.

Some of the numbers of Habib Wali Muhammad include:

Ja kahiyo unsay naseeme sahar, Gajra bana kay le aa malaniya, Aaj jane ki zid na karo, Aashiyan jal giya gulistaan lut giya, Raatein theen chandni joban pey thi bahar, Marnen ki duawain kyun mangon jeene ki tamana kon kare, Gori karat singhar, Roshan-o- rakhshan, nayyar-o-taban, Aye nigare watan tu salamat rahay, Sohni dharti Allah rakhay, Lahoo jo sarhad pe beh chuka hai, La fata illa ali la saif o illa zulfikar.

The ghazals he sang for the music companies recorded on audio cassettes were composed by the renowned music directors like Nisar Bazmi and Niaz Ahmed.