KARACHI, Sept 7: A five-day cultural festival, organized by a non-governmental organization, Actionaid, started at a local hotel on Sunday evening.

Inaugurating the festival, Dr Fauzia Saeed of Actionaid said the festival had been organized to use culture and heritage as a tool for social development.

She said that during the next five days foreign delegates from Ghana, Ethiopia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and other countries would share their experience with one another.

She said writers, poets, social workers and people who were working to bring about a change by using culture and heritage would also discuss these matters with the foreign delegates and find out if their experiences could be adapted to local conditions.

With this brief introduction, the first day of the cultural festival started with a story-telling session.

Sanwal Faqir and his group, belonging to the Kachho area of the Dadu district, presented the issue of water scarcity and the efforts made by Sanwal Faqir to get water for his village.

Sanwal meets government officials, and pays bribe to officers, even peons, to get an appointment with the DCO or the Nazim, but the issue is not solved. Disappointed, Sanwal returns to his village and asks the villagers to get united to solve the issue on their own.

The next group from Turbat highlighted the issue of migration form rural areas to urban areas due to unemployment, particularly during drought in the rural areas of the arid zone.

The story revolves around the struggle of a young man, Hasil, who due to poverty and unemployment leaves his village in Kech, and comes to his uncle living in Karachi, where he falls in love with his uncle’s daughter and gets married, promising his uncle that he would not return to Kech.

A few years and three children later, Hasil finds himself not making enough money to support his family. When a cousin from Kech comes to stay with him, his uncles gets angry. He finally takes his family and returns to his villages where in the meantime his father has died.

Hasil learns to play music and starts earning money. But the profession is termed as “cheap” and is not liked by villagers. His children face discrimination and are not allowed to study at school. Disappointed, Hasil returns to Karachi to find employment. The vicious circle goes on.

The third story, titled Shah Daud di Vaar (The Ballad of Shah Daud), was presented by Sharif Ragi and his group. Shah Daud, son of king Junaid, was engaged to the daughter of King of Egypt. However, after the death of Junaid the Egyptian King treacherously plans to give his daughter to the king of Rum (Byzantium) against her will.

Shah Daud manages to free the daughter from the clutches of the King of Egypt. He is pursued by the seven sons of the king of Rum with their mighty armies. The part of the Vaar presented is about the last incident. The poetry very beautifully brought out the struggle against oppression.

The fourth story presented by the same group was of Dulla Bhatti (Ballad of Dullah Bhatti) who challenged the mighty Mughal empire. A brave Rajput warrior, Dulla Bhatti, living in a little village of Pindi Bhattian, refused to pay taxes as a gesture of rebellion against oppression.

He sent the head of a tax collector to Delhi with a silk handkerchief. The Moghals carried off his entire family while he was away.

On hearing this Dulla Bhatti made a declaration of war against the empire, which was presented in this part of the Vaar. His protest and retaliation became symbolic and his tales of bravery have been propagated through folk stories.

An interactive theatre performace and video showing will be the highlights of the the second day of the festival.