IN May 1964, the deadly gastro-enteritis-cum-cholera disease broke out in epidemic proportions in the Indian city of Bombay (now Mumbai). In those days, Pakistanis and Indians frequently crossed the border without much hullabaloo. As a result, the Health Ministry in Pakistan ordered its staff on June 1, 1964 at all ports, especially in Karachi, to keep strict vigil and check health certificates of passengers arriving from Bombay. The words used:to guard against the import of the disease.

There was another India-related event that week which caused a bit of a stir in Pakistan, and it too had tragic connotations. The critically acclaimed director Mehboob Khan (who made films like ‘Mother India’ and ‘Andaz’, the former of which was nominated for an Oscar award) died on May 28 in Bombay. On June 2, the Karachi Film Journalists Association issued a statement condoling the filmmaker’s death. Among other things mentioned in the statement, it was said that India’s film industry owed a great deal of its progress to the brilliant filmmaker. It sure did. It also goes to show that in those days the artist community from both sides of the divide was not circumspect about praising each other’s artists.

By the way, cholera from Bombay was not the Health Department’s only worry at the time. On June 3, the KMC proposed to spend two million rupees in the next fiscal year on saving the city of Karachi from frequent gutter-floods. If the gutter-flood situation in the last three to four decades in the city is anything to by, it seems that the proposal may not have received the go-ahead.

What did get the nod, for sure, was the order to disconnect people’s phone lines. On June 4, it was reported that the Telephone Department, in its drive to recover arrears of Rs63lac from subscribers both on account of rent and trunk calls, had disconnected 1000 phones in one week. Thank heavens for the smart-phone era, and the post-paid, pre-paid systems!

Now to an uplifting subject. On June 4 a music festival organised by the Arts Council and Radio Pakistan began at the council. It was a high quality event in which renowned musicians and vocalists took part. On the opening day Ustad Habeeb Khan thrilled music buffs with a rendition of raga kausi kanda on vichtrvina. The next day, June 5, some very big names in the history of music in the subcontinent — Ustad Nazakat and Salamat Ail Khan, Mohammad Sharif Poonchwala (sitar player) Mehdi Hasan (king of ghazal) and the singer with a velvety voice Firdausi Begum from East Pakistan — performed. Nazakat and Salamat Ali played raga jog, Firdausi Begum presented a khayal, Sharif Poonchawla played raga kirwani while Mehdi Hasan sang two ghazals. Doesn’t that sound music to the ears?

In the earlier part of this piece, there was a reference to ‘import’ of something bad. On June 7, the word ‘export’ made the headlines in a good way. The news was about June 6 when Chairman PCSIR Dr Salimuzzaman Siddiqi inaugurated a ceremony marking the first shipment to the UK of about 15500 lbs of standardized vitamin A concentrate of fish liver oil from the fish liver oil factory based on a process developed in the PCSIR lab. The world should take note: we export healthy things as well.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2014