IT does not happen very often, even in a culturally vibrant city like Karachi, that almost a whole week is marked by activities related to art and culture. From July 20 to July 26, 1964, the town brimmed with creative energy, displayed both by local and foreign artists.

A German group of acrobats, Bavaria (no, I am not referring to the World Cup 2014 winners, that happened a half a century later), had taken Karachi by storm. On July 20, prior to their scheduled presentations, they gave a free public performance, walking on a tight rope stretched from the top of Qamar House to the Native Jetty Bridge. The picture of the act in newspapers on July 21, 1964 caught everybody’s eye as a result of which their shows ran to packed houses. The first gig took place at the Arts Council on July 22. The chief guest on the occasion was Secretary for Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Altaf Gauhar (a former editor of Dawn). The crowd watched the acrobats fling themselves in the air, doing one trick after another, with rapt attention. The prominent in the German group were Fritz, Richard and Heini.

Not that our local artists were sitting idle at the time, watching European men and women enthral Pakistani audiences. They were busy with a different type of performing arts. On July 21, a play titled ‘Naya Bukhar’ was staged at the historic Theosophical Hall. It was directed by Ahmed Ali and the principal actors were Pervez Dastur and Talat Shaheen whose acting was very well received by theatre-goers and critics alike. One critic dubbed the play ‘avant garde’.

Music too was in the air, and the classical kind at that. On July 23, the Vienna Academy Chorus did a concert at the Metropole Hotel. And who were on their playlist? The likes of Bach, Brahms, Strauss, Waldstein and Gallus!

While all of this was going on, the government was thinking and planning hard as to how to bring into the media the very vital modern electronic technology. In that respect, on July 25 the Central Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Abdul Waheed Khan, told the press that the pace of the schemes made to develop broadcasting under the five-year plan had been increased. The schemes included construction of broadcasting houses, installation of new transmitters and modernisation of studios and equipment. Well, it seems that the minister succeeded in his endeavour big time, because broadcasting houses now rule the media world in the country in an unprecedented, if somewhat worrisome, way.

The same day, the advisory committee of the commercial service of Radio Pakistan (our premier broadcasting institution in the ‘60s) decided that Radio Pakistani should advertise only those products which were not harmful to public health and did not offend good taste. Now this must be paid heed to. There was a time when ‘good taste’ was an important issue for the authorities concerned! It is something that our modern-day media marketing managers can emulate to their own benefit, and to the benefit of society.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2014