KARACHI: A cultural festival organised by the Karachi Youth Initiative (KYI) at the National Museum on Sunday garnered a lot of praise for its theme based on respecting diversity.

The museum hall was packed with students representing their towns — Korangi, Lyari, etc — as one after another they performed on stage presenting stories depicting the current situation in Pakistan.

The programme started off with a speech by one of the motivational speakers and KYI workers, Mohammad Fahim, who asked the students sitting around to “look for solutions rather than focusing on conflicts”.

The event which was supported by the NOW Communities, had two plays one acted out by the students under the tutelage of the Tehzeeb theatre group and other by veteran classical dancer and performer Sheema Kermani.

The former was about the identity crisis faced by the youth in the society, as a result of which they were easily exploited by mafias and ringleaders. The main message of the performance was stop violence and stick together. The performances by the younger lot, between the ages of 12 to 20 were quite impressive, as they tried to present to the audience what they went through on a daily basis.

Another segment of the play focused on polio and how information regarding the disease was manipulated by a local cleric, who was later convinced to change his view after being presented with a halwa.

The play Hum Rokenge by Tehreek-i-Niswan focused on a variety of issues. The attitudes of intolerance, bigotry, and misogyny were presented in one of the boldest plays by the group so far which was accepted well by the audience. The story revolved around a number of individuals who were killed by a mob on charges of blasphemy, extremism, and hatred. It started with a Christian woman’s story. Margaret, who worked in a field, was in dire need of money and asked the landlord to help her with it. On being asked for a sexual favour in return, she creates a hue and cry as a result of which a local cleric declares her guilty of blasphemy. She is eventually shown being killed by a mob.

Another story revolved around an Ahmedi man, Ahmed, who was shown arranging his sister’s wedding. He invites an old friend over after handing him the wedding card. The friend points out the use of word Allah in the card and in the ensuing verbal spat, which results in others joining the fray, Ahmed is killed.

One after another the stories focused on the growing intolerance in society and showed the audience the reality happening around them; be it in streets or inside their homes.

In the end, the people who were killed ask whether their death makes a difference.

The play made a strong impression on the audience present in the auditorium.

Kermani, who has been performing in theatre plays for past 30 years now, is also working with students and young people of Korangi and Lyari on stories relating to their surroundings and related to terrorism.

However, as the participants in the play stood on stage amid thundering applause, Kermani complained that the audience didn’t get the “gist of the message” as she said they were busy chatting away. On hearing that, a woman stood up and made a small speech about the ongoing crisis in the country, which she said, “needs utmost attention of the people inhabiting it”. Another guest pointed out that “discipline will come with time. What is important at the moment is that such plays are shown to the masses, which are vulnerable to exploitation by powerful people”.

The next round was a panel discussion among people from different professional fields about looking for solutions to unarm the current generation of youngsters. Mohammad Fahim suggested that doing that would mean instilling in the youth the need for nurturing hobbies.

“What works for me may not work for someone else. If people want to make a change, they can do so, either by indulging in hobbies, through art and music, etc. That’s the only way to keep them away from those who want to create a divide among various ethnicities for their purpose.”

KYI’s cultural festival began on August 31, and ended on Sunday, with an award distribution ceremony held to recognise budding talent.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2014