Can Karachi have a real Basant festival?
THE idea of a Basant festival in Karachi on the lines of the increasingly popular event in Lahore with its high-flying kites by day and exuberant nightly dancing has been mooted from time to time. The suggestion had usually come from non-officials, with some top officials approving that in principle.
Now Sindh Governor, Mohammedmian Soomro, is toying with the idea after fundamentalists have taken the back seat in our social and cultural order. He does not see anything wrong in the people of Karachi, with varied tensions and assorted fears, having some fun flying kites or enjoying other simple frolic. He recently discussed the idea with Yasmeen Lari, the architect who successfully organized the long Karavan-i-Karachi festival.
If we opt for a Basant festival there is a catch: Karachi does not have Spring, nor can it claim to have any kind of harvest festival. The hot and humid weather in Karachi lasts too long, and then reluctantly gives way to brief winter. The warm weather follows quick — after mid-February as is already happening. So we have to celebrate well before Basant in Lahore to gain benefit by the cold weather.
A friend of mine from Lahore reminds me that we can’t have a proper Basant festival in Karachi without the full back-up of celebrated institutions such as the Heera Mandi of Lahore that brings in the nightly colour and ecstasy of numerous mujras. Of course, we do not have anything in Karachi like the long-flourishing Heera Mandi, an institution well-documented in the book, Taboo published by the Oxford University Press and illustrated by the film based on the book by Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice Candy-man. So we have to do with what we have, subject to what the cops permit or promote in the city.
But the governor has other ideas about lighting up the cities and ancient cultural sites of Sindh. He spoke of that when he addressed the delegates to the Sindh Development Forum at the revised and revitalized Hindu Gymkhana opposite the Arts Council building. The long-abandoned place with its loverly old buildings was beautifully lit up by Philips to mark its formal opening as a cultural centre in the city.
With Nawab Hasan Ali Khan of Continental, LU Biscuits playing the host with his wife and Dr Abdul Hafiz Shaikh, president of The Forum welcoming the guests warmly, visitors ranging from Johan Wall of the World Bank and French Ambassador, Yannick Gerard, in Pakistani outfits enjoyed the Evening in Sindh that was a memorable event. All day long, the hard-handed delegates listened to the problems and challenges of Sindh, and how a lot more remained to be done to make it a better province. In the evening, all that gave way to Sufi poetry and songs with the explosive Abida Parveen thrilling the audience that clapped with her rythmically.
Some of the best poems of Shah Abdul Latif, Sachal Sarmast and Sami were recited by Mumtaz Rashidi in Sindhi and its English rendering was given by Imran Aslam in his resonant voice. The modern poetry of Sindh came through the radical verses of Shaikh Ayaz, while the lyrical verses of Parveen Shakir on Eyes brought a Urdu dimension to the evening.
There was an exciting Sindhi menu with some of the classical dishes such as Rahu Paratha, Murgah Sajji, Talput Dal and Chawal-ki-Roti, along with the almond-based drink, Thadal. The diplomats kept asking how they could get these Sindhi specialities on a regular basis in the city? Maybe the Hindu Gymkhana can run a Sindhi restaurant on a regular basis.
Abida Parveen stormed her audience and ended with the rhythmic Ho Jamalo after Misri Khan had played his Algoza, Misri Jogi his Murli and Motan Khan had recited his sufiana kalam to make the evening a truly all-round one.
DR ALTAMASH
AT another concert, Mahnaz was singing her favourite ghazals to an audience that included Interior Minister, Lt-Gen Moinuddin Haider and his wife, apart form a large number of consul-generals.
Dr Mohammad Altamash, the famous dental surgeon, was celebrating the completion of his six-storey dental hospital and its successful opening. Maj-Gen Ahsan Ahmad, the Sindh minister for health and who is the chairman of the board of governors of the college, was there to enjoy the evening. Mahnaz, daughter of the famous Kajjan Begum, sang one request after another in a voice that is becoming increasingly powerful. She sang a few Noor Jehan favourites as her daughter Hina, too, was there with her husband, Hasan Sardar, now the deputy collector of Customs.
Former popular Afghan Consul-General, Syed Yusuf Gailani, was there with his vivacious wife, Hawa, from New York where they now live. He had been appointed ambassador to Algeria by the pre-Taliban regime, but did not take up the post because of political differences. Also with them was Dr Abdul Qadir Gailani, to whom Yusuf’s sister is married.
The senior vice-president of the PPP, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, was there but he was interrupted by too many calls on his mobile phone.
The Russian Consul-General, Yuri Mateiry, was the happy man there as his wife had come from Moscow. She spends her time in Russia as their young daughter is studying there. Friends were urging him to give a big welcome party for his wife, but he was not taken in by the costly idea.
Japanese Consul-General, Kasumi Dekiha, was also there. He has been appointed ambassador to Tanzania and would be leaving soon.
Mumtaz Rahim of Brinks, whose company has been renamed Phoenix Armour, was there talking to Humayun Mufti of Nissan Motors. The Brinks of the US, it appears, wanted majority control of the company in Pakistan and Mumtaz was not agreeable. So he parted company with it and renamed the company Phoenix Armour, that had earlier owned his cash-carrying armoured cars.
SHERBAZ MAZARI
UNTIL recently, Suraya and her husband, Sherbaz Mazari, were winning all the prizes there were in flower shows in the city. And when the Karachi Horticultural Society decided that any competitor could win only three consecutive prizes, after winning the final gold medal, they opted out of the floral race and gave way to new contestants. Their garden, too, had to be reduced to build a house for their son, Sheryan Khan, the agriculturist, who helped his father write the autobiography A Journey to Disillusionment.
But the Mazaris continue to give an excellent garden party or brunch, as they called it this time, and invite their many friends. All the friends of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases, who had helped to mobilize large funds for the hospital, were there.
It appears that Dr Ishrat Husain, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, had to go to the OMI Hospital after his heart attack, as no room was available at the NICVD. The friends of the institute were asked to help raise fund for the outpatient clinic and the wards, while the rooms were to be taken care of by the government. But the government had not been coming up with the requisite funds to meet the tremendous pressure on the hospital.
AMBASSADOR DENNIS KUX
THE author of the book The United States and Pakistan — 1947 to 2000: Disenchanted Allies was in town after visiting Islamabad and before his departure for New Delhi. The well-researched book published by the OUP recently and very well-received has been written by a US diplomat who is acknowledged as an authority on the subcontinent and who was posted in Pakistan from 1957-59, and again from 1969-71. He has a smooth way of telling his story after doing extensive research.
Ameena Saiyid of the OUP and her husband, Aamir Saiyid, held a dinner and invited OUP authors such as Sherbaz Mazari and Hamida Khuhro and a number of columnists on India-Pakistan relations and the American connection.
The soft-speaking Kux explained why India is so influential in the US. The large number of US senators and congressmen in the India causes in Washington and the influence of the Indian residents there, who made large donations to the election fund of the members of the Congress, enhanced the Indian influence. Pakistanis in the US, too, had woken up to this reality and are making headway slowly.
The younger generation making its views heard was the son of Ameena Saiyid, Omayr Saiyid, educated in the West and who expressed himself forthrightly.
TO BEIJING
HOW soon will the Gawadar port become truly operational and goods go from there to Afghanistan and Central Asia? That depends on how smooth the cooperation is on the part-project between Pakistan and China that is helping in the construction of the port.
Director General of Ports and Shipping, K.B. Rind, was going to Beijing to finalize the negotiations and Nafees Siddiqi gave a dinner in his honour that was attended by several officials of the communications sector.
Makhdoom Ameen Fahim was there explaining PPP’s approach to various political issues and the coming elections. Wazir Jogezai, who became the caretaker minister in Balochistan under the military set-up and resigned just as quickly, was there. He explained that he could not get on with his colleagues and get things done as a minister, and so left. He wanted results and not office, said the former deputy speaker of the National Assembly who is forthright in his views. Saeed Ahmad, former chairman of Pakistan Shipping Corporation, was also among the guests.
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