LAHORE: Asking herself what is a home, Aisha Farooqui considers Pakistan as her grand home and wants to hug it as it were a person, in an attempt to heal all the wounds it had suffered to its body politic during her absence from the country.

Terming Pakistan a personal issue, she says it’s crises and tragedies had become her personal crises and tragedies and its victories a part of her own success story. “I long for it, love it, criticise it, yet never want to part from it,” stated Ms Farooqui at the launch of her book “Musings of a Nomad” at a session of the Lahore Literary Festival at the Alhamra on Sunday. The session was moderated by Fifi Haroon.

Ms Farooqui, who is currently serving as consul general in the USA, said as a diplomat she had been shifting from place to place, country to country and continent to continent and developed confusion what exactly a home was?

“Is it a physical structure or where troubles disappear and worries melt, where heartaches find solace and bruises find healing, where laughter reigns and unconditional acceptance rules,” she explains her confusion.

Telling the audience that her book was a collection of essays and prescriptive in nature, she said, it was a quest for answers to different problems. “It is a dialogue between myself and I. I was trying to find solutions for me,” she said.

While representing “my home” abroad as a diplomat, Ms Farooqui said, she had been explaining, representing and defending Pakistan. “This privilege can be a challenge sometimes also, especially during tough times for Pakistan, when our policies at home become fodder for critics abroad and criticism of Pakistan is enthusiastically pursued by foreign detractors, almost like a flavour in the month,” she said while reading a chapter “Home” from her book.

She recalled that during an extensive stint abroad, she used to glue to the television through small hours, watching one crisis or another unfold. “I would tell myself that when I return I will hug Pakistan, as it were a person, in an attempt to heal all the wounds it had suffered on its body politic during my absence. Let us just say that, for me, Pakistan is a personal issue.”

As a woman diplomat, she said, her career was an unusual one as it literally affected every facet and relationship in her life. “This career is not for the timid,” she said.

About the death of 17-year-old Sabika Sheikh in a shootout just outside Houston, USA, she said she was on a 10-month exchange programme with big dreams in her eyes, but her journey was cut short in the US, which she would have been considering the safest place. On her death, she said, there was a huge outpouring of grief. Nobody in the community knew her, but had the sense of being connected because of the tragedy, she added.

Referring to Aafia Siddiqui, who is imprisoned in Dallas since 2010, she said that she had been meeting her to ensure that her rights as a Pakistani should not be jeopardised, while she was serving a sentence for what she had been accused of.

FOLK SONGS: At another session, singers Suraiya Multanikar and her daughter Rahat spoke about folk songs and ghazals from south Punjab and enthralled the audience with their performances.

Suraiya Multanikar said the breed of classical teachers who used to teach their young students without any worldly reward had become non-existent. She stressed that senior singers should impart their knowledge to the younger ones.

Stating that she used to practice singing 10 hours a day, she stressed that the newcomers should also focus their energies on their singing to earn excellence.

Saying that she had been singing for the past 58 years, Suraiya acknowledged her association with Lahore where she worked in radio and television and attended major conference.

At two other sessions, “Beyond the Fields” by Ayesha Baqir and “Travels in a Dervish Cloak: Adventures in Pakistan” by Isambard Wilkinson were launched.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2019