FAISALABAD: The fifth two-day long Lyallpur Punjabi Sulaikh Mela (Literary Festival) kicked off at the Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Auditorium here on Thursday.

People from various walks of life thronged to the festival where Jhoomar dance and Heer singing enthralled them a lot. Entry to the event is free.

The literary festival is being organised by the Punjab Lok Sujag, in collaboration with the Faisalabad Arts Council and the Kuknas Organisation, a non-government organisation.

The first day of the festival had the welcome note by Amir Butt of the Punjab Lok Sujag while Jhoomer was performed by the team of the Jamia Muhammad Sharif College.

Fida Hussain Fida sang Shalok of Baba Farid. The guest of honour was Faraz Faisal while the chief guest was Barj S Dhahan, the founder of Dhahan Punjabi Literature Award from Canada.

Sofia Baidar, director of the Faisalabad Arts Council and Tohid Ahmed Chatha of Kuknas Foundation thanked the audience on the first day. Lal Band (Taimur Rehman) sang famous songs of the band.

Tariq Javeed, director Lyallpur Museum, said the festival would strengthen the Punjabi culture and Punjabi language. He said it was the need of the hour to apprise the youth of importance of Punjabi language and its culture as well and such festivals would play a pivotal role in this regard.

Mr Javed urged the Punjabi speaking people to bring their friends and family members to the event.

The second and the last day (today) of the Sulaikh Mela has sessions and talks on various topics related to Punjab and Punjabi. A theatre play, Dulla Bhatti, would be performed by the students of the Angles International College.

The first session of the day is ‘People’s Narrative, History and Social Media’ in which Nasir Dhillon, Ikhlaq Gujjar and Khayam Chohan, who record history of the Partition survivors of Punjab would talk.

Another session is History Through Folk Literature which will have Faisal Jappa, Zaheer Wattoo and Saqlain Shoaib as speakers. There will be sessions on ‘Cultural Mapping of Punjab, Khilafat Movement and people’s narrative with different speakers. There will also be a book launch and Punjabi Mushaira also in the evening.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2020