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Preserving the classical heritage

Connoisseurs of classical music were treated to a series of mesmerizing performances at the launch of “Indus

Raag – Music Beyond Borders” at the Pakistan High Commission in London.Urdu Markaz (London) and Tehzeeb Foundation of Pakistan joined hands to deliver a memorable evening that was attended by music and art lovers from London and other parts of Britain.The evening started off with opening remarks by Shozab Abbas, First Secretary - Pakistan High Commission who welcomed the guests on behalf of the High Commissioner Wajid Shams-ul-Hassan. Earlier, the High Commissioner during his meeting with Urdu Markaz and Tehzeeb officials lauded the efforts of Tehzeeb Foundation for promoting Pakistani culture through preservation of classical heritage. Dr Javaid Sheikh, President Urdu Markaz, who was also the master of the ceremony, expressed his encouraging views on the Tehzeeb initiatives. The hallmark

of this session was the creative evaluation given by Raza Ali Abidi – an eminent personality in Urdu literature and media. He termed “Indus Raag” as a significant and serious move towards showcasing the contemporary classical music of Pakistan. Sharif Awan and Malahat Awan also spoke on the occasion.The second session of the evening featured live music by Shahbaz Hussain and Roshan Abbas Khan. Shahbaz, an accomplished percussionist from Manchester, who is also one of the contributors in Indus Raag project, gave a solo recital of teen-taal – a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats. Roshan Abbas presented a few vocal compositions from the “Indus Raag”.“Indus Raag” is a prestigious music project in Pakistan’s history. The project comprises 12 audio CDs and a booklet, featuring classical musicians from India, Pakistan, UK and Germany.The event was attended by a large number of music lovers, educationists and notables from Pakistani and Indian communities based in UK. Amongst them were Saqi Farooqui - an eminent poet

and critic, Professor Ishtiaq Ahmad - Head of Quaid-e-Azam Chair at Oxford University, Rinchan Ali Mirza - President Pakistan Society at Oxford University, former Pakistan captain Asif Iqbal, all-rounder Yasir Arafat, Jay Wiswadeva - a renowned music promoter and consultant, Mushtaq Lasharie - Chairman Third World Solidarity & Ex Deputy Mayor Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Zahid Khursheed - Ex President National Bank of Pakistan, Dr Farrukh Hussain - President Pakistan Professional’s Forum London, Dr Safi Hassan - prominent poet, Ayub Aulia, a journalist and brother-in-law of tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, and others.The programme ended with a vote of thanks from Malahat Awan – President, Tehzeeb Foundation, who disclosed that Tehzeeb Foundation would be organising such international events in the future also.“Indus Raag is a project that is very close to our hearts as we believe that such efforts are required for classical music to flourish,” says Malahat.

Preserving the classical heritageBy Sumeha Khalid

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Art

1. What inspired you to get into the field of designing?A. I was always inspired by the world of Motives and Design and always loved to wear and make beautiful clothes and Jewellery. So i went ahead and start designing Jewellery and dresses.

2. Do you have professional training, and do you feel it’s essential for a designer to have a professional education? A. I am a textile designer by profession, but our course included fashion designing also , but if we talk about designing and playing with colours one has inborn talent as well all u need is to support and polish them and utilize them better by professional training . its important because now is the era of competition and one must attain higher education and formal training.

3. What is the overriding aesthetic in your designing?A. I am highly impressed with Mughal and Egyptian art , you can see lot of Egyptian and Mughal touch in my Jewellery and Dresses. that’s becoming my signature style.

4. What is your educational and professional background and how do you feel it prepared you for a career in fashion designing?A. I have done ma M.A in textile Designing nd yes it really helped me in grooming nd polish my work more and always helps you to excel.

5. What drew you to fashion and specifically to starting your own line?A. Actually I always wanted to do something different with Jewellery and dresses I wanted every single person to wear a new and stylized form of Jewellery wanted to do something different and people around me always loved my sense of styling things and supported me to come out with my own work to public.

6. What is the best perk in being a fashion designer?A. Hahaha i love the Qs. the best part being a designer is i always get to wear lovely Jewellery and Clothes every time.

7. What is the most difficult aspect about running your own label?A. The most difficult part is to maintain your self every time and come up with latest and new innovative designs. Because the client who is coming to you every

time want some thing different, new and up to the mark.

8. What do you wish people would understand about working in the fashion industry?

Iqra Tahir20 Questions with

A. I think so people who want to be a part of this industry should be creative and innovative they should realize the worth of their work is very important they should be very original and down to Earth.

9. What do you wish you had known before entering the fashion industry?A. Its a beautiful industry. i love creating new pieces and i know that people always look fr something different in our designs. the only thing which at times disturb me is that i cannot find time to hangout with friends and family.

10. Tell us about your process in designing a new collection.A. its a system and it always start like part first i decide about the designs and inspiration I will work on, second, I work on my color Pallet of that particular project then obviously the material needs lot of attention and then have to decide the cuts and work on the jora. and when it comes to jewellery i have to decide about the shapes and the stones we use usually I love playing with stones and love to introduce a new combination every time.

11. What excites you the most about your new collections?A. Obviously my fans and Clients Response their reaction is very Important to me. 12. Where do you get your design inspirations from?A. Always from the nature, and different era like I love the Egyptian and Mughal Era :) 13. Apart from designing outfits, what else do you enjoy designing?A. I am very good at cooking and I always enjoy cooking and my home interior.

14. What is the one city in the world that you would showcase your designs? A. Would love to present at Milan Fashion week.

15. Has being a designer changed the way you buy outfits for yourself?A. No if something is Good I ll defiantly buy hat

for my self .

16. What fabric do you enjoy working with the most?A. i love working with chiffons and silks but still if something is good and placed well complementing the design and cut I alwaz love to work with that.

17. What trends do you see being big for 2013?A. I can see a lot of bright Colours with some cuts a lot of funky Flairs and straight Gowns jumpsuits And Plazzo.

18. What role do you think price points play in the success of a prêt line?A. Prices always play an important role in pret sales.

19. Do you think prêt is defined by a price point or by a sensibility? A. Pret wear should be a combo of both. That is Very Important.

20. Describe the Ruby Shakel A. iquera’s Couture is a brand of styling and creating innovative designs. the brand is all about helping people to look more beautiful and gorgeous.

I 41January 20, 2013

After delving with dark human emotions in movies like Maqbool, Omkara and Kaminey, filmmaker

Vishal Bharadwaj is back with a crazy comic drama, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, starring Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Pankaj Kapur in the leads. MKBKM has been in the news for its quirky title and hatke content and the charismatic Gulabi Bhains! Bharadwaj brings back the rustic flavor of Indian villages, but this time, with a pinch of difference. Story Set against the rustic backdrop of a village in Haryana, MKBKM is a comedy-drama that revolves around three zany characters: Matru (Imran), Bijlee (Anushka) and Mandola (Pankaj). The story is about a serious land scam issue, but with a touch of fun element in it. Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

portrays a rich industrialist Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapur), his daughter Bijlee (Anushka Sharma) and the unusual bond they both share with Harry’s close associate, Matru (Imran Khan). Bijlee gets engaged to Baadal (Aarya Babbar), the son of a powerful politician Chaudhari Devi (Shabana Aami). Things take turn from this point onwards and troubles get added up to their lives, until Bijlee realises that Baadal just isn’t the perfect man for her. Performances We feel Imran Khan is too ‘Americano’ to do complete justice to the role of a eccentric rustic. In one word, Imran isn’t just cut out for this role. The only saviour in his case would be his bushy beard and dhoti-kurta avatar. Anushka Sharma is another crazy character in the film, who goes a step ahead and sulks about her out-of-the-blue Meena Kumari complex. Sharma continues her

loud-spunky-sexy chic act, who mouths cheesy lines like ‘Tujh jaisi cheez ko mai bhagwan ke liye kaise chod doon’. Though at times, this ‘gaon ki chodi’ gets over-the-top in certain scenes, overall she does a better job than Imran. Pankaj Kapoor is a spectacularly versatile, sensitive and thoughtful actor. His salt pepper-haired avatar and the ‘tharkee’ act in the film, is worth a big applaud. He delivers a splendid performance. Direction Bharadwaj doesn’t really do a fab job by creating some peculiar characters and placing them in whacky, quirky situations, but the man definitely knows to extract the best out of his actors. Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is damn funny and entertaining in bits and pieces, but on the whole, one can’t term it as a spectacular flick.

Matru ki bijlee ka mandola

Films

Matru ki bijlee ka mandola

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Three collections of verse titled Muhabbat Khasara NaheeN, Nazm Nama and Fanoos focused on ghazal, nazm

and poems for children, being reviewed here, have lately appeared in quick succession from Lahore and Karachi. The diversity of their formats and themes is likely to engage the attention of the reading public in general and the initiated in particular.

Muhabbat Khasara NaheeN

Dr. Jawaz Jaffri is a well known literary figure with a strong academic background. As a poet, Muhabbat Khasara NaheeN is his fourth verse collection after Dehleez Pay AnkhaiN, Mutthi May Tra Waada, and Maut Ka Hath Kalai Par Hai. It is a collection of his ghazal only.

Ghazal as a genre of Urdu poetry has a long but variegated history. From Wali Deccani to Ahmad Faraz, it has seen whole vistas of modulations and variations. Survival of the fittest might be an anthropological dictum yet it applies in equal measure to the realm of the arts, poetry being one of them. In a literary permutation, expressive spontaneity, conceptual originality, and prosodic fecundity are stated to be the avowed aims of a poetic composition. Jawaz Jaffri’s ghazal exemplifies the phenomena.

Veteran poet Ghulam Hussain Sajid has contributed the foreword to the book. To him Jaffri’s ghazal is a product of the Zeitgeist that would preclude hyperbole or sentimentalism, and the distinctive élan of his ghazal rested on his innovative prowess backed by

a latent capability to overwhelm the reader.

The collection contains some 133 pieces of ghazal which demonstrate the salient features of Jaffri’s poetic art. The persona of his ghazal seems to be a moderately self-possessed young person soliloquizing, and thereby exposing, his fears and fantasies grounded in the grim facts of existence. The cerebral content of his verse in turn tends to enrich its audio-visual appeal for the reader. Reproduction of some lines from the book might serve as an illustration:

Maey nay mana k bana hai yeh jahaN mairay liye/Is kharabay may magar maira guzara bhi to ho… Baghair uskay mri raakh bujhnay lagti hai/Khula k maira bhi sooraj say wasta koi hai… Ain mumkin hai yaheeN amn ki koNpal phootay/Shaakhey zaitoon na’ey shahr ki bunyad may rakh…Diley mazdoor tray haal pay dukh hota hai/Bojh auroN ka tujhey dhotay huey daikhta huN… Jo kuch bhi mila humko, muhabbat say mila hai/Humlog muhabbat ko khasara naheeN likhtey

Nazm Nama

Dr. Waheed Ahmad is a noted Urdu poet and novelist. Nazm Nama is his third verse collection (comprising exclusively his nazm),

the earlier two being ShaffafiyaN and Hum aag churatey haiN. His solitary novel is titled Zeno.

As a genre of literature, poetry is not a historical or cultural artefact; in fact it seeks to acquaint the reader with new worlds of experience which implies that it has a social obligation too whence it tends to draw his attention to the emerging truths of life side by side with articulating his inmost desires and noblest aspirations.

Waheed Ahmad’s Nazm Nama is, as it were, his poetic

Muhabbat Khasara NaheeNAuthor: Dr. Jawaz Jaffri

Published by: Fiction House, Book Street, Mozang Road, Lahore

Pages: 152; Price: Rs200/-

Diversity of Urdu poetryBy Syed Afsar Sajid

Books

January 20, 2013 I 47

manifesto also reflecting ‘the human condition’ necessitating its composition. He seems to be endowed with a deep consciousness of metaphysics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology that finds a forceful expression in his nazm. The outpourings of his protagonist here could be likened to a long soliloquy internalizing his anxieties, apprehensions, and reveries. The figurative abstractions in this kind of verse require a great deal of ‘responsiveness’ on the part of the reader, which is what appreciation of poetry signifies in the contemporary sense.

Hamara a’hd kya hai dard ki khwaNcha faroshi hai/ZameeN hai ya makeeN hai?… Global gaaoN to neelam gaah-e-waz’a-dari ha/Yeh chapta gaiNd bus aqdaar ki saudagari ka bojh/Utha’ay ghoomta hai/Karpardazaan-e-istehza/faza may aitomi meezailoN k saath lalfzoN ka tamaskhar bhi uraatay haiN

As a ‘poet of intellect’, Waheed Amad’s nazm encompasses a host of archetypes, prototypes, and

stereotypes which, as a part of our collective conscious, he is predisposed to explore on a quasi-metaphysical level. The persona of nazm here appears to have submerged in the oblivion of alienation, uncertainty, and helplessness, to say the least.

The book in hand contains some thirty-seven pieces of nazm of varying length. No foreword is annexed to it. The reader is to interpret it ‘unaided’ albeit the prefatory inclusion of the translated version of Pablo Neruda’s poem on ‘poetry’:

Mujhay ma’aloom kab tha bolna kya hai/Mray lab sil gaey thay ism ki bay-ism qismoN say/Mri aankhoN pay parda par gaya tha…. Aur phir maey nay/ Khud apna raasta paida

kiya/Us ramz wali aag ki uqda kushai kar kay

And last, but not the least, the persona thus unveils himself:

Daikho Waheed Ahmad/Zururi to naheeN maey saari baataiN aaj hi kah duN/Kisi din phir/Kisi shab ko/Kisi seh-pahr ko/Tum rath chalana aur mujhay mairi kai baataiN batana!

Fanoos

A paper-back collection of poems for children by poet Manzar Arfi of Karachi, the book has to its credit the Qaumi Seerat Award (2012) also.

It contains forty-eight poems divided under three sub-heads viz., Hamd-o-Na’at/Munajat, Eiman-o-Akhlaq, and Tehzeeb-o-Aadaab. Apart

from its authorial preface, Mohsin Azam Mohsin Maleehabadi, Prof. Shafiq-ur-Rahman Allahabadi, Dr. Nuzhat Abbasi and Prof. Syed Muhammad Asghar Kazmi have contributed introductory remarks on the publication.

The collection has been likened to its author’s dialogue with children, in verse. The moral tinge in the poems is quite explicit. Their topics embrace themes like Namaz, Qurbani, modesty, jealousy, extravagance,breach of trust, deception, vanity, illiteracy, knowledge, good behaviour, selfishness, cowardice, and accountability, to enumerate but a few – in the light of the teachings of Islam.

Without compromising on the quality of versification, the poet has employed a simple diction in the poems so as to be intelligible to the target readers i.e., the school-going children. It is a welcome addition to the extant literature for children, in Urdu.

Nazm NamaAuthor: Dr. Waheed Ahmad

Published by: Al-Hamd Publications, LahorePages: 128; Price: Rs200/-

Fanoos (Bachon Kay Liye Manzoom)Author: Manzar Arfi

Published by: “Tazkira” Publications, Block 3, Shah Faisal Colony, Karachi

Pages: 127; Price: Rs200/-

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