Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
A Whirl of Cultural Activities in Karachi
Share:
by rumana husain | April 3, 2010 at 04:30 am
545 views | 20 Recommendations | 8 comments
Videos
Photos
My daughter Asma Husain was performing an Odissi dance, after a hiatus of ten years, in the Tlism Theatre and Dance Festival that recently concluded in Karachi. It was therefore a most exciting time for our family, but even generally speaking, lately Karachi has had a burst of activities...theatre, dance, art exhibitions, book-launches, literary events (the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book was won by Pakistani writer Daniyal Mueenuddin for "In Other Rooms, Other Wonders") and much more...
The highlight of the Tlism Festival organised by Sheema Kermani of Tehrik-e-Niswan - Asma's dance teacher - was her own dance guru, Ghanshyam's return to Pakistan after 27 years! He and his wife had left the country when it was ruled by the 'black days of General Zia-ul-Haq's rule' when they were harassed and forced to leave...
The last few weeks in particular have been a whirl of cultural activities in Karachi. There was the ten-day Tlism Theatre and Dance Festival organised by Sheema Kermani and her Tehrik-e-Niswan (‘women’s movement) group to celebrate the group’s 30th anniversary.
The first weekend of Tlism coincided with the first Karachi Literature Festival organised by the Oxford University Press and the British Council (there have been two International Urdu Conferences in Karachi already, but this was a first for this bilingual conference).
The week before that, Katha Theatre, run by the talented Shahid Shafaat and his actor wife Sania Saeed organised a fundraising theatre festival.
Advertisement
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Crowd Power
rumana husain
Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Most Recommended Stories in Culture
Recommendations (20)
hussain
All Places, Pakistan
Uwe Paschen
Narita, Chiba, Japan
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Karen Hatter
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
YankeeJim
Arlington, Virginia, United States
Amy Judd
Vancouver, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (8)
at 05:40 on April 3rd, 2010
so sorry, don't have a video :-(
at 06:59 on April 3rd, 2010
Lovely! And lovely pictures!
at 11:20 on April 3rd, 2010
Excellent.
at 12:08 on April 3rd, 2010
What a great event.Salam to organisers of the Tlism festival.Such events preserve the shared common culture of the people of the Indian sub-continent,promote love and understanding and on the top of that control the damage political class on both sides of the border does.
I wish Pakistanis never experience those dark days,when a dance Guru is forced to part with his Shishya(disciple).
at 00:43 on April 4th, 2010
Sorry I missed this post earlier.
at 05:11 on April 4th, 2010
thank you friends! it was indeed a sad and dark period in our history when the arts were not only discouraged but only such were promoted that were sanctioned by the state. however, Sheema, a courageous activist, herself trained as a fine artist, classical dancer and actor, continued to perform and create awareness even during those black Zia ul Haq years...and we encouraged our daughter to learn Bharatnatyam and Odissi from her since she was five years old. however, her going off abroad for studies put a break to it so it was overwhelming to see her perform recently. thank you all once again.
at 08:59 on April 6th, 2010
very nice
- Sign In or Join to post comments
Ramkrishna (not verified)at 04:41 on April 22nd, 2010
It is heartening to see how Ms.Sheemaji is grooming her disciples. Dancing against many odds in pak is really courageous.My hearty congratulations to the GURU and the team. By the way why Kuchipudi style(Our Hyderabadi-Andhra) was not performed?? happy to note that Culture is uniting us.