rumana husain's Channel

I live in Karachi, where I trained as a graphic designer.

I have had two shows in Karachi of my hand-made stuffed toys for children; later, I designed fabric murals for the children’s ward of the Aga Khan University Hospital, the IUCN head office in Karachi and its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland.

I taught art and environmental studies to school children; headed a school for several years, and co-founded a publishing company for children’s Urdu language books; I have written and illustrated over forty children’s books; and I also write for a local English daily, Dawn, mostly on visual and performing arts and travelogues as well.

I have co-founded and am Senior Editor of Pakistan’s only magazine that is primarily devoted to the visual arts: NuktaArt, an English language biannual that also interfaces with other cultures. (www.nuktaartmag.com)

For seven years I worked as Head, Activism and Outreach of an NGO: the Children’s Museum for Peace and Human Rights (CMPHR), which is being set up in Karachi. (www.cmphr.org)

I was involved in researching, scripting and presenting a television series based on art and architecture for a local channel for three consecutive years.

I am happily married to an architect. We have two children. Our son, his wife and two young daughters live in Shanghai, China. Our daughter, after completing her Master's in architecture from Rice Uni. in USA, is also working in Shanghai.

I quit my job at the CMPHR when I started working on my book 'Karachiwala: A Subcontinent within a City', which was launched on February 24, 2010 (www.jaal.org/karachiwala). I have now founded a bilingual (English and Urdu) quarterly city magazine called AYE Karachi! (first issue: March 2011). Simultaneously, I am also working on my next book.