Jahane Rumi In search of the unsearchable: O, my soul! where would you find your house?

2Mar/082

Public Art from Karachi

Amina Baig writes for the NEWS:

When driving through the jungle of buildings, complicated maze of cars and billboards mushrooming around the Karachi skyline; randomly spurted words and images often catch one's eye. Karachi's version of graffiti is usually just writing on the wall announcing which teeny-bopper gang is at odds with whom, who sucks, who rocks and so on. Every now and then though, something that can actually be considered art because of its visual or conceptual value crops up. (top right- Asim Butt)

Over the last few months, a symbol that has now become part of the Karachiite visual vocabulary has been creeping across almost any and everything in the city. A red triangle upon a rectangle – an eject sign, which according to Asim Butt, artist and stenciller of many of these signs is "multivalent."

Asim's graffiti was spurred on by the imposition of emergency in Pakistan in November 2007. However the message was not singular, nor was it a reaction to a single event.

Filed under: All My Posts, Arts & Culture, Karachi, Pakistani Art Continue reading
4Sep/0710

The second floor – a promising space

This sounds like an exciting initiative. A newly established space - The Second Floor - holds much promise. This is what the website has to say:

Coffeehouse tradition is all about sparking conversations - and we’re passionate about providing a platform for people to engage with each other. Our society is insular and inhibited and we intend to break that mould. Through regular events such as poetry readings, book signings, workshops, talks, debates, film screenings, unplugged music sessions, and stand-up comedy, we hope to get people to think, question, and take action.

I have to visit t2f on my next trip to Karachi. Such developments always reaffirm my faith in the innate buoyancy of Karachi and its citizenry. I refuse to accept the analyses that predict all doom and gloom for Karachi.

Or maybe I am just a fool...

Filed under: All My Posts, Arts & Culture, Karachi, On Pakistan, Politics, Travel, books 10 Comments
16May/075

Jal gaya – tha ik roshniyon ka shaher

Aggrieved by the recent sinister, senseless violence and brutal murders in Pakistan, this is my feeble attempt at poetic expression. I have also trans-created this Urdu poem below titled Adrift. 

 

Jal gaya – tha ik roshniyon ka shaher
Bujh gaye kitnay jaltay aur adh-jalay chiragh
Magar kotwaal-i-shaher ne mur kar na dekha


Jism kis ka, khoon kahan aur maut kaisee?

Yeh qatl na tha dosto
Yeh qatl hai ik ehad ka
Yeh nohaa hai insaniyat ka

 

Insaniyat ka khatma karnay walay jantay nahee
Insaan marta hai - bhujta nahee

 

Ahle-hawas aur ahle-dil
Huay sab ke sab, aseer-i-shab-i-siyah

 

aur ham
roshniyon ke muntazir
bhujtey jugnoo-on ko dhoondtay
thakay haray

gharon ka rasta bhool gaye

 

 

Adrift

 

Once a city of lights, stands ruined
Lamps - lit and half-lit, all extinguished
And the guardians of the city, unmoved

 

Which body, what blood and whose death?

This was not a murder my friends
This was the murder of our times
A prolonged elegy of humanity

 

Those hell-bent on erasing humanity, are, unaware
Man dies but cannot be lost

 

The bleeding hearts and the hearts with no remorse
All trapped in the darkness of the night

 

And we the forlorn
Wait for the light
Attempting to seek dying fireflies
Tired, exhausted

Lost on our way home...

 

Filed under: All My Posts, Arts & Culture, Karachi, On Pakistan, South Asian Literature, Tragic, Urdu, Urdu Literature 5 Comments
15May/073

Karachi – some lines from Ibne Insha

I am grateful to my long lost friend Zaman for sharing these remorseful lines from Ibn-e-Insha, the great Urdu poet and writer.

I am posting the original version in Urdu along with a maladroit translation (attempted by this author).

Meri Hasratoon ka Roma
Meri Wehshatoon ka Deli
Mera Baldia Karachi

Mujhey Aur Kon Janey
Yehi dey to dey Gawahi
Key Haseen Sooratoon say
Yahan her gali bharee thee.
 
Translation

The Rome of my unfulfilled desires
The Delhi of my wildernesses
My city Karachi

Who else knows me?
Only Karachi can testify
Beautiful faces, once,
lived here on every street

Image above is from here

Filed under: All My Posts, Arts & Culture, Karachi, On Pakistan, Poetry, South Asian Literature, Urdu, Urdu Literature 3 Comments
14May/073

When sorrows come ….

Thought of Shakespeare while being depressed with events in Pakistan.

“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions!”

Filed under: All My Posts, Karachi, On Pakistan, Tragic 3 Comments
10May/073

Beautiful Bird

I am posting Fatima Hasan's poem Beautiful Bird that has received much international acclaim.

Read the poem here

Filed under: All My Posts, Arts & Culture, Karachi, On Pakistan, Poetry, South Asian Literature, World Literature 3 Comments
25Mar/076

Karachi – “Bright Lights”

Each time one visits Karachi the sprawling metropolis seems more run down. Crumbling infrastructure, notwithstanding the recent improvements, and a sense of neglect are apparent to any visitor.

Full entry here >>

Filed under: All My Posts, Arts & Culture, Journalism, Karachi, On Pakistan, Pakistani Art, Personal, Published in The Friday Times, Random musings, Sindh, South Asian Art, South Asian Literature, Urdu, Urdu Literature 6 Comments
   

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