Only two days left, and on the night 13 of August, as soon as the clocks will strike past midnight, shifting the date to 14, the independence day of Pakistan Celebrations around the country will begin and I am sure this year too like the last year in Karachi, we will resort to celebratory firing marking the first half hour of the independence day celebrations, of this land of pure with a gesture of violence which will leave several injured, and may be a few others dead just like we did a few months back to celebrate out victory in the twenty20 World Cup cricket.

Has violence become such an integral part of our lives that it has dominated our protests, arguments, jokes, and even celebrations ? Do we not realize how our irresponsible actions are disrupting the peace of our city destroying it’s warmth and sense of security and what a negative image of our country are we painting for the rest of the worlds ?

And please I know many of you will think this post somehow responsible to tell the world what faults we have, But really do you thing shoving the dirt under the carpet will solve any thing? Has it ever, till this date solved anything ? NO, It is about time we take ownership of our faults, accept them, address and confront them and eliminate them from our lives and tell the world what a wonderful nation we are.

I hope, this year midnight, 14 of August, 2009 the sounds which will fill the air would not be of gunshots but of national anthems and songs of peace and love. I hope this year we will celebrate the independence day of Pakistan in it’s true sprite of joy, peace and love.

“as i see it”, a four person art show in mix media including paintings, digital prints, digital photographs, and sculptures opened yesterday at the Canvas Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan.

The show exhibits different art work by four brilliant artists each one of them expressing their observations in thought provoking statements invoking strong emotions and feelings in their own individual way, from some of the most ordinary scenes of out of our daily lives.

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Kolachi Tweet-up ‘09 was by no means anything out of the ordinary, a gathering of over 75 twitter users from the city, Karachi, organized yesterday, 26th of July, 2009 by Google and CIO, for an idea conceived by Haris, sponsored by Intel, Acer and DawnNews, was one amazing event.

Twitter, “a free social messaging utility for staying connected in real-time” as described by official creators of the service is no less then a revolution. The tool as discussed in the tweet-up my have it’s side effects but if used with a little responsibility can prove a blessing for students, researchers, writers, marketing executives, business representatives, journalists  and professionals.

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Hamara Karachi video conceived, produced and directed by Ayesha Jalil (Y Productions) for Hamara Karachi Foundation

National Road Safety Conference held at the Aga Khan University Auditorium, in collaboration with Aga Khan University and Sindh Education Foundation supported by Toyota and shell on the 7th of July was a good initiative to raise road safety awareness and highlight the challenges we have ahead to the number of road accidents in the country.

I had planning to cover the event live on a blog but due to unavailability of the internet access and some other technical issues live blogging turned out to be an almost imposable option to go ahead with and I decided to do it the old fashion way.
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Yesterday Tehrik-e-Niswan and Sheema Kermani brought a play ‘Mera Ghar Meri Jannat’ for ‘Working Group for Women’ at Aga Khan University. The play was organized for employees and students at AKU and was also open for NGOs and general public.

A one- woman play about a harassed & overworked housewife, kept behind locked doors. The play is adaptation of “A Woman Alone” by Dario Fo & Franca Rame. Considering a one actor cast, Sheema Kermani displayed a very powerful performance, also gave audience a room for imagination & thought. The best part was the feedback was not only a standing ovation but also the emotions coming from the audience during the act.

When she was asked about how to solve the problems of violence & harassment that women face, she said that plays only bring out problems & then Sheema encouraged audience to suggest solutions. By initiating this dialogue, the whole process become more thought-provoking.

It was also remarked by a member of audience that the hall only had a number of men and such plays should be presented in front of men too because they are the ones in the majority who do violence and harassment. Moreover to break this chain of hatred and dependence, women need to get such education which can used professionally and making them financially independent. It was also suggested that it is the responsibility of mothers to inculcate their offspring with the respect a women deserves but in my opinion, it is only effective enough when the whole family is a role-model.

A kudos to both AKU and Tehrik-e-Niswan for this intellectual lunch.

2009 is the international year of astronomy.

This international year of astronomy aims at helping the world citizens to rediscover the universe by observing the sky, during day and at night, and at making everyone feel the wonder of discovery.

The international year of astronomy is a global celebration of astronomy and its contribution to society and culture, motivated by the 400th anniversary of the first use of the telescope by Galileo.

On this occasion, Alliance Française de Karachi invites you to discover an exhibition dealing with the history, the projects in process and those to come up, the discoveries and the technologies related to one of the most exciting and fascinating field of science.

12 to 19 June at Alliance Française de Karachi.

PS: Got this in email, and it seems to be worth checking.

Glass is a fascinating medium for art, but sadly art schools in the country don’t have the facility to teach glass blowing and molding techniques as the kiln used in the process is very expensive and consumes a lot of electricity which makes it almost absolutely imposable for any art school or facility to operate a kiln.

Being the reason, artwork made out of glass is fairly a rare sight in art galleries across Pakistan but thanks to artist Martin Willem who has been visiting Pakistan on and off quite often since almost a decade, and had exhibited his amazing work of hand blown glass in 2006 for the first time in Faisalabad and then again in 2008 in Lahore and the same year in Islamabad too,  providing art students and enthusiasts exposure the this wonderful medium across the country.
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Katha theater group’s presentation of Mai Adakara Banu Gi, a fundraiser for the Rotary Club, is a FUN performance to attend. Taking place at the Karachi Arts Council until the 9th of June, the play features a cast of just two people: Sania Saeed and Ehtishamuddin. An incredibly challenging proposition to keep an audience engaged with only two people on stage over the span of 2 hours, is tough. The script demonstrated the great chemistry between both the actors and kept the audience in splits with its fantastic comic timing and simple story line. (more…)