Student-driven: Celebrating Karachi’s chaotic nature

Karachiscape fused different mediums to showcase the city at its best

KARACHI:

Karachiscape, an event organised by the Habib University in collaboration with the German consulate, celebrated the vibrancy of Karachi.

Hosting a variety of events at the same time was an attempt to recreate the hurried nature of Karachi on a smaller scale. The city was portrayed via photographs by Ali Rizvi, a student of the university, and movies and graphics by various students of the communication and design department. Poetry readings were also held in an attempt to liven up the event.



A drive-by silent documentary ‘Reading Karachi’ by Dr Markus Heidingsfelder, assistant professor of media studies at Habib University, in collaboration with the German consulate, was screened while author Saba Imtiaz read a piece she had written about Karachi. The latter part of the documentary was screened with a live soundtrack by Nafees Ahmed Khan on the sitar and Ustad Bashir Khan on the table, along with a break-dancing performance by a group from Lyari.

“Everyone likes to say that Karachi and Karachiites are resilient. But this is a lie,” read Imtiaz. “We do not merely live in Karachi. Karachi lives in us. We moan about it, but we also find the ability to defend it,” she read, speaking of Karachi’s beauty.

Areesha Khuwaja, a student of communication studies, recited, “They often come divided in groups, in troops, with guns and bombs, to recoup to take back what was never theirs.” According to her, the discrimination in the name of religion moved her to write a poem to describe how Karachi’s diverse architecture, culture and heritage are on the verge of destruction. “Setting it all up was a huge pain but seeing the visitors’ reactions made it worth it,” said Mahnoor Mahar, a first-year student and one of the event’s organisers. According to her, more people would have attended had the event not been so far away.



“It was a team effort and the students did a marvelous job to make this event happen,” said Dr Heidingsfelder, the innovator of the event. “The chaotic street life of Karachi was documented in a minimalistic way to showcase the beauty, danger, comfort and dark glamour of Karachi,” he said, describing his documentary.

“We wanted to reach out to the younger generation through new media and such events, as 100 million of Pakistan’s population is under 25,” said German consul-general Rainer Schmiedchen, who is a film-lover himself.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2015.