Youngsters discover art truly is food for the soul

400 boys and girls participate in Tehrik-e-Niswan’s youth convention in Koohi Goth

KARACHI: ‘Mulk Malir aa’, a Sindhi phrase that translates as Malir is lively, was perhaps the reason why Tehrik-e-Niswan (The Women's Movement) chose the venue for its week-long youth convention that concluded Sunday.

Around 400 young boys and girls, from both the neglected goths to the rather posh neighbourhoods of the city, attended the Karachi Youth Convention for Cultural Appreciation in a bid to avail the opportunity of learning from, or at least being in the class of, artists who have fought and are fighting a battle to save society.



The convention was held at the Koohi Goth Hospital, located in Koohi Goth off the National Highway, on the outskirts of the city. The goth is fortunately is in one of those areas of Malir where the trees still bear fruit and provide shelter to the birds that have shied away from the main city due to its slow but steady transformation into a concrete jungle.

The students participated in a variety of workshops during the week-long festival. PHOTO: EXPRESS

"The truest expression of a people is in art, in its dance and its music," read a panaflex installed at the entrance of the hospital. Above it read the details of the workshops being conducted by locally and internationally acclaimed artists such as those by Saffia Salim Beyg for classical music and Ehtesham Uddin for Qawwali, dance by Bina Jawwad, theatre by British artist Melissa Eveleigh and Bazelah Mustafa, drawing and painting by Ghalib Baqar and Sohania Elia, clay modelling by Abdul Khalid, block printing by Ghulam Abbas, puppetry by Nasir Nirwan and Khadija, and film appreciation by Saqlain Zaidi.

For the past week, the hospital was turned into something resembling an art college. The entry corridors were decorated with the works of students of drawing, painting, clay modelling and puppets. Yet people continued seeing doctors in OPDs and patients received due attention.



"The idea behind holding the convention was that that these young people are less fundamentalistic than adults and the child in them still manages to breathe, silently," classical dancer Sheema Kermani commented as she explained the philosophy behind the event. "We just wanted to save them and hope that we succeed."

The 200-bed hospital appears to be a well-maintained, spacious, state-of-the-art facility. According to the organisers of the convention, they ensured that none of their week's activity hindered, affected or disturbed the operations of the health facility. Halls, or large rooms, were dedicated for the workshops away from the wards where patients received medical attention.

The students learnt drawing and painting at the hands of by Ghalib Baqar and Sohania Elia. PHOTO: EXPRESS

Dance     

‘Ta Thai Thai Tat’ Kathak dance syllables were being taught in one of the dedicated rooms. As many as 26 students positioned themselves across the breadth of the room so that their instuctor, Jawwad, could observe their movements and, accordingly, appreciate or correct their steps. The calculatedly beautiful stomping of their feet created music without instruments. The show went on as students, while translating the syllables into the stomping of their feet, and moving their arms in an artistic fashion whirled around.

"That's a form of expressing oneself," Jawwad described later. "The moves exhibited through arms and feet narrate the story of a bird that swings into the air after getting released from a cage. Through dance they sang and they prayed for their liberation." Unfortunately, this form of expression has been killed by the commercialisation, she added.



Theatre

Eveleigh shouted at her students, "I am going to jump on you guys". In another moment she is flying through the air, confident that her students will catch her. Some of her students, however, doubt that they can master the trusting free-fall their instructor willingly demonstrated. The slightest error could turn the landing into a painful fall but eventually it was successful. Eveleigh was in the hands of her students, hooraying, laughing and jumping up and down in joy. She asked her students to do what she did. One by one, everyone tried. Failed and foul attempts abounded but in the end everyone was successful as they too learned to fly.

Among the many workshops was one on block printing by Ghulam Abbas. PHOTO: EXPRESS

"The biggest challenge that I faced with my students was that they were defensive. They were reluctant to express themselves but there was one thing they were good at - telling others what to do!" Eveleigh chuckled. "The girls would not want boys to touch them and vice versa and that badly affected their performances and expressions."

On the third day, however, they began to perform better, as the fear of gender-consciousness among them shooed away, she added.

On Saturday, the students tried to learn as much as they could from their teachers, including spirituality. Though the students saw the sun setting every day in the past week, but on Saturday it felt different. Their faces reflected their reluctance to watch the sun set on the festival, marking its end. Instead they wanted to rise the next day and accept the Surya Namashkar from their instructors during their morning yoga.