Main rickshaw chalaanwan gaa by the Baighairat Brigade and Hum nay yeh bhee ker key dekhaa by Mohammad Fazli were the pick of the performances at an Open Mic Night held at The Knowledge Factory on Friday.
Fazli’s song left the audience in fits of laughter and was followed by aur chaheye (we want more) calls. The song was a comic take on the life of Pakistani youth.
At least 100 people had attended the event.
The performances originally set to start at 8pm were behind schedule but the applause to welcome showed that this was hardly a concern for audience.
Other performances included songs by Khurram Sarfaraz, Out of Order and FAST business students and poetry recitals by Sahar Haq, Saad Sultan and Ayeshah Alam Khan.
Sarfaraz’s performance of This Love, a Maroon 5 song from their debut album, was widely appreciated by the audience.
Out of Order, a group of five youngsters, performed a musical fusion of Bryan Adam’s A summer of 69 and Kailash Kher’s Teree Deewanee.
“We are regular visitors to the open mic nights. This is a great platform for the youth to express there talents,” said Talha Saifi, Ahmed Sabir and Haseeb Akram, BBA students at FAST. They had earlier performed a few Urdu songs.
Saad Sultan recited Afraid of Life, an English translation of Main Zindagee Say Naheen Darta.
He also read poems from Modern Poetry of Pakistan, a compilation of 142 poems, and Waqas Khwaja’s No One Waits for the Train. Sahar Haq also read poetry.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Ayeshah Alam, the host, said it was heartening to see Lahori youth taking time out for events like open mic nights. She said it was important to encourage these youngsters into attending and participating in such events.
Pir Omer Shah, the Knowledge Factory director, said that their open mic nights aimed at providing an avenue for people from various walks of life to interact with one another and to showcase their talents. Shah said he was satisfied with the turnout.
Saad, a member of the audience, said he was always on the look out for such events. “Pakistan has so much talent. Our youth need more such avenues to express themselves,” he said.
The event ended with a poetry recital by Ayeshah Alam. She read I Rise by Maya Angelou.
The TKF organises open mic nights on the first Friday of every month. In July, however, it arranged the event twice considering there will be no open mic night in August due to Ramazan.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 31th, 2011.
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