Sindh Culture Day to be celebrated today

World's largest ajrak displayed outside KPC

KARACHI:

Though Sindh Culture Day is set to be celebrated in the province and across the world today (Sunday), festivities kicked off in Karachi as the weekend began, with the world's largest ajrak displayed outside Karachi Press Club on Saturday.

Clad in Sindhi dresses and dancing to traditional tunes, women participated in a rally organised by the TikTok star Aqsa Keenjhar Jamali in large numbers at the Sea View beach.

Jamali, who was showing off an ajrak and Sindhi turban, said that men organised rallies to highlight Sindh's culture on December 6 every year, so women celebrated the event a day earlier.

Moreover, a private Sindhi TV channel displayed the world's largest ajrak, measuring 360 feet long and 15 feet wide, in front of KPC.

"This ajrak was made in the city of Hala, Sindh," a local reporter, Murtaza Chandio, told The Express Tribune. "It took 10 skilled artisans two months to complete it." He added that the ajrak had toured different parts of the province, including Kashmore, Sukkur, Larkana, Nawabshah, Khairpur, Mirpurkhas, Badin and Hyderabad, before arriving in the provincial capital.

Arshad Ali, a young man present on the occasion, said that he had never seen such an enormous ajrak before, calling it an expression of love towards the province's culture. "We don't only wear ajrak at weddings, birthdays or other celebrations. We also used it cover the deceased along with their shroud," he explained.

Hundreds of rallies will reportedly be organised in Karachi today, culminating at the KPC.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2020.