Jahan-e-Jahanara launched

Cultural centre for children inaugurates at Upper Mall.

LAHORE: A cultural centre for children called the Jahan-e-Jahanara was inaugurated at the Upper Mall on Sunday.

The centre aims to give children the chance to experience cultural heritage of Pakistan through story telling, performing arts, calligraphy and pottery making.

The stories in Dastaan Goee, the story telling classes, will be narrated by Faryal Ali Gauhar every Friday and Sunday between 3pm and 6pm.

Officials at the centre told The Express Tribune that such courses would stimulate the imagination of the young people, enabling them to create stories of their own using the traditional devices of conflict and resolution, and help them understand the universality of enduring human values.

The performing arts course will take place every Saturday and Sunday from 10am and 1pm. Performing arts such as music, mime, theatre, puppetry, dance and singing will be taught to the kids in this course.

The calligraphy classes will take place every Saturday between 3pm and 6pm. Sajjad Khalid will introduce the children to the rules for making graphical shapes of letters and their combination, words and compositions.

Pottery making classes will take place every Saturday and Sunday between 10am and 1pm. It will give children the opportunity to explore their creative potential and artistic skills, a Jahan-e-Jahanara official said.

The centre also has a dress code and the kids will have to wear cotton kurta pajamas in bright rainbow colours.

Sheherzade Alam, the main soul behind the centre, said that the centre is an attempt to contribute and share her passion for cultural and heritage education with the children of Lahore. The registration for the courses will be open till October 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2010.