Musadiq Sanwal.
The editor of the newspaper’s website had told his wife and colleagues that after this was done, he would like to be flown to Multan, his hometown, for the burial.
On Friday morning, Sanwal lost his battle with lung cancer and took his last breath surrounded by family and friends at the Aga Khan University Hospital. He was diagnosed with cancer more than a year ago.
The receptionist at Herald, one of the few people on the floor, said that he had never seen tears in the eyes of the magazine editor, Badar Alam, till now. Alam first met Sanwal in 2010, when he joined the media house as the editor of its monthly magazine. “When I moved to Karachi we became good friends. He was not just the editor of a news website. He was also an artist, a dramatist, a musician and a poet. He was such a lovely man.”
As Alam remembered the many tea breaks the two shared, he said that Sanwal was a true artist. “You know, one of his eyes got hurt in the 1980s when he was studying at the National College of Arts in Lahore,” he said.
Fashion journalist Mohsin Saeed said that he had never worked with Sanwal but knew him quite well. “He was so soft spoken and had this amazing brand of humour that I haven’t found in anyone else,” he said. “We will miss him.”
Sanwal was also the co-founder of Matteela, a website for photography, music, film, art and literature based in Lahore. He was also the founder of the Baang Theatre Group.
In 2005, he collaborated with Zsuzsanna Ardo, a visual artisit, to create a soundscape for Departures, a filmic story of loss and growth.
His funeral prayers were held at Imambargah Yasrab in DHA Phase IV on Friday. The body was taken to Multan for the burial on Saturday (today) at Jinnah Park, Shah Rukn-e-Alam Colony at 10am. He is survived by his wife and two children.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2014.
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