Living traditions: Sindh celebrates its culture in style

Thousands of people gathered outside the Karachi Press Club.

HYDERABAD: Traditional music, dress code and dances of Sindh came to life on Sunday as the province celebrated Sindhi Culture Day. The celebrations this year were, however, overshadowed by the killings of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam - Fazl leader, Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, and nationalist workers as some nationalist and regional media groups observed a day of mourning.

Nevertheless, thousands of men, women and children, irrespective of their ages, took to the streets in rallies wearing traditional Sindhi caps and ajrak, which symbolise Sindh’s cultural dress. Even the cars and motorcycles were decorated with ajraks.



“This day revitalises our affinity with our culture and reinforces our Sindhi national identity,” said Samreen Mughal, a university student who was attending a musical show organised by a regional media television channel in Hyderabad. She argued that the sense of belonging to a certain culture also helps avert being invaded by alien cultural trends though she firmly believed in assimilation of cultures.

In Karachi, thousands of people, donned in traditional Sindhi attire, gathered outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC) where they danced to the tune of folk songs. People from different areas of the provincial capital, including Ibrahim Haidery, Malir, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Lyari, Keamari and Saddar took part in the activities outside the premises of the KPC.

Renowned Sindhi folk singers, the likes of Shazia Khushak, Shaman Ali Mirali, Balak Sindhi, Sassui Baloch, Tufail Sanjrani and Waheed Hakro kept the crowd entertained.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2014.