A peep into our cultural past

Karachi

Oudh. The name conjures up images of our cultural past, our literature, history and folklore.

This was amply brought home by the Zambeel Dramatic Readings by the Asma Mundrawala, Mehvish Farooqi, Meesam Naqvi, and Nazrul Hassan quartet. The readings were taken from the novel “Shatranj Ki Bazi” (a game of chess). They took place at the Alliance Francais on Saturday evening.

It was one hour of gripping listening as portions from the novel were read. The book takes the readers back into the Lucknow of the Nawabs and the feudals. It tells of their indifference towards their masses all in the pursuit of their pleasures and their pastimes.

The roles of Mirza Sajid Ali and Mir Roshan Ali were most profoundly read and presented by Meesam Naqvi and Nazrul Hassan respectively.

It is the story of two very rich men, Mir Sajid Ali and Mir Roshan Ali, who are chess addicts, a story that highlights the ultimate lethal effects of addiction.

Mirza Sajid Ali and Mir Roshan Ali spend the whole day playing chess. So deeply lost are they in the pastime that their wives and families are totally neglected. On a certain occasion, the wife of Mirza Sajid Ali is taken seriously ill. She sends her errand boy to fetch her husband but he just brushes him off, so deeply lost is he in the game.

The readings once again show the heartlessness that comes through addiction.

Through their addiction, they even become the talk of the locality when the story of Mir Roshan Ali’s cavorting with another man becomes public property. At a certain juncture Mirza Sajid Ali says to Mir Roshan Ali, “Chess is something that teaches you the ways of the world as it gives you a very wide perspective on it.”

One fine day, while engrossed in their usual pastime, they fall out over an issue which drives them to use foul language at each other and finally both die in a duel.

Mehvish Farooqi’s musical voice, so expressive of the emotions pointed out in the novel, made the reading so profound. Her accent and diction were flawless. So was Asma Mundrawala with her perfect Urdu accent.

One really wishes that such programmes took place more often so that our present generation, which is so lost in cosmopolitanism and westernisation, could get acquainted with our history as it really occurred.