Revival of tea house culture in society stressed

Islamabad: Parveen Shakir Trust’s (PST) annual ‘Aks-e-Khushbu’ Award ceremony that was jointly organised by the Book Council at the National Library Auditorium turned into a lively literary and cultural festival as the audience not only appreciated the works of the award recipients— Senator Mian Raza Rabbani for his anthology of short stories ‘Invisible People’, young poet Saeed Shariq for his poetry collection ‘Saya’ and Jia Shah for her book ‘Bab-e-Gul Main Hawa Ka Biyan’—they also enjoyed ‘kalam’ of great Urdu poets played on the occasion.

Acclaimed writer Mazharul Islam who had creatively organised the entire setting and step-by-step progression of the ceremony was commended not only by the Chairperson of the PST, Ms Parveen Qadir Agha and Secretary Ms Raana Seerat, even prominent personalities who participated in the ceremony spoke high of him and enjoyed various segments like lighting up of candles in front of the pictures of the great Urdu poets Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal, Josh, Faiz, Munir Niazi, Ada Jafri, Nasir Kazmi, Parveen Shakir, Noon Meem Rashid, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi and Shakaib Jalali.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah, Federal Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani Senator Maula Bux Chandyo, former Federal Secretary Nargis Sethi and her husband Saleem Sethi, MQM parliamentarian Khush Bakht Shujaat were among the noted personalities who have come to attend the ceremony.

Senator Raza Rabbani who is also the 2017 recipient of Parveen Shakir Best Fiction Award for his book of short stories ‘Invisible People’ after receiving his award congratulated the Book Council and the PST and their teams for organising a literary-cum-cultural ceremony. It reminds me of the Coffee House and Tea House culture of 1960s when dialogue was promoted in society and people used to listen to and respect difference of opinion. That was the time when my mother along with her mother used to go to the matinee house to watch movies. Those were the wonderful days as extremist ideas had not taken roots and thus were not forced on our minds. Later, Ziaul Haq purposefully eradicated the culture of dialogue and counter-narrative and the society became extremist and intolerant, he regretted. PST, he said, is doing a noble job by supporting and promoting culture of dialogue in society.

Earlier, in her welcome remarks, Mrs Parveen Agha said PST was established in 1995 primarily with a purpose to look after and bring up Murad the minor son of late Parveen Shakir who had lost her life in a road accident a year earlier in 1994. However, later, the forum also became a springboard for budding talented poets and writers. Over the years the Trust has broadened its horizon and has made a concerted effort to promote Urdu literature. Keeping up with its tradition of always coming up with something novel for the literature lovers the Trust has introduced the unique concept of honouring the legends of Urdu poetry, she said and one prominent person from the hall will be requested to come forward and light up a candle in front of the picture of a literary genius of Urdu, she said. She paid rich tributes to the efforts of her team, PST members and volunteers and particularly the Income Tax Group officers, the group she belongs to. I’m indebted to all of them and am confident that they can do now event management activities in the town quite successfully, she said in a lighter vein.

Secretary of the PST Ms Raana Seerat in her brief address called upon all those who have gathered there to witness the award-giving ceremony to join hands and come forward to keep the boat of memories and literature afloat. We are also planning to hold a similar ceremony to celebrate the great Urdu prose writers, she said.