Sustenance for the soul

Lahore residents have since times immemorial been known as “Zinda Dilane Lahore”. They have this inexhaustible exuberance which encourages them to invariably look at the bright side of things. This same attitude kindles a hope in us that the New Year will bring positive changes for the citizens. That is how we approached the advent of January 2020.

Notwithstanding the fact that contrary to expectations, the year started with a Big Bang, our optimism remained unabated. Energy prices which were already soaring, shot up further. Petrol, gas and electricity prices reached new heights. Correspondingly all essential commodities also became prohibitively expensive. The Atta and sugar crises raised doubts about the integrity of those at the helm of affairs. This was exacerbated by the annual report of Transparency International, which shows that the ranking of Pakistan has slipped three places in the Global Corruption Index froma rank of 131 in 2018 tothree points lower in the 2019 index.

The discovery of polio cases in KP and Sindh, rampant child abuse across the country, natural calamities in Balochistan and Kashmir. The continued incarceration and gross human rights abuses in Indian occupied Kashmir, forced conversions of Hindu girls, the abominable customary practice of child marriages, resulting in loss of childhood and children bearing children, environmental pollution at a dangerous level and most recently, the spread of the perilous coronavirus.

Man-made calamities like fire spreading due to negligence and fraud in impoverished communities of Karachi, Lahore and other cities, recent derailment of a train in Chanawan in continuation of railway tragedies.

To allay our concerns regarding these multiple problems let us look at the silver lining which has overcome the clouds over Lahore in January; a Think Fest was held at Alhamra where leading academics including journalists, writers, intellectuals (like Nobel Laureate Sir Venki Ramakrishnan), artists and musicians from across the world congregated for interactive sessions with inquisitive participants. The ThinkFest included a music session, book fair and food festival as well as a speakers’ corner where visitors could express their opinions, similar to the practice in Hyde Park, London.

Simultaneously an event was held by the All Pakistan Women’s Movement. It was called “Evolve” and featured success stories of women who had accomplished something extraordinary and had promoted women’s causes since the creation of Pakistan. This event provided awareness raising and capacity building information to women. The program was described as ‘Choo Lo Aasman’ (Reach the Sky), which appropriately expressed the vision of women empowerment. The celebrities who addressed the gathering were female jurists, writers, engineers, teachers, beauticians and other high achievers.

The mission of this movement is to minimize and eradicate gender disparities in Pakistan as the current global indicators rank Pakistan in the Gender Parity Index at 151 out of 153 countries; in economic participation and opportunity Pakistan is ranked at 150, 143 in educational attainment, 149 in health and survival, whereas our Labor force participation rate shows men at 85% and women at 24.8%. Luckily our ranking is 93 out of 153 in political empowerment.

Blessed is the nation who brings up its children with love and care. We Lahorites are deeply indebted to Baela Raza Jamil of “Idara-i-Taleem o Agahi (A Plan for Education and Awareness)” for beautifully organizing the Children’s Literary Festival at the Lahore Children’s Library Complex in collaboration with the School Education Department. Children’s Literary Festival is a flagship program of ITA, which hosted 32000 children and teachers and 700 schools during the three day long event. The festival attempts to revive the reading culture among children. The recently concluded festival offered a variety of sessions which included recreational as well as educational activity with all kinds of interactive sessions and stalls to train children in intellectually creative and manual skills—?The interactive discussions with school children included storytelling, creative writing, lessons in awareness raising of their surroundings, taught them how to deal with domestic violence, child abuse, environmental problems and to face all these issues with courage rather than fear. The event also included theatrical performances.

This annual event strives to overcome the problem of 23 million out of school Pakistani children (the second highest number in the world). The last day of the festival focused on teacher training which is a very important aspect of children’s education.

Among numerous reports of child abduction and child abuse, the Child Protection Bureau is doing a remarkable job in providing a secure shelter for lost and abducted children, special attention is given to help children to overcome this trauma.

The crowning event of January is the second Lahore Biennale which has been titled as “Darmian-e-Shams-o-Qamr (Between the Sun & the Moon)” which commenced on January 26th and is continuing till February 29th. The event includes all forms of artistic expressionwhich help in promoting art and culture which is undoubtedly a part of Lahore’s DNA, it helps overcome the growing intolerance of our society. Art exhibits from all over the world have been brought and displayed in the Lahore Fort and art galleries all over the city. Numerous delegates of the international Biennale Board are in Lahore for these artistic events and have enthusiastically cultural heritage sites of Lahore.

The event has been sponsored by more than 40 institutions including; Government of Pakistan, Habib Bank Limited, Babar Ali Foundation, Walled City of Lahore Authority and the Lahore Museum. Special thanks are due to the main organizers (among others) whose hard work made this event a success; Osman Khalid Waheed, Hoor al Qasmi from Sharjah and Qudsia Rahim.

Many other artistic and cultural events have been organized during January 2020 by other institutions of Lahore among which Alhamra, Faiz Foundation and Chughtai Labs deserved special mention. Needless to say numerous other organizations in Lahore need to follow their example and organize such events to promote art, culture, tolerance and philanthropy among the citizen of Lahore. I am happy to disclose that some concerned citizens of Lahore have been provoked to share their blessings with those who have been overcome by natural calamities in Azad Kashmir, Balochistan and Tharparkar.

They were sent relief goods and cash to meet their daily needs. We are optimistic that we are on the right track forward and one day, with continuity of such events, incentives we will join the vanguard of progressive nations in the world, as Allama Iqbal wrote:

Nahin Hai Na-Umeed Iqbal Apni Kishte-Weeran Say

Zara Nam Ho Tau Yay Mitti Barri Zarkhaiz Hai Saqi