A birthday celebrated from quarantine

Islamabad : For many literature lovers and human rights activists every year ‘June the 18th’ had always been a special date. ‘June 18’ is wildly celebrated by the sports lover all over the country because on this date Pakistan inflicted a humiliating defeat to India to clinch the ‘Champions Trophy’ of cricket.

But for the literati and the human rights leaders this is the date when most of those if in town, would be found at the residence of Kishwar Naheed, the renowned poetess, writer and women rights activists.

However, there is no such activity this year, not because of maintaining social distance in pursuance of COVID-19 SOPs. But, unfortunately, Kishwar Naheed herself has been tested ‘Corona+’ and has gone into self-quarantine in her room at home.

The friends and fans of Kishwar Naheed were already perturbed as almost everyone has made special arrangements for her birthday celebrations today because she was turning 80 today!

Finally, Dr Fauzia Saeed, the Director-General Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) came up with the idea of arranging Kishwar Naheed’s birthday celebration live on the net! She rounded up the Pakistan Academy of Letter (PAL) as well as the Lok Virsa to join in the ‘Live Birth celebration’ of Kishwar Naheed.

The session lasted for two-and-a-half-hour and the participation was simply overwhelming! Almost all the friends and fans enthusiastically participated in the live chat and performance to cheer up ‘quarantined’ Kishwar Naheed, who was the ‘chief guest’ of the live programme. Earlier, just a day before government announced ‘lock down’ because of ‘Coronavirus’ and ordered shutting the government offices, Dr Fauzia Saeed arranged a live dance, song and music performance in the PNCA auditorium to celebrate 90th birthday of Indu Mitha, the legendary ‘Bharatnatyam’ classical dancer. That was the last live performance in the PNCA Auditorium to date!

Well, Dr Fauzia Saeed is known to be a trendsetter already!

Everyone conveyed their best wishes and sincere prayers for the full and speedy recovery of Kishwar Naheed while discussing a host of issues. The segments of various programmes in which Kishwar Naheed had participated in the past recorded by one institution or the other were also aired during this marathon ‘On-line Birthday celebrations’.

Every participant was eager to share her or his experiences, interactions, events and even incidents with Kishwar Naheed bringing about bursts of laughter as well as making them sad over the fact that they were not with her in her home, chattering away comfortably, hugging deeply.

However, one believes the most every participant in the programme missed was the sumptuous food, all home-cooked. Except for the cake, obviously!