Faiz festival brings together people from across border

LAHORE
The Faiz International Festival 2015, a small step by the Faiz Foundation Trust, has proved to be a big leap for the people of Indo-Pak, literary community and admirers of Faiz Ahmed Faiz on both sides of the border.
The city of lights is alive again and has spread its arms wide to welcome and accommodate dozens of distinguished Indian, Pakistani and foreign writers, artists, poets, intellectuals, teachers and prominent personalities who have converged at the Alhamra Arts Council, The Mall, for the First Faiz Ahmed Faiz International Festival which started on Thursday.
The entire length and breadth of the Alhamra Arts Council was echoing with poetry of Faiz sung by many prominent singers of Pakistan including Mehdi Hassan, Tina Sani, Nyira Noor and others. The most enthralling element of this unique and perhaps the biggest literary activity in town this year was the huge participation of youths who were roaming the grassy lawns of Alhamra clad in Red Souvenir T-Shirts with Faiz’s profile picture on them, which has been especially designed by Adeel Hashmi, Secretary Faiz Foundation Trust, and grandson of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and programme Director FFT Sara Qureshi. The walkways of the Alhamra were buzzing with the gleeful laughter and chats of the youngsters who would be frequenting the place from one hall to another to attend various programmes.
The two main halls of the Alhamra, The Mall, and its Adabi Baitahk have been brimming with participants and audiences of the highly entertaining and educating sessions on various subjects since Friday morning. The string of programmes started right from 10:00am in the morning and continued till 9:30pm.
The salient features of the programmes included interactive literary sessions, narrations from Faiz’s book of poetry, understanding of Faiz by various literary giants, sessions of panel discussions, plays and Mushaira.
The two halls of the Alhamra hosted the keynote session ‘Faiz Ki Maqbooliyat Ke Asbab by Shamsur Rehman Faruqi in the Hall No.2. In the Hall-III Ay Habeeb-e-Anbardast(Faiz aur Malika Pukhraj attended by Tahira Syed , Mrs SM Zafar and conducted by Arshad Mehmud. Harf-e-Man-o-Tu, Intizar Hussain in a conversation with Asif Farrukhi, Hum bazm-e-Jehan ki ronaq hain- Memorium for Pakistani women activists with Saleema Hashmi, Zahuida Hina , Khawar Mumtaz, Fehmida Riaz, Mariam Ortt-Saeed and Dr. Fouzia Saeed. A Punjabi play Ye haath slaamt hain jb tk-Chog kusumbay di written by Najm Hosain Syed and directed by Huma Safdar was presented in Hall-3 on the second day of this mega event.
A special Mushaira (poetry recitation session) titled ‘Mushaira bayad-e- Faiz aur Nadeem was also held late in the evening in the same Hall. A unique exhibition and a public art workshop led by Shilo Shiv Suleman and Nida Mushtaq of Fearless Collective was held at the Alhamra Permanent Art gallery.
At the second venue of the festival at a local hotel on Egerton Road, evening programmes were held which included a splendid musical and poetry of Faiz sung by prominent singers of the country including Thira Syed and Arshad Mehmud. November 20 is the death anniversary of the great poet and revolutionary of the subcontinent.