lingo of my inner voice

Monday, March 27, 2006

WSF - Day 2 and 3.. are you listening?

26th March 2006

Day 2 started with a great workshop about 'The effects of Globalization on the state of Education' specially in Pakistan organized by ActionAid Pakistan. It was something worth listening and got alot of information about the issue and how can one face the challenges and solve it. Being a teacher and a student myself, it was very interesting experience. Again my articles will be coming soon sometime in next month about all the interesting topic upon which I am working on these days.

Then I had alot of fun seeing all the cultural shows including dance performance by sindhi women and punjabi men which was highly inspired with gujrati culture :) I took alot of photographs which was great fun because writing, filmmaking and photography are my passions. There was also an silent repetitive act by a theatre group which was very creative and hardhitting, a man tied with strings representing Iraq is being pulled by a man dressed as if he is the America. The guy's face expressions, enthusiasm and performance was worth watching. I was amazed that how can he do it with such perfection again and again as it was very tough because alot of physical exertion and emotion was involved. It is not easy to make faces, scream, getting pulled and then falling on the streets for 30 mins continuously. Pakistani people are cheetas of Arts and I am very proud of our artists. After that I waited 1 hour for a session about which I was very much excited but the presenters were using such difficult language and terms paired up with philosophy plus I was very much tired so it was an utter disappointment. Agony built up, when I couldn't find where the main pelinary is being held in which personalities like Sania Saeed, Rahul Bose, Rahat Kazmi and Nafeesa Shah were supposed to speak. After much deliberation, I was told that event got cancelled because of the cultural pelinary which was scheduled in Stadium. Okay not bad, Nafeesa Shah presented a very sarcastic funny piece of her writing about 'Tailored Democracry of Mushi, the muchi man'. After that Shadow theatre was performed by a theatre group 'Agehi' meaning awareness. It dealt with issues regarding injustice to women like honor killing, rape, unfaithfullness, domestic violence etc. The script and the voice over was excellent and the whole experience was breaktaking. My one wish came true.. a creative shadow theatre was in front of my eyes to entertain me, to make me think and learn as it was linked with a purpose without which any art is senseless or maybe just an entertainment.

27th March 2006

Day 3 was the shortest day, reached WSF at 6 PM and left the arena by 9 PM but it won't be wrong to say that time bet itself as it was the most interesting and inspiring session for sure. The first session that I attend was a round-table discussion on 'The Empire and the Religious Wars - How to create peace and inter-faith harmony' organized by Peace for Life. My views and opinions were highly appreciated and people took it very positively. It was nice to see that humans in real sense i.e. thinkers exist and agreed upon majority of their opinions. The ones which were not acceptable to me and could be controversial were not expressed for some very good reasons. Still everybody thought that Religion is a personal experience and it should be more about spirituality and morality, everybody should raise their voices against when leaders misuse their power by taking wrong steps on the name of religion or by taking advantage of religion itself to increase political and cultural tensions. The great merit of this discussion was 'Speech Less, Speak More Phenomenon' I made alot of local and international friends. Its always nice to share ideas and thoughts, above all learn from them :). I am working on fews articles but it will take hell lot of time because topics are about more than 5 and the life is very hectic :(.

Then I saw some parts of a documentary on the depressing situation in the region of Jammu and Kashmir. It was heartening to see that how women face problems there and who they are harrassed because the individuals who suffer the most in the war-like situations are women as they see the actual aftermath when their husbands get disapperead out of nowhere and then they are like half-widows waiting days and night that if he would be alive then he will come. These disapperances are so large in number that it will take days to even record them.

Women have to suffer as their freedom and space gets restricted. A Kashimiri female who wasn't living in Kashmir wanted to go back to her home but was scared and thinking whether to go or not. Majors calling young females at wee hours of night and try to harass them. One woman expressed her deep views in this simple sentence, "They don't see us as humans." A girl who likes education more than playing but has no family members alive so she lives with another family is the real occupied Kashmir's story. Children are so scared that if they see Sikhs they start screaming, 'Military, military!' This is how deep the fear is! From 2000 to now 50000 people are psychatrist patients out of which 60% are women. Suicide and Drug Abuse rates are increasing with every sunrise. There is no difference between dawn and dusk for an innocent child who thinks that if his father would have been alive, it would have been the greatest happiness for him. Even the Indians nationals or Hindustani as they call themselves in the area said that they don't want to be Hindustanis because the voilent army who is killing and harrassing innocent people is among them, the Hindustanis. A young boy expressed his views like this, "In Kashmir, every day my people kill each other. A day will come in one home, brother will kill brother and then everything will get finish, nothing will be left" and a tear rolls down on his pink cheek. Not him but the audience watching also had tears in their eyes. No one wants wars, everyone is for Peace. It is the people in power who use powerless for their evil desires and plans. Another world is possible* but it will take time and while the time actually arrives there will much more sacrifices and much more killings in order to achieve Peace, in the name of Peace. It is an important confession for me is Today I understand that Freedom is a great blessing and now no doubts about that.

At night, Indians and Pakistani present at forum gathered in a circle with posters about various issued raised and discussed at the from and also lit candles for Paki-India People's Friendship. It was 9 PM and I saw people from Sirilanka who were playing rasura(a gujrati dance where people clap and move in circle) on the beat of a dhol and being a Gujrati I was tempted to join in but what to do afterall time was a killing factor :(

More tomorrow!!

*The theme of WSF 2006 being held in Karachi

Scented Words posted by Raheel Lakhani :: 11:39 PM :: 0 Comments:

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