Literary personalities, art lovers flock to Faiz festivals

The seventh Faiz Festival’s third and final day is continued on Sunday, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

On the third and final day, at least 25 sessions of the festival would be held. A large number of people including literary personalities and art lovers are participating in the festival being held in Lahore. 

Indian lyricist Javed Akhtar came from across the border to attend the festival. 

Delegates from different countries including United States, Britain and India are participating in the festival. 

Students from Lahore Grammer School will participate in dance programme titled ‘Saqiya Raqs koi Raqs-e-Saba.”

At Alhamra Hall No 2, the first session will be held with title Suno Gapshap.

Shoaib Hashmi, Nayyara Noor and Farooq Qaisar will be paid tributes. 

Naveed Shahzad, Saleema Hashmi, Maryam Hassan and Abbas Shafi will partake in the programme. Irfan Khusat, Salman Shahid and Shehryar Zaidi will also be part of the programme. 

At Alhamra Hall No 3, first session will be held with title ‘Yahan Se Shehar Ko Dekho’.

Dr Arfah Zehra, Kamran Lashari and Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi will grace the programme. 

At Adbi Bethak (Litrary Sitting), first session will be held with title ‘Parhney Walon Ke Naam’.

During the sitting a write-up will be presented on ‘Teen Sadion Ka Safar’. Dr Osama will chair the ceremony. 

Grandly inaugurated by renowned poet and writer Asrar-ul-Haq Majaz, the festival is a celebration of the world-famous poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's legacy.

This annual event is organised by the Faiz Foundation Trust in collaboration with the Lahore Arts Council (LAC). Visitors of all ages and backgrounds, particularly the youth, are observed attending the festival.

The festival commenced with an inaugural ceremony, held outside the Alhamra Art Gallery, which also featured opening of an exhibition displaying the works of eight artists from India and Pakistan. Their artwork depicted the current social situations prevalent in both countries. 

Salima Hashmi, speaking at the event, reminisced about personalities such as Abdur Rahman Chughtai, M.D. Taseer, Imtiaz Ali Taj, and Faiz Ahmed Faiz who worked tirelessly to cultivate Lahore's rich culture. These individuals recognized that cultural rights, as well as human rights, are of utmost importance.

Danish Hussain, the storyteller from India, expressed his gratitude towards Faiz Foundation for inviting him and his companions to the festival. His sentiment was echoed by Arvinder Chamak, a poet from India, who spoke in Punjabi and said that the Indian delegates were sending their love and peace to their Pakistani counterparts. Atul Tiwari, a writer and actor from India, has been attending the festival for the fifth consecutive year.

Commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa welcomed the Indian delegation and expressed his admiration for Faiz’s family for organizing the annual event. The opening of the art gallery’s exhibition, ‘Tell Us What to Do’ was conducted by three children instead of delegates or the officials. Ms Hashmi, the person in charge, reasoned that since children are our future, it was important for them to inaugurate the event.

On the opening day of the festival, Ajoka Theatre's production of Anhi Mai Da Sufna, written and directed by Shahid Nadeem, was a remarkable event. The play was originally directed by the late Usha Ganguli, an eminent Indian theatre director. It had been first produced by Madeeha Gauhar in 2016 and had since been performed in cities like Lahore, Islamabad, Delhi, Chandigarh, and Amritsar.

On February 18, lyricist and screenwriter Javed Akhtar attended Faiz Festival. As per reports, he was head of the Indian delegation visiting the country for the festival. He took part in the Mushaira and launched his new book at the event.

Indian lyricist, and screenwriter Javed Akhtar, talked about his love for the Urdu language, its purposes, and poetry during Faiz Festival 2023 on Saturday.

A good piece of poetry and writing should be effective in expressing what the poet wants to say since the goal of creating poetry is to interact with the audience and everything else follows, Javed stated in the session titled Jadunama, which was moderated by Adeel Hashmi.

Javed continued by referring to the purity of language as nothing more than a fantasy. Language continues to become more varied by incorporating terms from different dialects.

He emphasized that at least 25 new terms would be added to the English language each year by the Oxford Dictionary. The “so-called guardians of language” in our situation continually eliminate terms from our language and label them as alien. In this sense, language would continue to shrink.

He used an excerpt from Urdu as an example, highlighting terms from Arabic, Italian, Punjabi, Persian, Turkish, English, and Japanese among other languages.

He declared that he was pleased that Urdu was his native tongue, as opposed to all other major languages, whose poetry had its origins in temples and churches.

Urdu, he said, had always been secular because it was opposed to fundamentalism, religious thought, superstition, and atheism, at the very least.

Reporter Fareeha Batool