The reference under way on Tuesday evening.
KARACHI: The Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi on Tuesday evening held in its Josh Malihabadi Library an event to pay tribute to the renowned Indian literary critic, playwright and poet Prof Shamim Hanfi who passed away on May 6 this year.
Indian poet Ranjit Singh Chohan, who joined proceedings online, was the first speaker. He said Hanfi sahib’s death was his personal loss. He was the life of literary events. Chohan regretted the fact that in the second wave of the pandemic when the late scholar couldn’t make it to the Jashn-i-Adab [in India] he didn’t like it and stopped taking his calls for some time. Afterwards he himself and Hanfi sahib contracted coronavirus. The latter reached a stage where he needed the support of a ventilator.
On the subtleties of the art of interviewing
Karachi
February 28, 2021
Having a degree from a university is by no means a necessity to engage in an intellectual discourse, and likewise, private reading, keen observation and craving to learn can more than compensate for not having attained formal education from an institute.
Veteran journalist Akhtar Saeedi, whose collection of interviews was launched at the Arts Council on Thursday night, is one such person who must know more about Urdu literature than many literature graduates.
This surmise can be confirmed by the interviews of literary personalities he did for the weekly magazines and literary pages of the Daily Jang newspaper, for which he worked for 36 years until his retirement on December 31, 2018.
Speakers, both in person and via web links, in discussion at the 13th International Urdu Conference at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi | Fahim Siddiqi/White Star
One could sense a note of dejection in the voice of Ahmed Shah, president of the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, when, at the press conference to talk about the programme for the 13th International Urdu Conference, he told the media that this time round the event would be organised largely online because of the Covid-19 situation in the country. It was understandable.
The conference in the last 12 years had attracted large crowds for multiple reasons and not necessarily for the love of the Urdu language especially on its opening and closing days. To be honest, when Indian scholar Professor Shamim Hanfi and Pakistani poet Yasmeen Hameed (whom one had seen in the flesh at some of the earlier editions of the very conference) delivered their keynote addresses on the inaugural day via video link from Delhi and Laho