'Sarhad festival reflects return of normalcy' By Jonaid Iqbal Sunday, 31 Jan, 2010 Dawn  A Frontier Corps paramilitary soldier swirls to provide a fitting climax to a Khattak dance performance during the Sarhad cultural festival at Lok Virsa here on Saturday. – Photos by Tanveer Shahzad ISLAMABAD: The message from the Sarhad Cultural Festival in the capital is that normalcy has returned to most parts of NWFP including Swat, said Lok Virsa Executive Director Khalid Javaid as he listened to pounding drums and looked at the panorama of pavilions hawking ethnic tinsels and fabrics spun out of lamb wool. As Javed, a 22-year-old artist from Peshawar, strikes his stringed traditional musical instrument Rabbab, he brings out the fest alive as if the mannequins enclosed in the heritage museum have come out of their showcases and spread out over the big Lok Virsa campus, the venue of the festival. He begins with the famed welcome tune tu meri jan jana, dilbar jana before striking other melodies. This recreates a typical evening scene at the street of story tellers in Peshawar. And there is also a functioning kehva khana as an assurance that the NWFP feel is real. In fact, the stamp of the province gets more real when one moves about 50 yards ahead and sees the ethnic Kalash tribal dance from Chitral. This is presented by five young Kalash women, among whom are Shaera and Ms Toofan (Toofan insisted that she be called Miss), who could converse in English. As they danced, the music was provided by Fiza - the leader of the troupe - a young man who played the small percussion instrument which can be played on two sides at the end, something like the pakavaj before it was broken into two by Hazrat Amir Khusrau to create the tabla. Fiza said its name was chitawacch shodiak. He was accompanied by Sher Jan who played the big rustic drum called daf. As Marya, a volunteer from Princeton University on duty at the Sarhad Torism Corporation said it was to show the Islamabad residents and welcome tourists after the disturbance created in Swat. Haider, an STC events manager, said they had brought a number of new things to the festival especially for children who were treated to dazzling songs and music. At a show in the afternoon, Mr Khokhar, the coordinator, was regaling an audience of teenagers (and some elders) with his jokes. Mr Khokhar must be a fabulous compere because in the morning he was doing the Piyara Pakistan show on the Islamabad FM Radio. But Khalid Javaid was more enthused over the 100-plus colour and monochrome photo competition sponsored by the STC. The photos had been displayed inside the Heritage Museum. The Lok Virsa has also put on display the camera work of about 50 photographers showing the beauty of the craggy mountainland which is home to the undaunted Pathan warriors. Other Images of the festival:       |
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