AT the commencement of this year’s Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) on the evening of Feb 6, Indian writer Nayantara Sahgal noted that “our most prized possession is our imagination.” In the same vein, festival director and OUP managing director, Ameena Saiyid, referred to the KLF as a “carnival of the mind.” In a city besieged by political strife, it was refreshing to watch the magnetic lure of the KLF draw over 100,000 visitors — 30,000 higher than the number that attended it last year, according to the organisers. It would not be far-fetched to claim that the festival (hosted at the charming, old-world Beach Luxury Hotel) provided a feast for the imagination.

Feb 7 and 8 offered a plethora of panels on diverse aspects of culture, including literature, history, art, the media, politics, sports, and dance. About 30 books were launched including the truly interdisciplinary Gender, Politics, and Performance in South Asia compiled by Sheema Kermani, Asif Farrukhi(co-founder of the KLF) and Kamran Asdar Ali; Bina Shah’s historical novel on Sindh, A Season for Martyrs; and Educational Crisis and Reform: Perspectives from South Asia by Abbas Rashid and Irfan Muzaffar. The latter text was launched in conjunction with a particularly rewarding panel moderated by journalist Ghazi Salahuddin. Rashid and Muzaffar lamented the havoc that the lack of fine and well-trained teachers can wreak on not just their students, but the educational system in general. Tariq Alexander Qaiser’s beautiful photographic compilation titled Baltistan: Apricot Bloom was introduced by Iftikhar Salahuddin. Qaiser enhanced the launch by showing the audience a film displaying chosen prints from the book. A lovely music score composed by Hamid Rahim lent a haunting atmosphere to the screening.

Politics insinuated its insidious way into several features of the KLF, but it was nevertheless a delight to watch the witty and avuncular Najam Sethi chat with Agha Ghazanfar about ‘Politics and Personalities of Pakistan’ before a packed audience in the main garden. One of Sethi’s greatest speaking strengths is his proffering of rich anecdotes that make it seem as if our revered figureheads are living and arguing in our very backyards. For those like myself who wished to beat a hasty retreat into simpler and more wholesome realms, the Sunflower Room hosted several engaging activities for children, such as bookmaking, creative movement (dance sequences for youngsters led by the inimitable Nighat Chaodhry), and story time. “This provides the children with a lovely environment,” noted one of the supervisors for the bookmaking event, Foundation Public School teacher Ayesha Qazi. There was something profoundly moving about watching talented musician Khaled Anam strum his guitar and urge the children to follow his baritone while singing “Jab karnay lago shuru koi kaam/ Lo pehlay Allah ka naam.”

This is not to say that Sherry Rehman’s session on ‘Cultural Diplomacy’ or Anna Suvorova’s book launch of Benazir Bhutto: A Multidimensional Portrait went unappreciated. The former was heavily attended, and the latter genuinely attempted to fathom depths to Benazir that underscore the numerous challenges she faced as a woman governing a troubled nation. In a panel titled ‘The World as the Author Sees It’ Mohammed Hanif spoke engagingly with Benyamin about the latter’s remarkable novel Goat Days, that has been banned in Saudi Arabia and the UAE for its honest portrayal of migrant workers in the Gulf — a topic whose political implications have been hitherto neglected in global fiction. Benyamin claimed with honesty that he was inspired by a sense that it was “his duty to write about the working classes.”

The venerable Intizar Husain chaired a dramatic presentation of his own works, as well as some by Manto. The book sale and display area contained a number of well-stocked stalls by Liberty Books, Paramount, and OUP amongst others, where numerous copies of recent bestsellers sold like hotcakes — Karen Armstrong’s Fields of Blood being one of them. It was rather touching to watch bestselling author Kamila Shamsie station herself unobtrusively behind one of the stalls and sign copy after copy of her novels for her hungry fans.

Politically troubled or not, Pakistan has always attempted to foster creativity and artistic talent — a point that was evinced by a fine gallery exhibition curated by Amin Gulgee and Zarmeene Shah. This displayed artwork that ranged from classic and soothing pieces with a floral theme such as Meher Afroz’s delicate ‘Khushbu’ in acrylic, graphite, and silver leaf to Fayez Agariah’s eye-catching and colourful mixed-media abstract bearing the utterly convoluted, but oddly appropriate, name of ‘Paracosmicdisco.’ Had the KLF chosen to award a prize for best artwork, it would have been deluged with a large number of deserving choices. Naeem Qureshi and Shandana Minhas’s works won the KLF Coca Cola non-fiction, and KLF Embassy of France fiction prizes respectively.

German consul-general Tilo Klinner headed (along with Ambassador Nunn) the ceremony that awarded the KLF Peace Prize. Klinner noted that this prize has been modelled on the peace prize of the German book trade, first awarded on April 22, 1950. This year, due to a tie between competitors, the KLF Peace Prize was awarded to both Ziauddin Sardar’s Mecca, and Ali Usman Qasmi’s The Ahmadis. In his acceptance speech Qasmi likened the persecution of the Ahmadis to that suffered by the Jews at German hands and the selection of the book underscores the sin-cere desire of many of the festival’s eminent sponsors to promote peace, harmony and understanding. This was a theme alluded to by both Klinner, and later by Ameena Saiyid in her closing ceremony speech.

Zia Moheyuddin’s amusing readings of some pieces by Mushtaq Ahmed Yusufi delighted the audience at the closing ceremony as did Nighat Chaodhry’s dancing; the only point marring the event was the lack of seating space, which resulted in numerous members of the audience having to stand throughout.

The importance of performance had been emphasised earlier by a major panel on ‘PTV aur Aaj ka Drama’ where living legends such as Haseena Moin contributed to the discussion. During her talk with Shayma Saiyid, I questioned Nighat Chaodhry about the work behind the glamour of her job. The dancer was blunt about stressing that all good art stems from intense effort. The same can be said of all good literary and cultural festivals, and Ameena Saiyid and Asif Farrukhi’s professionalism and dedication at making the KLF an even more memorable event than its predecessors, deserves special commendation. Young volunteers should also be credited for engaging in an immense amount of work, without which the festival could not have functioned as smoothly as it did.

Consortium member of ‘I am Karachi’ youth initiative, Ghazi Salahuddin, noted in his opening ceremony speech that he does both ‘matam’ and ‘jashan’ for Karachi alternately. Happily this event centered predominantly on the latter of the two.