A fabulous kathak performance by dancer Farah spellbound the audience at Royal Palm Golf and Country Club last week.

An immensely talented dancer, known for her powerful and evocative storytelling, technical precision, delicacy and grace, Farah brought her clairvoyant voice to the contemporary kathak stage.

She received training from Pandit Chitresh Das for almost two decades. In 1998, she joined the Chitresh Das Dance Company, performing the dynamic works of her ‘Guru Ji’, nationally and internationally.

In 2007, Farah debuted as a solo kathak performer and has since performed to great acclaim throughout the US and India, and is also a recipient of numerous grants and awards.

Royal Palm Media Affairs Manager Waryyam Iqbal highlighted that the club had always remained associated with charity and fundraising for humanitarian causes and their platform was available for promoting arts and cultural activities.

The event was hosted by Mashal Books and attended by Pervaiz Qureshi, Kamran Lashari, renowned classical dancer Nighat Chaudhry, Laila Lashari, former ambassador Raja Irfan, Advocate Salman Akram Raja and officials of Mashal Books.

Noted writer, intellectual and critic Atiya Syed was recently conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at Istanbul University, Turkey.

She is also a recipient of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz by the Pakistan government for her services in Urdu literature and English. To her credit the writer has around 13 books on psychology, philosophy and social issues.

Atiya told Dawn that mentioning Turkey in her writings was the outcome of inspiration from her father, Syed Muhammad Abdullah, who took part in the Khilafat Movement and used to tell her stories about it.

Three names have so far been recommended for the chairman of Lahore Arts Council Board of Governors: Zeba Muhammad Ali, Shoaib Bin Aziz and Asghar Nadeem Syed, insiders at the council told Dawn. They said a decision would be taken by the end of this month.

In a display of cross-border friendship and a bid to share each other’s culture, singer and actor Ali Zafar invited Bollywood heartthrob Siddharth Malhotra to Lahore for a tour of the old city.

This invitation was sent through twitter during a conversation. The Bollywood actor appreciated the invitation and accepted it. Siddharth has just finished shooting for his next film Kapoor and Sons where he will be sharing screen space with Pakistani superstar Fawad Khan and Alia Bhatt.

Maker of the film Jinnah, Professor Akbar Ahmed, appreciated the contribution and assistance rendered by and social activist Jimmy Engineer while making the film, according to an email sent by the artist.

Professor Ahmed, who is presently the Ibne Khuldun chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, Washington DC, described Engineer in one of his recent articles about the making of Jinnah as one of the heroes who made the film possible among others.

The email quoted Prof Ahmed as writing in article that when the government had reneged on its commitment to partially fund the film, Jimmy had launched a one-man crusade to raise funds and even walked from Karachi to Lahore for the purpose.

Others who were mentioned by Prof Ahmed in the article quoted in the email, as heroes who made Jinnah possible were the then caretaker prime minister Malik Mairaj Khalid, the then Punjab governor Shahid Hamid, Jamil Hamdani and his wife, Jamy Rahim and his wife, Amir Chinoy and his wife Almas, renowned historian of Jinnah Professor Sharful Mujahid, Christopher Lee, Shashi Kapoor, secretary to the president Shamsher Ali Khan, Azmat Hassan, caretaker prime minister Moeen Qureshi among several others.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2016