LARKANA: A three-day annual health, education, art and literature festival showcasing traditional handicrafts, art and music began on Friday with guests and visitors expressing belief such festivals would greatly help discourage hatred and spread love.

The festival organised by Sindhu Vaas Foundation and inaugurated by folk singer Ashique Nizamani exhibited paintings by different artists covering a variety of subjects and traditional Sindhi bed sheets, handkerchiefs, chadors, purses and other items.

A large number of people from different walks of life who participated in the exhibition encouraged young artists and appreciated the hard work they had put in to preparing the handicrafts.

Women skilled in making traditional items hailing from different towns and villages exhibited their talent before visitors and later put it on display in the exhibition.

The visitors called efforts of the festival organisers a positive step towards encouraging talented youth and bringing to fore the traditional skills that remained hidden in remote areas. The performance of artists and young singers was tremendous, they said.

Anita Panjani, chairperson of Sindhu Vaas, said that the foundation was not only encouraging indigenous talent but also extending financial help to village women. “We have given soft loans to women in Qubo Saeed Khan, Karachi and Larkana and it is bearing quite encouraging results,” she said, adding that the foundation would establish a vocational training centre in Qubo Saeed Khan this year.

Jaghdesh Ahuja, president of the foundation, said that the exhibitions were receiving tremendous response. This year a platform was provided to the skilled women who had excelled in preparing traditional gifts and other items of interior decoration, he said.

“Our forefathers have bequeathed to us a rich civilisation and we are here making serious efforts to offer something new as an appreciable addition to the old civilisation,” he said. He said that they were trying to repair and rebuild the shaken confidence of people as they had time and again been deceived with unfounded commitments. They were trying to inject fresh inspiration among the talented youth, promote art of handicrafts and create new trends, he said.

Nizamani said that such gatherings were key to promoting love and humanity and providing a platform for protecting music, language, traditions, culture, handicrafts and art. Above all, these festivals discouraged hatred and spread love, he added.

He said that trends, traditions and customs kept changing. It was therefore important to provide a forum to the youth and skilled hands to demonstrate their innate abilities. He emphasised the need for establishing a music institute in Larkana as presently only one such institute was working in Karachi and appreciated Sindhu Vaas for setting up a music school in Larkana to promote classical and modern music.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2021