EVERY year, Karachi hosts a wonderful flower show. Half a century back, in the winter season, such events were specific to a particular flowering plant. What was it? Answer: on Dec 16, 1974 chrysanthemums in 100 sizes were displayed at the eighth Chrysanthemum Show held by the Horticulture Society of Pakistan at the Karachi Zoological Garden. Hundreds of duplicates and triplicates of five species — incurved, pompone, reflex, single and anemone — were exhibited in 17 sections. Most significant were the two new varieties of the reflex type which were of an abnormal size developed recently in the city. Visitors were surprised to see them grafted out of a turnip by a citizen in two rare shades of pink and yellow. Begum Jam Sadiq Ali inaugurated the event. She exhorted the guests, particularly women, to take a keen interest in gardening, which she called the healthiest hobby. She was happy to note that in the last few years the tendency to grow vegetables in houses had gained popularity. Ah, the good old days!

From natural to man-made beauty. The same day, eminent artist Ahmed Parvez’s 24th solo exhibition of paintings opened at the Indus Gallery. The 18 artworks on display, done in oil, were made during the last two to three months in preparation for his departure to Europe for a series of exhibitions. Compared to his show at the same venue last year, the exhibits depicted new elements emerging in Parvez’s art — that is, apart from the eruptive forms and intricate work, the artist had gone a step forward in his skilful use of colours.

In a somewhat related story, on Dec 20, it was reported that the Sindh education department was considering to allow teaching of certain selective art subjects in a limited number of city colleges from the next academic year. The need was being felt because in subjects such as Persian, Arabic, Geography, Sindhi, Philosophy and General History, there were few students — less than the teaching staff in certain cases. The science students, the report added, had to opt either for Urdu or Sindhi as a compulsory subject but in many colleges there were no Sindhi language students and the teachers remained unutilised.

Staying on the topic of languages, on Dec 21, tribute was paid to Mir Babbar Ali Anees for his brilliance of diction and poetic narration of events in a dramatic style at a programme organised at Theosophical Hall in connection with his centenary. Presided over by distinguished poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the meeting was addressed by Sindh’s Education Minister Pyarali Allana, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Karachi Dr Mahmud Husain, G Allana, S M Taqi, Shanul Haq Haqqi, Sibte Hasan, Sahar Ansari, Shakir Ali Jaffery and Dr Alia Imam. Faiz sahib in his address traced the history of Urdu poetry and described Mir Anees as a poetic genius whose verses made the people understand the theme of Hali’s poems and Iqbal’s Shikwa Jawab-i-Shikwa. “The works of Mir Anees has a universal appeal because of its simplicity, classical aspects of poetry, mass acceptability, and depiction of high morals and artistic presentation of basic human relations,” he said.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2024