Cultured lives

Good news may seem hard to come by, but in large part that is because it does not sell newspapers or grab headlines. This is not a local phenomena but global; good news tends to make the inside or back pages the world over.

Pakistan has good news every day. It also has a vast engine turning out the bad news which gobbles up page-space and airtime, leaving the good news panting along at the back of the race. So, just for a change, in this column a celebration of the good – because there is a lot of it.

Top of the good news today is that two literary festivals held virtually back-to-back, drew tens of thousands of people (that is worth repeating: ‘tens of thousands’) to hear quality debate about a range of cultural topics delivered by an impressive range of international and national figures.

There were no fights. Nobody threw anything. Nothing got burned down. Nobody died or got injured. A lot of people enjoyed themselves. Much pizza got eaten. Quite a lot of books got sold. There was widespread smiling and laughter. There were no calls for the death of anybody.

The events were both a howling success with a promise of more to come – in the case of the Lahore festival with the support of the provincial government which is several steps in the right direction. Quite a lot of people were faintly surprised and the naysayers of the Twitterverse were confounded. Yes, two successful literary festivals within ten days…in Pakistan. Pinch yourself. It’s not a dream.

The largest bookshop in the country – at Jinnah Supermarket in Islamabad – has just added a third floor. And sofas. And a customer bathroom. The place hums from opening to closing.

A new bookshop primarily aimed at children and younger people has opened on Welcome Chowk, Bahawalpur. Yes. Bahawalpur. Doing good business by the looks of it. Presumably the owners of these establishments are not in the bookselling business just for the fun of it, they want to make a profit. And they do.

Ever thought of buying a piece of original artwork for your newly decorated lounge/office/study? Affordable art is available in all of the large and most of the small cities in the land. Affordable as in affordable by the average middle-class family with two earning hands.

Art is never cheap anywhere but there is no shortage of interesting work being produced and again, the gallery owners are not philanthropists; they need to put bread on their tables too. But they are selling a lot of pictures.

Fancy going to see a film tonight? Increasingly you can in a cinema that is pleasantly appointed selling overpriced snacks and fast foods but with a range of films on offer in a variety of languages. With comfy seats.

Women and children welcome. Louts and hooligans not. Going to the cinema is becoming what it once was – a family affair. And have you seen what is happening to some of the cinemas burned down in last year’s bout of madness?

For some it may prove to have been a blessing in disguise. They are – literally – rising from the ashes and the owners of these burned out shells have looked closely at what is happening in the fancy new multi-screen places, and are rebuilding with a different audience in mind.

There will in future be more places to go to the cinema. They will cater to a range of audiences not all of whom will be able to afford the pricey multiplex tickets, but still appreciate seeing a film in a place that is reasonably clean and has a ‘family section’.

How about going to see a play? Now admittedly this is not yet a widespread opportunity but there is growing theatrical activity – again in a range of languages, right across the country.

In Karachi one of the leading theatrical activists is taking performance and awareness of the arts into the poorest of communities, giving children in the Kiran school system a chance to learn to play an instrument, or dance or sing in harmony. The kids love it. Cultural awareness and enjoyment need not be just the domain of the rich, the elites.

The fashion industry is doing rather well, also. Fashion being fashion, it is riven by infighting at the haute-couture end of the scale; where screaming queens battle it out with rhinestone handbags and pens dipped in vitriol scribe elegant stilettos to slip through the ribs of mincing fauns – but ordinary people buy clothes as well.

Clothes that are catwalk one week are on provincial backs the next. They are bought in the malls that are propagating like rabbits and frequented by a growing middle class that has disposable income and is happy to spend it on the lawn equivalent of urban bling. Some may not consider it ‘culture’ – but oh yes it is.

And have you looked at our cultural presence in the wonderful world online? The Internet? There is everything from scurrilous scandal-sheets to high art and literature all there for free at the click of a mouse. And with over 20 million Internet users in the country now a wide and diverse audience.

Viewed from afar it is possible to misperceive Pakistan as a cultural wasteland, terrorised by extremists and fanatics. It is certainly true that there are parts of the country where extremism has limited cultural access across the board, from live performances of music and dance to theatre and poetry readings.

But there are large parts of the country – probably most of it in truth – where there is increasing access to and availability of a vast range of cultural experiences. Seen from a different perspective the two recent literary festivals represent the tip of an extremely large cultural iceberg.

This is not a nation of roaring Philistines – despite whatever you read in the newspapers or see on the television. Culture? Yes, we can do that as well.

The writer is a British social worker settled in Pakistan. Email: manticore73@gmail.com