By Perwez Abdullah

Karachi: The face looked familiar but it was difficult to recall the identity of the grey-haired person who sat on the lawns of the Karachi Press Club (KPC) holding a small shopping bag containing audio-cassettes. A mutual friend introduced him and there was a flashback – Akram Dashti who was a hostel fellow at the University of Karachi (KU) in the mid- to late 1970s.

Yes, it was Akram Dashti from Turbat, Balochistan, a soft-spoken and quiet student in the Department of Sociology. All contact with him was lost after he left the university. Now he was at the KPC with the audio-cassettes of Faiz’s Ghazals with him waiting for the programme in memory of Faiz to begin. “I had all these (cassettes) before but they are old so I have replaced them with new ones”, he said.

He smiles shyly and says modestly that he was in the National Party and a former speaker of the Balochistan Assembly. So he had done well. It was a long journey from a shy and self-effacing young man in the KU hostel to a seasoned politician.

“I love Faiz as a great poet and as a comrade who did so many things quietly, without trumpeting and hogging the limelight,” Dashti says. After some forethought he chuckles and says: “Look at this irony. He shunned the limelight but it followed him everywhere.” He points towards the canopy that had Faiz’s fans of all hue. “Look at these people who have come from far and wide. I have come here from Quetta to attend this event, to remember and eulogise Faiz.”

Akram Dashti remembers verses from Faiz’s Ghazals, a large number of those, and recites them on appropriate occasions. It is so captivating. The slight Balochi accent increases the aesthetic beauty of the verses.
Source: The News
Date:2/24/2011