Review on SOIS workshop: Waheed Murad "A spiritual journey"

The workshop that was conducted on "Waheed Murad: A spiritual Journey" by Sir Khurram ALi Shafique on Saturday 25th of September 2010, was one of the beautiful spiritual experiences of my life, may be other participants had felt the same.

Before starting video clip session, Sir distributed a handout to all participants in which a short abstract from one of the novels from Ibn-e-Safi was given, everybody read it and Sir also asked about the views of participants that which of the heroin of that time would have suited the character of Sabiha in novel. Then video session was started.

In the first clip when camera entered the street where Amir lives, everybody with his personal experiences found himself at a different place having a different role in the clip. Most of the participants were found to be with Amir, while he was telling us about his world and things and people of the street he lived including those kids who do not appreciate his art and Mr. Bezar who has no listener of his old classical music. It was like knowing his world with his views, seeing with his eyes. In the very next clip, the feedback from the participants was increased and everybody shared what he had thought about the song "Aaj achanak" and the attitude of Amir towards life and people around him and actions that he performed during the song.

Then after watching the third clip, almost every one was now able to differentiate between the two songs and behavior of Amir and Bezar Sahib.

Before the short tea and Namaz break Sir Khurram played one more clip from the movie in which almost same situation came which was in the abstract from the novel of Ibn-e-Safi, hence everybody recognized the scene and found the connection between the two legends (Waheed Murad and Ibn-e-Safi) which is still strange and mysterious.

After that the fourth clip which is the last song of the movie "Akhri baar" played and we visited the soul of Amir where suddenly film was being transformed from black and white to color. This was another interesting experience and in the discussion after the song that was actually in the fantasy of Amir, it was discussed that Aaliya who was the heroin of the movie had the same name as of Waheed Murad daughter, so could Aaliya be a metaphor of the next generation which Waheed Murad had used in his movie. Then final clip with climax was played and after a little discussion session was ended.

In the movie every viewer seems to visit his mind first and then his soul, so the film is all about stream of consciousness, and may be Waheed Murad wanted to convey his message through this stream of consciousness.

The quality of the workshop was that it was different from typical workshops that are usually conducted. While playing different clips from movie "Ishara", sir Khurram did not explain many things himself, but created a free environment in which everybody was participating more than his expectations even and things which he wanted to explain, people themselves were approaching those experiences and answers of different unexplained things were coming before explanation.

Salma Waheed Murad whose presence was very important for all of us, praised the work of Sir Khurram and clearly claimed that he is being chosen for this work. I agree with her, Do you?

Happiness

Today, I had some very new and beautiful experiences while i was attending the SOIS workshop on "Waheed Murad: a spiritual journey".

I just came to know about further different aspects of "Ishara" which even I could not observed when saw these clips from the movie on Sir Khurram's blog.

Second important thing was that I got a chance to meet Salma Waheed Murad for the first time and it was nice to see her sharing her feelings with us.

The third and the most important thing was that I met with Sir Akhtar Wasim Dar there, he came and I did not know that he is coming. When he entered the room, I surprisingly stared him, because I got a sense of familiarity, then I recognized him.

Although, I wanted to talk to him more but in a short time that I got, it was very nice to hear him while I am used to hear him through his writings and now I was honored to hear him speaking in front of me.

I felt this feeling of happiness and satisfaction very few times in my life after meeting someone. It was a source of energy for me to meet such a person who is really a source of inspiration during my writings.

May be one day, InshAllah when I will meet Connie who is also a source of inspiration for me like many others in RR, this feeling of happiness will be with me again.

what we can do?

During the different visits to interior Sind and Karachi Flood relief camps for the last month, I personally experienced few things that had shaken me when I thought about them in detail. I want to discuss these things with you all and ask for the advices if anyone has better ideas and we can solve this issue.

We visited several different camps even without the fear of security we approached to the affected people who were not registered in any camp and just set their fragile and unreliable shelters wherever they got place. They were needy, hungry, thirsty for clean drinking water, kids wanting milk, showing so much desperation that went to mismanagement and disordered things. They do not want to wait till their number to come, instead they want to get the things and aid at first and for doing this they do not hesitate to crush others' rights who are also needy like them.

Many of us at different places, when observed the same situation found hard to work in these circumstances and felt miserable for the people who could not wait just a little till their turn. But then we felt that it's so natural.

They do it because they do not trust that they will get and aid will not be stopped till their turn. They have experienced much hunger and thirst that have brought a sense of insecurity inside them. They have experienced the injustice during the distribution of relief goods by the government and even from certain organizations.

Someone when remarked that these people are criminal minded and do not have any ethical and moral values, just want to snatch everything in their reach. The most simple answer that I heard from many of us was that if this is a standard to check the criminal mind of someone, then I think three quarters of the total population of this country are criminal minded.

What behavior it will be called when people rush without any ethical law towards the meal in a wedding ceremony and pushing each other like they have never been to eat anything. What attitude it will be named when people do not want to stand in a queue and wait till their turn but they break the line rushing towards the counter without caring about the rights of the people who are standing and waiting before them. This is the very usual attitude of our society that everyone seems in a hurry and move fast than other but not on his own foot instead by crushing other's foot.

Although, they are poor and misconduct with people many times even with them who have come to help them in this worst condition, but this is a truth that the major reason for that is their sense of insecurity, they consider us untrustworthy who can betray them anytime and use them for our own purpose.

There is good and bad, genuine and impure, everywhere in this world. We have to discriminate it on our own and if we can not then we should not leave good and genuine due to the only reason that there is bad and impure which also exists and can cause problems.

For this reason, we found out the solution and first after approaching any camp, try to convince people that they should follow some rules and ethical laws for pure distribution of goods and stuff. Dr. Kashif being very useful in this matter, as he can speak Sindhi frequently, tried to mange things and was successful at most of the times.

So, if we can do something for them that it is hope that should not die among them and we can keep hope for them alive by changing our attitude towards them and providing goods and stuff by making a trust with purity and justice. Also, please try when anyone of you people who are working for flood relief camps and face the panic and rushing situation during the process of distribution, do not throw things to them instead stop providing things till a specific time and try to convince them that control and management is necessary and they should follow some ethics. You will find some troubles initially but then people will understand and believe you and when they will believe you, they will not extend their hands except they will wait for you to reach them on their turn. Believe me, it is not impossible we can do it with a little more struggle. If they are illiterate, we can teach them ethics of life. If they are misbehaved, we can change their behavior. If they are insane, we can enlighten their senses. And this all we can do just by treating them as we treat our brothers and sisters got a trouble and behaving not well, and we still want to help them. Give them respect a human deserves, speak politely and they will respect you in a way you can not expect. Try it once, change the scenario, avail this opportunity to aware them.

Friends Indeed........

After having a successful visit to Sukkur for Relief camp, everybody in this friends group wanted to continue work for Flood Victims as much as possible till the very end of the rehabilitation of Flood victims.

So, I am going to start a new blog with the name Friends Indeed.......which would be used as a Forum to co-operate, collaborate and to collect funds on a larger scale for continuation of this relief work.

This is the url of the blog:

http://helpingfloodvictims.blogspot.com/

I have started to post the details of our work from the very first day, so everyone is requested to share his part as possible.