Fawzia Mriza at SOS

Fawzia Mirza studied law but she thought she could put up her best arguments through art. Born and raised in the US, Mirza lives in Los Angles and expresses herself through acting, production, writing and working in theatre, television and film. 

She loves to educate people how to express themselves through their bodies, voices individually and through building a connection with others.

She says she uses art to break down stereotypes across a multiplicity of race, religion, sexual orientation and gender and defy the concept of the “model minority” often portrayed in the mainstream. Thank you very much.   

She was in the town and had planned to do a story-telling session how to express oneself with a group of children at SOS Village.

Pakistan-US Alumni Network invited me to attend the session, and I gladly accepted the offer.

Why not. Seeing Fawzia perform is a treat to watch.

I was at SOS village at 10am and soon arrived there Fawzia amid tight security.

Some American consulate officials were with her.

 The children aged 10 to 15 years seemed a bit confused when she took them to playground from a large classroom. The presence of their teachers made them submissive.

 As she started interacting with them, the children shed shyness and submissiveness. They looked joyous, excited and the presence of their teachers and other adults was consigned to oblivion.     

“Clap, turn to the person standing next to you, look into their eyes and shout your name,” she started with the activity. After a round of claps and name shouts, the children looked relaxed and were at home.  

“When an eye-to-eye connection is made, an emotional bond comes into being,” she later explained the activity. Shake-it-out was the second activity, which brought physical expressions out of the children.  All participants standing in a circle would first shake their left arm, then left arm, followed by right foot and finally left foot eight times each.

‘Name and shout’ was another activity, where each participant would first tell their name loudly and then utter a sound to express themselves. 

“Any sound would do,” she told the participants standing in a circle. 

The playground was resonated with roars, whistles, mews, laughter, shrills, and what not. 

“You see, they expressed their individuality in a free atmosphere,” she smiles.  The other activities included making a story by adding a sentence from each participant and throwing an imaginary ball to someone in the circle.  

The main activity, however, was making a human machine.

 Ten volunteers would make some physical actions and utter some machine like sound. The end result was wonderful. 

“What do you they this machine is for?” she asked the remaining children. 

“It looks like a washing machine,” said overexcited Razia. 

“No, they are building a road,” said a boy. 

“Nuclear plant,” said a 10-year-old boy. 

Everybody laughed. American Consulate officials also joined the laughter. 

What one wants to comprehend life?

^{Of course, truth.}

^{Saleem, a young man, is seeking truth. He has good friends, a pretty woman who loves him, and a caring mother, in his life.}

^{Saleem’s mother Fatima advises him: “Before you presume to seek the greater truths, you must learn to distinguish between right and wrong in simple everyday things.”}

^{Oblivious to their presence and their sentiments towards him, Saleem goes in in his search for truth but at the end of the day he is left alone.}

^{He finds a bitter truth: “Life is as complicated as we make it”.}

^{The bitter truth comes out of a powerful performance in three-act stage play Foothold, presented by the Kinnaird College Najamuddin Dramatics Society.}

^{The club staged the drama, beautifully penned by poet Taufiq Rafat, on Friday and Saturday in front of a packed audience. Pin drop silence, occasional laughter and thunder of applause spoke volume of the perfection of acting, set design, dialogue delivery and direction. The event was attended by the Kinnaird College community.}

^{The play, Pakistan’s first full length English, which Taufiq Rafat wrote in 1969, remains unpublished till date and has been performed twice – once in 1969 and then 2008 (that was in fact a performed reading by the NCA).}

^{The play opens at a railway station platform, a metaphorical place of departures and arrivals. As typical Pakistani railway stations are a place of dirt, and refuge for homeless and passengers, the set is strewn with fallen rusting leaves, and is home to two disciples and a station master. A peasant woman is waiting for the train, which never arrives. Saleem, disciples and the station master get themselves indulged in discussion on truth. As disciples would like to seek truth through faith or religion, Saleem dismisses the narrative.}

^{“Religion is not merely prayer, Fast and Pilgrimage. There is something more,” he says in a dismissive tone.}

“Your sympathy is worse than your cruelty,” complains Nasreen about his indifference. She sobs, “I wish I had never met you.” 

 ^{As he is advised to turn to worship, prayers and a life like a malang, Saleem says: I 've wept, have been a lone worshipper in a ruined mosque for lost innocent the faith that was.}

^{“A prayer is an appeal to God, not to lessen suffering, but to give it a motive. Not the repeating of accepted formulas the singsong rote and practiced waist-bend, but the saffron hour of expectation for the simple and expected answer."}

 Disappointed, Saleem turns to his fried Mustafa house. There his beloved Nasreen, his longtime friend Ali and mother Fatima try to keep him on the track. He, however, keeps brooding over his invisible destination that hurt the feelings and sentiments of those attached to him.

^{“Your sympathy is worse than your cruelty,” complains Nasreen about his indifference. She sobs, “I wish I had never met you.”}   

^{When they see futility in their tries to convince the central character, friends and family taunt and prick Saleem over his oscillating nature.}

^{The play though philosophical in nature, provides comic relief to the audience through the characters of a vendor and a police man, who see life in pleasures of everyday life.}  

^{The play is reminiscent of Gautam’s quest for nirvana to become the Buddha, or the Sufi acolyte or talib’s to realise mystic ‘Irfan’.}

^{It interprets that journey for self-discovery in a modern middle-class setting.}

^{Saleem, however, suffers angst and taunts. But that work as towards the end of the play, he gradually begins to comprehend that enlightenment comes through a balanced life.}

^{That is what the station master teaches him showing him the railway track, where two lines run parallel. The two lines keep the train balanced and on the track.}

^{Of course, truth is to keep the life balanced.}

^{That is a bitter truth indeed.}

Notorious notices

Whenever something (good or bad) happens in Pakistan (or somewhere else), the first thing

 the people, who think they are somebody, do is to take notice of the incident.

                                                          (Image courtesy Geo News) 

Notice temptation 

The last thing our president, the prime minister, chief ministers, ministers, governors, 

judges, commissioners, district coordination officers and patwaris were tempted to do is: 

taking notice of Pakistani cricket team’s defeat in the world cup quarterfinal. The Pakistan 

Cricket Board chairman was the last person, who also joined the chorus and took notice of 

the defeat. 

                                             

                                           When in Rome (do as the Romans do)  (Courtesy Express News) 

The familiar phrase – Mr (or Ms) has taken notice of a certain development - exhibits 

power, efficiency, piety and is self-serving.

The perfunctory statement, devoid of any viable action, goes unnoticed by the public and it 

is has been left to TV channels and newspapers to run these ‘notices’ in the form of tickers 

and front-back page stories.