meethapani

The Romance of the Balcony Shakespeare never envisaged a balcony in what has come to be known as the famous Balcony Scene of Romeo and Juliet. Balconies were not introduced in English architecture till the late Georgian period. David Garrick first included a balcony in his production of the play in 1748. Ever since, the balcony has become an enduring symbol for lovers. Oft quoted are Romeo’s lines “But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?/It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”  Less noticed are Juliet’s lines “Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud”. Women of genteel families, rarely ventured out. The balcony became a cherished space for women, an allowed outdoor space. Called “a space in between”, balconies are both  public and  private, a connection with the world outside for women whose movements are restricted either because of social norms or domestic duties. The balcony has come to be seen as a feminine space.  . As Grace King in her w...

A Cultural Vacuum During a recent lecture I presented on the role of art and literature in Pakistani society, a gentleman asked what we can do to stop influences from across the border. “Don’t leave a vacuum” was my response. This is an age of influences. Like King Canute realized, we cannot halt the tide. In fact influences are not only to be expected but encouraged. Humanity has always learnt from the experiences of others. However, being able to choose what influences one wishes to adopt requires a filter. The filters are created by a number of factors including belief systems, collective societal values, family, language, educational systems. These evolve over time and are protected, refreshed or added to in a considered way and normally embedded in cultural expressions. However, we are living in an age of disruption. The custodians of cultural transmission fall silent. Culture is a series of organized  events, rather than a seamlessly assimilated continuity. ...

Art & Science Knowledge is often formally divided into the sciences and humanities, as if one can exist without the other and is reflected in the channeling of students into one or the other stream at an early age. We either deprive our young people of the humanizing impact of literature and art or we deprive them of the investigative objectivity of the sciences. Scientists are perceived to be without emotions and artists with too much emotion. It was not always so.  The Greeks considered art to be techne , the source of the word technology. The concept of Art did not emerge in western society until the 17 C The 7 Liberal Arts included sciences until the Victorian era when a narrower interpretation of science as comprising physics chemistry and mathematics was established. The motive was the need for applied sciences to cater to industrial needs.   The perception of Art and Science as separate pursuits became the new norm. A closer examination reveal...

Love in Pakistan Iqbal Bhai Chamak Patti wala was putting the finishing touches on the tram he decorated  in the style of the W11 bus of Karachi. Mick Douglas, who conceived the project for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, asked him to name it.  His first thought was the name of his wife, Shama.  Then he decided upon Love Is Life. Pyaar zindagi hai . Love is an obsession in Pakistan, a society where public displays of love are not accepted, yet every bus rickshaw song ghazal film TV drama is centred on love, where despite all efforts by zealous religious groups, red roses are quickly sold out on Valentine’s Day. Ironic in a country the world believes is violent. Romance is considered the staple genre for young girls and overworked housewives the world over, but in Pakistan the men are equally obsessed.  I remember being intrigued by a turbaned, very macho, truck driver spending ages in the truck accessory shop deciding which set of lovebirds to...

The Artist’s Estate A family friend Katja Neuburger who escaped to London from a concentration camp, briefly housed the well-known artist, Kurt Schwitters. She would rue the fact that she threw away so many of his drawings that he put in the bin, valued today at £ 10,000.  Andy Warhol famously said "death can really make you look like a star" and “death means a lot of money, honey”. Sadeqain and Gulgee paintings and drawings became worth much more posthumously.  Even in the lifetime of an artist, he or she may have sold their works very inexpensively only to find they later increased greatly in value. Art purchases are one of the more stable investments, as it is a tangible asset, especially when there is a transiting market. While the seller benefits, the artists rarely do. In 1920 in France, a landmark law was enacted when the destitute family of French painter Millet, claimed a share in the resale of his work, The Angelus, which originally sold for $100 b...

Living With Honour   In a time when expediency often takes precedence over morality, we overlook how much or our daily activity is based on trust.  A simple act like driving on the road is based on assurance that the  driver will not drive into one’s car. We assume the doctor we visit has not lied about his specialization degree. From childhood, trust is a cornerstone of our lives. A child has to trust his parents, later his teachers and his friends, the authors of books, and pilot of a plane. One cannot function without the basis of trust. Yet trust is also a complex nuanced relationship the importance of which needs to be constantly reinforced. Erik Erikson, the developmental psychologist, marks eight stages of life that pivot around certain fundamental conflicts starting with Trust vs Mistrust and ending with Integrity vs Despair. The first stage requires trusting others, but is gradually internalized: at some stage in our lives, we become aware of the need f...

Celebrating the Old Pakistan  Shall we remember? Shall we forget? Shall we look to the future? Shall we bring along the past? They tell us we need a new Pakistan. Pakistan began with fear and faith. We still live in fear and faith. Before and during partition it was the anxiety of being marginalized after the withdrawal of the British Rule. That fear turned into a movement for a separate homeland that was achieved in 1947. Today we live in a fear of our own making – corruption, inequality, poverty, to which has been added violent extremism.  Fear is not necessarily a bad thing: used as a positive force, it heightens awareness, gives energy, makes one ready for obstacles. It gives focus and is a great survival tool. Karachi which was known as a city of peaceful trade, has become an anxious negotiated city.  Business persons negotiate with mafias, cars negotiate with buses and motorbikes. Citizens are forced to negotiate with other citizens over access to wa...

Individuality and Collective Identity Every human is 99.5% genetically identical to any other human. It is that 0.5% that makes each person distinctive and unique, which, for a non-scientist like myself, is a truly mystifying fact. From our fingerprints to our personalities, no two humans are identical, not even identical twins. Yet we also have collective identities such as humankind, tribe, family, social class, profession. This duality between individual and group is something we all easily adopt. We have learnt to separate our public and private lives.  However at some point or points in our lives we face a conflict between our individual desires and the social norms we agree to adopt. This conflict, when it becomes public, may lead to social ostracizing, imprisonment, in some extreme cases, even persecution. The only time when individualism is not only accepted but required is in the arts. Artists, musicians, poets and writers and all the creative arts are assu...

The Importance of Being Idle When my daughter was about 3 or 4, and we grown ups were busy talking she would say in great frustration “stop I can’t hear my voice”. She was referring to her inner voice, her thinking process. Of course conversely she would also say in despair “ I can’t stop my think” ! We all need those moments of silence and receptivity to cultivate our inner thoughts. Childhood used to be a time of playing in the neighbourhood with friends, creating imaginative scenarios, flying kites, playing pitho or gilli danda and sorting out disagreements. Then school got to its serious stage and slowly we were expected to be responsible and think of our possible future careers and lives.  Earning a living was important but there was always time to sit with family, or go on outings. People were not less ambitious then. Almost all our most valuable inventions were created before the infamous 80s  -  when the Yuppies ( young upwardly mobile ) defined  ...

‘ A book is like a garden carried in one’s pocket’ Cicero said “ If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need”. Some  of my best memories are of reading a book through the night, then going out in the garden to watch the sun come up as the birds awaken, the sun rays catching the dew drops on spider webs. Reading and gardens have a natural association. Both reveal themselves slowly to those who are patient.  Garden design almost always includes spaces that lend themselves to a quiet read surrounded by teeming life that seems to echo the words coming to life as we turn page after page.  Many writers have found inspiration sitting in their gardens or wandering the countryside. Charles Dickens had ‘a Pavilion room in the garden, with a delicious view, where you may write’ More people read books than one would expect given the demands of life today, especially as digital formats are growing.  Even in Pakistan, the literature festivals...

Creative Protest Unpaid lady health workers, a slow investigation of a target killing, electricity breakdowns - regardless of the cause, the protests are usually all the same: burning  tyres or buses, pelting stones, closing main roads. The message is lost in the rioting and its management by the state. How do the silenced speak when there is none to speak for them? It requires creative thought to ensure the message is communicated. In the Bhutto era, when section 144 was imposed banning assembly of 5 or more people, the Lawyers took out an effective protest: 4 lawyers followed at a 20 ft distance by another 4  in a long procession along the road, not breaking any law, not stopping the traffic and yet having an impact. More recently the Fix It movement has been effective in getting the authorities to repair manholes. The poet Shelly wrote  The Mask of Anarchy in 1832, that may be  the first manifesto  of peaceful resistance,  asking protestors...

SHARING  CULTURES I came across someone in London who said he belonged to a group who used only Anglo Saxon words and refused to use ‘foreign’ words brought over during the 1066 French Norman invasion.  Stunned I thought, surely the Angles and the Saxons were of German origin, and 1066?  How long does it take for a culture to be assimilated? Ethnic identities are once again rising to the fore with Brexit and the new Trump era. Pakistan also has its own homegrown ethnic tensions.  Ethnic diversity and cultural diffusion have been the enrichers of human societies. Trade, especially the silk route travelling from Xian to Rome generated so much exchange of not just goods, but stories, language and customs. Wars also brought cultures into contact for years at a time, and in the pauses of active warfare, cultural exchanges took place, and many a friendship was forged, and knowledge exchanged. Migration, whether by choice or necessity, including the dark periods o...

The Transience of Architecture One thinks of architecture as designed  buildings intended to be, if not permanent, at least exist a long time, serving generations, defining cities, reflecting history. As Winston Churchill famously said, “We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us”. And then an earthquake or flood or war or willful damage occurs, such as we have witnessed not just in Pakistan but across the ancient cities of Iraq and Syria.  It questions and undermines our authority over our lives, our ability to construct our futures. It makes our lives impermanent and fragile. A basti or riverbank in Karachi is suddenly bulldozed, a politician forces neighbours to vacate their homes at three day’s notice, a road expansion pays off homeowners to sell their collective family memories, a dispute over inheritance forces previous owners to see the painful dismantling of their childhood  paradise. The lofty quotes about designing architecture to last for ...