meethapani

Diaries, Journals and Notebooks Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks have probably brought him more renown with academics than the fifteen paintings he made in his life time. Filled with investigations of anatomy, botany, geology, mathematics and inventions for bridges, flying machines, war machines, submarines, musical instruments, they continue to be relevant today. A small hand bound notebook was always tied to his belt at all times, ready to jot down ideas, observations and a to-do list. The pocket notebook was also a fixture of many writers, scientists, soldiers and statesmen, including Darwin, Hemmingway, Beethoven and George Lucas. It came to be seen as a masculine, accessory. Maugham kept a writer’s notebook in which he wrote sketches of people he met who might make it into his next novel. Frieda Kahlo, Paul Klee and Picasso’s notebooks, like that of most artists were not only part of the creative process but were also a “friend” in difficult personal times. Picasso said ...

Image Wars As the election draws near, the battle of the image has acquired a frantic momentum. Posters are put up in any available space, then taken down, smiling, turbaned, clean shaven, mustached, bearded   or draped in dupattas, and the inevitable smutty images shared on social media.   Videos are shared, and a   whole industry emerges for songwriters,   performers, printers, production houses and poster pasters. Ballot paper symbols arrive looking like a child’s qaida or first alphabet reader   - some familiar such as the lion, kite and cricket bat , some incomprehensible and inevitably comical like the ones shared by blogger Rameeza Ahmad -   an energy saver bulb, a laptop, an air conditioner, an ostrich and an egg plant – who would accept a symbol that evokes the phrase “ thali ka baingan ”! Statecraft has always depended greatly on images. The Pharoahs commissioned monumental statues as did the Mesopotamian empires, the Greeks and Roman...

The Actor’s Dilemma Last week I received an email announcing a commemorative session for the late Razia Sajjad Zaheer at the Pak Tea House Lahore by the Progressive Writers Association of Pakistan. Was I in a time warp? Is there still an active Progressive Writers Movement?   I was already on a search to understand why Pakistani films and TV dramas no longer had truly great stories or great actors , a search that had led me to the role of the Progressive Writers Movement, a group of engaged writers whom Bilal Zubedi and   Dr. Riaz Ahmed Shaikh call the “creative minority”, that gave us poetry, dramas and film scripts that defined the golden age of literature, cinema, radio and television. Zubedi and   Shaikh   in their study “Rise and Fall of Progressive Thought in Pakistan: An Appraisal of PTV Drama Tradition”( 2013) suggest that this creative minority   established PTV , the sole TV channel till 1989, from management to   creative programmi...