KARACHI: One could easily use trite adjectives like ‘heartfelt’ and ‘touching’ to describe how friends and colleagues of Musadiq Sanwal, editor of Dawn.com who passed away last month, remembered him at the Arts Council on Tuesday evening. But the fact is that the man was such a fine and multitalented individual that it left one at a loss for words listening to those who were close to Sanwal express their fondness for him.

Journalist Hasan Zaidi, who conducted the programme, said the event was not one where those who had gathered would mourn Sanwal’s death; instead, they would celebrate his life. Celebrate they did. He said the evening was divided into two parts: the first one was to do with Sanwal’s personal and creative selves after which the floor would be opened for the audience where anyone could speak about him.

The evening formally began with Sanwal’s friend and journalist Sharjeel Baloch’s flute playing. He played a tune set to Nasir Kazmi’s poetry that Sanwal often used to sing. It enveloped the Arts Council auditorium in a reverie of sorts.

Journalist Wusutullah Khan gave a poetic tribute to him beginning with a Jaun Elia couplet:

Yehi sub kuchh tha jis dam wo yahan tha

Chale jaane pe us ke jaane kia naeen

(All of this was here, when he was here

Now that he’s gone, what is that’s gone)

Next up were colleagues of the theatre group Baang that Sanwal had set up. Ali Hasnain reminisced about the time when members of the group lived in one room and didn’t have enough money to pay their rent.

Farrukh Hasan said Sanwal taught him and others about the basics of theatre and termed him a ‘progressive’ person.

After that two of Sanwal’s music pieces were shown. The first one was Mian Mohammad Bakhsh’s ‘Saiful Malook’ and the other a modern version of the folk tune ‘Mai Ni’. It was pretty apt selection as they nicely exemplified the musical talent that Sanwal was, and still is. The images of different phases in Sanwal’s life (put together by Nofil Naqvi) which accompanied the songs were evocative.

Zeresh John of Dawn.com discussed Sanwal the mentor. She said he allowed his staff to grow that was why they thrived under his leadership. He was a great conversationalist who could talk about subjects as varied as history, architecture, philosophy and literature. Her speech was followed by a short documentary ‘I Am the Artist’ which was a part of a Dawn.com project ‘I’ Am Hazara’ envisaged by Sanwal. It had a moving narrative about a sketch club founded by Fazal Husain Moosavi, especially the interviews of a few young girls, aspiring artists,

gave one a fair idea about the resilience and courage of the Hazara community.

Owais Touheed read a paper on Sanwal. Khalid Ahmed read out a poem, as did Mohammed Hanif whose rendition of Sanwal’s poem ‘Janab-i-Wajdan’ had echoes of N.M. Rashid’s poem Ajal.

Arts Council President Ahmed Shah’s tribute carried the couplet:

Yaar sub jama huay raat ki tareeki mein

Koi ro ker to koi baal bana ker aaya

(Friends gathered in the dead of night

Some had come with welled-up eyes, some with hair combed)

A young man, Bilal, who collaborated with Sanwal on musical projects, introduced the video of a song that they had worked on.

The Editor of Dawn also spoke at the event.

In the latter part of the evening members of the audience were invited to express their opinions on Sanwal.

The programme was organised by the Dawn Media Group, Arts Council Karachi and friends of Musadiq Sanwal.