the review2 A m

an-made crisis 3 Of literary criticism

, research and mem

oirs 4 Pukhtun StonehengeSunday, 10 April, 2011

By Hashim bin Rashid

targeted Sufis

Another urs. Another blast.

The spirit of devotion. The spirit of surrender. The spirit of elation. The spirit of defeat. All come to

one within Sufi thought.These core Sufi values came true,

gruesomely, at the Sakhi Sarwar shrine last Sunday. ‘40 dead and counting,’ were the news tickers that day. It is not the first attack on shrines. It is likely not going to be the last.

It all began in a shrine unknown to the public – Fatehpur. March 20, 2005. 50 died. Police speculated it was the result of a feud over the shrine’s possession. Maybe, it was.

But what followed were more shrine attacks. Rehman Baba in Peshawar, Data Gunj Baksh in Lahore, Baba Farid in Pakpattan, Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi, Sakhi Sarwar in DG Khan have all had their legacies attack.

The shrine: contested catharsisThe shrine (theoretically) is the living

soul of the saint buried within it. The life of the saint is given value by

devotees in the practices around the shrine.

And they take from the saint a catharsis of their lives’ dilemmas (though religion itself is an attempt at catharsis).

The practices at a shrine like any other social site remain contested at two levels: internally and externally. At this node in history the external contestation is gaining strength.

Strange as it appears, Pakistan’s settled landscape is marked by shrines; ranging from single room to multi-layered complexes.

Within the shrine saints is a multi-layered construction of the possibilities within the Muslim faith. The contest around shrines remains centred on a set of five tenants: i) the worship of shrines, ii) the mingling of males and females, iii) the dhamaal (or dance), iv) presence of deviant groups (transgenders, prostitutes, drug addicts and the homeless), v) the malamati (rebellious) tradition.

Each of these appears to offer a significant threat to what has become State-backed Islamic hegemony in Pakistan. And yet the traditions and practices being offered at the shrines have continued to bring together communities – and remain at the locus of the living culture of Pakistan.

Sakhi Sarwar: A bit too deviant – or a bit too close to reality

March to April, in Southern Punjab’s rural socio-economy, is festival season.

This is a function of the end of the wheat planting and the wait for the harvest. The hallmark of the festivals in Punjab is the Sakhi Sarwar urs.

Known to be host to thousands of devotees, the peculiar history of Sakhi Sarwar, the saint around which the area was said to have been settled, is worth contemplating. There appears a weak faith-linkage with Sakhi’s persona. The Sakhi shrine was frequented by Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs before the partition. The area of Sakhi Sarwar – itself host to a Hindu majority population prior to the partition– had monuments in tribute to Shiv reported to be present at the shrine complex till some five to seven years ago.

The mela is known as the second largest after the Lal Shahbaz Qalandar urs in Sindh. It is known for the dhamaal (spiritual dance). The dhamaal is offered as catharsis by both women and men. The presence of Hindus itself has remained a feature of the urs. To those who preach spaces of equal religious relations, the Sakhi Sarwar shrine has served as a living example to a dynamic religious understanding.

The Shrine – and it’s otherThis year was the third year in a row that

the urs received threats from the Taliban. The Taliban itself operates as a strange –

The attack on the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan shows the vulnerability of the people’s soul

Pakistan’s

The Targeted Saints Sakhi Sarwar – April 3, 201142 dead, 72 injured in attack at the urs at the Sakhi Sarwar shrine in Dera Ghazi Khan. Haider Saeen – February 4, 2011Three people died and 22 were injured during a blast at the urs at the Haider Saeen shrine near the Minar-i-Pakistan in Lahore. Baba Farid – October 25, 2010 Six people died and 12 were injured at a blast at the shrine of Baba Farid Ganj Shakar in Pakpattan. Abdullah Shah Ghazi – October 7, 2010Seven people were killed when the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi located beachside in Karachi was targeted by a suicide bomber. Data Gunj Buksh – July 1, 201041 people were killed and 175 injured when the Data Darbar located in Lahore was targeted by two suicide bombers. Rehman Baba – March 5, 2009Suspected militants blew up the shrine of Rehman Baba in the Hazar Khwani village in Peshawar. Pir Syed Rakheel Shah – March 20, 200550 people were killed when a blast hit a shrine located at the village of Fatehpur, 300kms from Quetta.

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The art of wood-cut print making

The energy crunch is crushing us from oppo-site directions. On the one hand, price of elec-tricity remains ever on the rise, and on the other, load-shedding durations

of electricity and natural gas get longer and longer. In this context, the publication under review, is a God-given gift to help us understand this man-made calamity

The book covers the whole gamut of energy-related issues pertaining to Paki-stan, and, to put things in a proper per-spective, also gives a bird’s eye view of the world’s energy scenario. It discusses the sources of energy, like coal, nuclear power, petroleum, hydro power, solar energy, bio-mass and wind power, and the end uses

to which the generated energy is put, like industry, transportation, domestic use etc.

How well or badly these resources have been employed in our country and how can they be employed better. Details of the is-sues involved have been provided and also the big picture. The arguments have been augmented by tables, diagrams, graphs, maps, and photographs.

I would like to show here in brief why Muhammad Asif, the author, considers this crisis as man-made. Load-shedding was introduced in this country in the 1980s. In the mid-1990s Banazir Bhutto decided to do something about it. About that time, State Engineering Corporation arranged a foreign investment to produce 2000MW of turnkey thermal projects to meet the shortfall. The cost of electricity came to four cents/kwh, with the added benefit of technology transfer. Internationally re-nowned companies had agreed to set up these plants.

However, a group of politicians and bureaucrats lead by federal secretary, Water and Power, sabotaged the arrangement by not putting it before the Economic Coor-dination Committee chaired by the prime minister. Instead, that influential group entered into contracts with Independent Power Producers who would supply elec-tricity at the rate of 6.1 cents/kwh through thermal power plants. At that time, WAP-DA produced electricity at the rate of 2.4 cents/ kwh through the same process. The

tariff charged by the IPPs rose to 14 cents/kwh by 2009. Though the immediate need was of 2000 MW, purchase of 6000 MW from IPPs was approved out of which 60 per cent was to be purchased compulsorily by WAPDA and KESC, whether the con-sumers required it or not.

The tariff paid by WAPDA and KESC was only partially passed onto the consum-ers, with the result that both the utilities went into loss by 1996, and they have re-mained in the red ever since. Though load-shedding ended then, its additional cost to the taxpayer ran into tens of billions of rupees.

The government of President Mush-arraf did not plan ahead, and surplus ca-pacity went into deficit by 2006-07. This time the deficit was larger, about 5,000 MW, which was compounded by the short-age of natural gas as well. By 2008, the ball was again in the PPP’s court. The PPP-led coalition government entered into agree-ment with private parties for setting up rental power plants for providing 2250MW of electricity. The RPP’s tariff was higher more than that charged IPPs by 0.6 cents/kwh to 1.63 cents/kwh. Even before that, the price of electricity was 5.37 cents/kwh and the cost was 8.37 cents/kwh. Further-more, WAPDA’s receivables from default-ers, principally government departments, amounted to Rs265 bn. All this would mean continuous increase in tariff for the hapless consumers.

ART REVIEW

By Roshan Ara Bokhari

Lahore has a treasure in the person of Mehboob Ali who has devoted the last 40 years of his life to the art of wood-cut prints. He has excelled and surpassed all

previous ventures by striving to work hard at this art form and not only improve the quality of his work but also to break new ground.

One of the techniques of graphic art is called wood-cut prints and is one of the earliest methods of print making. When the Chinese invented paper in the 2nd Century printing techniques followed. The Chinese were the earliest people to use wood for printing and soon enough the art travelled to Japan. As the process of printing developed with time so too the wood-cut art became more frequent.

Like most art forms there were low and high periods, the wood-cut art form began to decline in the 16th Century

because wood engraving and etching was becoming more popular. But late in the 19th Century there was a resurgence of this art form and well known artists of Europe expressed themselves through this art.

Many paintings of the Renaissance masters made on blocks were cut by skilled craftsmen thereby producing a result of a joint effort of the artist and the craftsman.

Mehboob is the leading artist in this medium in Pakistan and has made an invaluable contribution to this art form. A long and complicated procedure is followed in attaining the final result. And this requires, time, patience and accuracy.

The artist has to conceive a subject, draw out the same which has then to be traced on to the block after which the cutting out of the wood begins. Each colour that is to be used has to be transferred turn by turn on to the block. Most artists used to restrict themselves

to two or three colours, but Mehboob Ali in one of his wood-cut prints has used as many as 52 colours!

His works of wood-cut prints and also paintings in pastels have been included in numerous art exhibitions on a national scale and also in countries of Europe and Japan. He is also the recipient of many Awards and his work can be viewed at different art galleries. He is also proud of the fact that his wood-cut prints are in the private collection of notable people, like Prince Charles of England and the current prime minister of India amongst many others.

Asked to talk about his work he says, “My favourite theme is the old city of Lahore. I have been brought up in this environment – the architecture, street scenes and the dramatic effects of changing light are a constant source of inspiration for me.”

At present he is busy conducting a work-shop in Shakir Ali Museum and

passing on his knowledge of this technique to young students who are fortunate enough to benefit by his experience. I have learnt that he has been recommended for the President’s Pride of Performance and it is sincerely hoped that this talented and selfless artist gets the recognition he more than deserves.

Mehboob is the leading practitioner in this medium in Pakistan and has made an invaluable contribution to this art form

A man-made crisis

Zebra (Collage)Wind

The shortfall in the electrical supply could’ve been made up without much increase in billing and without resort to the RPPs. WAPDA’s thermal plants which were under-utilized could be put to use up to 80 per cent capacity. Others could

be upgraded. The result would have been an increase in supply by about 7000MW. Furthermore, curbing the “kunda” cul-ture, eliminating meter-tampering, im-proving transmission and distribution infrastructure, and taking conservation measures, combined would boost saving large enough to overhaul the shortage.

Technical losses and theft account for a colossal 23 per cent to WAPDA and 40 per cent to KESC; and over 50 per cent of these leakages relate to theft and meter-tempering. In developed countries such transgressions amount to a mere 6-7 per cent.

Finally, Mr Asif shows us the way for-ward. He says that in a few years’ time all present and future energy requirements can be met at reasonable cost without to resort to RPPs and IPPs.

Coal deposits of 175 billion tons have been discovered in Thar. The country’s total potential for hydro power is around 43 gigawatts out of which only 15 per cent has been exploited. Another viable project is the gas pipeline from Iran. However, he is not optimistic about it being construct-ed any time soon owing to geo-political reasons.

Typographical errors are more than a few, which is not quite the standard of Ox-ford University Press. However, these are minor blemishes in an otherwise excellent book meant for both lay persons and ex-perts.

A man-made crisis

almost mythial entity – to those of us who sit and digest English newspapers. But the Taliban claim of cause (a reference to the new army operation in Waziristan) and the choice of target (a popular shrine perceived to be host to practices outside the now-bizarre ‘fold of Islam’) both need to be considered.

In fact, let us summarize this: Cause: Operation in Waziristan; Effect: Attack shrine host to ‘deviant’ practices

The suicide bombers at the shrine were no more than children. Of the two child suicide bombers caught, one, a sixth-grade student, said he would do it again if he was let go. The formation of hatred within an exclusive religious identity is the key to producing such an imagination within a mere child.

The Shrine: Amidst a challenge to their essenceThe first challenge to the shrines – and

saints – of the side of the subcontinent that fell to the Pakistani state came from the State itself.

During Zia’s era, the celebration of an urs was banned in the Islamisation regime of the period. The control of the Auqaf department over the shrines was itself extended during this period. An example is the Mela Charaaghan (Festival of Lights) in Lahore celebrated at the shrine of Madhoo Lal Hussain, which was banned for the good part of a decade.

When it reemerged after Zia had been through with it, the festival was never the same. The new festival emerged as an intensely masculinised space. Since then it is slowly trying to rediscover its old essence.

Another incident in recent memory is Shahbaz Sharif ’s attempt to become the patron to the patron saint of Lahore (Data Gunj Bahksh) by making an elaborate complex around the Data Darbar. This increased interference of the State – and State-actors – in the shrine translated into the segregation of gender spaces within

the Data Darbar on the grounds of claimed immorality. This reached its logical end after the unfortunate suicide attacks on the Darbar in 2010, after which it became an intensely monitored and scrutinized environment – no longer the home to the homeless of its recent past.

To this one may add, the very recent, Islamisation of the Bulleh Shah shrine when it was given a mosque after creating a similar building complex around it.

The essence of the shrine has itself begun to undergo a transformation under the State security and immorality regimes. The shrine as a comfort to the destitute is beginning to unravel itself in the more urban and famous shrines.

They are too important to not have their essence attacked by either the State or non-State actors.

But then it is from here that the hope for keeping them alive emerges.

Keeping the soul alive: cultural catharsisWhile there may be no stopping the

attacks on shrines, it is the soul that the saints have offered us that must be kept alive. This soul has two tenants: opening up to those different from us and the tools to begin a cultural catharsis.

A cultural catharsis that is most essential.

Every one of us, in response to the attacks on our saints, needs to immerse himself in dhamaal. A cultural dhamaal (that those familiar with more abstract forms of theatre) that shall bring about a way to keep the saints alive outside the shrines.

An attack on a physical space is an attack on a space of imagination.

The devotees of Sakhi Sarwar had the festival restarted five hours after the attack on the shrine. It was a spirit to not let the attack on the physical space close down imaginative space.

It is the spirit of the devotees of Sakhi Sarwar that we must adopt.

Pakistan’s targeted Sufis

Title: Energy Crisis in Pakistan Origins, Challenges, and Sustainable SolutionsAuthor: Muhammad AsifPublisher: Oxford University Press, Karachi248 pages; Price: Rs725

Of literary criticism, research and memoirs

In a literary environment where publication of poetic collections has lately seen a rapid increase, appearance of books involving critical evaluation and research is like a gust of breeze refreshing the

readers of literature. The three books being reviewed here need to be studied in this perspective.

On the renowned Sufi saintLatif Shanasi is a collection of

critical writings on the renowned Sufi saint, mystic and poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai (1689-1752) from Sindh whom the eminent British scholar Dr H.T Sorley calls ‘one of the greatest poets of the world… in whose verse it is not impossible to detect the music, the ecstasy of sublime adulation’. Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University described him as ‘the direct emanation of Rumi’s spirituality in the Indian world’. Shah Latif is also regarded as ‘a very strong yet subtle proponent of the Sindhi Sufi tradition’. Shah Jo Risalo, which embodies the collection of his verse, is a living monument to his memory.

Dr Tahir Taunsvi, a distinguished scholar, poet, critic and educationist, as also a devotee of the Chishtia Maslak, has compiled this miscellany of 39 essays (32 in Urdu and seven in Seraiki) on the life, work and teachings of the great Sufi poet. It is a natural corollary of the former’s earlier work titled Aina Khana-e-Shah Latif.

Contributors to the miscellany include a cross-section of writers, critics, linguists and scholars like Dr Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch, Syed Sibte Hasan, Dr Jamil Jalibi, A.K Brohi, Dr Abdul Jabbar Junejo, Dr Umar Bin Daudpota, Dr Tanvir Abbasi, Dr Ilyas Ishqi, Dr Muhammad Ali Siddiqi, Dr Sultana Bakshsh, Taj Qaim Khani, Mehtab

Akbar Rashdi, Dr Durre Shahwar Syed, Qazi Javed, Dr Wafa Rashidi, Muslim Shamim, Dr Nigar Sajjad Zaheer, Dr Tehsin Firaqi, Dr Saher Imdad, Taj Joyo, Dr Muhammad Yusuf Khattak, Agha Nur Muhammad Pathan, Dr Sajjad Haider Pervez, Dr Tahir Taunsvi, Maulana Nur Ahmad Khan Faridi, Muhammad Aslam Rasulpuri, Nazir Leghari, Javed Chandio and others.

These writers have discussed various aspects of Shah Latif ’s biography, philosophy, poetic art and his knowledge of music in their articles. As a kaleidoscopic compendium of Shah Latif, as aptly remarked by Dr Ghulam Ali Allana, the book will surely enlighten the Urdu readers the world over on the great Sufi saint and poet of the Sindhi language with a universal message of truth, love and peace.

Contemporary literary criticismTehqiq Nama ( January 2010),

edited by Dr Saadat Saeed, is a research organ of the Urdu Department of GC University, Lahore. Its 7th issue contains the writings, among others, of Dr Muhammad Salim Malik, Dr Muhammad Kamran, Dr Alamdar Hussain Bokhari, Dr Shafique Ajami, Dr Syed Tariq Hussain Zaidi, Dr Syed Aamir Sohail, Dr Jawaz Jafery, Dr Muhammad Mumtaz Khan Kuliani, Asif Jahangir, Mahmud-ul-Hassan Bazmi, Muhammad Saeed, Misbah Rizvi, Zulfiqar Ali Ahsan, Safeer Haider, Abdul Ghafur Sahi, Anwar Jamal, Muhammad Salman Bhatti, Imran Zafar, Mukhtar Hur, Dr Saadat Saeed, Muhammad Iqbal Kamran, Nighat Zafar and Sabira Shaheen.

The topics of research in these papers embrace a variety of themes – beneficial to the common reader as well as the connoisseur – like RUR (a Czech stage play), Partau Rohela’s poetic collection Intiha-e-Shab, Ghulam Abbas’s short story Hamam May, Allama Iqbal’s concept of Khudi, Ghazal and its Indo-Muslim background, Sajjad Ansari’s creative world, European poets of Urdu, the role of the monthly Seep in promoting novelette writing, the chronology of Nuskha-i-Arshi, the art and research methodology of Asma-ur-Rijal (names and lives of those who were, in any way, associated with careful collection of Hadith), Kafka’s influence on Urdu short story, linguistics,

Saussure’s structural linguistics, the theatrical companies etc. of Lahore before 1947, delineation of the rural landscape in Majid Amjad’s verse, humour, Safdar Meer’s essay Bayaban-e-Junoon in support of the ‘new’ poetry, the modern romantic poetry and Mukhtar Siddiqi’s unpublished writings. The journal is thus a useful ‘companion’ to the contemporary activity in the area of Urdu literary criticism and research.

Poets from BahawalpurAnd finally Bahawalpur May Urdu

Sha’iri! It is a chronicle of Urdu poets belonging to, or having connections with, Bahawalpur. Imran Iqbal, himself a noted fiction writer, has compiled the material into a veritable archive.

The book contains a thoughtful preamble by the compiler on its genesis, an illuminating critique by Dr Nawaz Kawish on the poetic tradition of Bahawalpur with an exhaustive review of the literary scenario of Bahawalpur by Dr Shahid Hassan Rizvi (Az-Zubair) and Munawar Jamil Qureshi (Saiban) besides the biographical description including comments on the work of as many as 106 poets with their moorings in the Bahawalpur region.

It is a commendable exercise meant to introduce and highlight the contribution of the literature of Bahawalpur to the larger, sub-continental tradition of Urdu. The illustrious list of such writers includes Khurram Bahawalpuri, Hakim Abdul Haq Shauq, Shahab Dehlavi, Zahur Nazar, Naqvi Ahmadpuri, Sohail Akhtar, Syed Aal-e-Ahmad, Khaliq Multani, Ali Ahmad Rifat, Inam As’adi, Tabish Alwari, Bushra Rahman, Fakhruddin Balley, Abid Siddique, Abdur Rauf Safi-ul-Aishi, Hafeez-ur-Raman Hafeez, Syed Mahmud Jafrey, Muhammad Abdul Aziz Nishtar Ghauri, Nafees Fatehpuri, Amjad Qureshi, Dilshad Kalanchvi, Mirza Neem Akhtar, Farhat Rashid, Munawar Jamil, Azhar Adeeb, Dr Nasrullah Khan Nasir, Salim Shahzad, Dr Nawaz Kawish, Noshi Gilani, Khurshid Nazir, Zeeshan Athar, Shagufta Altaf, Ali Moeen, Faizan Arif, Hayat Chughtai, Mashhood Hassan Rizvi, Muhammad Iftikhar Hussain Azhar Chishti, Naheed Qamar, Afzal Khan, Agha Sadaf Mehdi, Dr. Javed Iqbal, Iftikhar Ali Iftikhar, Dr Munir Azhar, Sa’dia Sana and Naeema Rao.

From Page 1

Title: Latif ShanasiCompiled by: Dr. Tahir Taunsvi (Tamgha-i-Imtiaz)Published by: Saraiki Adabi Board (Regd.), MultanPages: 592; Price: Rs.500/-

Tehqiq Nama (January 2010) Editor: Dr. Saadat SaeedPublished by: G.C. University, LahorePages: 216

Bahawalpur May Urdu Sha’iriCompiled by: Imran IqbalPublished by: Cholistan Ilmi wa Adabi Forum, BahawalpurPages: 680; Price: Rs.550

By Syed Afsar Sajid

By Salman Rashid

Sunday, 10 April, 2011

Out there on the Salisbury plain in England, they have their stone circle they call Stonehenge. Now stones are stones,

but henge is an obscure word. According to my Random House Dictionary it is a ‘circular area enclosed by a bank and ditch and often containing additional features included one or more circles of upright stone or wood pillars… used for ritual purposes or for marking astronomical events, as solstices and equinoxes.’

Salisbury in England, incidentally, is not the only place with a stone circle – it is the most spectacular and one that goes back some 5,000 years in time. There are other sites on the British Isles and elsewhere in Europe and elsewhere in the world – though I am not certain about the Americas.

Sources other than my dictionary also confirm that stone circles were indeed used for some arcane ritual as well as to mark the rising and setting of celestial bodies on particular days. The rising or setting of a specific star on a given between two upright stones marked a special time of year: Either it was when night and day were of equal length or when the sun was at its most vertical in midsummer and was beginning its journey to its lowest point in midwinter.

For primitive people living in northern latitudes the length of the day and summer sunshine were of particular importance. At the sun’s annual high point it was time to start laying in provisions for the long cold and dark ahead. The stone circle was their calendar that warned them that they had reached the 21st day of June and that three months’ (to autumnal equinox) was all they had to gather food for themselves and their cattle to last through the winter.

In Pakistan too we have stone circles. The one outside the village of Bawata in Balochistan lies by the road from Fort Munro to Loralai. The stones used are plates of shale and limestone that stick out of the ground to a height of no more than half a metre. At some point in time, finding it handy, someone tried to convert this circle into a mosque by creating

a sort of mehrab facing west. The Bawata stone circle also has a menhir and people use this site as a shrine of sorts.

The other stone circle that I have seen lies just outside the village of Asota on the Mardan-Swabi highroad. Here the uprights are hefty stelae, as in proper stone circles; some reaching up to a height of about two metres. Others are shorter and there are a few that seem to have been broken off. Part of the circle, to the east, is missing. The Asota stone circle is about 12 to 15 metres across and that

would make it about the same size as the one outside Bawata.

The one time I was at Bawata and twice in Asota, it was the wrong time of year: it was neither midsummer nor winter, nor too either of the equinoxes. And so I could not watch at sundown nor keep the vigil until dawn to be able to check if our stone circles also mark astronomical events. But when one day someone does, they will discover that both these ancient sites served the same purpose as their counterparts in Europe.

Now, we know that Stonehenge was laid out some 5,000 years ago. But since our circle in Asota has never been scientifically investigated (so far as I know), I cannot say when this would have been built. However, there is evidence that ancient Pukhtun ancestors were busy in this region a very long time ago. The nearby village of Adina is now well-known for the discovery in the mid 1990s of early Aryan graves. On a low hill outside the village, there are graves containing, besides the bones or ash urns, other relics as well. These

relics have been dated between the 14th and 12th century BCE.

This was a time when the Aryans had been in the subcontinent for nearly five hundred years. I suspect that the people who buried their dead with gold and copper ornaments and pottery on the Adina hill were the very ones responsible for erecting the stones of Asota. If my surmise is true the stone circle should be 3,500 years old.

Meanwhile, local people have invented a tale to explain the upright stone pillars: a wedding procession passing by a forest that once grew here was set upon by a bunch of thieves. Having done in the revelling men, the robbers turned their attention to the women who, fearing the worst, prayed to be turned into stone. And so before the evil-doers could lay so much as a finger upon them, the women were petrified. If this were an English-speaking country we could have said that was how the term ‘petrified with fear’ originated.

Moreover, the merry precession seemed not to be going anywhere. If it had, the stones would have been in a file not in a circle. Keeping in view that we have been stuck at the famous crossroads that every usurper evoked over the past six decades, our habit of going around in circles seems to go back a long time in the past! Thus the wedding procession went round and round before being petrified with fear.

But legends by their very nature are generally illogical. One day when some serious-minded people equipped with necessary knowledge turn their attention to the Asota stone circle, they will discover tales that will make sense. And then we might know of a connection between these silent stones and the tombs on the Adina hill.

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rPukhtun StonehengeWe know that Stonehenge was laid out some 5,000 years ago, but since our circle in Asota has never been scientifically investigated to determine its age

The exhibition “Bagh-e-Rang” (the Garden of Colours) by Dr Mohsen Keiany, an Iranian artist living in Birmingham, UK,

captures the feel of Old Persian culture. The artist, who grew up in the beautiful city of Shiraz, cultivates the painting from intensely energetic mental pictures and sensations.

“Spiritual Romanticism” better known, as Sufi mysticism seemed to have played a major part in influencing this exhibition that opened last week

and is on display at the Ejaz Galleries these days. Mohsen seems to narrate via memory, as he allows for abstract thought, and even Biblical kind of interpretation.

It is fascinating how he uses his Persian paintings to identify historical and cultural influences and spiritual and psychological meanings.

Mohsen’s inspiration also comes from Iranian landscape and archaeology, the Persian mythology and miniature painting and Islamic art.

Captured in ecstatic colour and texture, his paintings show the essence of the Sufi idea of equilibrium in nature. What is interesting is how he treats

perspective, as both the vertical view as well as horizontal. There is little or no foreground to the subject. Colours illuminates, yet these are neither hot nor cool. Shadows are omitted, and figures are spiritual, ghostly, tortured, decaying or dead.

The most interesting feature of the exhibition is use of calligraphy. It is the mosaic or stained glass lines treatment of calligraphy that holds up the whole painting. The Western movements, such as expressionism and surrealism, infuse his work. That perhaps would best describe Dr Mohsen work and that is what creates all the interest about his paintings.

Persian artist’s ‘Garden of Colours’ on displayBy Behjat Tahir