My first day back in Jamshoro was interesting. The kind staff of the hostel I am put up in made me a paratha and omelette for breakfast. I had my first chai of the day with it. There’s no internet here, so I’m just writing blog posts that I can upload later. The hostel is up a hill, surrounded by some homes and several girl’s hostels for universities in the area. There’s dirt and rocks all around, with bits of green and plastic bags and refuse. There are packs of wandering stray dogs, that leave well enough alone during the day, but at night, I wouldn’t walk here.
I waited a while, doing this and that in my room, before heading down to the Institute of Sindhology. I walked into the library and asked the staff if they had any books on puppetry. They said, I have chosen a difficult subject. There really wasn’t anything on that, particularly in relation to Sindh. I asked them to check on a book by an incredible illustrator named Akbar Soomro. He had created two illustrated books that I know of, on the poetry of Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai (upon whose work my puppet film “Risalo” will be based). I knew about them because I had them send to me from the Berkeley Library years ago. Over the years, I barely managed to find the color one he created at the end of his career. The little black and white one he created at the beginning was not to be found. They didn’t have it at the library either. This is a huge problem in a society either can’t afford books, and or does not purchase them. Akbar Soomro was a great illustrator who created these labors of love at his own expense and was unable to recoup the costs. His books are treasures, that should be reissued and sent around the world. I had the opportunity to see one of his original paintings when visiting his family years ago, long after his passing. I hope to do so again and take some steps towards realizing some kind of positive effort in this regards.I visited the audio library where I plan to do some research for “Risalo” once I get the necessary approvals. I walked through the beautiful Sindhology museum, which is as usual very accessible to the people whose culture it represents. I picked up a CD of Sur Kalyan, the first in a series on the verses of Shah Latif, recorded by Sindhology with the incredible voice of the late ______.There was a bit of a mixup in terms of where I was and where I needed to go, but the staff at the hostel helped get me to Naimatullah sahib at the Arts Department of Sindh University. We worked out the details of a series of workshops I will conduct with their students, and he worked on the necessary paperwork for my stay and the sessions. I really appreciate the opportunity to share with these students and the efforts of my friends to make it possible.We were joined by Mangi sahib at Naimatullah sahibs home for a delicious home cooked meal with daal, eggplant and chicken. I certainly was not shy about eating. By this point, I think I had about 4 cups of chai between breakfast, office visits and lunch. I really appreciate that these two friends take time out of what is a really demanding schedule, dealing with all manner of administrative tasks to make sure I’m well fed, and cared for.They dropped me back at the hostel and I got some rest. I woke up and did a bit of editing on “Risalo”. I made a bunch of calls, set up some meetings and listened to some Sindhi music recordings that I have set aside as research. The sun had gone down, and I thought I’d go out and do some long exposure photography tests of the stars. I was listening to some of Abida Parveen’s renditions of Sindhi poetry, and a good half an hour passed before I could wrestle myself away from the sublime beauty of her music and go out to do some work.I pointed the camera up at the sky and played around with different settings on the camera. I’m glad I picked up the camera remote, as that helped keep things more stable when I used bulb exposures which basically keeps the shutter open until you press the trigger a second time.Naimatullah sahib picked me up and we head over to his place again. This time I got to see more of his art in his garage studio. I’ve enjoyed his work in past visits, but had not seen these beautiful relief sculptures. I have never created fiber glass pieces before, so it was really interesting to learn a bit about his process. He sculpts the works in clay, sometimes from a references for portraits of incredibly straight in the clay, without any planning for some of the other pieces. His level of skill and artistic vision is evident in these beautiful story pieces. After the initial sculpt, he creates a plaster mold, then applies the fiberglass in the mold. It is a meticulous process that yields beautiful, resilient results. We discussed some ideas on how to get this work out into the world.After another wonderful home cooked meal (there is so much more variety to home cooked food than restaurant faire) and chai, Mangi sahib took me to Najib sahib’s home again. I needed to send a few emails. Najeebullah Rashdi sahib had been curious about my short film “Gul”, so I gave him a DVD of it along with the Girnari Jogi Group album. He showed me a beautiful short film that he had created based around the them of a young girl’s desire for education. There was no dialogue and the pacing was very slow and serene, yet I was completely transfixed by it. Each shot was beautifully composed using the natural landscape of Sindh, along with traditional mud homes and a ramshackle abandoned building.
In addition to that, I got to see some of his sketch books drawings. Besides being a talented filmmaker, he is also an excellent cartoonist. I am truly humbled and amazed by the quality of these artists. It’s really fun to share art. They are so gracious and kind towards my efforts to incorporate Sindhi culture in fresh ways that I know would not be possible without the warm welcome and support that I have always received here. These projects are still a big challenge, and there are many times during the process where I wonder what madness compelled me to think I could pull this stuff off, but these projects, the stories of each person I share along the way and the effort to support and invigorate culture make them something priceless to me. That the people who have helped me, feel good about what I have done, is appreciated beyond words.