I started the day by walking down the hill, across the freeway, to a shop to get some clothes washing detergent. I came back and hand washed my clothes. The hostel staff gave me a charpoy to dry them on. The staff are so kind, humble and hospitable.
Mangi sahib took me to the university, and I ran into Hisam, whom I had met while he was studying at CEAD and I was looking for musicians for my short film “Gul”. I did some work with the students at that time. It was good to hear about his artistic development since then. Now he teaches at Sindh University. I also met a sculptor who teaches there named Nadir Ali.I had set up a meeting with Ustad Amb Jogi, my good friend and leader of the Girnari Jogi Group. It was great to see him after several years. We sat down and I went over the animatic for “Risalo”. There are several things I am trying to figure out in terms of achieving the right balance between poetry and music in the film. Amb, being an excellent percussionist who plays with a wide variety of excellent musicians, is just who I need to figure this out. There was certainly a lot to cover, but this is the first time I have presented the whole animatic. His response was really positive. Also in the same office, was an older man, sitting across the room. He was following our discussion. I got to a the part where I discussed some changes I was making to the story of Beejal to put it more in line with what I am trying to communicate and was a bit worried what they would think of the change. They were both very supportive and appreciated why I had made those changes.A short while later, after Ustad Amb Jogi left, I spoke the the older gentleman for a bit. His name is Aslam Azad, and he gave me a book of his poetry. He said that he knew I could not read it as it is in Sindhi, but it has all his info on the back. The book is called Azad Khyal (Free/Independent Thoughts). I was so honored, that even before reading about him on the back of the book, I decided that I would have someone who reads Sindhi read it to me and translate. Once I read about him, I knew I had to do this even more. He has been an editor of newspapers and publications throughout his career and took part in the M.R.D. to restore democracy to Pakistan during Zia’s time. I am constantly amazed at the accomplishments of the people I meet at Sindhology and at Sindh University.Afterwards, I taught the first in a series of workshops at the art department at Sindh University. It was really fun to share my work and process with the students. The seemed eager to learn and we used every minute of time that we possibly could until it was time for them to leave. It was very tiring, but rewarding. I came back to the hostel and grabbed a nice meal prepared by the staff.
Afterwards I did a bit of editing and resting, before Hisam dropped by and we head out to a themed restaurant called Al Jazeera (which had a village theme), no relation to the channel. The food was great, and it was fun to talk art with Hisam. We visited Fatah sahib afterwards. Between him and Ustad Amb Jogi, if there are puppeteers left in Sindh, we should be able to find them. There are already several leads and it looks like we could make some visits, later next week.
