“Art for art’s sake is fine, but with a social consciousness it’s even better” – Nandita Das

Posted on March 24, 2014 by beenasarwar

IMG_5338-Nandita I met Nandita Das for the first time at the World Social Forum in Mumbai, 2004,  introduced by our mutual friend, the activist Shabnam Hashmi, sister of the late Safdar Hashmi. Since then I have caught up with Nandita several times, most recently at Brown University in Providence where she talked about her life and work. Here’s my article about her for The News on Sunday – it includes bits they had to delete due to space constraints. Also published in Times of India blogs.
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Filed under: Pakistan-India | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Remembering Doc; Farewell Mansoor Saeed

Posted on May 26, 2010 by beenasarwar

Here is the message I  tweeted this morning: “We remember departed loved ones every day. So why does the ‘barsi’ assume such significance? Doc, yr guiding spirit & love always with us”. He was never one for observing death anniversaries etc – but somehow, the date marks a landmark it’s hard to ignore. Good time to read again ‘Keep the fire burning’ by Zakia Sarwar on the Dr Sarwar blog

Mansoor Saeed - by Sohail Hashmi, New Delhi, 2009

Here’s another tweet I sent later: “Memorial meeting for Mansoor Saeed of CPP, PMA House, Karachi, May 28, 5 pm. Bereaved: Sania, Abida, Ahmer & Pk’s progressive community”…

I was in Delhi last week for the Aman ki Asha economic conference, which went really well. On my last day there, Sunday, I was invited to a small discussion organised by Prof Chaman Lal at JNU, Delhi (Chairperson, Centre of Indian Languages &s an authority on Bhagat Singh). Among the friends there was Sohail Hashmi Continue reading →

Filed under: Dr M Sarwar, Progressive politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

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