On this day, 2 years ago, T2F opened its doors to the public. It’s our second birthday today and I thought I’d use this occasion to say hello and share some updates.

A quick repeat for those who have joined us recently … 2 floors of space have been donated to PeaceNiche following the eviction of T2F from its premises on Khayaban-e-Ittehad. We marked our last day there with a final cup of coffee and a salute to new beginnings.

PeaceNiche and T2F 2.0 will be housed in a building in the commercial area of Phase 2 Extension in DHA, Karachi. Thanks to the generosity of our donor, we will have more space than before, enabling us to embark on new projects which we’re very excited about.

It’s hard to say exactly when we will re-open, as our new home is in a building that is under construction. We’re working feverishly and several hot, sticky hours each day are spent at the site trying to get things done. We’re aiming for end June/early July 2009 and will do whatever is humanly possible to meet that target. Even if everything is not exactly how we’d like it, we will start beta testing T2F 2.0 as soon as the building is electrified.

We’d like to thank all the wonderful people who have donated time and money to help us shift and fund our music fundraisers. Fareed Ayaz & Abu Mohammad Qavvaal Party and Tina Sani made the music events possible by donating their time and we are immensely grateful to them for all that they do for us.

We still need to raise money to purchase a generator as KESC becomes more unreliable by the day. If anyone reading this owns a generator company or has friends who own generator companies, please get in touch. Alternatively, if 200 people donate Rs. 5,000 each, we will meet our target :)

Here’s how you can help: http://www.t2f.biz/support-our-work

On this special day, we’d like to share some audio and video highlights from previous T2F events:

- Mohammed Hanif Reads From A Case of Exploding Mangoes
- David Barsamian Reports Live from The Second Floor
- Rasa Chughtai Recites at T2F
- Tina Sani - T2F Fundraiser [A Geo News Report]
- Fareed Ayaz Qavvaal Party Featuring Yasir Q on Darbuka - T2F Fundraiser

On 8th May 2009, Women’s Action Forum organized an evening of resistance at Karachi Press Club. Arundhati Roy delivered the closing keynote and I managed to capture it with a little Flip video camera. While this event had nothing to do with T2F, I am sure our community will be very interested in what Arundhati had to say, so check out the two-part video on the PeaceNiche YouTube Channel:

Arundhati Roy Video - Part 1
Arundhati Roy Video - Part 2

And just in case you’re missing T2F 1.0, browse through our photo album:
http://www.t2f.biz/glimpses

We will keep you posted about progress and look forward to seeing everyone in person, really soon. Can’t wait :)

Cheers/Sabeen

Non-profit organizations are set up to support a cause or an issue. Our mantra is to make meaning; to become a vibrant centre of civil society, through culture, the arts, and public discourse. The coffeehouse component of our organization is a vehicle that helps us generate some revenue. To achieve our lofty aspirations, we have to be sustainable. The money we make is spent on paying our bills, staff salaries, and running the generator. If we ever make a profit, the money goes back into running the organization and not into the pockets of our board members. Non-profits do not issue stock or pay dividends, unlike for-profit corporations, which are set up primarily to make money for shareholders. If you decide to provide us with funding, you benefit when we achieve our vision of ‘intellectual poverty alleviation’.

Why do you close on Mondays?
We’re terribly inspired by barbers. Everyone needs a day off and we thought we’d all take a break on the same day. We are considering opening 7 days a week though. Stay tuned.

What is the legal status of T2F?

T2F is the first project of PeaceNiche, which is a not-for-profit NGO, registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, Pakistan in 2007. The Registration Number of PeaceNiche is KAR 0115.

What’s with the Macs and iPods?
We’re Apple evangelists and can’t get enough of Steve’s shiny toys. All our Board Members use Macs and if you need buying advice or training, call us. We recently launched a Desi Apple User Group to provide a platform for Apple fans to hang out and learn new stuff.

Why don’t you send out event invitations by post?
We’re tech-savvy tree huggers. E-mail and web-based announcements are cost-effective and no money is wasted on printing and postage. No trees are cut down either. Sign up today!

Do you have Wi-Fi?
Yes. And it’s free. (Thank you, Maxcom.)

Who owns T2F?
T2F is a project of PeaceNiche, a non-profit NGO set up in 2007. The Founder of PeaceNiche is Sabeen Mahmud, a social entrepreneur, activist, graphic designer, and technology consultant. PeaceNiche is governed by a Board of Founder Members and an Advisory Council. Seed funding for the organization was provided by Sabeen Mahmud and a few wonderful well-wishers. Donations are welcome!

Can I borrow a book from the browsing shelf? Just for one day?
No.

Can I donate books to T2F?
Yes. We’ll take pretty much anything but Time and Newsweek end up in the loo and we totally draw the line at Readers’ Digest.

Why don’t you advertise so more people find out about T2F?
We spread our message through our opt-in mailing list, (WE DO NOT SPAM!), Facebook, the T2F website, Twitter, word-of-mouth, referrals, and UNSOLICITED media/blog coverage. Karachi is a large city and we can’t reach everyone, so please help us spread the word. Tell a friend about T2F.

I’m a graphic designer/artist/photographer/whatever. Can I exhibit at T2F?
If your work is compelling, yes. Printing and framing costs are yours and we charge a 30% commission on any work that gets sold. Social themes, political commentary, and thought-provoking content preferred.

To all our supporters: We are overwhelmed by your responses. We will emerge stronger and more sustainable and look forward to your continued support. T2F 1.0 has now closed its doors and T2F 2.0 is under construction. Stay tuned for updates and thank you for believing in us.

Please read:

• T2F: Hitting the Ground Running
• The Community Responds …
• Adil Najam’s Post on All Things Pakistan
• Bina Shah’s Article in the DAWN
• In Gratitude
• Our Moving Experience [BREAKING]
• Tina ♥ T2F
• Here’s To New Beginnings!

PeaceNiche, a not-for-profit NGO, is committed to becoming a vibrant centre of Pakistan’s developing civil society. PeaceNiche is a social entrepreneurship project that blends the best of business practice with the non-profit urge to make meaning rather than focusing purely on the bottom line.

The Second Floor (T2F) is the first project of PeaceNiche. A community platform for open dialogue, T2F features a coffeehouse, events space, bookshop, and exhibition gallery. T2F also provides citizens with a platform for social change through rich cultural activities, public discourse, and activism using the new media.

Coffeehouse tradition is all about sparking conversations - and we’re passionate about providing a platform for people to engage with each other. Through regular events such as poetry readings, book signings, workshops, talks, debates, film screenings, unplugged music sessions, and stand-up comedy, we hope to get people to think, question, and take action. ]]> http://www.t2f.biz/hello-world/feed/ http://www.t2f.biz/t2f-presents-tina-sani-live-in-concert/ http://www.t2f.biz/t2f-presents-tina-sani-live-in-concert/#comments Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:22:45 +0000 admin http://www.t2f.biz/?p=10281

Har Taan Hae Deepak

The inimitable Tina Sani invites you to an evening of eastern music, in support of PeaceNiche and T2F.

Date: 17th April 2009
Time: 9:00 pm
Venue: Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture [Map]
Phone: 0300-823-0276
E-mail: sabeen@t2f.biz
Tickets: Rs. 1,000 per person
Available at Agha’s Supermarket, Nando’s (Clifton), Espresso (Kh-e-Shahbaz), Indus Valley School &
Naheed Store

Since you’re bound to get hungry at some point, Nando’s will be standing by to feed you. Buy lots of food from them as they are graciously donating 50% of their proceeds to T2F. They’re also throwing in a free Rs. 200 dine-in voucher with every meal. Thank you Nando’s :)

This event is part of the T2F: Renaissance Fundraising Series. For more information about our work, please explore our website. We are grateful to Jang Group, Geo Television Network, Radio 1 FM 91, Nando’s and IVS for their support.

We will try to take some of these events on the road or hold them at T2F v2.0 when it is ready.

Wednesday April 8

7:00 pm
The Elephant in the Subcontinent: Conversations in India and Pakistan featuring Ethan Casey

7:00 pm
Sheereenié Guftar: A selection of prose and poetry that highlights the sweetness of the Urdu language, presented by Irfan Sattar

7:45 pm
Unforgettable Cricket Memories: A slideshow of rare images presented by Iqbal Munir and Saad Shafqat

7:00 pm
Pakistani Poetry Over the Years, curated and presented by Asif Farrukhi and Zaheer Kidvai

3:00 pm

A Novel Experience: Readings and Conversation with the Shades of Prey team.
A Novel Experience is a collaborative writing project designed to energize and mentor young writers.

7:00 pm
One Man Theater Performance of Necropolis by Indian Theater Activist, Parnab Mukherjee

About Necropolis
Necropolis is a riveting photo-performance that provokes, angers, saddens and mesmerises …

Two men meet on the street. They have to make a deal. Or rather they want to make a deal. One has something to sell and the other needs something to buy. The Dealer is unsure what to peddle or whether he wants to peddle anything in the first place. The Client knows what he has to buy but does not know exactly how to. A cat and mouse game begins between these nameless, faceless, shapeshifters who have to make a transaction which they are not sure why they would make.

8:00 pm
Readings and Conversation with Nadeem Aslam, Author of Maps for Lost Lovers

12:00 Noon
Personal Histories: Mrs Zeerak Raziuddin and Professor Manzoor Zaidi

Mrs Zeerak Raziuddin
Daughter of the fabled Dr Ashraf ul Haq of Hyderabad, she was the niece of Shahid Ahmad Dehlavi and played in the lap of Josh as a child. She was one of the first women to drive a car in Karachi, open a boutique, run a business and make a film.

Professor Manzoor Zaidi
One of the leading physicians in the city, Dr. Zaidi headed the Radiotherapy unit at the JPMC. As a young medical student, he vividly recalls the September 47 riots in Karachi and the transition from Delhi.

3:00 pm

A Novel Experience: Readings and Conversation with the Shades of Prey team.
A Novel Experience is a collaborative writing project designed to energize and mentor young writers.

6:00 pm
Mushaera featuring leading Urdu poets from Karachi

Mauj, a collective that uses open technology for art, culture and empowerment, will interpret the theme of identity in different projects using helium balloons, a collaborative cellphone photo project with Amsterdam called City Ragas, sounds of Karachi bus conductors and more …

Art Activities for School Children

Props to all of you who made this tiny space come alive with amazing energy and warmth.

Make what you will of this image :D

T2F 2.0 is under construction and is located off Sunset Boulevard, in DHA Phase 2 Extension. We hope to be up and running by June 2009, if all goes well.

Meanwhile, we will be at The Shanaakht Festival at Karachi Arts Council from 8th -12th April 2009. Next up is Har Taan Hae Deepak, featuring Tina Sani, Live in Concert at Indus Valley School on 17th April 2009. This is a fundraiser for T2F and we need your support to raise money for our shift. Please buy tickets in droves!

Please join our mailing list or follow us on Twitter for updates …

Peace/Sabeen

Carrying on the legacy of their famous ancestors, the Qavval Bacchon ka Gharana and their father, the incomparable Munshi Razi, the duo of Brothers Farid Ayaz and Abu Muhammad along with their ensemble provided a night of mystical nirvana to an enthralled audience.

Abid Hussain Reports for The News

Despite the hostilities, it speaks for the changing times that Peer was able to recently visit Pakistan, staying with Saad Haroon, a satirist he had met in New York (got the visa because a Pakistani diplomat liked his book). Friends hooked him up with Sabeen Mahmud who runs The Second Floor …

Beena Sarwar Reports for Hard News

Join us for an evening of devotional music as we pay tribute to legendary Sufi poets and thinkers, ranging from Hazrat Amir Khusrau to Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi. Fareed Ayaz and Brothers belong to the 705 year old “Qavvaal Bachon Ka Gharana” of Delhi. They are the sons of the legendary Munshi Raziuddin and are internationally acclaimed as being amongst the finest qavvaals of the sub-continent.

This event is part of the T2F: Renaissance Fundraising Series. We are grateful to Fareed Ayaz and Abu Mohammad, IVS, Jang Group, Geo Television Network, and Radio 1 FM 91 for their support.

Date: Saturday, 28th March 2009
Time: 9:00 pm
Venue: Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture [Map]
Minimum Donation: Rs. 500

Passes are available at T2F and will also be available at IVS on the day of the performance

The Desi Apple User Group [DAUG] is a community based in Karachi, for people who use Apple products or are thinking of switching.

At DAUG Meetups, you’ll get to hang out with savvy Apple users, check out new products, sign up for workshops, and share useful tips and tricks to get the most out of your Mac, iPod or iPhone.

There used to be a joke, back in the day, that Apple used to make cool new products just so they could launch a t-shirt. In keeping with the tradition, we will have funky DAUG t-shirts available so be sure to bring Rs. 300 to buy a tee.

Note: Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Date: Friday 13th March, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

A huge shout-out to Omar Bilal Akhtar of Aunty Disco Project for volunteering to organize this series of music fundraisers. A big, fat thank you also, to all the bands for their energy, enthusiasm, and support. You’re all amazing :)

7 on 3rd
March 6 2009 | 8:00 pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=86568616112&ref=ts

Rachel’s Plan B
March 12 2009 | 8:00 pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=54347664209&ref=ts

NO IDEA - Unplugged
March 14 2009 | 8:00 pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=71727840239&ref=ts

Spoonful
March 18 2009 | 8:00 pm

Flam
March 20 2009 | 8:00 pm

Open Mic Night
March 23 2009 | 8:00 pm

OBA’s Good Time Rock n Roll Band
March 27 2009 | 8:00 pm

Please subscribe to T2F’s Google Calendar for the latest schedules

Naya Jeevan is a California-based, not-for-profit, social enterprise dedicated to rejuvenating the lives of low-income families throughout the emerging world by providing them with affordable access to catastrophic healthcare.

Naya Jeevan was awarded 1st prize ($75,000) in the social entrepreneurship track of New York University Stern School of Business’ 2008 Business plan competition. In addition, Naya Jeevan has recently been selected as a 2009 Draper Richards fellow which is accompanied by a $100,000/year award for 3 years.

While markets continue to collapse and unemployment rates continue to rise, the real sufferers of this global economic downturn are lower-income workers and their spouses/children who are barely surviving within developing countries such as Pakistan. Living hand-to-mouth amidst rampant inflation and burgeoning medical expenses, they eke out an almost impossible existence. Any catastrophic medical event that is likely to occur (heart attack, trauma, infectious diseases such as malaria, TB, dengue fever etc) is guaranteed to throw them off the economic precipice into the abyss of generational poverty.

Join us at T2F for a conversation with Asher Hasan, CEO of Naya Jeevan and discover how his organization is making a sustainable difference in the lives of low-income families.

This event is brought to you by TiE Karachi.

Date: Sunday 8th March, 2009
Time: 6:00 pm
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

It’s been a little over a month since we wrote to you about T2F having to vacate its premises. A lot has happened since and we wanted to share some updates.

New Premises

The landlord’s notice has proved to be the blessing in disguise that journalist/film-maker/activist Beena Sarwar hoped for. An absolutely amazing individual, who would like to remain anonymous, has donated a space to PeaceNiche! The good news gets even better … we have a ground floor AND a first floor to call our own :)

T2F version 2.0 will be located in a building off Sunset Boulevard. It is very close to the current location and is easily accessible. The building is currently under construction and we hope to be able to move in by May/June 2009. We will also have a child-friendly space. Parents, rejoice :)

Current Premises

While we had originally said we would vacate by early February, we will be at the current venue until the first week of April 2009. Please do visit as often as you can, and tell your friends who still haven’t been there, to come and check out Asim Butt’s mural - that’s the one thing we can’t take with us. We will continue to hold regular events at the Khayaban-e-Ittehad location for the next few weeks, and as always, we’re open from noon to midnight, every day except Mondays. Do swing by …

T2F at the Shanaakht Festival

The Citizens’ Archive of Pakistan (CAP) is holding the Shanaakht Festival 2009 at the Karachi Arts Council from 8th - 12th April 2009 and we are delighted to announce a CAP/T2F collaboration. T2F will be located in the parking lot of the Arts Council for 5 days and we will host a range of exciting events in the evenings. Stay tuned for details closer to the time.

T2F at Nando’s

Nando’s has graciously offered us the first floor of their Clifton outlet for once-a-week events during the period that we are ‘homeless’. We will share schedules with you after the Shanaakht Festival.

Fundraising Events

We will be holding a series of events to raise funds for our shift and to seed our endowment fund. A set of 5 music events will be held at T2F throughout March, featuring a number of exciting, underground bands and an Open Mic Night. Watch for announcements. In fact, now is the time to sign-up for SMS alerts!

Two outdoor music fundraisers will feature Farid Ayaz and Abu Mohammad Qavvaal Party, the scions of the legendary Munshi Raziuddin, and Tina Sani. These events will be held on 21st March and 17th April 2009 at Indus Valley School. Please save the dates and tell all your friends.

New PeaceNiche Projects

Thanks to our anonymous donor, we now have the space to initiate new PeaceNiche projects. In addition to our regular event programming, we will be undertaking the following projects:

- Art and New Media Gallery
- Arts Education and Outreach
- Eastern Classical Music Classes and Listening Room
- Urdu Poetry Archival Project
- Counseling for Parents of Young Children
- PeaceNiche Publications

We need financial support to launch and sustain these projects and look forward to collaborating with like-minded organizations, patrons of the arts, and visionary individuals.

The Second Floor on the Ground Floor?

We’re officially switching to T2F :) Check out our modified logo!

In Gratitude …

We have been overwhelmed by the ownership people have taken for T2F. Articles in the press, blog posts, financial contributions, offers to help paint walls and shift furniture, technology services, fundraising, volunteering, moral support…

We know we are not alone, and together, we can deliver on the promise of a vibrant civil society in Pakistan. http://www.t2f.biz/in-gratitude

We look forward to seeing all of you at T2F version 1.0 until the end of March, then at the Arts Council, at Nando’s, and finally, at T2F version 2.0 by mid 2009.

In complete solidarity!
Sabeen and the PeaceNiche Board

Cricket has been Pakistan’s pride and passion. The country has produced players of the caliber of Hanif and Fazal, Imran and Miandad, Wasim and Inzi. It has notched some impressive wins, including a memorable World Cup in 1992 as well as famous Test and ODI victories around the cricketing globe. Yet all that now seems overshadowed by disappointments and controversies - doping scandals, embarrassing defeats, security fears and administrative mismanagement.

Join us for a conversation with cricket analysts Osman Samiuddin and Saad Shafqat to discuss the ongoing crisis and help find a way out of the mess. The discussion will be moderated by Ahmer Naqvi, DawnNews.

About Osman Samiuddin

Osman Samiuddin grew up in Saudi Arabia and completed university education in the UK. He began writing and reporting on cricket in 2002. As Pakistan editor of Cricinfo.com, cricket’s leading international website, he is recognized as the leading Pakistani voice in world cricket media. Osman’s writings have appeared in Wisden, The Wisden Cricketer, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. His book on Pakistan cricket will be published later this year by HarperCollins.

About Saad Shafqat

A neurologist by profession, Saad Shafqat also devotes his energies to cricket writing. His articles have appeared in DAWN, Cricinfo, The Calcutta Times, and The Wisden Cricketer. Saad also co-authored Javed Miandad’s autobiography Cutting Edge, published by Oxford in 2003. His cricket column Reverse Swing appears fortnightly in DAWN Magazine.

Date: Thursday 19th February, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

Darwin Day is a global celebration of science and reason held on the birthday anniversary of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin. This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth.

FILM SCREENING
EVOLUTION: DARWIN’S DANGEROUS IDEA
Narrated by Liam Neeson | Duration: 120 minutes

For 21 years, Charles Darwin kept his theory of evolution secret from all but a few friends. He confided to one: “It is like confessing to a murder.” His torment resonates in society today - in the challenge his incredibly powerful idea poses to our understanding of our world and ourselves. We interweave the drama in key moments of Darwin’s life with documentary sequences of current research, linking past to present and introducing major concepts of evolutionary theory. We also explore why Darwin’s “dangerous idea” matters perhaps even more today than it did in his own time, and how it conveys the power of science to explain the past and predict the future of life on earth.

Date: Thursday 12th February, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Rs. 50 (includes popcorn)
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

Basharat Peer was a teenager when the separatist movement exploded in Kashmir in 1989. Over the following years, countless young men, seduced by the romance of the militant, fuelled by feelings of injustice, crossed over the Line of Control to train in Pakistani army camps. Peer was sent off to boarding school in Aligarh to keep out of trouble. He finished college and became a journalist in Delhi. But Kashmir - angrier, more violent, more hopeless - was never far away.

In 2003, the young journalist left his job and returned to his homeland to search out the stories and the people which had haunted him. In Curfewed Night he draws a harrowing portrait of Kashmir and its people. Here are stories of a young man’s initiation into a Pakistani training camp; a mother who watches her son forced to hold an exploding bomb; a poet who finds religion when his entire family is killed. Of politicians living in refurbished torture chambers and former militants dreaming of discotheques; of idyllic villages rigged with landmines, temples which have become army bunkers, and ancient sufi shrines decapitated in bomb blasts. And here is finally the old story of the return home - and the discovery that there may not be any redemption in it.

Lyrical, spare, gutwrenching and intimate, Curfewed Night is a powerful and intensely moving debut.

‘Beautifully written, brutally honest and deeply hurtful.’ Khushwant Singh.

Curfewed Night will be available at T2F’s Bookshop and Basharat Peer will sign copies after the reading.

Date: Sunday 8th February, 2009
Time: 8:00 pm
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

Mizraab is Pakistan’s first and only progressive rock band, headed by the legendary Faraz Anwar and supported by Shahzad Naseem on Rhythm Guitar, Rahail Siddiqui on Bass, and Irfan Charlie on Drums.

Date: Saturday 7th February, 2009
Time: 9:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Rs. 300
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

In a prison cell in the US, a man stands trembling, naked, fearfully waiting to be shipped to Guantánamo Bay. How did it come to this, he wonders …

August 9th, 1945, Nagasaki. Hiroko Tanaka steps out onto her veranda, taking in the view of the terraced slopes leading up to the sky. Wrapped in a kimono with three black cranes swooping across the back, she is twenty-one, in love with the man she is to marry, Konrad Weiss. In a split second, the world turns white. In the next, it explodes with the sound of fire and the horror of realisation. In the numbing aftermath of a bomb that obliterates everything she has known, all that remains are the bird-shaped burns on her back, an indelible reminder of the world she has lost. In search of new beginnings, she travels to Delhi two years later. There she walks into the lives of Konrad’s half-sister, Elizabeth, her husband James Burton, and their employee Sajjad Ashraf, from whom she starts to learn Urdu.

As the years unravel, new homes replace those left behind and old wars are seamlessly usurped by new conflicts. But the shadows of history – personal, political – are cast over the entwined worlds of the Burtons, Ashrafs and the Tanakas as they are transported from Pakistan to New York, and in the novel’s astonishing climax, to Afghanistan in the immediate wake of 9/11. The ties that have bound them together over decades and generations are tested to the extreme, with unforeseeable consequences.

Sweeping in its scope and mesmerising in its evocation of time and place, Burnt Shadows is an epic narrative of disasters evaded and confronted, loyalties offered and repaid, and loves rewarded and betrayed.

Burnt Shadows will be available at T2F’s Bookshop. Don’t forget to get your copy signed by Kamila.

About Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie (b. 1973) is a Pakistani novelist, who writes in the English language. Kamila has a BA in Creative Writing from Hamilton College, and an MFA from the MFA Program for Poets & Writers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she was influenced by the Kashmiri poet, Agha Shahid Ali.

Kamila Shamsie is the author of four previous novels, including Kartography and Broken Verses. She has written for various publications including The Guardian, TLS, The Telegraph (UK), DAWN and Newsline (Pakistan), The Daily Star (Bangladesh) and the New York Times, and is on the editorial board of the Index on Censorship. She grew up in Karachi, went to university in the US, and now lives in London.

Date: Friday 6th February, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Rs. 100
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.

A few months ago, we were honored to host Zehra Nigah at T2F. Zehra Apa read from her own works and shared delightful anecdotes with the audience. If you missed our last event featuring Zehra Nigah, you now have another chance to meet one of Pakistan’s most prominent and loved poets.

Zehra Nigah will read from the prose of the late Ashraf Suboohi, who will be introduced by Dr. Aslam Farrukhi. Ashraf Suboohi was renowned for his colourful and vivacious sketches of interesting characters from the streets of Delhi. If we’re very lucky, Mushtaq Ahmad Yusufi will join us in the audience.

About Zehra Nigah

Zehra Nigah appeared on the literary horizon as a child prodigy in the 1950s and has consistently been hailed as the one voice worth listening to on the mushaeraa circuit. Zehra Nigah views life around her through the eyes of a woman but her concerns are not those of a woman alone. She speaks in a woman’s tongue, using feminine imagery and idiom to make powerful social and political commentary. She has alluded to the bitter war that culminated in the creation of Bangladesh as well as the heart-rending situation in Afghanistan. She has written of the repressive Hudood Ordinances introduced during General Zia’s oppressive regime and also about love, friendship and small everyday joys and sorrows.

Zehra Nigah has published two volumes of poetry, Shaam ka Pehla Taara and Waraq. She says she has never felt the urge to be prolific, to write when there is nothing to say. Yet every word that emerges from her pen, every syllable that she speaks, carries the spark of a luminous intelligence. (Some excerpts from the Hindu Literary Review)

Date: Thursday 5th February, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Minimum Donation: Rs. 100
Venue: The Second Floor (T2F)
Address | Map

Seats are limited and will be available on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. No reservations.