It was a rather thought provoking weekend in Karachi, the last one. Forget partying or attending a fashion week  (there are at least three on the calendar in the next few months, God help us)  this city became all about grey matter as opposed to the bling factor  thanks to the Karachi Literature Festival that drew thousands to the Carlton Hotel. Vikram Seth impressed, Shobha De was adored, Hanif Kusheishi's brooding sensuality caused the thinking woman's collective heart to flutter, hearing Mirza Waheed speak inspired many to pick up The Collaborator, liberal democrats condemned the pro-army attitude of Anatol Lieven, but they clapped long and hard when he said “Failed states don't hold literature festivals.” Still others looked at the roster of events and wondered “Where's the literature?” On the flipside of the great divide, KLF was a treat for Urdu fiction fans that turned up in droves to listen to listen to sessions on Manto and Ibne Safi, that master of Urdu pulp fiction; one hopes some bright young TV type has the sense to adapt his suspense novels. The more serious fans of Urdu fiction went to hear Intizar Husain speak. The writer of the classic Basti was lauded for his statement: “Two forces have risen in Pakistan - mullahs and women.” I believe the crowd roared...

One didn't get a chance to make it to the Karachi Literature Festival but one got such a feel for it. It was all over the place - written about in all major papers, tweeted about by people at the venue as and when it happened, blogged about, talked about. KLF was everywhere. It succeeded in generating a buzz that was wonderful to see. Within an action packed 48 hours KLF had boosted the profile of authors, created good will for Pakistan as  international authors took word of this event back with them, helped promote the soft image of the nation which we are always so concerned about and most importantly created an open space where all kind of people can share experiences, ideas and mingle. This is the kind of activity that makes a ‘melting pot’ - unless it happens the term remains a cliche we use for Karachi.

One wishes the Engro Excellence Awards did the same. They hit bullseye with a fabulous ceremony in their first year, one also believes the televised show did well when it was aired, but one wishes that they had generated the same kind of buzz as KLF or the LSAs. The EEAs are mindblowing, a truly classy ceremony awarding the worthiest of men and tremendously entertaining in the most heartfelt cerebral way possible, yet somehow, they are not generating the kind of buzz they should yet.

Let’s look at the winners. If last year it was Dr Attaur Rehman who gave a ‘wake them up and make them think’ speech about education and nurturing talent in Applied Sciences upon accepting his award, this year, that honour went to Dr Adeeb Rizvi of the SIUT  who spoke boldly and frankly on the importance of medical care being accessible to all with dignity. He talked about the rapid advances medicine is making and how the commercial rat race is keeping treatments from being available to all who need them. This speech coming from the philanthropist/urologist who runs a facility that gives free treatment to anyone who needs it should have made headline news. However when you google Engro Excellence Awards, all you hit are a couple of rather pedestrian articles listing the jury and winners, a corporate background of Engro and a vague reference to the professions of those who won.

That is not enough for Dr Adeeb Rizvi nor for that giant of the sculpting world Shahid Sajjad, who came though he was not well enough to speak. Imran Aslam had worked the sculptors sojourn into the wilds of Rangamati to work with the tribals of that forest in  East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. The short documentary on Shahid Sajjad's life, work and persona was awe-inspiring, yet one sees none of that playing out in the media or on channels following the awards. Engro needs to figure out a way to make this happen. After all, if the Karachi Literature Festival can do it for the written word and writers, PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week can do it for fashion and the Lux Style Awards can do it for all areas of entertainment, then Engro Excellence Awards can certainly do the same for the men and women it honours - people every Pakistani owes a “Thank you” to. It's about little things, like making sure all the winners have something to say and then preserving their winning speeches for posterity. It's not a difficult task, just look at the way the Nobel Prize people do it and replicate the same.

To create more impact, perhaps the people at Engro Excellence Awards can think about broadening the scope of their evening that consists of a completely corporate crowd, introduce some fresh/artistic/literary/media blood in the proceedings, as befits a ceremony of this stature. One would have loved to see some internationals from the Karachi Literature Festival that was going on at the EEAs. It would have gone down well, with Imran Aslam and Faryal Gohar's riveting Tumhari Amrita/Love Letters inspired correspondence that picked up from they left off last year. The qawwali that featured a jugalbandi between two great qawwali troupes  Fareed Ayaz, Abu Mohammad and humnawa versus Rizwan-Muazzam, both who have soared to new heights of popularity after Coke Studio was also superb. However, one missed the way the music and dance was melded in between the script last time. The  performance at the end makes it too much of a token music act and doesn’t use it as a tool. If you are referring to Ghalib a ghazal by him wouldn’t go amiss, perhaps in the husky vocals of Tina Sani. 

It's a fallacy to think that only older people would be interested in these awards, a lot depends on how they are packaged and pitched. At the ceremony, the very hip and happening Faizan Haqquee was the host and he was riveted by the script and the feel of it. There is much to learn from a ceremony that sweeps through all the nominees and touches so well on the tributes of giants like Mirza Ghalib, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and the economist Dr Mahbub ul Haq who passed away in 1998, a few years before the EEAs were established. That the power of a hugely intelligent script and ace performers like Imran Aslam and the gorgeous Faryal Gohar who bring it together so well. It’s what theatre personalities do - add oomph to a ceremony that could be very dry and official by enticing, explaining, joking, evoking nostalgia and at times titillating. Corporate, philanthropist, theatre, art, music, fashion, literature, this cross pollination is exactly what the doctor should order 

This country needs a collision of ideas; as I learned when I was invited as a guest on Iftikhar Ahmad's show Awam Ki Adalat that aired last Sunday on Geo News. The debate and discussion program had a daunting topic  "Ishteharat mey aurat ki gher zarori numaish, sinf-e-nazuk ki tazheek hey” translated into simple English as “The unnecessary use of women in advertisements is a disgrace to womanhood”. I was paired with model and actress Nadia Hussain to go against the motion and opposite us for the motion were the iconic Jamal Shah actor, director, painter, activist, renaissance man and Mehnaz Rafi, a lahore based social and political worker who has also been an MNA for the PML-Q. Under Iftikhar Ahmad's able moderating, the debate flew easily enough as opinions clashed, points were raised, accusations hurled and justifications given. Perhaps the most interesting part was the question and answer session which Nadia and I knew we were losing from the questions that were being asked.  You see, the audience were the young students and faculty from the colleges of Lahore - not LUMS or NCA mind you but from Ayesha Siddiqa College, Punjab University, Government College - the places where the other side goes to study. Their questions got rather heated, angry almost as they brought in religion and couldn’t think beyond that into commerce, industry or feminism. At the end Iftikhar Ahmad stepped in rather harshly, telling them that he was disappointed in the questions they were asking, telling them what they could have asked instead. All that was edited out of the show even though it would make for riveting viewing. The Awam Ki Adalat team don’t want to promote the fact that people can be a part of the  show and be rude to guests. However, once the show had been wrapped and as predicted Nadia and I lost the motion, it was us the ‘provocative’ women that the students came to with requests to take pictures, not the conservatives of the discussion who they voted for. How we laughed about that.

Small victories make life fun and one should always look at the bigger picture. Everyone should and if they don’t know how to, they should be shown the way.