Light Within

The Daily Times (18 October, 2006) reports (based on a report in the UK tabloid The Daily Mail) that "A Pakistani woman seven feet and two inches tall is to live in Britain on benefits after claiming asylum because she is ‘too tall’ to return home."

Years ago when I was very young I remember meeting Alam Channa, then the tallest man in the world. I still have a photograph with him. I remember that instead of being awed by this 'world record holder' that everyone was proud of, I felt really bad and sad for this gentle soul and the great discomfort he had to go through (I remember watching him coming out of a small Suzuki 800). Since then, I have never understood the silly glee and shallow pride that some people get out of supposed 'records' such as this and, frankly, now I have a very low opinion of most things in the Guinness Book of World Records.

More...I feel sad for Zainab and can only imagine the type of ridicule and taunting that she must have to go through where people start treating her like a 'tamasha' rather than a real human being. In Alam Channa's case it was a medical condition that made him tall, I do not know if it is the same in Zainab's case.

In a society where just being a woman can sometimes be difficult enough, being a woman who is 'so different' and 'stands out', quite literally, could possibly not be easy. I wish however, that people in her home town had not chased her away and still wish that somehow we could give her the respect and the ability to lead a normal life within Pakistan. I note in the picture her broad smile and the Pakistan flag she wears proudly around her neck. Could not the image-makers of Pakistan do something better for her than a Council flat and £40 a week?

Young Aslam displays his art work (bedspreads sheets, table cloth, wall hangings, a melee of colour and an extravaganza of design) in Thatta Kedona show room at Lahore under the approving gaze of Dr. Senta Siller. Aslam needs no coaxing to display the finished pieces. As quickly as he spreads his art pieces, he rattles off the names. Persian 1, Persian 11, Masjid Wazir Khan, the palm tree, peacock palm, dancing parrots, the elephant tram and six peacocks, also naming the prestigious places where these designs are in use at the moment.

Aslam represents fourth generation of the family carrying forward the art of block printing that is at the verge on extinction. Block printing represents an age when mastery over art was the struggle of a life time of hard labour and Aslam does not seem to forget this philosophy even thought he has ambitious to innovate and diversify the art of his forefathers in a big way.

Jhando, the master craftsman exported hand painted and printed cottons and silks and velvets to agencies in London and New York. An international nomenclature some seventy years ago and now Calico Prints in Lahore is representing the family name and craft which once enjoyed international repute. Aslam is carrying the tradition further.

Indeed today Aslam with his skill of colour and stroke work, epitomizes an art technique which Jhando had carried to the pinnacle of perfection. Jhando -- the legendary great grandfather of Aslam -- was of course a figure of epic stature so to say. It was he who left to the family a collection of over twenty two thousand blocks drawn from diverse cultures like Muslim, Mughal and Punjabi cultures and Hindu mythology. The grandfather was illustrious too to be sure with his collection of awards and accolades kept zealously safe even today in velveteen cases.

Block printing is a very fine art that has matured over time. So intricate are the patterns that a single motif may need anything from two to twelve blocks to complete the details. Different block motifs cater to different colours in the same pattern. All this requires dexterity of hand to prevent them from running the other. The grand finale of course is the intricate brush work. Fashioned from local needs these indigenous brushes with all their quaintness high light of the motifs.

It goes without saying that Aslam’s exotic collection that I saw at Thatta Kedona is a treat for eye. Ironically, block printing is a cultural heritage reduced to penury under the influence of a mechanized industrial society and bulk production phenomenon. Yet one has to see it to believe the richness of this art from which even in its quaintness excels the grandeur of modern printing.

Preservation of the craft is a very noble passion but there is a difference in the preservation methodologies and objectives. “It is different to preserve the ancient cultural heritage for the sack of its perpetuation as an art and to do it for commercial purposes,” says Dr. Norbert Pintsch. Thatta Kedona is trying to patronize in order to preserve this (and many more) arts for the sack of those arts in their own original contexts.