By Maha Khurshid

Karachi Literature Festival 2014

Sunday started with full of fun. I was exited to go to the 5^th edition of Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) begins in Karachi at Beach Luxury Hotel till February 9^th. I reached there with my friends.

One of the most delightful aspects of the festival was that book readers representing a wide cross section of society visit it. This open-to-all festival and it also had a book fair which offered books at discounted prices.

Sessions that I attended was Writing history were held in Aquarius Room and Book Launching were held in 007 Room, Ali Akbar Natiq moderated the launch of ‘Urdu Afsanay’ by Hasan Manzar. Masood Ashar and Arfa Sayeda Zehra was the fellow panelist. Hasan Manzar is a very sophisticated personality. This is what makes his novels interesting to look for.

Another book launch started in the same session Anwer Sen Roy moderated the launch of ‘Zahid Aur Dau Kahanian’ by Julien Columeau. Poet Afzal Ahmed Syed was the fellow panelist.

My astonishment increased by Julien Columeau. He is a French man and I feel that he speaks urdu as 1^st language. The most interesting thing about the session was that I and my friends were the youngest people who attended this session.

Over all I learned a lot from all these session. Even I have seen the puppet shows, eat food & cold drink. I was glad and surprised too, to saw that dustbin was actually used.

I clicked photographs with my friends for our memories that how I made my day worthy. The event was full of colours. The KLF provides an opportunity to showcase Pakistan as a country rich in culture and creativity and is a reflection of the country’s historical roots as expressed in a multiplicity of languages.

That's how exciting the KLF can get and in the larger scheme of things, the story of the festival was one that should be told with a fair degree of pride and conviction. Although it was a nice experience and these should be organized frequently.