The three-day Sindh Literature Festival (SLF) kicked off at the Beach Luxury Hotel on Friday with Sufi singer Abida Parveen’s live performance that created euphoric ambience in which many of her fans danced amid rounds of applause.

The festival hosted by Wijdan, an organisation dedicated to promote literature, music, arts and culture, featured stalls of books, paintings, traditional food, quilts, ajrak and Sindhi dresses.

The Sufi singer formally opened the event by cutting the ribbon. It was followed by the recital of Shah Latif’s verses from Sur Hassaini by the Faqirs who sing the Shah jo Risalo every evening at Shah Latif’s shrine.

Speakers at the inaugural session said the Risalo was not less potent and influential than Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana.

The organisers said they had planned to hold the SLF once a year that would basically champion Sindh’s culture and celebrate its literature chiefly in Sindhi language. But literature in other languages, too, including Urdu, English, Balochi and Seraiki, would also be given ample space, as Sindh was a multicultural land – “the land of the givers and not the snatchers”, as one organiser put it.  Read more