Ponam Singh [view]

Literature

Ponam Singh edits the prestigious Punjabi literary magazine "Preet Larri" since her father passed away in late 70's. In her recent visit to Lahore she shared few contemporary Punjabi stories from east Punjab.

Please press more recordings to hear her read the stories. 

Recordings

Sain Sardar Ali Sardar [view]

Poetry

Sian Sardar Ali Sardar  lived in Kakka Kauola, Wazirabad. He authored many books and enjoys immense popularity as a scholar/poet in and around his village. This is a recording session with him at his residence in 2008. Sain Sardar died on 24th of November 2009.

Recordings
1.  Poetry-Sain Sardar
2.  Poetry-Sain Sardar (1)
3.  Poetry-Sain Sardar (2)
4.  Poetry-Sain Sardar (3)
5.  Poetry-Sain Sardar (4)

AbdKarim Gopang [view]

Instrumentalist

AbdKarim Gopang hails from Sindh, he studied Alghoza from legendary Ustad Khamisoo Khan and performs regularly for radio and music concerts.The recording is from a performance at Chitrkar.

Recordings
1.  Alghoza - AbdKarim Gopang

Ahmad Bashir [view]

Film Director

Born in Aimanabad near Gujranwala on March 24, 1923, Mr Ahmad Bashir did his BA from Srinagar and soon went to Bombay for a career in acting but started writing for some film magazines. He was a close friend of celebrated writer Mumtaz Mufti who helped him join the now defunct Urdu daily Imroze after the creation of Pakistan. He was taken as a sub-editor in Imroze where he introduced feature writing for the first time in Urdu press in Pakistan.
Mr Bashir also worked for daily Musawat and NAFDEC during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's government but resigned after Gen Ziaul Haq imposed martial law. He faced hardships during the Zia period during which he was never allowed to write his columns in newspapers. He also obtained training in film direction from Hollywood. He also wrote columns for daily Muslim and later The Frontier Post. Mr Bashir was a portrait writer and he wrote profiles of people like Mumtaz Mufti, Krishan Chandar, Meera Ji, Zaheer Kashmiri, Maulana Chiragh Hasan Hasrat and Maulana Hasrat Mohani.
A fatwa was issued against him when Younas Javed published a collection of his pen sketches entitled Jo Miley Thae Rastey Mein. Bashir wrote an autobiographical novel Dil Bhatkey Ga. (Taken from an article in Dawn by Intkhab Hanif)

He  directed and produced Neela Parbat, one of the few experimental films made in Pakistan. Noted journalist, intellectual and writer Ahmad Bashir directed the film, he had obtained some training in film direction from Hollywood. The film was an utter flop and was only screened for few days. The music of the film was composed by Pia Rang and Roshan Ara Begum was one of the playback singers

Akmal Qadri [view]

Instrumentalist

Akmal Qadri, son of legendary Flute maestro late Ustad Alla-Ditta Qadri is one of the few classical flute players in Pakistan. Tutored by his father from and early age hestarted performing at a very young age and made his mark both in classical and folk Flute playing. He has performed extensively in Pakistan and participated in music festivals/concerts throughout the world. Presently he conducts a flute class at Chitrkar.

Below are his recordings done at Chitrkar concerts, listen to a rare recording of Rag Bageshri with Tabla player Sajjad Ali (late) from the collection of Dr. Ashfaq Ahmad.

 

Photo Gallery

Recordings
1.  05
2.  01
3.  02
4.  02
5.  02