The two videos that went viral

Standard

Karachi

They sat next to each other, one uncomfortable with the new found fame, the other overjoyed. Ali Gul Pir and Ali Aftab were two young men whose music videos went viral on social media within hours of their release.

In a session titled ‘All the world’s a stage; The Rise of Viral Video’, moderated by Nadeem F Paracha, the two youngsters had the audience in fits of laughter. For Ali Gul, success smelt sweet when he heard his song, ‘Waderay Ka Beta’ blaring out of a four-wheel drive car parked outside an upscale restaurant in the city. “I realised that the message had reached its market.”

He chose the social media as his modus operandi because media houses refused to air the song. “There were issues of policies and restrictions in the bureaucratic structure. Internet was the only medium without barriers.”

The song, he said, started with a sketch that began to rhyme, and within two hours, the lyrics were ready.

Pir had his research ready before releasing the video. “I discovered it was around one in the morning that traffic on the internet was at its highest. So I chose that time to upload the video.”

Pir is a Sindhi, yet he chose a Wadera as the theme for his song. Not because he had anything against Sindhis, but the particular mindset, “And the mindset exists in every ethnicity.”

He loves Sindh for their Sufi roots. “We belong to the land of Lal Shahbaz Qalander and that is why you never see an Osama bin Chandio.”

Ali Gul said he had a simple recipe for getting noticed on the social. “Part of it is being true to who you are. You’re not getting money anyway.”

Ali Aftab, of ‘Alu-Anday’ fame, was ready for a “Ramazan ka Tuhfa” for his followers. He will shoot his new video on July 18 and upload it a few days later. But he is very secretive about the topic.

“Are you scared someone will stop the song from coming to Youtube?” asked Nadeem F Paracha.

“Who can stop Youtube? I’m scared someone might stop me,” he answered to an audience roaring with laughter.

‘Let the college and Gurdwara co-exist’

Standard

Karachi

Heera Lal, 55, lives in the courtyard of the oldest Sikh temple of Karachi. Yet he prays to a lone effigy of Sain Baba that he has at his house. So do the three generations of his family that live with him.

Opposite the Preedy police station in Saddar Town, the Ratan Talao Gurdwara shares plot No 355 with the Government Nabi Bagh Red M Science College. The college was constructed 20 years ago; the temple, as Sikh leaders put it, has been there “since the time of the British”.

The temple, a heritage site, is in shambles; the ceiling entirely caved in, the brick walls broken at places and the arched windows look into a dilapidated, hollow structure that has all but wasted away.

A copy of the Gazette of Pakistan 1963, which shows a list of trust properties before Partition, reveals that plot No 355 belonged to Shree Guru Sikh Sabha, an old trust of the Sikh community in Karachi.

The college was built in the year 1992, without informing the Sikh community. Lal has been working as a watchman at the college since then. Before him, his father took care of the plot.

The plot is surrounded by the college’s boundary wall, making the Gurdwara off-limits to the Sikhs.

In 2006, Sardar Ramesh Singh, chairman of the Pakistan Sikh Council, wrote a letter to the then education minister, Hamida Khuhro, stating, “the Nabi Bagh Government College was built on a quarter of the Shri Guru Sikh Sabha property…This is the only Gurdwara of Karachi that is the property of the Shri Guru Sikh Sabha.”

Ramesh Singh, a bearded, turbaned man who laughs whole-heartedly, shares that the response he received back then was positive, and he could see “a ray of hope”. But years have gone by with no follow up whatsoever.

Surprisingly, the community does not ask for demolishing the college building. “In our religion, education is worship itself. Let the building stay, but give us back our Gurdwara too.”

Singh has a peaceful solution; he wants the college and the Gurdwara to co-exist.

“If the government gives the Gurdwara back to us, we will turn it into a community centre. Every community needs a centre where it can meet in times of joy and sorrow.”

He maintains that in the absence of a community centre, press conferences have to be held at hotels, costing the community several thousand rupees.

Nasir Ansari, director colleges, told The News that he would look into the matter.

“The issue goes back to many years. But I will have to see who the real owner is. If the land belongs to the Sikhs, then returning them the Gurdwara would be considered. But if the land belongs to the college, no inch of the land will be given to them.”

Lal, on the other hand, laughs at the prospect. “In my 20 years here, the issue has been raised several times. Our elders come, look at the remains of the once glorious temple and consider rebuilding it, but the rubble and the ruins remain unchanged.”

 http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-4-119498-Let-the-college-and-Gurdwara-co-exist