RIYDAH — Just before the Eid Al-Adha holidays recently, Riyadh Pakistani families enjoyed an evening of fun, laced with food, music, at a local community hall to mark the occasion. Riyadh-based Pakistani women's club called ‘Needs & Style' once again treated the ‘desi' community to a blitzkrieg of fun with the predominant feature being the Qawwali (a genre of music in South Asia that is well loved) and other genre of music before Eid Al-Adha holidays, when most of the Pakistani families fly back to their homes to celebrate Eid with their loved ones. More than 500 family members — young and old, boys and girls — were treated to a heavy dose of songs, jokes, skits, and food in a jamboree that lasted for more than three hours. There were stalls where one could buy Eid related items. Highly disciplined volunteers, well formatted style, sumptuous fare of the evening extravaganza, including script of the program, reflected the organizers' serious effort to push Pakistan's ‘soft image' agenda. The event was the well-thought idea of Mrs. Sajida Chaudhry and her significant half. Chief Guest Waqar Naseem Wamiq, a young Riyadh-based promising Urdu poet with a flair for creative writing and thinking, distributed certificates to the budding talents among the young Pakistanis present in the evening. Break dances, Qawwalis, songs — both popular and nationalistic — drew regular applause from the crowd. But the highlight of the evening was a rendition ‘Maa' (Mother) by compere Adil Mehmood synchronized with soft background music. The rendition brought tears from the eyes of some mothers in the crowd. It set the tone, mood and standard of the evening. The night-long rendezvous at the local community hall not only included the variety program and food, but meena bazaar also — a traditional event where women, child and young kids buy household stuffs, etc. It reminded all of Flea Markets held over the weekends in the US. The only thing understandably missing was the cultural and lifestyle difference between the two worlds The 100 percent serene ‘desi' swing and touch was awesome! The sound and fury of the decibels were so intoxicating that several bouts of Bihari kabab, Tikka and Biryani at the locale, followed by several cups of Kashmiri tea brought many back to earth from cloud nine. Here is the list of some of the performers who made the evening marvelous. Singers: Omer Khalid, Asad Khan, Usama Khan, Adnan Khan, Faisil Iqbal, Manoha Fazil, Khursheed Alam, Bilal Arshad, Safwan, Talal Safder and lastly, the Rafique brothers who hold much promise if they take up singing seriously and consistently. Dance performers: Zaid Dawood, Zain Jameel. The entire program was (I believe funded) hosted by Sajida Chaudhry and compered by Omair Nadeem Sheikh and Adil Mehmood, both young men of promise. Chief guest for the picnic was Dr. Erum Qalbani, a Pakistani lady popular for her social work and who happens to be the wife of Dr. Mansour Memon, a popular Pakistani medical professional and socialite in the Kingdom's capital known for his soft smiles and ease of communication skill in four different languages: English, Urdu, Arabic, Sindhi. – SG
