I woke up, got ready and had breakfast as usual. I worked on uploading a few blog posts, and made plans for leaving Hala. During the time I had been at the design school in Hala, I was around those students who lived there. The rest of the students came back today, and I gave a presentation on some of my professional and personal projects in animation. I showed my reel and my short film “Gul”.Screening “Gul” was a lot of fun due to the discussion afterwards. It is always fun to dodge the question of what it is about and encourage viewers to create their own version, based on what they see or feel. As is often the case, some struggle with this, while others allow their imaginations to flow freely and share really interesting insights. Afterwards, we had lunch, and I left with Azam and Noor via bus to Hyderabad. With my bags, the trip was a bit tight as I sat hunched over, with one arm on my bags to keep them from falling on people. Eventually, we reached Hyderabad, and hopped on a rickshaw the rest of the way. Azam and Noor head off to Jamshoro for a class, while I continued to my friend Majeed Soomro sahib’s office.We lugged the bags upstairs, then spent some time hanging out. Hyderabad is a horrible, disgusting city. It doesn’t need to be, but with traffic, pollution, trash and overflowing gutters, it has been made that way. It has much to offer as a city, but it is so filthy and nasty.Soomro sahib and I went out to meet a puppeteer; Mudaser, I had heard about. Unfortunately, he does more the hand puppet style puppets, but was a very friendly person. He got into puppetry inspired by Farooq Qaiser, a legendary figure in Pakistan who brought sarcastic wit and social commentary to the nation with his fantastic work puppets featuring characters like Uncle Sargam.
Afterwards, we went to a dinner thrown by talented artist Nadir Ali Jamili sahib. He hosted a dinner in celebration of his very successful gallery show of sculptural works in Karachi. It was a huge achievement; a culmination of some 15 or 20 years of work. I appreciate being able to join in such a beautiful celebration with so many amazing artists and delicious food. I was very exhausted from the previous week of running around, teaching and researching. I felt like I had pushed myself a bit too much. Nadir Ali Jamali sahib drove Hisam and I back to the faculty dorm in Jamshoro, where I crashed for the night.
