Friday 17, Feb. 2023

Five English major students gathered on a sunny Friday to showcase their talents in reading excerpts from English literature works. Five LUMS students - Zainulabbideen Jafri, Nihal, Rida Arif, Areej Akhtar, and Munema Zahid - brilliantly read their chosen pieces. While Zainulabbideen took us back to the nineteenth century by reading a scene from the famous Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nihal shifted the audience to the twentieth century with Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. He engaged the audience with an intense scene that triggered a discussion on South Asian literature. Areej Akhtar’s reading from her own book, Café de Khan: From the Annals of Karachi (2022), took us on a magical trip to the old towns and alleys of Karachi where the audience had the chance to be in the city of Karachi while still surrounded by the blooms of Lahore. Munema triggered a conversation on the mother-daughter relationship by reciting excerpts from her own poetry collection entitled ‘Venus Flytrap’. Her reading engaged the attending faculty members who were enjoying the debates. Rida Arif concluded the session with a light-hearted reading from her own writing Wallpaper, using witty language to describe her evening cravings and funny encounters with her family members.