The team of Cultures in Harmony at 70 Clifton

Dawn Media Group has dominated Pakistan's English-language media since Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, started publishing Dawn Newspaper in 1941. Much of our press exposure has been thanks to Dawn's radio, television, or print outlets, such as this article which recently appeared in the Islamabad issue of Dawn. Yesterday, we headed to the TCF head office for a day of press engagements kindly organized by Asif Noorani, a Dawn consultant.

The Citizens Foundation occupies the seventh floor of a skyscraper. The tiny elevator spits you out into a vast, well-organized office floor that purrs with activity. The absence of cubicles creates an open atmosphere that mirrors TCF's high transparency ratings. Workers from the regional office, IT department, education department, or fund raising can easily confer, though I wondered about a woman wearing a black abaya so conservatively that only her glasses showed. I applaud her for having a job outside her home, but having demonstrated such independence, why does she then wear a garment that implies that if her TCF colleagues caught a glimpse of one of her nostrils, work would come to a standstill and her honor would be ineluctably compromised?

We met with a magazine reporter in a small conference room before heading over to Dawn's TV studios for an interview and a live broadcast of our playing. Leena and Waqas joined us on tabla and sitar. We took a quick picture with our interviewer in the middle of Dawn's state-of-the-art newsroom before we headed back to the TCF office for a quick late lunch with Mr. Noorani and Ahson Rabbani, TCF's vice president, whom I met in New York a month ago. Our long day of talking to the press ensured that our message of peace and friendship will be received by thousands of Pakistanis. Next time we will do more Urdu-language media as well.

The crowning jewel of the project was tea with the Bhutto family at their famous family home. The Bhuttos are often compared to the Kennedys, though given Pakistan's short history, it is fair to say that the Bhuttos have been even more central to Pakistan than the Kennedys to the United States...for better or for worse. Since they live their lives in public, I will not compromise their gracious hospitality by offering a detailed description of our visit, save for one moment that counts as a highlight of my life.

We went to the study for a private concert, for which they invited their entire staff. Fatima Bhutto showed us a magnificent portrait of her grandfather, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the first democratically elected leader of Pakistan. The portrait shows a supremely confident, handsome figure in the midst of fiery, impassioned oratory. We set up our stands in front of the painting and played my arrangement of the Pakistani national anthem. As we finished, I thought I saw Fatima and her mother Ghinwa wiping away tears. "I have never heard our anthem played so powerfully," Fatima declared.

Fatima, her brother Zulfi, and Ghinwa all expressed their hope that Cultures in Harmony continues to come to Pakistan. As I write now, after a brief flight from Karachi to Dubai and before long flights to London and then New York, many memories remind me why we must return. Our soul-transforming collaborations with Pakistani musicians. Our many new friends, each of whom is unique as all people are unique and defies the stereotypes about Pakistanis while earning the right to define them anew. The adorable smiles of hundreds of children at eight schools run by TCF across this dynamic, engaging, hospitable, friendly, complex, intriguing, beautiful country.

And echoing in my mind, I hear the student at the National Academy of Performing Arts who said: "Don't just make a link. Build a relationship. You are feeding an entire nation."

Source: http://harmonybeat.blogspot.com/2009_08_01_archive.html