Sips from a Broken Teacup

Sketches from life on an Assamese Tea Plantation

A dramatic reading of excerpts as part of a discussion and showcasing of the book by Raihana Hasan.

Prior to 1971 “Tea” was a world of its own, exotic and bizarre. Located in a remote corner of East Pakistan it existed in a time warp, inhabited by people of many races and religions whose isolated lives amid the hazards of the wild nurtured ties of friendship and camaraderie. But already ominous indications, unnoticed or ignored, threatened this world and foreshadowed an inevitable catastrophe.
An autobiographical account, this book describes the remote, pre-1971 world of the tea-plantations and the events that brought that era and that world to an abrupt end during the mindless bloodlust that tore Pakistan apart.
Discussion moderated by Dr. Ishrat Lindblad, retd. professor of English Literature at Stockholm University and currently Co-Principal, The Lyceum School.
Raihana A. Hasan
As a tea planter’s wife she experienced life on the tea estates, surviving the turmoil following the 1970 general elections and the violence unleashed by the 1971 Civil War. After escaping to West Pakistan, she worked first as a lecturer in English at Karachi College and as a copywriter until she joined PIA, from which she retired as a General Manager. She is now a freelance editor, columnist and writer, having translated several works of Urdu into English, including the autobiography of her mother (Dr. Fatima Shah, the late Founder-President of the Pakistan Association of the Blind).
Credits
Sips from a Broken Teacup
Performed by   Mahvasj Faruqi, Saife Hasan and Asma Mundrawala
Poster Design:  Naheed Yahya
Sound cues:     Hajra Haider
Sound design and Direction: Asma Mundrawala
Performance dates:
24 February 2012, T2f (The Second Floor) Karachi                                                                              Contact us: zambeelreadings@gmail.com