LAHORE: Beaconhouse’s School of Tomorrow (SOT) series of events-A World of Tomorrow-culminated on Sunday.
Crowds thronged the Royal Palm Golf and Country Club on the third and final day to participate in various activities.
The day began with a panel discussion focusing on the question, ‘If media controls global thinking, who controls global media?’ The panelists felt that as opposed to the general perception of the media savvy, the so-called free media gives an ‘illusion of choice’. The sessions on issues relating to transgender people and one entitled ‘Shayari 101’ drew the largest crowd in the morning. The transgender speakers in the former session called on society to make room for them and allow them opportunities to make them economically viable citizens, by giving them representation in the population census and electoral forms.
In the latter session, poets and personalities such as Munnu Bhai, Kishwar Naheed, PPP Senator Aitzaz Ahsan and Attiya Dawood enthralled the audience with their poetry. Munnu Bhai emphasised the role of poetry as a catalyst of change in social attitudes.
Apart from these, there were a multitude of concurrent sessions on topics ranging from moral policing, a conversation with the women’s football team, cyber-crime, global security, the upcoming US elections, private-public partnership in education, the arts and popular culture and fashion for the future.
Celebrities like Ali Azmat, Adnan Malik, Tina Sani, Tapu Javeri, Jimmy Nelson, Deepak Perwani, Sheema Kirmani, Mubasher Luqman and Munizae Jehangir were part of various sessions. They felt that such opportunities for intellectual debate allow people to get multiple perspectives on thought-provoking topics in order to arrive at their own conclusions. This was also one of the intended aims of the event.
Beaconhouse-Newlands, TNS Beaconhouse and Beaconhouse Liberty Campus hosted concurrent sessions with a continuation of the foreign film festival and the enjoyable and informative Bitsy Brainy Food with SCAFA and the renowned Zubaida Apa.
Another highlight of the day was ‘An Evening with Zia Mohyeddin’ in which the maestro of Urdu recitation hypnotised the gathering with his usual wit, eloquence and humour. The three-day festival ended on a melodious high with a concert by Atif Aslam who mesmerized the audience with his unique vocals and popular tunes. The next in the School of Tomorrow series of events is planned for February 2017 in Islamabad.
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