Arshad Farooq
Baramulla, Apr 13: Mehboob Cultural Society Baramulla a prominent and the oldest cultural organisation of Baramulla Thursday celebrated its 47th foundation day at its office in Baramulla. All the members of the society participated in the event which was presided over by its general secretary G D Bahar.
Many of the senior members of the society shared their experiences with the new members and revisited the golden days of theatre in Baramulla.
Speaking on the occasion the convenor MCS G M Mahir said that today is a very important day for all us as on this day in 1976 Mehboob Cultural Society was founded and today we are celebrating 47th year of its foundation. It’s great moment for all of us and we had planned to celebrate this day in a grand passion but due to the ongoing holy month of Ramadan we curtailed the function, but we will continue our programme after Eid ul Fitr. Which will include theatre workshop, plays and other cultural events.
Secretary MCS G D Bahar said that we have done our best in our personal and collective capacities to serve this organisation till date, now it’s the responsibility of the young members of this organisation to carry forward its mission.
Senior member Tamil Bashir reminded the days when he as a young boy joined MCS and how they would lie at home to go for theatre activity. As in those days it was considered to be wandering and wastage of time. As children didn’t had much freedom those days, as they have today. But today as i look back I feel proud of that wandering and I wish I could waste my time again the same way.
Ghulam Rasool Waza another senior member reminded of the days when Sherwani Memorial Hall of Baramulla used to be full to its capacity as the artists of MCS used to perform on the stage. He said that those were the golden days of theatre in Kashmir and Baramulla in particular. I hope we will witness the same again soon.
Many of the members who were not present in Baramulla like Bharat Pandit, Kashmiri Lal Vohra and MCS Patron Amin Bhat joined on video call and expressed their feelings.
Patron MCS Amin Bhat addressed the gathering via video call said that, this big tree that we are witnessing today is a result of a dream that someone dared to dream 47 years back. Mehboob Cultural Society is the symbol of courage to dream. We don’t work to just preserve and promote our art and culture but our responsibility is to instill intellectual wisdom in our society by the same art.
On this occasion Convenor MCS G M Mahir and all members condemned the decision by the Baramulla administration to covert the only public auditorium of Baramulla Sherwani Memorial Hall in a Cinema Theatre. G M Mahir said that Sherwani memorial Hall has a historical significance in the field of art and theatre and we condemn this move of the administration in the strongest words.
At the end of the event a resolution was passed unanimously that all members will work together to continue the mission of MCS.