Lahore is an epicenter of music and arts in Pakistan! While visiting a classroom in the city, we learned that even though they were surrounded by music, none of these students had ever held a musical instrument in their hands!
We wanted to change that ASAP.
The first step? A music class, to get instruments into their hands and creativity flowing.
As soon as we gave over the instruments to the waiting classroom, the kids were so curious to know how they worked. They came up and asked the instructors how each was used, and the sounds the instruments made were completely new to them.
Some of the kids were hesitant to take the instruments out of their packaging – “they’re too precious,” they said.
But very soon, the classroom was filled with sounds of kids tentatively testing them out, as the different instruments mixed together to create a music all its own.
The music teachers taught the children a basic lesson on beat and rhythm, and led a few exercercises with claps and snaps. Then they tested it out with their own instruments.
We sang a few poems that the children already knew, their favorite of which was “Dil Dil Pakistan,” which means “Heart Heart Pakistan.”
The gusto with which the children sang, and the way they carefully held their instruments, told us everything we needed to know – they felt so special, and so happy. As they moved and danced around the classroom, we couldn’t help but smile.
