Jumbo Editorial Team
The Pakistan-India Social Media Mela 2012, a gathering of social media enthusiasts from the two neighbouring countries, was organised in Karachi by PeaceNiche, in collaboration with the United States Consulates in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi.
The Social Media Mela was recognized as a meeting point of some of the finest minds in social media for a two-day extravaganza nurturing dialogue, thought leadership, and critical engagement with entrepreneurs, journalists, activists, and creative professionals from Pakistan, India and beyond.
The Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior, Rehman Malik, having complained previously about receiving abusive comments on Twitter, was all smiles when he met with the organisers of the Social Media Mela 2012 for a chit-chat.
Rehman Malik was greeted as a hero for the social media when he stepped in to help the Indian delegates visiting the Mela get their visas in time.
“I genuinely believe that if we have to go looking for friendship, we must go next door rather than searching for friends far away from our region. The government is definitely looking forward to getting it started,” he remarked.
The sessions were mostly insightful and informative but the off-session activities, where the participants got the chance to interact with some amazing people from different walks of life, were equally pleasing.
Some of the more memorable sessions dealt with online activism, the role of social media in the education sector, the use of non-profit for non-profit organisations, online activism, Pakistan-India relations, ‘Slactivism’, the impact of party politics on social media, internet censorship, cyber-bullying and Twitter as the new newsroom.
The lively discussion on how to use and not use Twitter as a tool for journalism gained plenty of input from journalists in the audience.
The first day ended with a qawwalli session featuring Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad, the best qawwals in Asia. They enthralled the crowd with their renditions of Sufi poetry.
Noted journalist Beena Sarwar talked about Pakistan and India, and learning to trust each other.
She referred to a survey which showed that the people of the Sub-continent want to meet and travel between the two countries, but there are no tourists’ visas.
The end of the second day was marked by the hilarity of stand-up comedian Sanjay Rajoura. His act left the audience rolling on the ground with his observational comedy about Facebook albums, Indian Cricket and some social peculiarities.
It was a unique event that gave faces to those people who have just been known to each other through the networks like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.
The tremendous effort by Sabeen Mahmud and her team at PeaceNiche was applauded as was the role of the US Consulate staff for their co-operation and hospitality.
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