Autaq اوطاق

Episode -I

The word Otaq اوتاغ (or اوتاق) is variably used in Ottoman Turkish script referring to magnificent tents and a very similar word Autaq signifies rich tapestry of Sindhi culture.

Autaq is a separate room for discussions and conversations for Sindhi gentlemen in their houses, situated a little further away from house or either separated from rest of the house.

On hand crafted wooden chairs few gentlemen are sitting, holding ceramic white cups and sipping hot tea on a winter evening. There are some young boys writing on wooden boards called Selet in Sindhi and are listening to conversation, too. The conversation today is all about Sur-Marvi, everyone is attentive and participating, reciting Kalam from Shah-Jo-Risalo, but no one reads from a book, rather the verses are learned by heart.

They are explaining the meaning of verses to each other and as each one of them ends reciting the poetry, another bunch of beautiful verses fills the air with Surs of Marvi without any further delay, which depicts that probably this is their daily practice. The evening is full of explaining the difficult Sindhi words, meanings of verses, tea, laughter and joy and the gathering ends when each of them bid farewell and Autaq is closed until the next evening .

The rituals are fading away and similarly it has impacted the system of Autaq in this very decade especially. Autaq was a not just a room embellished with decorative articles and adorned with Sindhi rallies but was a epicenter for men discussing & resolving their daily life issues, discussing the poems, idioms and did story telling, too.

The daily sessions worked as conventional therapy to prevent the depression, anxiety and burn-out. The cognitive progress was note-worthy, the power of memorization was awe-inspiring and there weren’t any huge number of people complaining about insomnia or early memory loss.

But, concept of Autaq today seems to be almost extinct except for being practiced in some villages.