(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The UAE has always been home to many Pakistanis, many of whom have left an indelible mark on those around them, Amna Khaishgi is one such person who has always told stories from her heart and earned kudos among the Pakistani community and world for this.
"I have been discovering the world in the company of my Indian-journalist husband," she told Khaleej Times, a true reflection of the unity of the nations that are celebrating their independence days on August 14 and 15.
She has found the most satisfaction in telling stories even though her first love has always been journalism.
Amna is also a filmmaker and broadcaster and who has made several critically acclaimed documentaries that have been screened at prestigious festivals including the Cannes Film Festival.
A journalist and a story-teller, Amna was born and brought up in Karachi. She moved to the UAE in 2003 after her marriage and took up freelancing writing jobs before joining ARY and GEO TV as their Dubai-based correspondent.
As a reporter, she writes about migrant populations, especially workers and South Asian expatriate communities, something that she captured in her documentary 'Touchwood' that followed the life of a carpenter in the UAE.
"Journalism is my first love even though the growth has been organic and progressed from journalism to filmmaking to theatre," she said.
Theatre is her new love, but her passion for Urdu, a potent part of her DNA. Amna's love for the written word also carries the notoriety of her grandfather, an acclaimed Urdu and Persian scholar, who not only produced literary works in both the languages, but also painstakingly compiled an Urdu-Persian (lughat) Thesaurus. Currently, she is the correspondent of Arab News in the UAE after having completed a three year stint at The National.
Her documentary 'Leap of Faith' was funded by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission and taken by the Abu Dhabi government to Cannes. "I have done all my work on the spur of the moment. It's the voice of the heart," she said.
"When you are a journalist, you are a story teller who observes real stories and wants to write many events that you cannot in reports, so there is a kind of creativity that stays within you."
In December 2016, Amna and a close group of 12 friends set up Qissa Go (Story Telling) which did theatre production and also did a private presentation on letter writing.
"It was so much liked by everyone that we decided to make it commercial," she adds.
Hence, the birth of Goonj, the first Urdu theatre in UAE that produced Miyan, Biwi and Wagah, the story of an Indian husband and Pakistani wife who tell their story through the lost art of letter writing.
"The play was meant to have humour, and intensity and we started off with writing letters to each other which we reenacted," she said.
The two-day show was a big hit and already offers to perform it in other countries, she added.
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