A Sindhi cultural show in progress. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Joy Badlani, known to most film and TV viewers simply as Joy, and screen star Jeet (born Jeetu Madnani) are only two of the 30,000 Sindhis Bengal calls its own. ?You can call me a Sindhi-Bengali, since I was born and brought up in Calcutta,? laughed Joy, at the press meet of the first ever Indo-Sindh Cultural Utsav.

The Utsav, organised by the National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language and the Sindhi Council of India, a private body headquartered in Calcutta, was held from June 16 to 18. Since it includes the council?s annual convention, seminars and interactions at the Jamuna Banquet Hall were held alongside cultural shows at the Kenilworth Hotel and Kala Mandir.

Some 31 writers, scholars and singers from the Sindh province of Pakistan had come down for the fourth session of the cross-border bonding organised by the council. The others, organised in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, have been equally successful.

While Sindhi singers from this side of the border, like Uma Lala (Delhi), Kajal Chandiramani and Aruna Kundnani from Mumbai entertained the guests at Kenilworth on June 16, a group of singers and entertainers from the popular Karachi Television Network performed at Kala Mandir on June 17.

Leading the team of celebrities from Sindh who discussed the prospect of Sindhi literature, music and the arts, were writer Qamar Shabaz and educationist Suleman Sheikh, founder of the Sindh Graduate Association, a body of which the Pakistani Prime Minister is a member.

The Sindhi bodies had their own agenda and list of demands. ?Post-Partition, we had to leave our land but we made it a point to bring our art and culture with us,? said Justice I.S. Israni, president of Sindhi Council of India. He pointed out that of the crore displaced Sindhis across the world, 70 lakh live in India but they don?t have a state of their own. Most live as refugees in 69 camps in the country.

Representation in legislatures (both Parliament and state assemblies) and recognition for Sindhi freedom fighters, writers and artists are some of the proposals being mooted by the community.

Suresh Keswani, of Linguistic Minority Commission and vice-chairman of National Council for Promotion of Sindhi Language, said the cultural meet was a step towards realising the Saarc dream of establishing people-to-people contact across the subcontinent.

The event will knit closer the two crore Sindhi-speaking Muslims of Pakistan and one crore Sindhi-speaking Hindus in India.