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by: Natasha Rafi

In the heart of metropolitan Manhattan's

West Village is a Hollywood haunt with

diplomatic designs.

  For those in the know, frosty winter evenings

are the ideal time to head for Manhattan's

Caffe Vivaldi. Bette Midler had her fireside

up the task of cultural diplomacy.

The telltale carpets and objects d'art that tend

to creep into desi deigns are virtually non-

existent.

 Ishrat Ansari is a quiet and courteous man,

equally at home with his West Village artsy

crowd as he is with sitar maestros from the

subcontinent. While there may be no sign of

his past in the cafe, he hasn't forgotten his

roots - as one of the people behind Virsa

Pakistan, an organization devoted to

promoting Pakistani culture through classical

music and art, he is a firm believer in cultural

diplomacy. " I have been trying to promote

South Asian classical music ever since I

came here," he says. "Look at India - they

have communal riots and still their image is

positive in this country. Pakistan has talent but

no platform. We don't have the kind of

image we should. Instead, we have an

image of terrorists and bearded

Kalashnikov-carrying mullahs.  

One of the most effective ways to improve

our image is to bring our culture here. Artists

make the best ambassadors. People need to

hear our artists and see our painters."

Over the past five years his organization

has held more than 25 concerts in New

York, New Jersey and Washington D.C.

For Ansari sahib music is a family legacy.

"My family has been patronizing the arts

for well over 100 years," he says

Originally from Uttar Pradesh in India,

his father, Rauf Ansari, moved to Lahore

shortly after partition and became the

managing director of Thal Industries Corp.

The Ansari children, five brothers

and two sisters, grew up with music

mehfils and art exhibits in their home,

equally comfortable with Bach,

Beethoven and Eastern classical music.

With the success of this concert behind

them, they held a concert in the

prestigious Kennedy Centre, where

Ustad Rais Khan performed before a

captivated audience.

" Most people who heard the music

would say that this is Indian music,"

recalls Ansari." I would tell them that it is

just like in Western classical music where

you have composers from both Italy and

France but don't call it Italian classical

music or French. I wanted people to

know that there is a region called South

Asia jis mein Pakistan ka bhi kuch

hath hai."  This attitude paid off as the

Kennedy Centre programme guide,

for the first time, described the concert

as classical music from Pakistan and

South Asia.

  "The most economical way to create an

image is to expose people to Pakistani

art and culture," says Ansari.

"Unfortunately there is no support from

the community apart from a few friends

like Iqbal Riza from the UN and Sabeeha

Ahmed from Washington D.C.

Everybody wants to be the chief.

Doctors and engineers should understand

promoting culture requires a professional

person. Anyone can do one concert,

but the important  thing is to have

continuity." Continuity is just what

Ansari has managed. With concerts at

the UN and WMI by Munshi Raziddin and

Farid Ayaz Qawaal, word spread and

soon the phone at Vivaldi was ringing off

the hook. Virsa Pakistan set its sights on

performances at the Lincoln Centre and

the Kenney Centre in September 2001.

The shows were sold out, but politics

crashed into the project. September 11

happened and the show was cancelled.

Deposits were returned, but a lot of

money spent on advertising was lost.

  "We are not what we are portrayed as

in this country," says Ansari sadly

shaking his head." People don't have the

sense of urgency to let others know who

we really are." Virsa launched a

membership scheme on its website

about a year ago to raise money for

future performances but no one has

signed up as yet. Undeterred by recent

problems, there are plans this year for

concerts by Abida Parveen and an art

exhibition by Fatima Zehra Hasan. Ansari

is also working on a coffee table book

about collection of paintings by Pakistani

artists in private US homes, entitled

Master Painters of Pakistan: The New

York Collection.

  Ansari last visited Lahore in 1998. He

loves to visit Bagh-e-Jinnah, sit in the

open air theatre and recall childhood

hours spent under Kachnar trees.

Through capturing some of the sentiment

that soaks his memories, perhaps he

can dislodge the prejudices of Pakistan

that pervade the West, and through the

West Village, help fuse with the global village.

"We don't have the kind of image we

should,  we have an image of

terrorists and bearded Kalashnikov-

carrying mullahs. People need to hear

our artists and see our painters."

In 1958 his father, along with Hayat

Ahmed Khan, was one of the founders

of the All Pakistan Music Conference.

Ansari still remembers volunteering at

 their events as a young boy. After

graduating from Government College in

1966, Ansari moved to Karachi but,

disillusioned with politics of the time, he

moved to the United States in the early

70s intending to export cotton bath-robes.

However, business soon declined, giving

him the opportunity to follow a dream.

Having grown up reading about Bob

Dylan and the sixties Village scene,

Ansari was fascinated with the idea of

owning a small bookstore in the West

Village. On the corner of Barrow and

Seventh he set up Parsley, Sage -

named after Simon and Garfunkel song.

Customers browsed books and

magazines while classical music played

in the background. Authors, artists and

musicians started  gathering there, who

encouraged Ansari to open a cafe. He

bought two shops on Jones Street

and opened up the Viennese styled

Caffe Vivaldi.

  In the meantime he and his brothers,

Hassan and Salman - both professors -

formed a foundation in their father's

name to promote South Asian classical

music in the West. Ansari found a

sympathetic ear in the Consul General

for Pakistan in New York, Abbas Hyder

Zaidi. "I said to him; 'You have a beautiful

hall, great acoustics for a recital'. Zaidi

Sahib was the first Pakistani who agreed

to do something like that and a sitar

recital of Ashraf Shareef Poonchwala was

held there." It went off extremely well and

was followed by a performance at the

World Music Institute in 1999. Shaukat

Aziz, who was at Citibank, helped

Ansari raise money. The Sitar recital

was a success and the first time a

classical Pakistani musician,

other than Nusrat Fateh Ali, had

performed in a concert hall in New York.

 At this point Zaidi sahib suggested a

change of name from the Rauf Ansari

Foundation to Virsa Pakistan, to expand

its vision beyond the family, and the next

concert was held at the Pakistan

embassy in Washington D.C. under the

patronage of Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi.

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