Centuries ago, FAST used to be exactly as how you probably imagined it to be when you were applying here for admission: a university which is the best there is in Pakistan for Computer Science, a university of great standard, and above all, a university which bleeds the term ‘technical’. And so the artistic students came and went, their flair for art and creativity suppressed due to the lack of an
y medium of expression. Until one day, this bubbling frustration rose to boiling point, and gave birth to several warriors who strove for change. Amongst the league of these extraordinary men (and woman), there was Haider Miraj, the mastermind behind Tamasha. If you haven’t heard of him, don’t worry, he’ll be all you hear about in a couple of months. There was Umar Tariq, whose vision of this society was realized thanks to his collaboration with ex-mentor Madam Syeda Huma Batool and their unlimited effort and dedication. If you haven’t heard of him, don’t worry, for you shall probably meet him in person really soon with his motivational speech that we now know by heart: “Bacho, united rehna, ikhatay raho gay toh buhat aaaaaagay jao gay”. There was also this girl Sana Shakeel whose mention came up several times, but we are unaware of her complete story, so I suppose she will remain a historical FLS mystery. And so came into being FAST Literary Society; a society dedicated to the expression of art through all means – where by all means, we mean debating and declamation only. FLS has reigned for three years now, after two of which came another boiling point of frustration: the lack of a proper platform for writing. And again, to save the day rose heroes from the slums of FAST: one clan from FCS comprising of Azfar Imtiaz, Qabas Khan, Washma Abid and Saad Iskander, and from BASF the lone wolf Sara Tariq (yup, no literarily starved soul from EE). These five people came together under the banner of FLS, and with a passion unseen since the time of Umar Tariq and Golden Boi, established a heroic Writing Department with they help of which they produced a newspaper, provided half the team for the intra-FAST event COCA (Carnival of Creative Arts), headed Publications at NaSCon ’14, and produced a magazine which is waiting for the right time to release – all within a span of nine months. And then, fueled by their limitless reserves of
energy, patience, passion and having nothing better to do, brought FLS to its current state, where we have kicked out the speakers and rebranded this society as one for only our own: writers. Now that you have taken a tour through our time machine, it is imperative that we formally announce that the propagation of the legacy is now in the hands of our amazing team. We believe that years from now history will be re-written in their names while we watch over like proud godfathers/godmothers from whatever fancy organization we are working for.
