APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
Travel
Cover Story
Waiting on providence
The Ageless Ajrak Imprinted on an ajrak is the wealth of a civilisation
The beauty of Balochistan lays bare
36
Feature
Caught in the Net Excessive Internet usage is gradually transforming into a disorder
28
4
44 Regulars
6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people
46 Review: Movies and books 50 Health: Early signs of a heart attack
Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Sub-Editors: Dilaira Mondegarian and Zehra Qureshi Creative Team: Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Samra Aamir, Kiran Shahid, Munira Abbas, Sanober Ahmed & Talha Ahmed Khan Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. Executive Editor: Muhammad Ziauddin. Editor: Kamal Siddiqi For feedback and submissions: magazine@tribune.com.pk Twitter: @ETribuneMag & Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ETribuneMag Printed: uniprint@unigraph.com
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Lahore hosts the 2014 PFDC Sunsilk Fashion Week
Maheen Kardar Ali and Saad Ali
Nickie and Nina
Sania Maskatiya
Natasha Hussain
Iman Ahmed
6 APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
PHOTOS COURTESY FAISAL FAROOQUI AND HIS TEAM AT DRAGONFLY
Shehla Chatoor
Mikaal Zulfiqar an d Sara Nabila
Zara Shahjahan
Zara Peerzada
Maria B
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Nida Azwer
PHOTOS COURTESY FAISAL FAROOQUI AND HIS TEAM AT DRAGONFLY
PEOPLE & PARTIES
PEOPLE & PARTIES The Amin Gulgee Gallery holds an art exhibition titled FRESH! in Karachi
PHOTOS COURTESY PHENOMENA PR
Amin Guljee and the FRESH! team
Angeline and Maria
Tara Uzra Dawood
Ali Azmat
10 APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
Bina Shah and Marjorie Husain
PEOPLE & PARTIES Rang Ja introduces its stitched lawn prints in Lahore
Rabbiya and Frau
tin
d Omama
Nida, Sunaina an
Verda
au
Maria and Mah-e-N
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Uzma
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Sahyr and Henna
Nisha and Hina
PHOTOS COURTESY QYT EVENTS
The cricket match between Pakistan and Qatar teams in Lahore
Hassan
Mehru and Nina Junaid
Kanwal Karishma Malik
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Waris Baig
PEOPLE & PARTIES Neha, Naureen an
d Anila
PHOTOS COURTESY LOTUS PR
Porsche Pakistan holds the Porsche Polo Diaries Fashion Show in Lahore
d Zahra Raza Madiha Qaisar an
Fizza Aslam
naina
Amber and Su
Juju Haider Ansa Hasan
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COVER STORY
the ageless ajrak
Over time, the colours of the ajrak have seeped deeper into society TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DANIAL SHAH DESIGN BY MUNIRA ABBAS
The ajrak is a fabric with motley colours, chiefly variants of red and blue and black and white for outlines, infused in a distinctive block print pattern, but it shoulders more burden than it can drape. Resting in the folds of aesthetics is the wealth of a civilisation that values tradition over and above everything else. Even before the fabric became a symbol of identity for Sindhis, it celebrated the existence of one of the earliest Indian civilisations known to man as the Indus Valley civilisation which flourished from 2500BC1500BC. When Moen jo Daro was discovered in the second decade of the 20th century, the excavations brought to surface an assortment of material cultures. Among them was the terra-cotta statuary of the King Priest draped in a shawl with the trefoil motif (threeleaved plant). This impression of a woven cloth is now popularly marketed as the ajrak. For the past 24 years, Noorjehan Bilgrami, an artist, textile designer and author of several books including Sindh Jo Ajrak, has conducted extensive research in the field and played a vital role in the revival of the craft in Sindh. In ‘Ajrak: Cloth from the soil of Sindh,’ published in the 2000 Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, she writes, “The trefoil is thought to be composed of three sun discs fused together to represent the inseparable unity of the Gods of Sun, Water and Earth.” Along with the pattern, even the technol-
dried lemon
Respecting nature kesu phool
alum
sakun clay
Katha Indigo dye
dried pomegranate peels Ingredients used for ajrak making.
ogy of dyeing and printing of fabrics was adopted from the ancient civilisation after a dyer’s workshop was discovered at Moen jo Daro she writes, adding that the most notable dye, Indigo Ferra Tinetoria, grew along the banks of the River Indus. Under British rule, the Bombay Presidency mastered the art of dyeing and printing fabric. Both Hindus and Muslims have since jointly contributed to its growth with Ajrakhpur, a tiny village in Kutch, India, striving as hard as the villages in lower Sindh, Pakistan, to keep the art alive.
Name and fame Possibly derived from the Arabic azrak, believed to mean blue, it is said that ‘ajrak’ was adopted after the conquest of Sindh by Mohammed bin Qasim in 711 AD. Its craftsmen claim only if the fabric has the specific pattern and undergoes a specific printing process is it called an ajrak. In Sindh, the word is synonymous with pride as people wrap the fabric around their necks, drape it over their shoulders, wrap it into a turban and present it to others as 30 a gesture of goodwill. APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
At the heart of an ajrak is love for nature which is also the source of all its raw materials. These include dried pomegranate peel, katha (an essential ingredient in paan), alum, dried lemon, clay, indigo dye, sakun (a mixture of a tamarisk gall, molasses, castor oil, dried lemons and water), soda ash, mustard oil, kesu phool and alizarine (red dye). Even the manufacturing process makes use of renewable resources like sunlight, water and sustainable agriculture and mud, staying true to the thought behind the trefoil motif. Although the designs are not aniconic, of animals and humans, they symbolise the bounties of nature: stars, floral prints, indigo for twilight and red for the earth. “The ajrak is made from natural materials and it is nonallergic. The cloth is strong and reliable, herbs are used and it [the cloth] acts as an insulator, [keeping] warm in [winter] and cool in [summer],” says Usto Allah Rehu, the owner of one of the biggest ajrak-making centres in Bhit Shah, Sindh. “Having labourers at my centre means I can produce more ajrak as well as provide jobs to the local people,” he says having employed a total of 22 workers at his set-up to whom he pays Rs3 to Rs22 per ajrak. By the end of the day a worker makes up to Rs400 to Rs500, he claims. Abdul Aziz, on the other hand, runs a family-based business in Bhit Shah with his four bothers. He prefers to focus on quality rather than producing in bulk. “I am not satisfied selling an ajrak until I work on it myself from scratch to end,” he says, explaining how each brother specialises in a performing a particular task. Division of labour has helped this business prosper. According to Rehu, people in the early ’60s stopped sourcing from nature and started importing the raw materials, particularly synthetic dyes. “[Over generations] we have lost the knowledge to utilise natural dyes. Before it was all natural but now at times we mix chemicals into it as well,” says Rehu, who admits that he is bound to use chemicals when the supply of natural materials runs short. Despite efforts to sustain local indigo cultivation, ajrak makers have shifted to synthetic dyes due to easy use and availability in bulk explains Bilgrami. She has made several efforts to revive indigo cultivation, having also conducted a successful pilot project in Miani forest for four years. “Multan was a traditional centre where they grew indigo for exporting it to the Middle East as henna,” she says. “In Khairpur there was a farmer growing local indigo [on a small scale], but it has probably been stopped.”
The series of complex processes that are followed to make the teli ajrak.
The art of the craft Having handed the knowledge down through generations, ustos (master-dyers and shop owners) have trained karigars (workers) who appoint their own chokro (trainee). While men do a majority of the work, women help from home. Each ajrak goes through a series of complex processes that include preparation of the cloth, printing and finally dyeing. Ajrak centres across Sindh vary slightly in their process but prepare the final product within 20 to 30 days. Although it takes nearly a month to have the ajrak ready for sale, karigars work on multiple ajraks at a time and can have up to 40 ajraks ready within five to seven days. The first stage of the process is to carve a design into a wooden block sourced from an acacia Arabia tree that is indigenous to Sindh. The skill of carving these blocks is also passed on from father to son but a few NGOs are now training people to keep the craft alive. The designs range from geometric patterns to flowers and stars and each block is duplicated with the design inverted for the doubleprinted cloth. After the block is ready to print, it is given a code based on the design, printing side on the cloth and the colour that will be used.
The second stage is to purchase the cotton cloth from a trusted vendor and prepare it for printing and dyeing. The dyeing process uses either the mordant or the resist techniques, or both. For the mordant technique, the cloth is first printed with the wooden block dipped in a substance that assists dye uptake and then submerged in dye allowing it to attach itself to the printed areas. And in resist printing, the areas that are secured by a dye-resistant paste remain white when dipped in dye. A series of complex processes are followed for the teli (oily) ajrak, whose colours intensify with use, and a few steps are excluded or skipped for the sabuni, do rangi and kori ajraks, accounting for comparatively inferior quality ajraks. After cutting 10-metre long sheets from bales of cloth, enough to make a shawl, the fabric undergoes the process of khumbh. It is soaked in carbonate of soda and taken to the river to be washed — well oiled and soaped. Then it is covered in a quilt and undergoes steaming over a heated copper vat where it is placed through the night and the next day to allow the cloth to soften and steam to open up its pores so that impurities can be cleansed easily. Saaj and kasai is the next crucial step. A mixture of camel 31 APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
dung, which acts as a bleaching agent, oil from Eruca Sativa (rocket plant) seeds and water is prepared for the fabric to soak in. The cloth is then left in firm bundles to dry for almost 10 days, depending on the weather. It is later spread out and left to dry under the sun. The soaking process is repeated three times using varying solutions — carbonate of soda and oil comprise the second solution and sakun is used for the third. The dried cloth is then brought to the workshop for printing. First a white outline, chur, is printed on both sides of the cloth using the outline block dipped in kiryana, the resist paste made with rice paste, acacia gum and lime. Then kut, the process of printing the black areas begins. For this a mixture of iron sulphate, powdered tamarind seeds, gum and water are stamped on the cloth using a datta (filler block). Floral stars called phulli are printed onto the fabric at this stage. The last stage of the printing involves the application of kharrh, a resist paste comprising Fuller’s earth, rice paste, alum, molasses, fennel and other herbs and gum. This is printed on white, black and areas that are to be later dyed red to protect them against indigo dye. Now begins the dyeing process in which the usto dyes the fabric in cold water and synthetic indigo in a vat. The fabric is kept under the sun to dry before it is rigorously washed under running water to get rid of the resistant pastes and dye. For the second stage in the dyeing process the cloth is dipped in a boiling sakun, alizarine and water solution in a large copper vat. The craftsmen repeatedly lift and immerse the cloth to register the rich red colour. Afterwards the fabric is immersed in a camel dung and water mixture for half a day to clear the white areas. In tapai, the freshly dyed red fabric is washed in water mixed with soda ash first and then caustic soda to bleach the white area and allow the other colours to deepen. It is then sprinkled with water several times and dried. The meena process begins once the ajrak is taken to the workshop. The mud resistant paste used to cover the area for 32 the red dye is printed on the fabric once more and immediAPRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
ately speckled with dried cow dung to allow it to dry. Once again the ajrak is folded and dipped in the indigo vat, giving it its second shade of blue, and later dried and rolled into a bundle for a final wash called tiyari. It is then tightly folded while still damp and allowed to dry completely before being displayed at a shop for sale.
Making a comeback The demand for ajraks is endless — locally and internationally. An ajrak is sold for Rs1,000 to Rs2,500 at smaller shops in Hala and Hyderabad, but can cost up to Rs5,000 at bigger shops in urban centres, depending on
Ajrak [making] is an art, but the artists are not valued. Their efforts are worth only a few rupees where else everyone else, from the supplier of dyes, fabric and market [retailers], make a profit Craftsman Abdul Aziz holding up an ajrak below with the imprinted slogan: ‘Jiye Sindh’.
The final product will now be distributed to shops to be sold.
the design and quality. “Ajrak [making] is an art, but the artists are not valued. Their efforts are worth only a few rupees, where else everyone else, from the supplier of dyes, fabric and market [retailers], make a profit,” laments Aziz. Flooding the market with low-priced, machine printed ajrak imitations has worsened prospects for craftsmen who are increasingly abandoning the craft. But Rehu takes this as a positive reinforcement stating, “Buyers know the value of hardship and quality of handblocked traditional Ajrak.” Many designers have also cashed in on the popularity of the ajrak. “The ajrak is not something trendy, it is a part of culture… it’s always in fashion,” says designer Nomi Ansari, who in the past has launched an ajrak-inspired collection. He claims to have used the traditional hand-crafted ajrak and incorporated it in his contemporary designs. According to him the inelastic demand for ajrak is in towns where it is more a matter of cultural pride. Therefore, the fabric “has always been around” and “should be around” he says. “The ajrak is basically a design and a process. Now what you make of it depends on you,” says Rehu. “Of course you’ve to bring changes and blend it according to the fashion.”Along with trendy kameezes, ajrak bed sheets make a quite a bold fashion statement. With the recent convergence of politics and fashion, the ajrak has also transformed into a fabric with a message. Abdul Aziz even takes orders for contemporary political designs that have either ‘Jiye Sindh’, ‘Jiye Bhutto’ or ‘Jiye Asif Ali Zardari’ printed on them. By aligning agendas, the ajrak has perhaps paved its way into the future. Danial Shah is travel writer and photographer who is always on the lookout for positive stories. He tweets @DanialShah. APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
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Waiting on providence In Gwadar, infrastructure and amenities are still a pressing need OUR CORRESPONDENT PHOTOS BY HALIMA MANSOOR DESIGN BY ASIF ALI
Navy jetty in Gwadar.
‘A media black hole,’ is how Balochistan, the largest province in terms of landmass, is often described by members of the press. Therefore, when the Pakistan Navy invited a group of journalists for a junket, it seemed foolhardy to say no. Even a carefully curated, show-and-tell of the relatively calm coastal area is better than zero access. Public image, public relations The press kits handed out on the plane had pages on PNS Darmaan Jah, the first hospital to be established in Ormara, along with other colleges and clinics. Once we were in Balochistan, however, it was hard to focus on the black and white. On the tarmac at Ormara airport, it is hard to imagine that between the unyielding, azure sky and sea rests a wasteland of hope. Its breath-taking beauty is articulated by undulating, slaty expanses peppered with low-lying bushes and bordered by slivers of bright blue waters. One wonders why the area has not yet been transformed into a tourist destination, till realisation settles in the form of a lack of transport system, public transport, utilities, markets or mere signs of life. Driving through Ormara, everything seems still or untouched. Day one of the development tour began at Jinnah Na- 37 Three berths have been completed at Gwadar Port.
TRAVEL val Base, Pakistan’s second largest naval unit, with a PowerPoint presentation and the remainder of the day was spent visiting the various talking points. Day two had similar tours of health units and schools in Jiwani and Gwadar and a five-minute view of the strategic port from a distant cliff.
Development goggles Giving locals access to the navy’s schools and hospitals can be seen as a positive development in the absence of basic governance, infrastructure and amenities. There are roughly 500 students in the Bahria School in Ormara, where navy personnel can ‘adopt a child’ in terms of funding an academic year. “We need support, that’s why we develop the area,” commented Coast Commander Rear Admiral Arifullah Hussani. The people in question, however, were by and large invisible. Signs of life were only evident along the coastal highway in Gwadar, where the business of fishing and boat-making give the area a quiet energy. Even in places like the navy’s handicraft centre in Ormara, the only women visible were the sailors’ wives. Local women stay at home where navy shuttles drop sewing material. The end product is sold at bases to raise funds, but how much of that money sees its way back is a question left answered. The towns are divided between the haves and the have-nots. “The government and ministry of defence paid the locals their asking price,” Hussaini claimed when asked about compensating the original settlers. But with no relocated families in sight, it is hard to confirm the same. In a virtual no-man’s-land, the navy has the capacity to build its oasis, replete with imported electricity, roads, water and even kitschy red chandeliers in mess rooms. Locals, however, are still dependent on the government to provide them basic facilities and according to Commander West (ComWest), Commodore Naghman Chaudhry in Jiwani, they are getting more upset with each passing day. Their electricity runs sporadically on diesel generators which help supply towns like Jiwani. Living in a province replete with resources, the Makran coast has no running gas. In the absence of potable water, even fresh water wells with less than ideal PH levels are welcome resulting in all year round skin and gastro diseases, shared medical officers at health units.
Miles of barren expanses of land en route to Gwadar.
38 APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
Along the Makran Coastal Highway.
A ration shop subsidised by the Navy. The building looming over is PC Gwadar which suffers many teething problems, shared hotel industry old timers. Without a developed town, there is little incentive to keep staff employed or to ensure a five-star service.
Game of ports Pervez Musharraf gave the nation high hopes over the development of Gwadar Port. A hub of trade and prosperity was projected using mock-ups of urban development mirroring modern day Dubai. Unfortunately, a more apt parallel would have been a picture of Dubai in the ’70s. Currently in phase one, Gwadar Port has three shipping berths with 20 more expected to be constructed after a vast expanse of sea is reclaimed, shared Commander Zakir Khan, the director of the Directorate of Public Relations for the Navy. With China as a partner, the port is expected to provide a new strategic energy and military sea corridor, if completed. According to Naghman, the navy has put everything on a plate and offered it to the Chinese, to make the port a reality and the rest has to be done by the government. Previous partners, the Port of Singapore Authority, pulled out after the government failed to facilitate the development of a free trade zone. The success of the port and the prosperity of the coastal towns are interlinked. One cannot happen in the absence of the other, yet locals remain marginalised. Two days after the junket was over, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif announced $1.6 billion for the socio-economic development of Balochistan. Let us hope that the money will translate into prosperity for the province. T
39 APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
FEATURE
Caught in the Internet Use Disorder begs to be monitored
NET BY OMAR HAYAT
DESIGN BY ESSA MALIK
Reality morphs into ‘second life’ with studies claiming that an average Internet user spends a staggering two hours in cyberspace every day. And distraction gets costlier as society adjusts more and more to ubiquitous networking.
Manual of Mental Health Disorders (DSM-V), Internet Addiction, or more formally, Internet Use Disorder (IUD). is increasingly worrying mental health experts.
Researchers have increasingly begun to link time spent online to conditions such as depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and anxiety. Although 44 controversially not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical
Compared to the likes of gambling, drug abuse or alcoholism, IUD involves preoccupation with the usage of the substance, loss of other interests and severe withdrawal-like symptoms when the object of dependence is not available.
APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
Cyber Junkie
“It is really hard for other people to understand what it is like. They think it is funny, but being addicted to something online, like pornography or gaming or social media, is very much like being addicted to drugs,” says *Jahangir, whose addiction cost him his education. He flunked out of university as he would spend all his time online. “You cannot stop yourself from doing it and it invariably ends up occupying the rest of your life too. It is like an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of sorts, except people don’t take you that seriously.”
In one military-run centre in the outskirts of Beijing, the young patients typically live for three months in guarded cells with regular therapy and a strict dietary and physical regimen Digital Detox
A hypothetical situation? Neurochemically, IUD mimics all other addictions: it can manifest as changes in brain structure. According to a study published in the open access portal Plos One, the disorder shows up as reduction in volume of certain areas of the brain and its white matter — the part that connects brain cells. Certain people have a psychological or physiological predisposition to the addiction, and here is where the links to depression, ADHD and anxiety come in. In the journal Psychopathology, leading psychologist Catriona Morrison writes, “Over-engaging in websites that serve to replace normal social function might be linked to psychological disorders like depression and addiction”. A team of researchers at Leeds University found that Internet addicts were more likely to be depressed than non-addicted users. The study also discovered that addicts spent proportionately more time browsing sexually gratifying websites and online communities. In a recent survey by the non-profit Anxiety UK, a similar pattern was found linking anxiety to the heavy usage of social media. Nearly two-thirds of respondents had difficulty sleeping after using social media, and nearly half felt “worried or uncomfortable” when separated from Facebook and email. Although the correlation between anxiety and social media usage is firmly established, it is unclear whether anxious people gravitate towards social media or whether social media makes people anxious. Researchers hypothesise instead what may be a feedback loop: anxious people adopting social media, which makes them more anxious by feeding their insecurities. According to Lady Greenfield, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, social network sites risk infantalising the mind: it is marked by short attention spans, inability to empathise and a shaken sense of identity. This is due to the acclimatisation of the brain to rapid-fire bursts of information at a rate unprecedented at any time during the span of human civilisation.
While looked upon skeptically in many parts of the world, Internet addiction is seen as a very serious problem in many countries. In China, for example, there are Internet addiction treatment centres where parents bring their children to be treated. In one military-run centre in the outskirts of Beijing, the young patients typically live for three months in guarded cells with regular therapy and a strict dietary and physical regimen. The centre claims to have treated over 3,000 patients since 2004. It must be noted that it is only when a person becomes dependent on the Internet to the point that their normal lives are disrupted that it truly becomes a disorder. Even then, milder therapies may work just fine in managing the problem. Jahangir sought help from the university psychologist for his addiction. “It was not an overnight change, but I benefited a great deal. I had to undergo a behavioural change designed to educate me in using self control,” he says. Even a recent Dutch study has found that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) might be effective in reducing dependence on the Internet. It encourages people to replace behaviour patterns that may be harmful or destructive with constructive ones. “After more than a year of therapy, I was able to go back to university to complete my degree.” Since IUD has no FDA-approved diagnosis or treatment yet, psychiatrists refrain from commenting on the subject. A counselor at a university, adds however, “The number of students with Internet-related issues is bothersome. More and more people are coming forward and there needs to be more research to help these patients.” Online communities dedicated to the problem have reported success with consciously limiting Internet usage to less than an hour a day. Making the effort to spend time in face-to-face interaction and taking up a physical hobby are noted as two of the best ways to avoid Internet addiction. *Name has been changed to protect privacy. Omar Hayat is a freelance writer who contributes to local publications. APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
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FILM
Six degrees of
separation Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has followed up on his 2011 Academy award winner A Separation with another solid domestic drama The Past. Although in the long run it won’t be known as Farhadi’s best, it’s a special picture nonetheless. Working outside of Iran for the first time and that too in the French language, Farhadi must have been out of his comfort zone. Yet any initial anxiety must have remained inchoate, for the film boasts a taut screenplay and a masterful direction to complement it. Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to France from Iran in order to finalise the divorce with his wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo). She is currently dating Samir (Tahar Rahim), an Arab man whose own wife is in a coma. If this is already too complex a narrative, their children Marie’s two daughters, Lucie and Léa (not Ahmad’s biological daughters), and Samir’s son Fouad complicate the plot even further. To say that their house is a powder keg would be an understatement. In its essence, The Past is a film about 46 communication, or the lack of it. Farhadi APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
A piercing insight into a failed marriage and the painful consequences for the people involved BY SCHAYAN RIAZ
pulls all the stops to convey this theme but in some scenes it feels over-indulgent. Many a time, for example, the dialogue isn’t audible when two characters are separated by glass windows. At another crucial plot juncture, the usage of email seems to create evil. Does technology create more rifts than solving them? Farhadi might be onto something. The cinematography of the movie by Mahmoud Kalari is effective but it doesn’t depict the France we see in Midnight in Paris or Amelié. This is a grittier look at Paris, reflecting the characters’ inner turmoil. Farhadi manages to draw out terrific performances from his entire cast, especially Bejo, who won an award for this performance at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. The child actors deserve a special mention, particularly Elyas Aguis as Fouad. The children in this story are depicted as mature individuals, and this is perhaps intentional given how grown-ups regress to behaving like immature adolescents. Unfortunately, in terms of narration, all threads do not add up. For example, we know too little of Ahmad’s character. His clean
character is amiss amidst the besmirched lives of Marie and Samir. In the latter’s case, the stains are literal, since Samir works as a dry-cleaner. The Past is without a doubt a layered movie, giving much room for interpretation. When it comes to director Asghar Farhadi, there are two inevitabilities. First, his movies should be available on a wider scale just like any other Hollywood director since the Iranian filmmaker has made six feature films since 2003 and every single one of them has been a gem. Second, he should pen works well-suited for the theatre. Farhadi is, after all, a graduate of The University of Tehran’s School of Dramatic Arts and his aesthetics on screen would perhaps be equally well suited to the stage. What The Past does achieve though, is keeping Farhadi’s reputation as a major world cinema director intact, whose next work is highly anticipated. Rating: Schayan Riaz is a Germany-based writer who loves cinema. He tweets @schayanriaz
BOOK
Perplexities of Partition CM Naim is on the horns of dilemma over Partition and speaks about it openly BY SHAHABUDDIN GILANI
Author C M Naim.
A collection of 11 polemical essays on Indian Muslims and the Partition, mostly reprinted or revised short articles, make up The Muslim League in Barabanki by IndianAmerican scholar CM Naim. Using an analytical style the writer recounts his feelings of ambivalence during the turbulent times, describing the period of Partition as one of the most uncertain times in India. Spanning an arc from a youngster to a protester, Naim sheds light on his engagements with India and Indian Muslims. He highlights the rampant religious discrimination against Muslims at the workplace, unequal representation in the legislative body and the neglect of Urdu as an official language. With poor to no support from the leadership, the growing grievances led to Muslim demands for a separate state. While the author documents the general attitude of inequality towards his community, he does not shy from including Muslim intolerance towards minority groups such as Ahmadis citing unchallenged facts that stem from history and religion. By recollecting certain facts that have been buried deep in our minds under years of propaganda and lack of an open discussion, Naim breathes fresh life into the circumstances that led to Partition, even questioning the very motive of Muslim protesters — including his own. He makes it a point to uproot prejudices and shun hypocrisy, winning over readers with
banki, in the 1940s. And while these poetic verses remain etched in his memory, he has forgotten the speeches delivered at those meetings. Critical of the Urdu press in India for what he says is misguiding the Muslim community and promoting the ignorant ‘ghetto mentality’, Naim quotes extensively from Urdu newspapers to illustrate his point. While the Urdu-speaking people highlight praises for their language from non-speakers they rarely, if ever, indulge in reciprocating the act of kindness. Naim even speaks of English-speaking, well-educated Muslims passing up Urdu newspapers to reflect their status, leaving the majority at the mercy of the Urdu papers filled with fallacies and self-contradictions. Along with the Urdu newspapers he even holds a group of clergy responsible for misleading the community, with special regards to the issue of female education. Although Naim laments the decline of Urdu poets in India, the country is famous for having produced a number of renowned Urdu writers and poets, many of whose works have changed the course of history. And while almost all of Naim’s arguments have sound reasoning and are backed with proof, it is eventually up to the reader to read and reflect. T
Published by City Press and available for Rs350. his honest voice. Poetry has a prominent role to play in Naim’s work. While discussing the political use of poetry, terming it ‘pedestrian’, he notes how a powerful poem can leave a lasting impression. This assertion is strengthened with the inclusion of poems that were recited at the All-India Muslim League and Indian National Congress public meetings in his hometown, Bara-
Shahabuddin Gilani is an editorial consultant for The Express Tribune. APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
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Under the shade
BOOK
Even the most scorching of political accounts have a human face BY MUHAMMAD ADIL MULKI
The book is available at Liberty Books for Rs595.
Author Michelle Cohen Corasanti.
The Almond Tree by Michelle Cohen Corasanti provides a welcome break in an age when wars are fought like videogames and bodies of children blown to bits are brushed under the carpet as collateral damage. Instead, the book redirects the focus onto people who have emotions, relations and who are as living as the rest of us. The book revolves around the story of Ahmed Hamid, a Palestinian boy whose family is forced to leave their ancestral lands and struggle for basic human needs amid an ocean of humiliation, hate and pain. The young boy is robbed of his childhood at the age of 12 when his father is beaten to a pulp and imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Corasanti takes you on a journey through Hamid’s childhood as he overcomes the trauma of violence and humiliation to a point where he is confronted with the power of his own talent. Hamid continues his struggle and at times is unexpectedly aided from within the ranks of those whom he has only known as the enemy. He is expected by his people to despise the enemy and yet he finds that the only way to move ahead is by letting his passion overcome the hatred. The character’s internal dialogue over what constitutes rationality and whether it can violate patriotism or the sense of belonging to one’s roots is engrossing Interestingly, the author’s JewishAmerican descent has hijacked most of the dialogue about her current work. The book, however, stands its own ground and deserves credit for being much more. The text is crisp
and simple, sometimes accentuated with the suspense of a Dan Brown novel and at others, bordering on the spirituality of a Paulo Coelho book. It is impossible to imagine the agony of a family who has to watch as their toddler is torn apart by a landmine while chasing a butterfly, but it takes a heart to acknowledge the existence of this pain in a digital world overflowing with enough content to occupy our every whim. Corasanti has humanised the conflict in the Middle East, made it available at leading bookstores and brought it to literature festivals. For some, this might amount to trivialisation of the issue but had she shied from the task, even this account would have been robbed of an audience. It is telling of the Palestinian plight that even when they got a voice in international literature, it had to be borrowed. The Almond Tree is a compelling read and difficult to put back once you have read through the first few pages. Given the abundance of historical recollections and the author’s adaptation of events, it serves as a quick refresher on the Middle Eastern political landscape and can easily be placed in one’s reference book collection. Hamid’s story, on the other hand, highlights the inherent good in people, and points towards peace in the region being an eventual possibility. As I picked the book up from my desk, the morning paper that lay underneath read: “Renewed Gaza rocket fire after overnight Israeli raids”. With a heavy heart, I unwillingly placed it amidst my collection of fiction.
Adil Mulki is a Certified Information Systems Auditor, works for a private bank and is interested in the outdoors, wildlife and science. He can be reached at vagabonds.odyssey@gmail.com
48 APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
HEALTH
heart Listen to your
BEAT
Not all heart attacks are sudden, intense and obvious. Symptoms can be varied and signals can be mistaken. Many people are unaware that they have coronary artery disease until a heart attack strikes. There are some warning signs which may vary in intensity and from person to person, but can be an indication of a heart attack.
What is it? “Myocardial infarction [medical term for heart attack] is the damage of the heart muscle due to the blockage of coronary arteries,” explains Sajid Dhakam, who specialises in cardiovascular diseases and interventional cardiology at the South City Hospital. A precursor to a heart attack or coronary heart disease occurs when sticky plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. This narrows the arteries making it difficult for blood to flow through. According to the World Health Organisation, ischaemic heart disease and stroke are among the most common causes of death globally (Global Burden of Disease, 2013).
Warning signs can help you detect a heart attack and seek timely aid BY SUNDAR WAQAR DESIGN BY TALHA KHAN
Vital signs The most common sign of a heart attack is chest pain or pressure caused by restricted blood flow known as angina. Certain characteristics such as severe, debilitating chest pain and pressure in the centre of your chest that lasts from a few minutes to several hours while resting can be an indication of a heart attack. “This feeling in the chest may also be experienced as tightness, aching, fullness or squeezing,” says Dhakam. And according to consultant cardiologist Nageeb Basir, “Women don’t always feel chest pain with a heart attack. They are more likely than men to have heartburn, loss of appetite, tiredness or weakness, coughing and heart flutters.” “Discomfort spreading to the back, throat or arm, nausea, indigestion, heartburn, weakness, anxiety or shortness of breath and rapid or irregular heartbeats are other warning signs of a heart attack,” says Basir. Fatigue is also a common heart attack symptom and one of the trickiest, considering that most people feel fatigued at least occasionally. The key to recognising fatigue as a sign of a heart attack is when it occurs without explanation and in combination with other symptoms like chest or jaw pain. If you have several risk factors and a combination of these symptoms then you should seek help immediately.
During a heart attack The plaque deposited in the arteries is hard on the outside and soft and mushy on the inside. If the hard outer shell cracks, a blood clot forms around the plaque. If the clot completely blocks the artery, it cuts off the blood supply to a portion of the heart. Without immediate treatment, that part of the heart muscle could be damaged or destroyed.
Sundar Waqar is a subeditor on The Express Tribune Magazine desk. She tweets @sundar_waqar
50 APRIL 27-MAY 3 2014
Don’t wait to be sure The best time to treat a heart attack is as soon as the symptoms begin. “Waiting to be sure can result in permanent heart damage or even death,” says Basir. One of the main reasons heart disease is so deadly is because many people are unable to recognise symptoms or are slow to seek help when symptoms arise. “If you feel any of these signs you should go to the nearest hospital immediately and get an ECG,” urges Dhakam. “On your way to the hospital, chew, swish and swallow two aspirins,” he suggests. T