The Express Tribune Magazine - August 31

AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 6 2014

The Missing Ima Imagine agine a day day without without knowing knowin ng where where your your loved loved one one is. is.

Now imagine a lifetime

August 31-september 6 2014

Feature

Playing to his strengths Sohail Rehman is Manchester United’s first wheelchairbound coach

Cover Story The Missing For the families of missing people in Kashmir, hope is the only thing on their side

18

Feature

Bringing Madrid to Lahore Three Spanish educationists bring their message to Lahore

22

4

28 Regulars

6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people

32 Reviews: Movies and books 38 Astronomy: A one-way ticket to Mars

Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Senior Subeditor: Dilaira Dubash Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Munira Abbas, Omer Asim, Sanober Ahmed & Talha Ahmed Khan Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. 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

Damas showcases its latest jewellery collection in Karachi

PhoToS couRTESy cATAlyST PR & MARKETIng

Mariam and Maya Malik

Guests

Ayesha Sana

rrani

Anita and Pinky Du

6 August 31 - september 6 2014

Ahsan Khan

Nageen Rizvi

PEOPLE & PARTIES

PhoToS couRTESy cATAlyST PR & MARKETIng

Nadya Mistry with a friend

Nida Ameen and Sidra

Zahid and Ruby

Saadia Nawabi

8 August 31 - september 6 2014

Saba and Sherezad

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Super cinema launches its 3D cinema in Sialkot

Amina, Hina and Ayesha

PhoToS couRTESy QyT EvEnTS

Atif Aslam and Col Khurram

Waqas and Taimoor Arooj Fawad

Asim Mahmood

10 August 31 - september 6 2014

Eram Amir

PEOPLE & PARTIES

PhoToS couRTESy QyT EvEnTS

Maham Raza, Kinza and Iman Shabbir

Dania and Faiza

Mr and Mrs Kashif

Sabra Shabir and

12 August 31 - september 6 2014

Shabana Shabbir

Hassan Nizami and Kinza Nizami

FEATURE

Playing to his strengths Sohail Rehman inspires future footballers by becoming Manchester United’s first wheelchair-bound coach

BY SHAHRUKH SOHAIL

Sohail Rehman refused to abandon football despite his disability and is today Machester United's very own coach.

PHOTO COURTESY: HUMANS OF PAKISTAN FACEBOOK PAGE

18 AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 6 2014

There is more to Manchester United than just big names and shiny trophies. The English football club has also been a breeding ground for exceptionally talented players who live and breathe football, despite all odds, for the past 136 years.

Hence, it is no surprise that the club recently signed 22-year-old Sohail Rehman, of Pakistani-origin, as their first wheelchair-bound coach.

Rehman, born in Keighley, Yorkshire, was only 12 when he was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, and by 13 he was in a wheelchair. But he caught the football bug much earlier.“I took football up around the age of eight. When I was a kid I used to hate visiting family homes, [so to motivate me] they would [host] a football match,” claims the young football enthusiast, who wanted to enroll himself at one of the many coveted football academies in England and play professionally for the big leagues. “It is heartbreaking when you stop doing something [you love]. When it’s out of choice, it’s fine, but when someone says you can’t [do this], [that’s when] it hurts.”

Unable to continue his football journey on foot, Rehman took a different route to fulfill his dreams. He studied sports technology at college and became an active member of the Manchester United Disabled Supporters’ Association. In 2012, he even started an organisation called Class on Grass which helps children enjoy sports and realise their potential in the field. A year later, in 2013, he decided to take his Football Association badges and succeeded in acquiring a B category coaching license from the The Union of European Football Associations.

Although Rehman was content coaching the Sunday league teams in Yorkshire, his dream was to train the top football leagues.

And a letter of appreciation last year from former manager and Manchester United player, Sir Alex Ferguson, was all the encouragement he needed.

His big break finally came this year when he was signed as a coach for Manchester United Soccer Schools. “[I got the position] mainly thanks to David Moyes, he wanted to find a role for me at the club,” says Rehman. The self-confessed Man United fan now trains teenagers who go to the club for trials and visits schools to coach children on behalf of the club. The Reds are equally delighted to have him on board. Legendary midfielder, Nicky Butt, spoke on behalf of the entire staff as he welcomed Rehman to Carrington. “It is an amazing achievement as [Sohail] comes across as a young man who knows what he

It is heartbreaking when you stop doing something [you love]. When it’s out of choice, it’s fine, but when someone says you can’t [do this], [that’s when] it hurts Football Enthusiast Sohail Rehman

wants to achieve,” he said while speaking to EuroSport UK. “It is magnificent now that he will be sharing these great qualities with young players of the future and I am sure they will be inspired by all that he has achieved.”

For Rehman, this is just the first half of a long, eventful match. “I would love to manage a football club one day or even a country like Pakistan,” he says. And it appears as if the field is all set for that.

Shahrukh Sohail is the chief editor of FootballPakistan.com, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UNODC Global Youth Initiative and an aspiring entrepreneur. He tweets @ShahrukhSohail7 AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 6 2014

19

COVER sTory

The Missing The families of missing people in Kashmir constantly have their eyes glued to the door TEXT By Qadri inzamam PhoTos By haziQ Qadri dEsiGn By sanoBEr ahmEd

Imagine a day without knowing where your loved one is. Now imagine a lifetime.

But for the hundreds of families in Kashmir — whose sons, brothers, husbands and fathers have been missing for years — there is little left to imagine since this is a reality they must live with every day.

More than 50,000 people have lost their lives while hundreds have been incarcerated in the strife that has scarred Indian-Administered Kashmir for decades now. Amid this chaos and uncertainty, nearly 8,000 Kashmiris have ‘disappeared’ in the custody of Indian forces, according to the Srinagar-based Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP). With no trace of their whereabouts, the families spend each day wondering if they would ever see their loved ones in flesh and blood, or just the latter.

Most of this burden is carried by the women of the valley — the mothers, wives and daughters of these disappeared persons — who continue searching for their kith and kin, often in abject poverty. They have little on their side except hope, but in this case, that is reason enough.

Parveena is known as the ‘iron Lady of Kashmir’ due to her relentless struggle for justice, not only for herself but for thousands like her. despite her poor financial conditions, Parveena rose above her personal tragedy and became a source of strength for many mothers.

The Indian army has tried all kinds of tactics from harassment to offering money to Dar’s family to give up litigation but they refused to cave in to the pressure

Bilquees with a portrait of her father, manzoor ahmad, who was picked up by the indian army during a midnight raid.

A relentless daughter Bilquees was a ninth-grade student when her father, Manzoor Ahmad Dar, was picked up by the Indian forces during a midnight raid in Rawalpora, Srinagar, on January 18, 2002. She remembers every detail of that fateful night, from the exact date and name to the face of the accused Indian army officer.

Dar — who worked as a chemist and earned the nickname ‘Doctor’ for treating patients in the area — was picked up by the Indian army on charges of sending 24 Kashmiri boys across the Line of Control (LoC) for arms August 31-september 6 2014

training. But Bilquees vehemently denies any such charges. Initially, the local police even refused to file an FIR for Dar’s disappearance but gave in after protests by the family and locals. Col Kishore Malhotra, who was identified as the main accused during the investigations, ironically, rose from the rank of major to colonel since the incident.

Bilquees says her father was picked on the pretext of questioning but never returned. The family was unable to trace him since they had no clue of his whereabouts.

“There was another guy who was also arrested by the Indian army. He confirmed that my father was with him in custody at Cargo, a notorious torture centre in Srinagar used by the Indian forces,” she says. When the family went to Cargo, one of the personnel confirmed that Dar was lodged there, but another higher-rank officer denied any such information and forced them to leave.

Bilquees claims they visited every police official who they believed could help but to no avail. In the last week of March, 2002, she received a call from an unknown person asking her and a few other family members to meet him at a ground, adjacent to their locality. “When we visited the place, we were questioned by four different Indian army officials for hours. One of the officials included Kishore Malhotra, who had headed the raid at our house,” she says. “After the questioning, an army jeep revolved around us a few times and we were told that our father was in it, watching us. But we could not see him.” Another member of their neighbourhood who had business connections with the Indian army and was believed to have some information on Dar’s whereabouts was also arrested, taken to the canal and killed.

Few months after Dar’s disappearance, a Major Parmar from the Indian army called Bilquees and informed her

that her father was lodged in Tihar Jail in New Delhi. He initially stated that Dar was severely tortured, as a result of which his legs were amputated but later refuted the statement saying he had been killed during interrogation in the Indian army’s custody. “We did not believe him, we believe our father is alive,” says Bilquees.

The Indian army has tried all kinds of tactics from harassment to offering money to the family to give up litigation but they refused to cave in to the pressure. “Our house was raided again in 2007 by the Indian army and we were asked to close the case. But we did not give in.” Later that year, the family was summoned by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and informed that Dar was killed in army custody and buried in some village. “We were told that we will be shown some photographs as evidence and that a DNA test will be carried out to match the evidence. But that was never done,” says Bilquees. “We have not seen his body and we don’t believe that he has died. Police may claim so, but how can we?”

Dar’s wife, Jana Begum, does not now talk much about his disappearance. The years of searching and waiting have taken an emotional and physical toll on her. “Her blood pressure rises and her health deteriorates now if anyone asks her about our father,” says her eldest born.

The once-young Bilquees is now married but her resolve to bring her father home and get justice is still fresh. “I will never give up,” she says.

A hopeless mother Rafiqa Bano’s first born, Irshad Ahmed Khan, crossed the LOC in the early years of militancy for training but instead of joining an armed group upon return, he started his own business. That, however, did not spare him from the scrutiny of the Indian army. On December 17, 2004, Khan was called in by the Indian Army’s Colonel GPS Gill of 15 corps BB cantonment, under the pretext of his life being in danger and, hence, needing army protection.

“We begged them to release Khan but they did not listen to us,” says Rafiqa. The family also approached the State Human Rights Commission [SHRC] which in its final decision found that, “There was nothing on record to show that said Irshad Amin Khan may not have been killed after he was called and taken into custody by Col GPS Gill of 15 Corps at Headquarters Srinagar on December 17, 2004, as he has not reached home for more than seven years.”

Ten years on, despite the media attention, Rafiqa has lost all hope of ever seeing her son again. “Did anyone ever get any help with these news reports? Will it bring back my son?”

rafiqa Bano with a portrait of her son, irshad ahmad Khan, who went missing at the age of 28 and hasn’t been found since.

Did anyone ever get any help with these news reports? Will it bring back my son? rafiqa Bano

25 August 31-september 6 2014

For the first 10 days, I was told that my husband was lodged in Dooru Army camp. I would pack clothes and food for him and wait outside the camp every day, but I never got as much as a glimpse of him zaina Begum

A bereft wife

zaina Begum, with a portrait of her husband, Ghulam mohidin mir who has been missing for 17 years. she prays that her four children will one day get to see their father but has lost all hope for justice.

26 August 31-september 6 2014

Zaina Begum was barely 10 years old when she was married to Ghulam Mohidin Mir, who was a year or two older than her. For years they lived together happily and started a family until the 1990s when the political situation in Kashmir took a sour turn.

In the early years of the armed uprising in Kashmir, thousands of young Kashmiris joined militant groups to fight the Indian rule. Ghulam Mohidin Mir also joined the wave and crossed over to the other side of the LoC for training. After he returned, he was arrested by the Indian army and put in jail for nearly two and a half years. Upon release, Mir returned to his family and started working as a gardener.

Things were normal until April 11, 1997, when the army condoned Mir’s village and raided their house in the wee hours of the morning. All the family members were locked up in one room, except Mir who was taken to another room, tortured and then finally lugged along by the Indian army.

For three months after the incident, Zaina received different clues of her husband’s whereabouts from various sources. “For the first 10 days, I was told that my husband was lodged in Dooru Army camp (a village in central Kashmir’s Budgam district). I would pack clothes and food for him and wait outside the camp every day, but I never got as much as a glimpse of him,” she recalls.

After Dooru, Mir is said to have been shifted to another unknown location. Despite repeated attempts, Zaina has had no luck in finding out where and how her husband is.

Even though she wants her children to meet their father after 17 years, Zaina has no utopian ideas about getting justice. “There is no hope in this system. Those who [are involved] in my husband’s disappearance can never deliver justice to me.”

An unusual saviour On the night of August 18, 1990, the police, who had set out to arrest Javaid Ahmed, a Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front militant, picked up his young namesake instead.

Javaid’s 57-year-old mother, Parveena Ahanger, filed an FIR in Sher-e-Gari police station, Srinagar and scourged every police station and jail for her son but found nothing.

It was not until 1992 that the police verbally accepted that they had arrested Javaid. Parveena was asked by the higher authorities to go to Ram Nagar jail where they said Javaid had been detained. Upon reaching there, she was informed that her son was not there and she had to leave without any answers.

The pattern continued for a long time. Each time Parveena found a clue about her son, she would rush to the spot only to return empty-handed. It was during these visits that she came across hundreds of families, who like her were seeking the whereabouts of their relatives. They would occasionally hold protests in courts but would be dispersed each time.

Parveena started holding meetings with the parents of the disappeared persons at her residence in Batamaloo, Srinagar, and discussed future strategies which eventually led to the formation of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) — an association that seeks the whereabouts of the disappeared persons.

“When I realised that there were thousands of mothers like me, I decided to bring them all together under one association so that our voices together could bring a change,” says Parveena, who serves as the chairperson of APDP. On the 10th of every month, Parveena along with other members of APDP hold a sit-in at a park in the capital city of Srinagar.

Parveena’s quest for justice has not been limited to Kashmir. She has travelled to the Philippines, Indonesia, Europe and many Indian states to push the issue of missing persons. As a result of her efforts, APDP has been instrumental in building up pressure on the government who acknowledged that more than 8,000 persons had gone missing under the custody of Indian forces and also assured a halt on these disappearances.

Her relentless struggle for justice earned her the nickname of the ‘Iron Lady of Kashmir’. She was also nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace prize and the Frontline Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk in 2011. She may have lost a son, but in Parveena, a lot of mothers found the will to live.

Parveena is the chairperson for the association of Parents of disappeared Persons — an initiative that seeks to bring together the families of all those who are missing and exert collective pressure on the relevant authorities. PHOTO COURTESy: PARvEENA AHANGAR FACEBOOK PAGE

Each day is a lifetime Like every year, the global community observes the International Day of the Disappeared on August 30 to draw attention to the fate of those who are imprisoned in places unknown to their families. Many mark it in their diaries as an important photo opportunity. Some even show initiative and issue an emotionally fuelled statement. But for these families it is another reminder of what they had been robbed of — justice, closure and, most importantly, another day they could have spent with those who are now missing.

Qadri Inzamam is a freelance journalist based in Kashmir.

He tweets @Qadri_Inzamam August 31-september 6 2014

27

FEATuRE

Bringing Madrid to Lahore

Meet the young group of educationists who will literally go to any length to spread their message

By Anum PAshA PhOTOs By RABTT AnD ThInKIDs

A group photo of the boys from saint John’s high school with Ignacio from ThinKids.

You have to either be an idealist or a Good Samaritan if you are willing to drive 15,000 kilometres by road on a Nissan Patrol 1998 model and cross a handful of borders to be in Pakistan. The trio of twenty-something boys behind ThinKids, a Spanish NGO, who collaborated with Rabtt, a Lahore-based NGO, to conduct an educational summer camp at Saint John’s Boys High School in Youhanabad, a low fee missionary school in the city’s largest Christian neighbourhood, are perhaps a bit of both.

“Children around the world are very similar; they have questions and are looking for answers. That is why we decided to launch ThinKids World Camp 2014,” explains Ignacio Gonzalez Cabello, who cofounded the initiative in 2010 with his partners Javier Gutiérrez and Santiago Aldanondo, to promote an innovative approach towards education which enables children to become entrepreneurs at an early stage. “[This is also why we] have come to Lahore, Pakistan, after conducting week-long camps in China, Turkey, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Iran.”

But it takes a little more than just guts to come to Pakistan by road.

“We were browsing the internet for organisations doing similar work in

Pakistan and accidentally stumbled upon Rabtt. We were elated to have found an organisation that works similar to ours in Spain,” says Cabello.

Rabtt, which literally translates to ‘connection’, was founded in 2011 by Harvard graduate Imran Sarwar, in partnership with Harvard University South Asia, British Council Pakistan and Seeds of Peace International along with a few others. The NGO seeks to develop critical thinking abilities, empathy, communication, collaboration and creative self-expression in children from public as well as private schools through summer camps and other mentorship programmes.

Even though the organisation is still relatively new, the small team has already conducted 12 workshops and numerous camps and engaged over 1,300 students and 150 volunteer mentors in Pakistan. “When we met Imran, we were fascinated by this concept of volunteering for free in Pakistan. In Spain, it’s always difficult for us to get volunteers; usually it’s just my brother or my cousin,” explains Cabello.

Through the World Camp 2014 mission, the two organisations found common grounds to work on — to make learning fun for children globally — and thus came about the Youhanabad summer camp, which included unconventional activities

Ignacio, santiago and Javier take a travel break and pose near the mighty Karakoram peaks.

August 31-september 6 2014

29

FEATuRE

The students develop a 3D model for their group project during one of the sessions.

30

such as public speaking, spatial intelligence and 3D workshops. Over the course of five days, children were encouraged to think out-of-the-box, solve real world problems and ignite their multiple intelligences through games, computer programming, music, art and group projects. “Some of the problems identified by these boys were related to electricity, contamination, lack of playgrounds,” explains Gutiérrez. “The problems children face in Spain are different.”

Another issue that was identified was the students’ misconception that English can only be learnt by travelling abroad — something they did not have the money to do. “To solve this problem, the boys built a social media website, something like Facebook, that would let teachers give English lessons for free, and in return the children would pray for them. This was called Teach4Pray,” says Cabello.

During the initial days of the workshop, the students merely repeated whatever task was assigned to them by their mentors, revealing a lack of creative thinking and fear of asking questions. Language was also a barrier but the Rabtt volunteers translated for both parties. Over the August 31-september 6 2014

next few days, however, the boys eased into the sessions and began to show initiative. “If you’re hungry, I can teach you how to fish, so tomorrow if you’re hungry, you can fish on your own,” says Guiterrez. “And that is how we would summarise this mission!”

Sarwar feels that the biggest advantage of cross-border collaborations is that students are able to interact with people outside Pakistan. “We found out that education has similar challenges all across the world,” he says. This camp was an experiment but Rabtt wants to do something on a bigger scale next year.

The trio is headed to Nepal next for a similar camp but their link to Pakistan does not end here. “Before coming to Pakistan, we had no idea what was going to happen. Authorities tried to convince us to not do this, but when we finally crossed the border from China, it felt amazing!” says Aldanondo. “Of course, we will come here again.”

Anum Pasha is an international development professional and a writer based in Lahore.

She tweets @crazyyycatladyy

Javier strikes a chord with the students

Children around the world are very similar; they have questions and are looking for answers.

That is why we decided to launch ThinKids World Camp 2014 Co-founder ThinKids Ignacio Gonzalez Cabello A scene from the classroom at saint John’s Boys high school during the summer camp. during guitar lessons at the summer camp.

No pit stops A film set entirely inside a car can be strangely exciting

BY SCHAYAN RIAZ

Acclaimed acting teacher Stella Adler once said “in your choices lies your talent”. Out of the contemporary acting lot, this mantra is perhaps best applicable to Tom Hardy. The British actor’s filmography is one sensible career choice after the other, so it’s fitting that he stars in Steven Knight’s gripping film Locke, a film about decisions itself.

For roughly an hour and a half, all we see is Tom Hardy. It’s a mesmerising one-man show, which instantly reminds you of Rodrigo Cortés’ 2010 thriller Buried with Ryan Reynolds. Tom Hardy plays Ivan Locke, a construction manager driving his car late at night. We quickly learn that he’s usually a professional and reliable bloke, but tonight he has abandoned his workplace. He had to supervise the pouring of a great amount of cement into the foundations of a new building, but he simply can’t and he won’t. Something else is happening in London, something far more important to Locke, and he has made his decision.

While driving, Locke literally tries to manage his life via an in-built telephone. He talks to his co-worker, delegating all his duties to him, along with valuable instructions to safeguard the cement pour. Just because he can’t be present, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. He also speaks to his boss, who cannot believe how careless Locke is being. After all, the “guys in Chicago” have a lot of money riding on this building site, this being the company’s most important night.

But while Locke can understand and tries his best to work from his car, he is also determined to drive to London for his personal, momentous occasion.

He phones his family too. His boys are waiting at home, wanting to watch an important football match with their dad. His wife has even bought German beer

32 AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 6 2014

and sausages. He tells them he won’t be coming and they are visibly disappointed. Throughout all these conversations, the person on the other line always has one expression. We can’t see the person, but the voice is either angry, shocked, happy and so on.

Ivan Locke, on the other hand, with his face on full display, conveys a myriad of emotions. Tom Hardy is an exceptional actor and it’s difficult to imagine another person in this role. He is able to play angry whilst remaining soft-spoken with an imaginary dad in the backseat and he is able to muster up a grin whilst being depressed within.

Of course, the real reason for which Locke is jeopardising everything is a bit anticlimactic. It’s nothing earth-shattering, but then again this isn’t an action film. If this were a Hollywood production, then Locke would have had 90 minutes to drive to London in order to stop something from happening. A frenetic chase sequence might be there for good measure too. But in this calm, philosophical film, Locke won’t be able to stop that particular thing from happening, so Steven Knight gives us an exercise in less-is-more and Tom Hardy delivers a masterful performance.

Once we learn of Locke’s true motives, it’s a striking metaphor for life in general.

Overall, Locke is an exciting film and the closest you’ll ever get to driving down the M25 motorway with Tom Hardy. And it’s a journey you most probably shouldn’t miss.

Rating: Schayan Riaz is a Germany-based writer.

He tweets @schayanriaz

BOOK

A vibrant lesson Like any typical Murakami novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage does not have a single dull moment

BY KARTHIK KERAMALU

As the very title of the Haruki Murakami’s comparatively slim novel suggests, its lead character, Tsukuru Tazaki, has an insipid personality with no special abilities. But the book’s author is far from unskilled; even while sketching out a feeble character, he does it with utmost care and intriguing details that have easily elevated the novel to its global bestseller status.

The author’s previous works, including 1Q84 and Norwegian Wood, are also quite similar in their style of writing and choice of characters.

In Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Murakami introduces us to the self-deprecating Tsukuru Tazaki, an engineer interested in building tangible things, such as railway stations, who suffers from a lifelong inability to form intimate connections after his four high school friends abandoned him for no apparent reason. He consequently chooses to live his life on the sidelines, maintaining aloofness even with the few girlfriends he has due to his fear of

losing people close to him.

But much of that changes after he meets Sara at the age of 36. In a quest to undo his past traumas and to restore his faith in relationships, she asks him to revisit his previous girlfriends and friends and to clear things up with them.

The narrative is set in a melancholic atmosphere with two parallel realities, the past and the present, which seamlessly flow into one. Although the novel’s plot is formulaic, replete with accounts of Murakami’s characteristically lonely protagonist, including his usual themes of swimming and music, it is, in a way, realistic and reads like a story set in modern times. It sheds light on the life of an ordinary man who goes through the common phases of love, jealousy and loss of identity and innocence. Murakami floats the idea that life is full of lessons, no matter how old you get. And soon after Tazaki meets his old friends, he discovers that the group had disintegrated shortly after abandoning him, leaving him to shoulder the burden for their break-up.

Just as Tazaki begins to understand himself better, Murakami bids his readers an abrupt farewell with several loose ends and Author Haruki Murakami

unexplained situations. And while you might easily forget Tazaki and his ‘colourless’ life, Murakami’s powerful words are bound to stay with you for a long time.

Karthik Keramalu is a freelance writer who is interested in literature and film.

A hot mess Scientific fiction is not a licence to be ridiculous

BY AIZA NASIR KHAN

When you go to watch Lucy, it is important to dispel logic temporarily and enjoy the events on screen for the hypothetical conjectures they are based on. The film is directed by Luc Besson, who is famous for his strongwilled female characters, something that holds true in Lucy too.

Scarlett Johansson plays Lucy, a frivolous American studying in Taipei, who lands in hot water when she gets involved with the wrong guy and is coerced by him into delivering a briefcase to Mr Jang, a Taiwanese drug lord.

For the next half an hour, the movie is captivating. You feel real terror and genuinely dread Lucy’s fate, at the hands of the ruthless Jang who has no patience for fear or tardiness. As it turns out, the briefcase contains a dangerous, synthetic drug that Jang wants to hide in Lucy and three other drug mules’ intestines and smuggle into Europe. But after Lucy’s captors kick her in the stomach, the drug starts leaking into her system and she transcends from a normal being to a super human.

In the background of all this action, and to give credibility to what is happening to Lucy, we have Morgan Freeman as the expert on the human mind and its evolution. Lucy turns to him for help when her brain capacity increases at an exponential rate and she is left with only 24 hours to live.

While the movie starts off in an explosive manner and grips you, with Lucy’s increasingly limitless powers, the premise becomes progressively absurd. The director seemed to have run out of steam and ideas on how to conclude a movie in which the heroine is able to do just about everything. And by everything, I mean traversing time

and space to the age of the dinosaurs and even before that, when the cosmos was exploding and the universe was coming into being. You can’t help but roll your eyes and at times laugh at the movie because the director assumes the viewers will just ingest all that he is spewing under the guise of science and fake theories. It is true that the film is categorised as science fiction but so were movies like Inception, which was based on unusual events but was much more believable than what Besson has concocted.

As Scarlett becomes a revengeseeking deity with every passing minute, she becomes more stoic in her acting and mannerisms, which borders on her looking bored. The supporting cast doesn’t do much to bolster the movie and are actually quite forgettable, especially since Lucy manages to make them look like chumps all the time.

While a little more attention to the script by the director would have ironed out the kinks from the plot, he does show a lot of footage that serves as metaphors to the events in the movie that adds a refreshing theatrical touch.

Lucy is recommended only if you have nothing else to watch and are willing to swallow a thinly supported theory with a great looking actress who needs to perhaps now take a break from playing the same type of characters. Don’t be surprised when you start off the movie riveted and end up leaving the theatre laughing and wondering where you could have spent the 90 minutes better.

Rating: Aiza Nasir Khan is a f brand professional at a leading multinational who loves food and travel.

BOOK

Faith in the classroom If Islam is not confined to one territory, then why should its study

By FAIZA RAHMAN

With the intellectually-humble discussion on Islam fast becoming a casualty of bickering and blood-letting, the university classroom is the last opportunity where some semblance of justice can be done. Most well-reputed universities today claim an environment of unhindered inquiry to help the young religious scholar negotiate the tricky terrains of scripture, sect and school without blowing gaskets, which makes the secular university the most fitting site for the study of Islam in today’s world. Observing the Observer: The State of Islamic Studies in American University is a compilation of essays by topmost Islamic Studies scholars, who are aware of these realities and of the grave responsibilities borne by their course outlines in an era where faith-based quarrels are drenching entire regions in blood and a newfound but fearful curiosity is causing enrolment databases to overspill in most Islamic, Middle Eastern and Near Eastern Studies departments of US universities.

That’s the problem, right there. Key scholars of Islamic Studies in the US, such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr of George Washington University, John Voll and Zahid Bukhari of Georgetown University and Faisal Islam of Brandeis University, are apprehensive of the trend whereby those who wish to be schooled in the study of Islam seek out departments that teach the culture, language and history of the Middle East. A number of such university departments in the US offer throwaway courses in Islamic Studies that are taught in an offhandish manner by those specialising in the culture and history of just one of the many Muslim civilisations, thereby entrapping all the nuance and vastness of religion in a suffocated, intellectually-guarded cocoon.

As Seyyed Hossein Nasr points out, many graduates in Islamic Studies churned out

by Middle Eastern Studies departments are alien to the religious life, culture and contributions made to Islam by several hundred million Muslims in South Asia, China, Malaysia and Africa. “One can attain the highest degree in Islamic Studies and yet not know about the great Islamic empires of

Mali,” he writes.

The abovementioned essay writers would agree that unlike studies in Judaism, Christianity or Hinduism, the study of Islam has been reduced to the study of a certain geography. Nasr and Voll are particularly forceful in arguing that Islam should not be treated as a mere social or cultural phenomena at universities, but as a wholesome religion whose study demands exhaustive application to symbols, sources of law, philosophy and theology. The first step towards such a track of study is to place the discipline of Islamic Studies at either a specialised Islamic Studies department, or to offer it at a department of Religious Studies where faculty members specialising in areas of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), tafseer (exegesis) and Sufism are assigned courses according to their research work.

Even in university departments that cater exclusively to Islamic Studies, a number of theoretical ‘mistakes’ are made while teaching certain kinds of courses. Courses such as ‘Islam and the modern world’, ‘Islam and modernism’ and ‘Islam and the West: a confrontation’ come with titles that are skewed by ideological baggage, with a punitive dichotomy established in the very name. Whole volumes of scholarship continue to argue that the ‘West’ or ‘modernity’ is not an anti-thesis of ‘Islam’ and this sea of scholarship is not fairly regarded by those who devise such titles.

Moreover, a myriad of Islamic scholars in the US continue to use the Western intellectual tradition to engage with Islam, trying their best to make it palatable to a Western student body by jostling it into the stiff theoretical constructs of Orientalism.

This reduces the entire academic exercise into something of a pathetic apology. Overall, Observing the Observer: The State of Islamic Studies in American University is a treasure for anyone who seeks to read critique on one of the key spaces of the study of Islam — the American university. T Faiza Rahman is a subeditor for the Opinion & Editorial pages of The Express Tribune.

August 31-september 6 2014

35

Superheroes, super fun Guardians of the Galaxy has more wit than wisdom

BY SAMEEN AMER

It’s hard to knock Hollywood for the recent deluge of superhero movies, considering how commercially successful and financially rewarding the genre has been. And it’s even harder to criticise the quality of the material generated by this trend, seeing how the output has generally been quite entertaining.

In light of the positive reception towards the genre, it becomes all too obvious why Marvel would be inspired to create yet another superhero franchise, unleashing a team of its lesser-known superheroes onto the big screen in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie, directed by James Gunn, might make it seem like they are scraping the bottom of the barrel, but the final product easily quashes any doubts one may have about the project’s legitimacy.

The movie’s hero is Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), a human who was abducted from Earth as a child just moments after his mother’s death. Two-and-a-half decades later, Quill has fashioned himself into StarLord, an intergalactic rogue who merrily romps through space. But after he swipes a mysterious orb, he finds himself being geted by the many ar targeted beings, who are sperate to wield desperate its power. hile dodging his chasers, Quil While Quill ds up forming an ends

36 AUGUST 31-SEPTEMBER 6 2014

uneasy partnership with some of his pursuers.

The members of the reluctant alliance include the green-skinned assassin Gamora (Zoe Saldana), who was initially sent by powerhungry villain Ronan (Lee Pace) to fetch the orb, wisecracking raccoon Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and sentient tree Groot (Vin Diesel) who are the bounty hunters seeking a reward for Quill’s capture and the vengeful Drax (Dave Bautista), whose family was killed by Ronan.

Together, this team of extraterrestrial misfits risk everything to keep the orb from nefarious hands and save the universe from havoc.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a lively adventure powered by terrific special effects that includes Rocket and Groot being brought to life with some fantastic computer-generated imagery and a hearty frolic that aims to entertain its audience from start to finish.

Unlike many of the superhero flicks currently on offer, the movie isn’t concerned with being dark and moody; it is content with being thoroughly enjoyable, employing witty banter alongside poignant touches to fuel its two-hour journey. Its retro soundtrack, courtesy of an Awesome Mix cassette that Quill holds dear, is programmed nerate nosta to generate nostalgia and andom pop the random culture ences references

keep the viewers engaged. Chris Pratt is surprisingly suitable for the lead role and Bradley Cooper voices the smart-mouth raccoon Rocket with verve. While Groot may only have a three-word vocabulary, Vin Diesel makes good use of intonation to help make the talking tree one of the most endearing characters of the movie.

The villain, however, is stereotypical, the action is predictable and the customary final battle doesn’t hold much weight (probably because we aren’t as invested in the fate of the galaxy as we should be). But the movie is well aware of its own absurdities and never fails to have a sense of humour about itself.

Guardians of the Galaxy is an adventure that has heart and that revels in wit. It is like Star Wars meets Serenity with a dash of Red Dwarf. While the movie might not have been necessary, it has found a very valid reason to exist — to entertain us. Those who want something deep, dark and profound have many other choices as this movie is for those of us who just want to have some fun.

Rating: Sameen Amer is a Lahore-based freelance writer and critic. She tweets @Sameen

ASTRONOMY

A one-way ticket to Mars Stupidity or the trip of a lifetime?

BY SALMAN HAMEED DESIGN BY MUNIRA ABBAS

If given the opportunity, would you go on a oneway trip to Mars? I ask this question in several of my classes, and about a third of the students respond positively. I am sure that when faced with a real-life decision, many of these students will have second thoughts. This is understandable.

It is hard to willingly leave family, friends, good food and an abundance of breathable oxygen.

But I know that at least some of these students genuinely mean it. They would love nothing more than to go to Mars, even if it means saying goodbye to the planet of their birth forever.

A one-way trip to Mars may seem crazy. Forget about humans, only a handful of robotic missions have been successful in landing on the Red Planet. But even if one were to accept these risks, the fiscal costs of a return trip to Mars are so high that such a mission is unlikely to take place in the next several decades. Much of these costs are associated with bringing people back. You nix the return, and going to Mars becomes more plausible.

Some have misinterpreted a one-way trip to Mars as akin to suicide but that is far from the truth. It is expected that a habitat for humans, along with the supplies they need to live on Mars, will already be in place before any humans have even set foot on the spacecraft leaving for Mars. This can be done, as cargo ships are relatively cheap.

This is the plan behind Mars One, a Dutch company which is planning to send crews of four, departing every two years, starting in 2024. There will be no return missions. The plan is to establish a permanent human presence on Mars. They have already winnowed 1,058 candidates, including two

Pakistanis, from a list of 200,000 applicants!

It gives me goosebumps just to imagine how humans will experience their first steps on Mars. In fact, every action of these pioneers — however mundane — will be historic and full of significance from washing clothes to taking a stroll or even growing a plant. The most difficult part will be living with only a few other humans, all confined to a biodome.

Even a brief stroll outside the oxygenated dome will necessitate a space suit. None of this will be easy, but then perhaps, this is exactly what makes it exciting. The risks of death will indeed be higher. Instead of living up to 80 years on Earth, these Martian humans may live up to 40 or 50 years. But it will be a path-breaking life spent on a literally untouched landscape!

This pioneering spirit has always been in the human DNA. I can imagine some of our more outgoing ancestors taking the risk to expand their race out of Africa to other parts of the world. The spread of the human species on Earth may in fact be a story of a number of one-way trips. Establishing a permanent presence on Mars may simply be another similar step in mankind’s history of expansion.

All my enthusiasm for this Mars trip aside, I have one big reservation. What if we detect microbial life living on Mars today? In such a case, I would argue to leave Mars to Martians and not interfere in their evolution. Unfortunately, the history of our species on Earth also suggests that such a discovery is unlikely to deter any future human missions to Mars.

For the sake of Martians though, I hope they are not there.

Salman Hameed is associate professor of integrated science and humanities at Hampshire College, Massachusetts, USA. He runs the blog at irtiqa-blog.com

Martian landscape from NASA’s Curiosity Rover. PhOTO CREDIT: NASA/JPL-CALTECh/MSSS

1

2

3