The Express Tribune Magazine - December 8

DECEMBER 8-14 2013

Framed For Life Wedding photography in Pakistan has gone through a complete transformation in the past decade

DECEMBER 8-14 2013

Feature

Left behind, no more

Cover Story

Why we use the hand we do and what it says about us

Framed for life Wedding photography in Pakistan has gone through a complete transformation in the past decade

36

Feature

[Art]dated The artists who once painted larger-than-life movie posters have now been driven to the brink of unemployment by new invasive technologies

40 Feature

The wandering story-teller Stephen Franklin unfurls a map across borders with stories of war, love and lost friends

28

4

44 Regulars

6 People & Parties: Out and about 50

with beautiful people 48 Review: Free Birds Health: Treating children with attention deficiency disorder

Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Sub-Editors: Dilaira Mondegarian and Manahyl Khan Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Samra Aamir, Kiran Shahid, Munira Abbas, S Asif Ali & 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

Mahira Khan

PEOPLE AND PARTIES The house of Ensemble holds a bridal fashion and lifestyle exhibition in Karachi

Maliha Aziz Adeela, Shumaila and Zarah

Sabena and Afrooz Sara Ali Khan

Mehreen Akbar

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

Khushbakht Shujaat

PHOTOS COURTESY KASHIF-UD-DIN

Anushe and Natasia

Fatima, Farah and Zoyaa

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

Safinaz

Nida and Anam Farah, Neelo and Mariam

Shezray, Maheen and Faiza

Sanam Chaudri

Feeha Jamshed SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

Farida Shireen Jumani

PHOTOS COURTESY KASHIF-UD-DIN

Yasmeen and Zeba

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

PEOPLE AND PARTIES The Entrepreneurs’ Organisation holds a musical event in Karachi

Sanaullah Abdullah and Benish

Rehma and Ayesha

Ayesha, Saba and Ainnie

Sumreen and Maryam

Sehr Haris with a friend

Aamir Zaki and Faisal Kapadia

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

PHOTOS COURTESY VOILA PR

Imran Agha, Ashraf Agha and Shayan Agha

Nadia Hussain

Sabiha Agha

Anoushey Ashraf Komal Asif

PEOPLE AND PARTIES Agha’s Sportfishing holds the Challenge Cup Sportfishing Tournament in Karachi

Aziz Agha

Irene Johson Angler Agha Alijan

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

Mani

Muniza

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

PEOPLE AND PARTIES Verve hosts a Charlie & The Chocolate Factory themed Halloween party in Lahore

Nadia Faisal and Samra Sabir

Sundas Hurain and Fahad Rahman

Sana Sajjad and Madiha Amin

PHOTOS COURTESY VERVE PR

Sadaf Malik and Fawad Jalal

Mehvish, Ali, Talha Humayun, Adil Raza & Akleema Butt Madiha Malik, Ayesha Atta, Sadia Khan and Amna Nasir

Qurat Javed

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

ah Khan

i and Bismill

Rabia Shahm

PHOTOS COURTESY VERVE PR

Saira Agha and Hajra Hayat Mehdi and Saba Shah

Ubaid and Khadija Rahim

Nadia Naviwala, Sadia Salman and Jasper Thornton

Saima and Saira Waheed

Uzma Pervaiz and Asif Kamal

Madhu Khan and Mishal Saleem SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

Framed For Life Wedding photography in Pakistan has gone through a complete transformation in the past decade

BY NOMAN ANSARI DESIGN BY SAMRA AAMIR

L

augh more openly. Look at each other.

Sit closer. Jump higher. Your children should feel like getting married when they look at these pictures.� It is not unusual for photographers to be hollering off these instructions at wedding shoots these days. Gone are the days when orchestrated portraits

of the bride and groom lined thick velvet-bound wedding albums and were left to gather dust a few months after the wedding. From the lighting to the mood, everything is different now. Even the props have changed. Funky placards scribbled with playful messages have replaced the quintessential red roses. Social media is the new drawing room where everyone is invited to ogle and gush over how perfect your wedding was. Spunky, casual and colourful is the new world order in the matrimonial universe. While the wedding basics in Pakistan are still the same, their visual documentation has evolved drastically over the past decade.

Stretching for over a week, with people of all ages and sizes donning their most colourful outfits and expressions, most

28 DECEMBER 8-14 2013

PHOTO: IRFAN AHSON

29 DECEMBER 8-14 2013

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Pakistani weddings are a photographer’s dream. When all is said and done, and the events slowly fade into memory, it is the visual documentation that allows these wedding memories to be relived. Technology has certainly revolutionized this process. Gone are the days when the photographer left behind a hazardous trap of long curling wires and flashed artificial lights powerful enough to blind an eagle. Today, smartphones and DSLRs have transformed everyone into a Facebook journalist of sorts but it takes more than a fancy camera to prove your mettle as a professional.

Instead of a ‘photographer’ cousin or friend lingering awkwardly with a camera, families have now started hiring professionals who charge anywhere between Rs20,000 t0 Rs50,000 per day to document their big day with style. The landscape has not only improved in terms of technology, but also the aesthetics. In the past, intrusive professionals were eager to direct wedding traffic, shooting cheesy staged moments. Today, fly-on-the-wall style photographers who dissolve into the background and silently capture authenticity are gaining popularity.

“My biggest nightmare was looking like a painted wax model in my wedding pictures. I wanted a fresh look, something that matched our personalities and relationship,” says Sanober Adeel who got married in March this year.

Few exemplify this new age of photographers more than the soft-spoken Kohi Marri, who is credited by his peers for bringing about the wedding photojournalism revolution in Pakistan. A graduate from the Oxford Brookes University and an award-winning photojournalist, Kohi started his wedding photography career by accident in 2005. “I took my camera because I didn’t know what else to do at my cousin’s wedding.

[My cousin] liked the pictures and from there it was word of mouth.” After a couple of family wedding shoots, Kohi’s alternative career trajectory took off. “Initially, I thought it would be nice to do wedding pictures as an artistic statement,” he says, but with time he became one of the most renowned names in the industry.

And that is not surprising, since he makes sure to shoot an event exactly the way he would want his own wedding shot — unseen, yet taking great photos. “I work alone because the personal relationship with the client creates intimacy. I blend into the situation and background [to] get more interesting pictures [and] capture moments that might have been lost otherwise.” He claims that his quiet style makes him a ‘specialist in the unplanned’, “I do like kids running amok. I love those pictures. They result in unplanned gems, which are the best.”

Kohi’s humble disposition and generosity with sharing clients has made him equally popular with clients and fellow photographers. Perhaps the biggest benefactors of Kohi’s bigDECEMBER 8-14 2013

PHOTO: ALI KHURSHID

COVER STORY

COURTESY: TOOBA MASOOD

Wedding portraits have evolved significantly over the years.

heartedness have been the female duo, Sitwat Rizvi and Insiya Syed. “He is really one person who we owe a lot. When he took a break in 2009, he passed us a lot of his clients. I [also] remember borrowing a flashlight [once] when he literally gave me a fifteen minute crash course on lighting,” says Insiya. As an expression of his faith in their talent, Kohi even trusted the pair with shooting his wedding.

But while Kohi is quieter in his approach, Sitwat and Insiya are known for their flamboyance. Insiya speaks with an enthusiastic energy, and says that they are at a wedding to make sure everyone has a good time. “When families in a group photo [don’t smile], we say‘Can you pretend that you love each other’ and that automatically loosens them up.”

Sometimes, they have to accommodate strange requests.

A bride once asked the duo to take pictures on their tiptoes to avoid capturing her double chin. Others seem to have difficulty believing that an all-female photography team can exist in Karachi — a concept which was completely alien until five years ago. “An hour into [one of] the wedding shoots, an uncle asked why the wedding photographers hadn’t shown up. He didn’t realize we were it!” says Insiya. Always encouraging wedding guests to loosen up, she admits that as women, they can push boundaries in ways men can’t, “The guests being filmed weren’t dancing, so we stood behind the camera guy and started dancing until the guests joined in.” While some would disagree, Insiya feels that as women they are more compassionate which gives them a better eye for emotion.

“Being girls we have more sensitive eyes to capturing moments. We can predict more sensitive moments because we are more emotional.”

Unfortunately, the sensitivity shown by photographers towards the family’s feelings is sometimes not reciprocated. Insiya says that while her team is treated with hospitality due to their privileged backgrounds, photographers of more moderate means are not even offered food by the clients at times.

Hence, it is challenging to make your own families understand this relatively unconventional professional choice.

While Insiya credits her family for being hugely supportive, Kohi’s family did not understand his passion initially and wanted him to take up a corporate job. The story was similar for Irfan Ahson, whose Fine Art Weddings studio in Lahore boasts nearly 275,0000 fans on Facebook. Today, Irfan’s successful business caters to high-profile clients, including numerous celebrities such as Atif Aslam, politicians, and army officials. But when Irfan, an engineering graduate from the USA, initially shifted his focus towards photography, his family was quite candid in their disapproval. “[My] Dad said [a] photographer is someone who doesn’t know anything else…

At one point my wife even said, ‘Don’t mention on your son’s school form that his father is a photographer.’” He adds that DECEMBER 8-14 2013

31

COVER STORY

DECEMBER 8-14 2013

COURTESY: FARAHNAZ ZAHIDI

Modern couples prefer more candid shots rather than the orchestrated ones.

COURTESY: TOOBA MASOOD

32

the perception of the profession in Pakistan is the main problem. “People think that anybody who can push a button is a photographer with a blue-collar job.”

Until Irfan moved to Lahore in 2010, he worked on the side as a photographer in the US, covering American weddings. Sadly, his worst experiences were at the hands of desi clients. “The gora clients treated me like an artist, but the desi clients were just heartless. They were always interested in pushing me to get the most amount of work for the least amount of money.” Irfan also hasn’t had the best experience with celebrity clients, who have been slow to pay for the services. “For some reason, celebrities’ think the world owes them!”

After gaining a significant amount of experience in America, Irfan decided to return to Pakistan and shot his first wedding a few days after moving back. His work caught on in Lahore like wildfire, and the quality of his photographs — in which everyday brides, shot against vibrant backdrops, looked like glamorous supermodels — spoke for itself. However, as a photographer, Irfan prefers Karachi weddings as they seem less staged.

Perhaps it is a case of the grass being greener on the other side, but many Karachi-based photographers insist that Lahore weddings are more exciting.

Ali Khurshid, whose Karachi based team has worked in many cities across Pakistan, the U.A.E., and Thailand, explains the differences between the two major Pakistani cities. “Lahore weddings are more energetic. They have had desi ghee and they understand the lyrics. The nanis and daadis even know how to dance. In Karachi, their hands are moving, but they are not into it. They are dancing for their friends. But in Lahore they really mean it. The [pleasant] weather [in Lahore] plays a big factor also.” His own personal favourite, however was a wedding in Multan. “They love their halwa, which was a huge part of the wedding. The people there were very warm and nice. I loved the pre-Partition furniture, and the nice outdoor locations, which included halls and forts.” Shooting weddings is an indulgence for Ali and he makes time for it despite his hectic schedule. “I am shooting the happiest days of someone’s life and it is a privilege. I have shot Hindu, Parsi, and Christian weddings. Sometimes, there is so much happening and I have to sit down and reflect.”

It was the desire to shoot a gorgeous video regardless of the budget that led Paiman Hussain and Sameer Sultan of the Karachi-based venture, Lollipop and Laddu, to document a mohallay ki shaadi along with their regular high-end clients. But if your work is good, there is money to be made in this profession.

Hence, the last few years have seen many new names entering the industry such as Shahrukh Khurshid who is popular for his regal shoots and Ali K Ahmed, who is also known as ‘Chota Kohi’ due to his remarkably emotive work.

But for the old guns in the industry, things have not been

PHOTO: ALI KHURSHID

For the old guns in the wedding photography industry, things have not been so easy. With the rise in competition and modern advertising techniques such as Facebook, those who have not improvised have had to bid farewell to their careers

so easy. With the rise in competition and modern advertising techniques such as Facebook, those who have not improvised have had to bid farewell to their careers.

“You have to be able to offer unique services and also be able to meet the changing demands of the client. Or else you can’t survive,” says Nusrat Jamali, who has been operating solely in the market for the past 30 years. But he admits that the increase in competition has driven up prices which is a positive sign.

Getting the right photographer features on top of the couple’s wedding to-do list these days and extravagant budgets are set aside to get the right name on board. The high demand also means that the bookings need to be made well ahead of the big day. “My fiancée and I finalised our photographer seven months before the wedding. We wanted someone who understood what we wanted from the photos and would be available for all the dates,” says Tooba Khurshid who got married early this year. “If you are putting so much effort into the whole affair, it is only sensible to spend money on the person who will turn it into a memory.”

Although it is clear that all the photographers love their job, the profession is certainly demanding. A typical wedding shoot can take up to five hours, during which the photographers are tested for both flexibility and endurance. To keep up, Ali Khurshid went on a special protein diet to improve his fitness levels and Ali K Ahmed decided to complete a back surgery due to the rigors of the job. Working late into the night is also a problem due to the security situation in the country. Most photographers, especially those based out of Karachi have to take a firm stand on the cut-off time.

Trying to document other people’s happy moments inevitably means that you have very little time for your own. The profession is a double-edged sword — while the photographers end up making countless friends at their events, it takes a toll on their personal lives. “My wife understandably had complaints because my work never ended. It started outside with shoots, and continued at home. Social life was dead, and is now even worse, but I have scaled back since I became a father,” says Kohi.

While the photographers can bring the right gear and skill to the table, it ultimately depends on the couple to bring the right attitude to the wedding. Shahrukh Khurshid, who notes that the hosts often have dark circles under their eyes, advises, “Discuss and come to a decision with your family as to how you want your photographer to shoot, in order to avoid conflict on your [big] day. Relax, and don’t forget to have fun!”

Insiya also emphasises the importance of positive energy.

“There is no point in stressing over stuff you have no control over. You can feel the stress and you can feel the love. If you have fun, your images will end up looking you like had a blast.”

Noman Ansari is a freelance writer and a regular contributor for several publications. He tweets @Pungate DECEMBER 8-14 2013

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FEATURE

T

here are a million little secrets locked inside your brain. Who are you? How do you feel? Why do you enjoy crunching complex numbers more than scribbling poetry? It can all be explained by the way your brain is structured. Same goes for the hand that you are most comfortable using to pick up a spoon or a pencil, making you either right-handed, like the reported 90 per cent of the world’s population, or left-handed, clumped with the remaining 10 per cent.

Like our closest primate relatives, humans are asym-

36 metrical beings and whether we are right-or left handed DECEMBER 8-14 2013

is best explained by the symmetry of our brain. Scientists have found a correlation between a network of genes and handedness that establishes left-right asymmetry while one is still an embryo. But like all other aspects of human behaviour, whether you are left-handed or right-handed, it is a combination of nature (genes) and other environmental factors. However, the extent of influence of each factor remains disputed among researchers.

One thing that has remained relatively uniform, though, is the negativity that has traditionally been associated with left-handers across the world. The word ‘left’ is originally derived from the Anglo-Saxon word ‘lyft’ meaning weak and has often been linked with awkward-

ness and clumsiness. Throughout the Muslim world, the left hand is used for personal hygiene, after urination and defecation, while the right hand, which is considered ‘cleaner’, is reserved for eating, handling food and social interactions like handshakes. In Scotland, it is considered a bad omen to meet a left-hander when setting off for a journey. In Ghana, pointing, gesturing or exchanging things using your left hand is also considered rude.

The dominant culture in Pakistan is somewhat similar.

Children are discouraged from performing day-to-day tasks such as eating and writing with their left hand, with religion being cited as the most common explanation.

This poses a serious problem for left-handers like Badar

membership criterion has been kept simple and hasslefree. All you need to do is fill out a form and send two pictures along with a copy of your national identity card.

By raising awareness, Mohi aims to ease some of the problems that left-handers in the country repeatedly face.

“For years, I was told by teachers and even my parents to try writing with my right hand. It made me feel like I was doing something wrong all the time,” says Aroosa Adil who struggled with these pressures. “People need to be educated on the science of being left-handed so that children don’t have to suffer from unnecessary stress.” And sometimes these cultural and societal pressures can take drastic form, forcing left-handers to convert to the other hand.

The practise is not limited to Pakistan. A study con-

Left behind, no more Why we use the hand we do and what it says about us OUR CORRESPONDENT DESIGN BY ESSA MALIK

Ahmad, who is left-handed by birth. “Every time I went to a wedding or family gathering and started to eat, I would get disapproving looks and sometimes even a lecture from family elders about how it is un-Islamic and a gunaah (sin) to use my left hand,” he says. “It was almost impossible to make them understand why using my left hand was most natural for me.”

It was the limited awareness about what being lefthanded means, the challenges such people face and their untapped potential that motivated Fasahat Mohiuddin Mohi to start the Left Handers Club in Pakistan in August, 2012. Affiliated with the Left Handers Club in the UK, the group currently comprises 240 members, even though the official number of left-handers in the country is estimated to be much higher. “During my matriculation exams, when I wrote with my left hand, they told me I was cheating,” says Mohi who is the president of the club. By creating a platform like this he aims to correct these misconceptions. To encourage people to join, the

The word ‘left’ is originally derived from the AngloSaxon word ‘lyft’ meaning weak and has often been linked with awkwardness and clumsiness. Hence, there is a negativity that has traditionally been associated with left-handers across the world 37 DECEMBER 8-14 2013

FEATURE

Specially designed keyboards for left-handers are hard to find in Pakistan. ducted in Taiwan in 2007 showed that 59.3% of the children who were part of the study had been forcefully converted into right-handers. In America, it was common to punish children for using their left hand until corporal punishment was banned. Forced conversions are known to have significant impact on the child’s development and can lead to learning and speech disorders, dyslexia and stuttering in some cases. Along with developmental problems, even small day-to-day things such as scissor, pens, watches, guitars, letter heads and school desks are not provided according to their specifications.

Mohi argues that left-handers have immense potential but lack recognition for it. He claims that 80 members of the medical staff at Aga Khan Hospital, Karachi, are left-handers — evidence of their talent. “Even 13 US presidents are left-handed,” says Ali Hassan Sajid, the public relations officer for Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and a left-hander himself.

Chris Mancus of University College London argues in his book Right-Hand, Left-Hand that the numbers of lefthanders is rising globally and have produced an above average quota of high achievers over time. He states that their brains are structured differently in a manner that enhances their range of abilities but there are others who dispute this claim.

“Even some of the world’s biggest leaders like Barack Obama and Bill Gates use their left hand,” says Mohi.

When he saw Obama signing a contract with his left hand for the first time, he felt an instant connection.

38 “Hey, he writes like me! That was the first thing that DECEMBER 8-14 2013

came to my mind.” It was this sense of affinity that motivated the club members to request the American president for a meeting. To their surprise, their email got a response. According to Mohi, Obama has agreed to meet the club in 2017, but the exact date and location have yet to be decided. They have also written to Bill Gates to request him for a meeting but are still waiting to hear back.

For the club, this is just one of the many ways to facilitate networking opportunities for left-handers within and outside Pakistan and to educate the world about their sinistrality. After all, it may be time for them to stop being ‘left’ behind. T

1. In some cultures, left-handedness is seen positively. For example, in Buddhism, the left hand represents wisdom.

Peoples of the Andes consider left-handers to possess special spiritual abilities, including magic and healing. In Russian, levsha or being a left-hander became synonymous with being a skilled craftsman.

2. The International Left Handers Day is celebrated globally on August 13 to mark their sinistrality and to educate the public on the challenges and rewards of being a left-hander.

3. If both parents of a child are left-handed, there is a 25 to 26 per cent chance of the child being left-handed as well.

However, this means that nearly 75% of the effect can be explained by environmental factors.

FEATURE

Art dated

The artists who once painted larger-than-life movie posters have now been driven to the brink of unemployment by new invasive technologies

BY RIZWAN SHEHZAD

A community com co mmunity of artists mm fades oblivion as fade es into ob rreplacements re repl epla placement arrive pl in the form of o printers broadcast and and broadc social media. But even in the face of iimminent redundancy, redunda ancy, an cy many Pakistani cy street artists put down artissttss rrefuse efuse to t p their their brushes th brrusshess and pulll the the curtain on their passing on their fluid fluid d strokes by by pa their newcomers who th heir knowledge kno owledge e tto o newcom promise to o pursue it only as a passion.

Hopes for a revival are hence dim as are very r few ry fe ew a ew r entering re this dying ng g industry. ind du ‘Go America Am Go,’ G ‘Qatlon kko giriftar karo war warna…,’ arna na…, …,’’ ‘Me ‘Mehboob Mh ap kay qqa qadmoon admoon a main main’ in n’ a an and nd ‘M ‘Mardana Mard Ma rda kamzori kka a shart rtiia rt a illaj’ illlaj aj’ are are some me e of of the many shartia a tttte ent ntio ion--gr iongra ab bbin biing ng attention-grabbing messages mena me naciingly ngly ng ly painted pai aint nte ed on ed on walls wal that line menacingly Kara Ka ra acch hi’ hi i’s th thor orou ough gh hfar ffa are res, constantly Karachi’s thoroughfares, r miind re ndin in ng people peop pe o le of of someone’s reminding presence ce. As ce ce.

As a shadow ssh hado ha dow of its ittss former f presence. self no ow however, howe ho weve v r, tthese he h ese walll pa aiin nt now paintings stand ffad ded ed rreminders emin emin ind de errss o erriiod d when wall ass faded off a pe period the he only onl nly form nly form fo m of o political, chalking was the commerrci cial a and d social soccia ial advertisement. ial adve v rtis is commercial “The ere re was wass a ttime ime when I [would] im “There much] h] a ass Rs Rs5, ,00 0 0 in a day,” earn as [m [much] Rs5,000 35--ye year-old Anayatur Ana naya yatu turr Rahman Rah says 35-year-old who e tere en red re d the the profession th p ofession pr n 15 15 years y ar ye arss ago, right entered cco ompleting his hiss matriculation. ma att after completing

40 DECEMBER 8-14 2013

While remembering his golden days, Rahman recalls that natural talent wasn’t enough to ascend the ladder and despite his artistic gift, he had worked hard to learn the art. He explains that a minimum training period of five years that includes calligraphy is crucial to master the art. For him, even the thought of leaving this profession is scary. “Only 30% of work is left, and that too is limited to the shutters and boards of shops. It’s getting difficult to survive on meagre earnings.”

Artists like Rahman have had to make some tough decisions due to the limited scope of the market. While they are available for a lesson to those who want to learn the skill out of passion, mostly art students, they refuse to transfer their knowledge to newcomers in the profession. The motive is not to increase the pool of artists in this poorly paid profession.

With a diverse portfolio that features paintings of cricketers, footballers and hockey players on walls, company logos on oil tankers and corporate sign-boards, Rahman now finds himself seated in a tiny eight by two feet shop in Gulshane-Hadeed, Karachi, waiting for projects to work on. “I have stopped wall chalking [for] the last five years. I didn’t feel comfortable when people (house owners) [would] scold and [give my painting] a contemptuous look for which I was just being paid Rs50.”

To make matters worse, political activists now simply spray their messages across walls. The trend has gained popularity with the availability of cheap spray paints that can be used by anyone to paint a message in almost a quarter of the time required by a professional artist. This directly translates into a reduced risk of being caught and harassed by either the police or opposing party workers. A problem that Rahman has confronted quite often, adding that the ‘investor’, the person sponsoring the act, never gets painted into the picture or is ever held accountable. When arrested however, Rahman says, “We had to work at the police station without getting any money. At [the] most, they used to provide paint.” Many of the faded name plates and emblems on police vans are

COURTESY: ANAYATUR RAHMAN

touched up by these unpaid artists.

Those in the trade have taken a major hit from the forceful tide of innovation and technological advancements; from basic spray paint to a panaflex banner and now the omnipresent cable and satellite television networks. Muhammad Arshad Baig, a graduate who claims to have designed the Vita Bread logo, was forced to leave the profession after over two decades. To make ends meet he now runs a school in Korangi and admits that “even a pan walla prefers panaflex to painting.”

Movie posters also are now printed instead of being painted, and this can partially be traced to the disappearance of painters. And even if you did find a painter, “who would they paint for when there is no film making?” says Malik Fida, a contractor at the Lalazar Cinema located in Quaidabad, lamenting the decay of the local film industry. According to Fida, printing an average-sized panaflex poster, around 10 by 15 feet, costs nearly Rs4,500 and can be ready within a day while a painter would charge Rs2,000 for the same poster. Although cost-effective, the paint job only lasts a week and begins to fade while the panaflex poster stands the test of time and can be reused.

But as the law of the market states, supply is only driven by demand.

Thus, in the absence of meaningful work, this breed of artists might one day cease to exist altogether. T Rizwan Shehzad is a reporter for The Express Tribune Karachi desk. He tweets @r_shehzad

COURTESY: MUHAMMAD ARSHAD BAIG

(Above) Anayatur Rahman paints his sports heroes and (below) a portrait of the founder of our nation by Muhammad Arshad Baig.

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FEATURE

The wandering sto Stephen Franklin unfurls a map across borders with stories of war, love and lost friends

BY HALIMA MANSOOR DESIGN BY ASIF ALI

Acclaimed journalist Stephen Franklin has a grasp on how conflict reveals itself locally and across borders in both print and digital media; so far, he has covered five wars and three revolutions.

It is not the span of his career or the accolades for his work that make the Pulitzer finalist Franklin stand out, it’s how he takes readers to often misunderstood countries through stories of ordinary life in circumstances extraordinaire. Franklin whittled away during the war in Afghanistan and carved out unusual stories — young girls eager to study or the story of Abudullah Walih who cherished a language taught to him 30 years ago by a

44 DECEMBER 8-14 2013

Peace Corps volunteer.

During his short trip to Pakistan recently, he began to mull over how he would respond if asked to write about Pakistan.

“There is a war inside your country, I see this when I read your newspaper. American newspapers really need to tell this story,” Franklin explains what he finds missing in the global news narrative about Pakistan.

Franklin started as a journalist in Washington DC in 1966 and eventually ended up at the Chicago Times as their foreign correspondent. Over his career, Franklin progressed from paper to paper and travelled back and forth between the United States, Turkey, Eygpt, Israel and Lebanon, to name a few countries. In addition to wartime coverage, Franklin (with the benefit of Spanish) traversed Latin America, covering labour unions, flower pickers and the risky illegal migration which moves women from Guatemala to Mexico.

“Some people like listening to nice music, I like listening to nice countries,” says Franklin, explaining his wanderlust. “My wife says I fall in love every time I go to a new city.” Sitting in front of Franklin, it is easy to imagine him, with his shock of grey hair

ory-teller

Stephen Franklin in Lebanon during one of his assignments. COURTESY: STEPHEN FRANKLIN

and a smile lurking at the corner of his mouth, blending into the background in any situation. Given his appetite to find troubled spots in the world, this is a useful characteristic.

When it comes to Pakistan, he says, “when you cover conflict, there are certain players you always look at. So what you need to understand in Pakistan is: who are the major opposition groups and who are the people fighting the government? I need to hear their voices, how powerful are they? What is the role of the government? What is civil society saying?”

Looking at the American media, an important voice considering the sensitive relationship between the two countries, he touches on how outsiders might perceive Pakistan, “There are tremendous stereotypes about Islam and there is a lot of Islamophobia.”

Franklin’s contact with Islam was nearly accidental, but has helped him understand things a lot better. In a Detroit community college, an Arabic language class turned out to be a course to teach the Quran to American Muslims — and hence, the journalist-turned-trainer now un-

derstands the nuances of a religion practised by nearly 24% of the world.

He adds that understanding the religion is critical if one wants to do justice to a country. “You need to see how people practise Islam here, how do Pakistanis feel about their faith?

I would like to learn how Islam has grown and developed in Pakistan.”

Franklin immerses himself in his surroundings on assignment, and having learnt Arabic has helped him tremendously. Each time a crisis would erupt, editors at the Chicago Tribune would ask Franklin to go despite short notice. “They would ask me to go to Jerusalem, Baghdad, Kuwait. Because I could travel without a translator, they could use me. And then I went to cover the war in Afghanistan.”

A few weeks after 9/11, Franklin travelled from Moscow to Tajikistan and late one night, across the Amu River into Afghanistan’s hills, with no headlights on so the Taliban would not see them. During his time there, he lived with the Northern Alliance (NA) or the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan. White House photographer Pete Souza was also with him.

“It was maybe the best reporting experience of my life. I had a satellite phone, which I’d connect with my

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computer and if it wasn’t raining, I’d stand in the middle of the road and pray that my computer would catch the satellite flying over the Indian Ocean so I could send my story.”

Without connectivity, Franklin and Souza were limited to knowledge passed on by a Dari translator and whatever Franklin picked up from the Turkmen among the fighters and warlords. “We had no idea if the Americans were there. We were close to Taliban lines and every day there was powerful bombing — terrifying. All I knew was that the Taliban were fighting.”

Encounters with the Taliban were not restricted to Franklin’s pen, as danger comes with the territory of reporting. “We were in a village surrounded by the Taliban, and one

A general view of Kabul, Afghanistan, on January 31, 2010. REUTERS night a group of my fellow journalists decide to go to the frontline with the NA. I advised against it as the fighters were untrained,” Franklin recalls. All five of his friends were

A US soldier from the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion on an early morning patrol in Zhari district in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, November 22, 2010.

REUTERS

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killed that night in an ambush.

It is hard, even for Franklin, to use the right words to describe the rise of religious extremism. It’s not a simple story, “In some places, the failure of countries drove people apart. Some battles started because of the oppression of Islam in the country, others because of a sense of righteousness.”

But he gently reminds his audience not to fall into the trap: “Is this happening in all Muslim countries?

No. Be very careful. There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world from Indonesia to Nigeria and across the United States.”

Franklin appears unscathed given the wars he has covered. He has faced the wall expecting a bullet to the head. In the process, he has lost friends but found the right words, wounds and wisdom. T Halima Mansoor is a sub-editor for The Express Tribune Peshawar desk. She tweets @Hmansoor

Free Birds will hold you hostage with its questionable humour and bland narrative

BY SUNDAR WAQAR

Directed by Jimmy Hayward, Free Birds, a Thanks-giving themed 3D animation makes for an unappetising meal this holiday. Slice through the turkey and characters and the jumps between the past and the future in the film will squirt all over the table. Indigestible, in one word.

The plot pecks at the elaborate feasts of Thanksgiving celebrations. Turkey being the most commonly served bird during the holiday is the central theme of this new cartoon. The most intelligent turkey on the farm, Reggie (voiced by Owen Wilson), tries to warn his flock of the human appetite and their ultimate fate on the plate. The flock however firmly believes in a surreal turkey paradise, and cast Reggie out for his weird ideas.

It is only when the president’s team visits the farm in search of a turkey, that the flock realises the truth behind Reggie’s concerns. Reggie is handed over to be sacrificed for the presidential dinner. But just as the audience begins to get worried, he is granted a presidential pardon on the insistence of the

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president’s noisy and chirpy daughter.

From here the movie flies in a completely different direction and like birds migrating south during winter, it takes a dip.

Reggie, along with the president and his daughter, is flown in a helicopter to Camp David where he luxuriates and is seen indulging in pizza. In those five very long minutes of pizza deliveries, you hope for a twist and crave a cheesy reward for sitting through the rest of the film. Finally Reggie’s gluttonous cheesy adventures come to an end in a not-so-thrilling way when another turkey, Jake (voiced by Woody Harrelson), kidnaps him for an assignment.

Jake, an ambitious turkey forcibly recruits Reggie for a secret mission, commissioned by ‘The Great Turkey’ to travel back in time and wipe turkeys off the dreaded Thanksgiving menu. In a neither funny nor

gripping journey the two turkeys are transported in a giant, talking time-machine egg named S.T.E.V.E (Space and Time Exploration Vehicle Envoy), voiced by George Takei.

Reggie and Jake travel back to Plymouth circa 1621, where they are caught in between hungry hunter dogs and gunshots.

Saved by the turkey tribe, Reggie meets the turkey of his dreams, Jenny, a strong character who later becomes the chief of the tribe. Apart from some action scenes, the fights are predictable and offer nothing memorable. And you will have to sit through an impossibly bland and overstuffed narrative, if you want to find out whether the duo eventually succeeds in changing history.

Free Birds, unlike other animations of its league such as Chicken Run, did not succeed in any significant way. The film was cluttered with ideas, lacked humour and the pace of action moved slowly. It was festive yet flavourless, colourful yet remindful of the idea of death and slaughter. In all, even by the standards of a children’s movie, the film was tasteless.

Reviewers rating: 1.5/5 Sundar Waqar is a subeditor on The Express Tribune Magazine desk.

She tweets @sundar_waqar

TREAT, DONT BEAT Imagine driving a car with your foot on the accelerator but there are no brakes. Try and feel the panic and the absolute lack of control over what will happen. Now imagine feeling like that all the time. This is the simplest way to understand what goes on inside the brain of someone with Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD) — a condition that manifests itself as a poor attention span, increased activity and impulsivity.

“He is bouncing off the walls, he cannot sit still, he goes up and down the stairs a thousand times a day, jumps off the sofa or bed,” says Faiza, who’s son has AD/ HD. “He does not pay attention to homework and needs constant redirection to do anything. He does not listen to me when I talk to him. He is an intelligent kid but does not live up to his potential,’’ she says describing her eight-year-old son Musa’s behaviour to the doctor. These are some of the common complaints from the parents of children diagnosed with AD/HD. AD/HD is a neuro-developmental disorder, with both genes and environmental factors linked to its development. Different studies have shown that five to ten per cent of the American population has AD/HD. In Pakistan, the disorder is grossly undiagnosed, underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed with most young patients suffering from verbal and physical abuse by their families, peers and teachers. The untreated or undertreated AD/HD, can take a significant toll on the life of the person and society.

If untreated, some of the children have greater chances of developing adult AD/HD with more symptoms of inattentiveness, forgetfulness and difficulty in organising tasks. These are the people who often lose their cell phones or keys and miss appointments. They are always on the go and feel an urge to keep themselves 50 busy and find different things at home to fix. They find DECEMBER 8-14 2013

Sometimes children with an attention deficiency disorder just need the right kind of attention

BY HASSAN MAJEED DESIGN BY KIRAN SHAHID

long conversations boring, and relaxation, even on a vacation, a difficult concept tto grasp. However, it should be ke kept in mind that not every person who is active, disruptive and inattentive has AD AD/HD. To be absolutely sure, one needs a clinical diagnosis that involves examin examinations and collateral information with ex extensive personal histories.

The treatment for AD/HD is multi-tier, and a comprehensive approach is necessary for symptoms control with a psychiatrist, therapist, parents and teachers taking part by forming a team. Psycho-education covering the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis should be provided. A child psychiatrist should monitor medication (which have established their effectiveness in clinical trials), whereas a therapist should teach the child to behave differently in difficult situations. Similarly, parents need to be educated in effective parenting skills that include setting of boundaries and rewards for better behaviour. The treatment should be revisited at appropriate intervals and frequent feedback from all members of the treatment team should be incorporated before deciding what to do next. Physical and verbal punishment has a counterproductive effect on the treatment and should be avoided.

Unfortunately, there is a scarcity of child psychiatrists in Pakistan. According to the World Health Organisation, there are only 320 psychiatrists in Pakistan to deal with 176 million patients. There is a pressing need for psychiatrists, pediatricians and general practitioners to learn more about AD/HD in order to provide diagnosis and treatment. It is often the right help at the right time that can draw the dividing line between a jail and a job for these The writer works as a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at patients. the Long Island Medical Center, NY. He tweets @HassanMajeedMD