JULY 21-27 2013
Junaid Jamshed
the ‘maternal instinct’
JULY 21-27 2013
Feature
Cover Story
On the Makran coastal highway
Junaid Jamshed & the ‘maternal instinct’
In the ancient land of the FishEaters, some facts survive fiction... such as the mango tree of Kund Malir
Using his star power to empower women
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Feature
Low brow but high profile Our guide to some of the popular poses for Facebook profile pictures
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38 Regulars
6 People & Parties: Out and about with the beautiful people
40 Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Pittho’s World 42 A visit: Jinnah’s house in London
Magazine Editor: Mahim Maher and Sub-Editor: Dilaira Mondegarian. Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Jamal Khurshid, Anam Haleem, Essa Malik, Maha Haider, Faizan Dawood, Samra Aamir, Kiran Shahid and Asif Ali. 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 4 Printed: uniprint@unigraph.com
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Beenish
Aleena
PHOTOS COURTESY PINHOLE STUDIO
Furheen and Minahil
Aamina Sheikh, Nadia Ali and Zara Shahjahan
Ayesha
Kamal Lawn by Zara Shahjahan launches in Lahore
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Aleena, Marium, Anjum and Sadia JULY 21-27 2013
Anushaye
JULY 21-27 2013
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Muniba and Sehrish Hafsa and Muzi
PHOTOS COURTESY PINHOLE STUDIO
Anum and Mehreen
Fatima, Selina Khan and Rabia
Sabeen and Khadija
Rabia
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Hina and Sundus
Shanzae and Naveen JULY 21-27 2013
Mehreen and Rabia
Ayesha and Seher
JULY 21-27 2013
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design (PIFD) presents its 16th annual fashion show in Lahore Abeer and Saba
Anum and Mahnum
Ayesha and Maryam
Risham
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Gull JULY 21-27 2013
Sarah and Shayan
Cybil
Rida and Sumbal
Neelofar
Kanwal
PHOTOS COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR
Bushra and Hiba
JULY 21-27 2013
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Hunaiza and Aqsa
PHOTOS COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR
Asma
Arooj and Hina
Fatima
Hira and Zara
Beenish and Qanoot
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Saba JULY 21-27 2013
Nadia
JULY 21-27 2013
PEOPLE & PARTIES
L’Oréal Paris hosts an interactive mall animation in Karachi
Wafa and Aamina Saeed
Nida Azwer
Shehla Chatoor PHOTOS COURTESY DRAGONFLY AND KASHIF
Arshy and Sara
Frieha Altaf and Saba Ansari
Aale Mowjee
Wardha Saleem
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Sabita, Beenish and Tanzeela JULY 21-27 2013
Sadaf Malaterre
JULY 21-27 2013
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Mrs Aqeel, Natasha, Mrs Nabeel and Amna
Hashaam and Qurat
Sameera and Bilal
Muzamil and Fatima
Zahra and Adnan
Mr and Mrs Nabeel
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Amer and Nida JULY 21-27 2013
Natasha and Ayesha Jay
PHOTOS COURTESY REZZ PR AND EVENTS
The Nabeel & Aqeel boutique opens in Islamabad
JULY 21-27 2013
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Nudrat Gillani and Mrs Nabeel
Maria and Adil
PHOTOS COURTESY REZZ PR AND EVENTS
Omar and Aleezay Rasool
Mr and Mrs Naveed Yousaf
Beenish, Noor and Farheen
Amer and Fatima
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Mr and Mrs Aqeel JULY 21-27 2013
Ayesha and Usman Salim
JULY 21-27 2013
COVER STORY
Junaid Jamshed
the ‘maternal
24 JULY 21-27 2013
instinct’ BY FARAHNAZ ZAHIDI PHOTOS OF JUNAID JAMSHED BY AMEER HAMZA
Who would have thought that the pop-icon turned televangelist who irked women with the statement “it is better if women are not taught to drive” has invested the last ten years trying to save the lives of underprivileged women of Pakistan Junaid Jamshed — the name brings to one’s mind an image of two juxtaposed pictures: one of a drop-dead handsome young Junaid, the other of a seasoned man with a long beard and a mellower face, beckoning people to come towards Islam. Yet, there is a side to this man shrouded from the public eye. And that has to do with his work as a philanthropist whose focus is maternal health. Once known as the darling of female fans, Junaid is still very connected to women — he is helping save the lives of thousands of them in Pakistan. The man continues to surprise us and challenge stereotypes. Yet, he does not reveal this side to his life readily. The first of a series of interviews, as he agreed to talk to The Express Tribune, revolved around Vital Signs and his metamorphosis into the world of preaching. Sitting in Shahi Hasan’s studio, his fingers, a couple of times, delicately traced the contours of the guitar strings. But an inner commitment is stronger than the temptation. He hummed a few lines, but stopped. The darling of the Pakistani masses is no longer a balladeer. The passion has been channelised towards a higher love. His songs formerly talked about how to woo a beloved… his nasheeds and naats still do. But the Beloved has changed. JJ has evolved. The second interview was hard to schedule. His travelling is incessant, more for philanthropic work and less for proselytising, contrary to popular belief. “I think I am ready to talk in detail. It is time people hear my side of the story. I may come across as someone who has something against women. I’m NOT!” he said on the phone while he was at the site of a model village of 200 houses near Rahimyar Khan
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COVER STORY built with his support for flood-hit people. “Meray oopar bohat zimmedari hai. As a human, a Muslim, a Pakistani, a person whom people know. I cannot turn away from these responsibilities; that would be [ingratitude]. Being grateful increases blessings and being ungrateful sucks them away,” he said at the second interview, sitting in his comfortable home in DHA, Karachi. He had just returned from a trip to the UK to raise funds for charity. A suitcase is forever ready for the globe-trotter. It is pertinent to wonder how he balances family life and his added responsibilities. “I try my best to balance. Whatever time I give to my family is quality time. Ayesha and the kids will vouch for it,” he said. Any conversation with him is incomplete without periodic mention of his wife Ayesha. But he does agree that there is a price to his philanthropy. “The life of this world and the Hereafter are like two wives of one man. If you please one, the other will be upset. It’s a choice you have to make. Fact of the matter is that when we struggle for the Hereafter, Allah is pleased. And when Allah is pleased the life of this world improves automatically. Theek hai na?” he said, smartly interspersing an element of preaching in the interview. He never lets go of that opportunity.
Muslim Charity has established five hospitals in Pakistan in Jhang, Faisalabad, Mangani, Rawalakot and in Lahore. PHOTOS:
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MUSLIM CHARITY JULY 21-27 2013
“Pakistan’s women should not have to go through this.” “The year was 2003. I remember reading somewhere that a woman travelling from Jhang to Faisalabad on a tonga in full-term labour died because no maternal health facility was close by. That story shook me,” said Junaid. Comparing it with the comfort and facilities which are available to women in the cities, like his wife at the birth of their four children, he felt deeply disturbed at why so many women in Pakistan had to go through this. “It was during that time that I came to know that this organisation called ‘Muslim Charity’ was working to improve the state of maternal health. I contacted them to ask how I could help in my small way. I have been affiliated with them since then.” Junaid now works as the vice president of Muslim Charity, and uses his public influence, talks and naats to raise funds for the causes. Till now, with his support, the charity has managed to make five hospitals in Pakistan mainly focusing on maternal health. As a global initiative, the charity works on improving maternal health the world over.
The masjid schools A fascinating project Junaid has been working on is an interesting attempt at consensus-building between the clergy in Pakistan’s rural areas and those who believe in literacy as the answer to Pakistan’s problems. “How we do this is simple. We identify impoverished rural areas and broken-down mosques. We then reconstruct mosques and construct small houses for the village imams. In return, we request them to allow use of the mosque from 8 am to 12 am,” he said. Part of this project is to sensitise locals and persuade them to send their children to these schools. These are regular schools where the children have the option of also learning the Quran. “The idea is to get these kids off the streets. We make them realise that they have a responsibility towards themselves. With mentorship, they realise that education is their path to a better life. Our aim is to produce peaceful and responsible citizens.” In Sindh alone, up till now, they are responsible for putting 3,500 children back in school, both boys and girls. “One of them recently sat his CSS exam. I had tears when I heard this,” he said.
On men, women and balance “It is sad how women are objectified. Rights to women have been given by the Creator. There is no problem with women working. Didn’t Hazrat Khadija (RA) work?” he said almost defiantly when asked about his views on women and their rights, adding that limits have been defined by God for both men and women. “Women should not be coerced in any
Making a difference We highlight three other people who are acting much in the same way as Junaid Jamshed to help those around them
Sarfaraz Rehman The CEO of Dawood Foundation smiles a guarded smile, instantly commands respect, has a command over literature and poetry, and completely owns the floor when he begins public speaking. He is best known for being associated with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). “Religion is more than just spiritual and ritualistic attainment. It is a code of life intertwined with a belief in Allah, which then helps one live in a fair, calm, equitable manner and makes the plank of value addition to the community a major goal,” says the man who uses religion to support his mentoring and academic activities. The Dawood Foundation just finished a city campus for the Karachi School for Business & Leadership, a graduate management school, established in strategic collaboration with the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School. JULY 21-27 2013
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COVER STORY way. A man needs to be more sensitive towards his wife. A woman’s biggest insecurity is loss of control.” He admitted candidly that Pakistani society was, according to one view, chauvinistic and male-driven. It is a place where men often oppress women. “For the sake of family honour, Pakistani women continue to suffer. Divorce may have been considered an unsavoury thing in the time of the Prophet (PBUH) but [it] was not a taboo, unlike [in] today’s Pakistani society!” he said. “In a society where [the] malechild preference still exists and women are blamed for producing too many daughters, will men not stand up for them? I have always felt strongly about the rights of women.” When asked why families seem to be falling apart, he has a simple formulaic solution. “Damage control lies in this: men should control their tempers and women [should] think before they speak.”
So is Ayesha allowed to drive? “I knew you’d ask this!” he said with a chuckle. “Before I got married, I was visiting my father-in-law with a friend. My father-in-law mentioned that my wife-to-be was learning how to drive, and I was happy to hear that. But my friend, a senior, advised me, as experienced friends do: ‘Don’t teach your wife how to drive’. That was what I mentioned lightheartedly in that show.” After he got married, he tried to teach her to drive but couldn’t because of a paucity of time. “She never insisted and never learnt,” he added. “It never really was an issue for us.” Wary of calling himself a scholar, he is clear that he is in no position to pass a verdict about women who drive. “But my personal opinions, likes and dislikes are my own. I have a right to them.”
Junaid Jamshed and Ali Haider performing at the Spiritual Chords Nasheed concert held in South Africa in August 2011.
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PHOTO: MUSLIM CHARITY SOUTH AFRICA JULY 21-27 2013
The crossroad and the road less traveled It was around 1999 when his solo album Uss raah par was released. The main track of the same title was conceived metaphorically by Shoaib Mansoor. “He knew that something had changed in me,” said Junaid, recalling the lyrics: hum kyun chalain uss raah par jis raah par sub hee chalain. Kyun na chunain wo raasta jis par naheen koi gaya. In a very Robert Frost fashion, the song talked about the road less traveled, which, in JJ’s life, did make all the difference. “The transition in me had started. That song was about my journey. But at that time we couldn’t have showed it in the video. People were not ready for it.” He had not gone public with his change then. But he had started visiting religious scholars for his own inner healing. “I had everything
Hina Shamsi Nauman With infectious energy, this mother of three wants to contribute to society. You can find her planting mangroves with her students to fight delta flooding, or selling hand-crafted environment-friendly stationery made by physically challenged people. She teaches Quranic tafseer to groups of women, and teaches business ethics and what Islam says about that at university. From a traditionally religious family, she studied Islam in-depth by choice at a more mature stage, and feels that “a leap of faith is what it takes to discover oneself. But it was not easy coming out of the closet about it”. A teacher for the past seven years, this business grad decided to bring religion to her university students, breaking the taboo that religious discussions are only for the madrassas.
Junaid Jamshed helped raise funds for the charity that was involved with the building of Doha village in Sanjarpur, Rahimyar Khan. PHOTO: MUSLIM CHARITY
— fame, money. But I did not feel complete. Being in a masjid made me feel at peace. Masjids still have the same effect on me. It is the place where we discover humanity. I confess that I had no plans of leaving music at that time. But I could feel I was changing. I couldn’t run away from it.” And does he miss his past life? “Naheen yaar. No withdrawal symptoms of my past life. I own and cherish my time with Vital Signs. I am happy that as a singer I contributed to my country in a positive way. I lived that part of my life to the fullest. But now that is the past,” he said, with a direct look, again defying the pre-conceived notion that he no longer talks to women directly or makes eye contact with the opposite sex.
Ramzan offering This Ramzan he will be seen again on TV every day, all through the holy month, sharing what he knows. “It will be different,” he said, alluding to an approach that relies on more outreach as opposed to sermons. He agrees that people should be sensitised about civic responsibilities through religious shows. “Breaking a red signal, parking a car behind someone’s, evading taxes: I consider all of these major sins. Religion IS about being a better, more considerate human.” While Junaid is armed with Islamic study and training, he stops people from calling him a maulana. “It is a compliment when people call me that but I don’t think I am worthy of that.” His pet peeve is “When people use the word mullah or maulvi in a derogatory way.” For now, it appears that he is neither and defies being pegged as one thing or another. T
Aly Balgamwala They call him “disco maulvi” and he fits the bill, happy with the description. He tweets incessantly, has his hand in a lot of social causes, and blogs. An entrepreneur by profession, the tech-savvy Aly’s niche is activism for social causes through
social media, be it the cause of a better Karachi or raising civic awareness. As a founding trustee of Ihsaas Trust, a not-for-profit set up to provide Islamic Microfinance along with other charitable work, he and his team “use this platform to advocate husn-e-khuluq (good behaviour/ethics) as taught by Islam within the context of business and personal life.” Aly has been a volunteer teacher at “Active Saturdays”, a Saturday class for young men aged 10 to 15 years.
(Top and bottom) At the Muslim Charity fund-raising dinners in Manchester, Birmingham and London May 31 to June 2, 2013. PHOTOS: MOHAMMED RAYAZ
(Below) A Muslim Charity tent city in Dadu in 2011. PHOTO: MUSLIM CHARITY
FEATURE
T he Mango Tree
of Kund Malir
BY MUHAMMAD ADIL MULKI
In the ancient land of the Fish-Eaters, some facts survive fiction
I forced my shuddering sedan up the slanted rock face. The hill looked over an untouched beach and sand dunes. We had postponed dinner to do this, choosing instead to get a look at the Buzi Pass around 40km further west on the Makran Coastal Highway before retreating to the village for the night. Our host Mir served fish gravy that we thankfully and hurriedly devoured. Later, his son brought us a finger bowl and a slice of lemon. Once fed, I ventured out to shake off the long hours of stressed driving. A chilly but pleasant breeze drifted head-on. The stars and moon glittered above and their reflections did a stunning dance on the waves about 150 feet below. The night sky’s splendour is amplified by the fact that this part of the country has no electricity and is thus unspoiled by “light pollution”. As inconvenient for the locals as that might be, it is heavenly for Karachi32 based astronomers hunting for “dark sky” sites. JULY 21-27 2013
I stood in the darkness, by the highway, which is the only major development this area has received and now serves as a lifeline for the locals. After watching the occasional truck seemingly crawl by, I headed back with a craving for some Kehva. Over the hot sweet drink, Mir regaled us with the myths and folklore from the area. According to him, a long time ago, a freshwater well irrigated a lush green orchard of dates and mangoes besides the crystal clear sea. The tides came and went in peace and the garden flourished and became known for its fruit. It was a small wonder in itself that mango trees grew right besides the beach in this otherwise arid area, for this is no tropical island. This land is said to carry the curse of Sassui, whose heart was broken by its princes when they kidnapped her beloved Punho, their brother, from Bhambore. This place, called Makran for centuries, extends all along the Arabian Sea from the eastern coastal edge of
present-day Iran almost up to Miani Hor Lagoon. And just as the land’s face has been sculpted by the elements over time, so has its name. It is believed to have morphed from the original “Mahikhoran” or Fish-Eaters. In Persian, “mahi” means fish, as in the Urdu word “mahi-geer” for fishermen. “Khore” refers to “eater”, as in Urdu’s “Adam-Khore” or “man-eater”. Interestingly, Alexander’s officer Nearchus calls Makranis “Ichthyophagi” which is Greek for fish-eaters! Mercantile incentives fuelled the growth of Arab maritime skills and Makran’s coast was charted. Every small peninsula or cape came to carry the prefix of Ras, such as Ras Al Khaimah on the Arab side of the Gulf of Oman to Ras Gawadar and Ras Malan on the Makran coast right up to “Ras” Mauri near Karachi, or “Cape” Monze as we know it today. Every lagoon or inland bay ended with the suffix of Khor (Arabic for bay or lagoon), such as Kalmatt Khor and Miani Khor, which later came to be known as Miani Hor. According to Mir, the Arabs established tiny settlements on the coast. Some old graves, said to be theirs, still reportedly exist around Singhar Hill in Gawadar,
Gawadar was purchased from the Sultanate of Oman in 1958
The entry to Kund Malir. PHOTO: FARHAN HASSANY
that is now adorned by a five-star hotel. Gawadar itself was purchased from the Sultanate of Oman in 1958. With the Arab expeditions came their families and their slaves, who were mostly of African origin. Their descendants are referred to as “Sheedis” probably as a derivation of “Sayyiddi”, a title sometimes used to address their masters. At the orchard-village, the Arabs left after a clash with a clan leader. In their haste they left behind only a few graves and a little boy. A mysterious old man in Arab clothing is often seen lurking around the site of the old graveyard and he often scolds anyone sleeping around the village in the open! At this point, my friend Farhan and I exchanged meaningful smiles as the motivation for our host’s history lesson became clear. He wanted to make us stay the night at his guestroom while we had preferred to either camp on the beach or park next to the old dhaba by the highway, before our departure at dawn. We mischievously asked what happened of the little boy and were told that he was raised by the clan leader as his own son and that the progeny of this boy are still called Bidu-zai (clan of the Bedouin) in this area.
(L) The ‘Sphinx’ sculpture on the drive to Buzi Pass, (R) Cars racing down the Buzi Pass and (bottom) The Princess of Hope, Sassui waiting. PHOTOS: ADIL MULKI The clan leader, a pious man, had saintly insights, and had predicted that a day would come when a “black path” would be built by his garden and that his labour of love, the orchard, would be consumed by sands which the sea would regurgitate. The setting of this legend is called Kund Malir beach. It is located a stone’s throw from the rocky hills and is flanked by sand dunes. Today, the marvel of engineering called the Makran Coastal Highway runs alongside it and Arab hunting parties whiz by in their powerful 4x4 vehicles. One of them has built a beautiful mosque and a rest house on top of a hill. Kund Malir is where I once had the pleasure of swimming besides dolphins and learned from fishermen how to land a heavy boat onto high ground. The orchard’s story was difficult for me to digest. We thought that the entire legend of the Arab spirit, graves, the left-behind boy, the orchard and the clan leader’s predictions were concocted by our Scheherazade of a host. If the clan leader had ever lived, hoping for a future highway nearby would be a natural desire. An oasis on any caravan route would be a profitable enterprise. It was hard to also believe in the mango orchards as they don’t do well in sand
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and that too besides the sea. Like any dry area with a little water deep underground, the only vegetation that subsists here are some date trees along with desert shrubs. At dawn, after getting a few hours of rest, as we waited for a boat that would take us to a nearby mud-volcanic island, we walked around the dunes that seemed to have been pushed out from the sea towards the land. Wavy patterns on their golden sands created a mesmerizing play of light and shade under the rising sun. Surrounded by large dunes, and partially buried under their sand we came across a swathe of hard dirt exposed by the winds. It was covered with salt flakes like the thor-effected lands of Thattha. It had green vegetation, mostly weeds, and was littered with pieces of old wood which had been withered by salinity such that the fibers underneath the bark could easily be torn apart. From here, we took a short cut to the shack that was our “hotel” by the highway. And there I stopped in my tracks. Between a clump of date trees, surrounded by the sand dunes that the old man in the story had predicted, by the highway the old man had spoken of, was a live mango tree. Perhaps malnourished and neglected — like the Bedu-zai — abandoned and forgotten, but alive and green.
Low brow but high profile Being liked, at least on Facebook, counts for this generation. Some people choose to share posts on insightful developments around the globe and others use the social networking site to... well be social. But no matter what your proclivities, you’d be lying if you could resist the profile picture. Here is our guide to some of the popular poses for them.
POSE NO.1
POSE NO.3
The Thumka
Curve your body a little, stick your hips out just a little bit more and then place one arm on your hip arched precisely at the 90-degree angle. That’s when you get the thumka right. It is a great way to show your figure off, especially if you’re wearing a sari or gharara.
POSE NO.4
POSE NO.2
3
This pose is definitely amongst some of the easier ones. The ‘headache’ – as the name suggests – is ideal for when you are dying of a migraine. Just grab onto your head and squint at the camera. Believe it or not, it will even add more volume to your crown.
The Brow Lift
For this pose turn your face slightly to the side, stick your chin out and raise one eyebrow. The benefit of this look is that the arched eyebrow contours your face well and makes it appear thinner.
The Kiss and Tell The Headache
As the name suggests, you need to take the picture at the exact moment when you plant a great big smooth on your best friend’s cheek. It’s a great way to show affection and attract attention.
POSE NO.5
The ‘I am so angelic’ pose is for those who want to look innocent. It is one of those poses that require minimal effort. You need to simply remain seated with your knees close together and let your elbows rest on your knees for support while you hold both your hands against your left cheek. Take that shot from a little above the head and it will be ‘perfect’.
POSE NO.7
The Angelic Face The Pout
The most sought-after and infamous pose of them all: the pout. If you don’t know how to do this already then simply push your lips forward and *click*. Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen achieved their signature pout by saying “prune” while being photographed.
POSE NO.6
The Pensive Look
Request your friend to take a picture while you pretend to stare off into the distance. In the process, try to look “pensive” or “contemplative”. Practice and you’ll get this one right.
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BOOK
Bedtime stories for big people Neil Gaiman’s latest book is for adults who can remember what it was like to be a child BY ANAM HAQ When the distant literary cousins, fantasy and children’s literature, get married the latter often emerges as the dominant spouse. In the few strange cases that fantasy ends up on top, the couple is relegated to the “sci-fi” or “cult” side of the family. In some cases they go to Hollywood. Rarely, however, does this union end up in the most appreciated genre of all — fiction. I speak here of fiction that can be read by adults, young adults, and yes, children too. This means that the text opens itself to interpretations, ranging from the mundane to the magical. This kind of vitality in a text, in which the reader has complete freedom to create their own world within its world, is Neil Gaiman’s gift — and I love it. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is technically a novel for adults but in true Gaiman spirit, it only really shares its secrets with a few — in this case, those adults who can remember what it was like to be a child. If you can remember how it felt to be seven, have no control over your life and have your decisions made for you even if your nanny were a nasty piece of otherworld evil, then you are tall enough for this ride, as Gaiman put it in an interview with The Independent. The narrator is a middle-aged man, who in Proustian fashion falls into his memories in an ocean, which is really a pond. Or a pond which is really an ocean, depending on the reader reader’s imagination. He remembers his seventh birthday at home in Sussex, to which no one cam came, his kitten that was run ove over, the family lodger who killed h himself in the family car, and Lett Lettie Hempstock of the mysterious a and magical Hempstock women who lived down the
lane in a farm with an ocean in their backyard and a full moon all year round. He remembers meeting Lettie who had been eleven for a very long time, on the day that the suicide happens, and starts a Sussexspecific cosmic plague. The effect is that everyone starts getting what they want, money, sex... The nameless seven-year-old narrator, however, ends up with the one thing he didn’t want: an evil specter that has escaped from another world and has lodged in his foot. Thus starts the Gaimanesque fairytale: A resolute main character in a world that is at once strangely familiar (or familiarly strange), struggling to right what is wrong and gain some sense of control in the confounding mess of growing up. Having said that, there is one major difference between this and Gaiman’s other books in which most of his work has a sense of hope and personal victory for the main character. This narration doesn’t lend itself to a reassuring end. The narrator returns from the recollections of his seven-year-old self to a life that is less than ordinary. This is a life that bears no mark of the magic of his younger self and perhaps as old Mrs Hempstock hints, a life that might not be worth the sacrifices made for it. In many ways, this is a musing on most our lives. We all experienced some magic as children, whether it be the explanation of a creaking door as a bhoot or perhaps the comforting presence of an invisible friend and ally. But as we cross the unseen boundary of maturity, these presences leave us, leaving our lives so much less charmed and more uninspiring. There are, however, sections in the book which are nothing if not painstakingly detailed in description and bone-chillingly
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is available at The Last Word in Lahore and Karachi for Rs1,495.
horrific in the reality of it all. At one point, the narrator’s father (a slave now to the evil nanny, or perhaps just a slave to his desires), plunges his seven-year-old son, clothes and all into an ice-cold bath and holds him in there. The cruelty of this scene is evoked by the father’s premeditative removal of his watch and loosening of the tie before he seizes his son in what is obviously an attempt to drown him. The starkness of this entire scene serves as a jolt, a cold shock to the reader as well as the narrator that enchantment isn’t for children only and even adults can be helpless and more importantly, wrong. There is an immense amount of maturity in this writing — a grainy mesh of memory and reflection. The wonder and recognition of a child’s mind intersects with the nostalgia and regret of an adult’s memory. Gaiman’s work is autobiographical but will find resonance with all those readers who have in their childhood read the inexplicable mysteries in an otherwise increasingly bare world. They will appreciate moments such as this one, in which the narrator is engulfed in the ocean at the end of the lane: “I saw the world I had walked since my birth, and I understood how fragile it was, that the reality I knew was a thin layer of icing on a great dark birthday cake writhing with grubs and nightmares and hunger.”
If you liked this: The Graveyard Book
1
After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other supernatural residents agree to raise him as one of their own. Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy. He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard. But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack — who has already killed Bod's family.
Coraline (2009)
2
This 2002 horror/fantasy novella won Gaiman several awards and was turned into a film. It is about a locked door that Coraline discovers in the old house where she lives that has been divided into flats. She is warned not to go near it, which means her curiousity got the better of her. She discovers a passageway that leads to a mirror reality of her life, replete with an Other Mother and Other Father. Coraline is warned again not to venture too far into this Other World. What happens when she disobeys...
Dr Who: The Doctor’s Wife
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This episode was Neil Gaiman’s first venture into writing for the television series Dr Who. Gaiman brought a surprisingly human touch to the otherwise lonely character of The Doctor. He succeeded in doing so with the enigmatic character of Idris, who The Doctor teams up with to regain control of the lost TARDIS, the time-traveling machine.
Razvi’s world without him in it Pittho’s World was perhaps the beginning of a great Pakistani writer BY FARRUKH KAMRANI The late journalist Murtaza Razvi’s posthumously published novel Pittho’s World is a confusingly interesting book with a misleading title. It opens with a lie: all characters and incidents are products of the author’s imagination but it also appears to be heavily autobiographical. The prime narrator of the story, who calls himself by a rather ostentatious name, Sheikho, routinely tells his lover Rani stories mostly about his dead relatives — primarily to cope with insomnia which both of them seem to be suffering from. But many times his stories fail to have the desired impact on his rebellious lover who is a cynic, feminist and atheist of sorts as evidenced by her defiance of convention. She lives with the narrator under the vague threat of legal punishment. Under the post-1980 laws cohabitation and disbelief in God are regarded as fornication and blasphemy. Whether Rani likes her lover’s stories or not, they will engage the reader as long as the writer’s strong political self, his liberal idealist, is kept at bay. This persona hovers like a specter throughout the novel. And it gets its chance to hijack the narrative when Sheikho’s lover, exercising her free will as a free woman, temporarily leaves him. This is the point where the novel turns into a political commentary drawn from the stock, ready-made liberal-Marxist perspective. It doesn’t help that the author’s concept of the reader also skews his style. Keeping a foreign audience in mind, he goes into explanatory details which are superfluous for the local readers and which dilute the impact of the individual stories, some of which are good and intelligent, if not a great, pieces of fiction. In spite of the occasional partiality of the narrative, the novel does at places impress
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with its simple correctness of expression and intelligently drafted character sketches — verbal portraits which at times appear to have been drawn simultaneously from the worlds of Gabriel García Márquez and Ratan Nath Sarshar. At their best in the Bia and Dr D stories, Razvi’s characters masterfully demonstrate the irony and dark humour of the forces of fate. Like One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pittho’s World also works through the theme of recurring family traits and destinies through generations. Razvi also successfully applied the method brought to perfection by Yusufi in Aab-e-Gum, a technique which allows the writer to subtly reveal some of his characters through hints scattered throughout the work. But the development of these p promve ising qualities in what would have been a budding writer is now a matter of speculation. We have been left with his first and final book of fiction, which, I hope, will be read even as it produces a amixture of praise and condemnation in its wake. T
No. 35, Russell Road Pakistan’s most famous man once stayed here, but few signs remain BY SANAM MAHER
The Indians get India House. And a serene crosslegged Gandhi in Tavistock Square. And Chicken Tikka Masala, now one of Britain’s favourite national meals. And Bollywood premieres in Leicester Square. When I asked some friends living in London what comes to mind when I said ‘Pakistan’, I got ‘Im-run Kahn’ (New Zealand), ‘houses in the middle of the desert and sand everywhere’ (Brazil), ‘your terrorists’ (Belgium) and ‘no clue’ (Ireland). So when, during the course of research for my MA dissertation, I read the following sentence in Stanley Wolpert’s biography of Quaid-e-Azam, I thought it might help me feel a little more rooted in London, to allow me to feel as if I could have a foot in both my Pakistani and British worlds: “His father deposited money enough to his account in a British y . bank to allow Jinnah to live in London for three years. y hotel There is no record of precisely how many nted rooms or ‘bed and breakfast’ stops he rented y before moving into the modest three-story house at 35 Russell Road in Kensington…” He was seventeen when he first arrived in London in 1893 to study law, and still Mohammed Ali Jinnahbhai. It was from this address that he sent a letter to Lincoln’s Inn requesting that his surname be dshortened to just ‘Jinnah’, according to Madilddy Wall, a spokesperson for the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, also known as English Heritage. In 1955, the London County Council received a request to install a blue heritage plaque on the house, denoting the historic significance of the site. According to Wall, 35 Russell Road is now a private property, and a quick search online reveals that while the 14-bedroom house was up for sale in 2003, the Pakistani High Commission was unable to rustle up the asking price of 1.25 million pounds. This place, I thought, could show you another side to Jinnah — the young lawyer in London, as opposed to Jinnah the iconic, mythical leader (who is perfectly preserved in a somber portrait at Lincoln’s Inn). A short walk from Kensington Olympia tube station, past the Irani cornershops and Lahore Karhai restaurant, the house lies at the intersection of Russell Road and Holland Gardens and has been divided into two sections, with seven 42 flats in each section. (There are no rules preventing the reJULY 21-27 2013
PHOTOS: TOOBA MASOOD
structuring or renovation of these private properties, despite their historic status). W Were it not for the ink-blue circular plaque th lies between what is now Nos 35-A that and 35-B, you would have never guessed that ‘Quaid i Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah founder of Pakistan stayed here in 1895’. I don’t know what exactly I was expecting, but the house, with its row of silver garbage cans lining the front porch, a lime green tennis ball among the plants and the whine of construction taking place in No 35-A did not conjure any particularly patriotic feelings. I’d read that the house’s banister had been painted green and the halls inside festooned with paper flags, a Pakistani flag draped over the window and Jinnah’s chair, wardrobe and some mirrors preserved in the first-floor room he had occupied. But there was no answer when I buzzed the intercom for the seven flats (at this point I was pretty determined to feel something, even if it meant dealing with a cranky tenant). The blinds on all the windows remained firmly pulled down. And so my friend and I gave up, walked down the street towards a Japanese restaurant where we ate duck pancakes as Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga played on the music system.