The Express Tribune Magazine - July 7

JULY 7-13 2013

You’ll never guess who this man is...

parlour tricks

JULY 7-13 2013

Feature

Parlour Tricks N-Gents opens to offer men an old school grooming experience in Karachi

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Feature

Writing ‘home’ Journalist and analyst Raza Rumi explores Delhi in his first book

Cover Story

Polo and postcolonial politics The Persian invented polo and the British changed its rules

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48 Regulars

6 People & Parties: Out and about 54

with the beautiful people 52 Review: The Fall Science: Salman Hameed circles Ring Nebula

Magazine Editor: Mahim Maher and Sub-Editors: Dilaira Mondegarian, Zainab Gardezi and Mifrah Haq. 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

Rani Emaan launches at L’atelier in Lahore Bushra, Muneeba and Razia

Erum Alam

Sadeah, Saima and Saira

Ahsan and Resham

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Saba

Ayesha, Sofia and Hina JULY 7-13 2013

PHOTOS COURTESY QYT EVENTS

Dr Shahida with her daughter

Noor

Sobia, Sara, Masooma and Malaika

Rabia Nouman

JULY 7-13 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Ayesha Hasan and Ayesha Omer

Manaal

Salima

Ayesha Hassan exhibits her first Spring/Summer 2013 collection in Karachi

Frieha Altaf

Komal Rizvi

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Sana JULY 7-13 2013

Anum

Maham, Ekra and Noor

PHOTOS COURTESY CATALYST PR AND MARKETING

Saadia Nawabi

JULY 7-13 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Samra, Rima and Zara

Atif and Palvasha

Yogen Fr端z opens at Zamzama, Karachi

Bee, Fatima, Faiza and Shano

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Bushra JULY 7-13 2013

Tehmina

Kiran

Najwa

PHOTOS COURTESY SAVVY PR AND EVENTS

Aneeqa and Saadia

JULY 7-13 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Waseem Noor launches its summer collection, Rangoli, at Tehxeeb in Lahore

Arzena, Maham and Hafsa Syma

Seher and Sharjeel

Noor

Sophiya Khan

Shehla and Mehwish

Humera

Raeilla

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Saba JULY 7-13 2013

Amina and Hina Salman

PHOTOS COURTESY SAVVY PR AND EVENTS

Zara and Fia

JULY 7-13 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

The Sana Safinaz flagship store opens in Lahore Huma Amir Shah

Jania Bhatti

Mariam & Saima

Marium and Shazia

Sadaf and Mashal

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Zara Peerzada JULY 7-13 2013

Anushay

Izza and Momina

Safinaz Muneer and Sana Hashwani

Jania and Maria

Ayman and Natasha

Maria

PHOTOS COURTESY IMRAN FAREED

Hira

JULY 7-13 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Amna and Ayesha

PHOTOS COURTESY IMRAN FAREED

Zainab and Amina

Neha Zainab and Zara

Sasha and Zainab

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Zuvair Hashwani JULY 7-13 2013

Maryam

Ayesha and Navira

Sadaf Jalil

Anam and Shama

JULY 7-13 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES Nida Azwer launches her first flagship store in Karachi

PHOTOS COURTESY LOTUS

Nadia Rafi

Sana Shahzad

Sumeha Khalid

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Rukaiya Adamjee

Nida Azwer

Sara, Aaliya, Mahvish , Sadia and Madiha

Sanam Chaudhry

Hina Bayaat

JULY 7-13 2013

COVER STORY

Four legs, two heads, one heart From a tribal method of conflict resolution to a passport to high society, polo has been more of a culture than a game

BY MOMINA SIBTAIN

Hot off his horse at the end of the polo match at Cirencester in 1985, Prince Charles planted on her lips what was probably the sweatiest kiss of Princess Diana’s public life. Her giggle was captured in an iconic photo that said it all about the sport: British cultural power, colonial elitism, high-society glamour, adrenaline-pumping competition.

As much as it seems that polo is a British invention, the sport’s history lies much more to the east. The general academic consensus is that polo’s origins lay in Persia. Poet Firdusi mentions the game at the end of the 10th century. And the word polo is believed to have come from the Tibetan word pulu for a ball made from the knot of willow wood, according to a 1914 article in The Lotus Magazine.

The game’s arrival in the Indian subcontinent is unclear; some people say it came via Kashmir and others Afghanistan. It was played in Gilgit between rival tribal groups and villages as a method of conflict resolution. In the late 1500s Mughal Emperor Akbar had a polo ground at Ghariwali, four miles from Agra. He would even play at night with balls set on fire. But the British definitely first heard of the sport here.

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In 1869, bored young subalterns of the 10th Hussars saddled up for the first time after reading a newspaper report about the ‘novel’ sport being played in Manipuri, the cradle of Indian polo.

And as the British were wont to do, they decided to ‘civilise’ the sport.

As with cricket, the colonial rulers used sport to transfer dominant British beliefs on social behaviour, standards, conformity, all of which have persisted beyond the end of empire.

So the British threw out the way it was played in the mid-nineteenth century in the Himalayan hill states. Here, according to Brian Stoddart in a 1988 paper for the journal Comparative Studies in Society and History, polo had emphasised the display of skill in handling a horse, stick and ball.

There were no goals, no teams, no restrictions on the number of players and no physical boundaries. “Within twenty years it had been transformed by the British military establishment in India.” After 1858, Indian princes anxious to ingratiate themselves with the British scrambled to get in on the game.

Today the British rules apply. Two teams battle it out, each consisting of six pony-and-rider combinations with four on the field at a time.

Players use long-handled mallets to hit a ball through the goal posts to score. Four rounds or chukkers last 15 minutes each. To be fair, players are pitched against each other based on their ranking or handicap. The higher the handicap, the better the player.

Today, this version is played on the plateaus of Chitral and Gilgit. And the sport is a still a matter of pride and honour. Women shower players with flower petals as they trek to Shandur, the highest polo ground in the world.

The club The British then kept a tight rein on which social groups could be admitted to the elite sport, which was largely limited to military personnel and royalty. “When my father played, it was an army game and no civilian was part of it,” says Tammy Alam, the daughter of Brigadier ‘Hesky’ Baig nicknamed after the Welsh champion Hesketh Hughes. “It was part of their training to play polo.”

In those days no money was involved and it was just about the glory, social status and lifestyle. In the 50s and 60s, matches would be followed by three parties a night with cocktails before dinner. “Players would stay at the houses of local players and this gave the families and players a chance to create ties and understand each other,” Alam says. Their children grew up in that culture.

The Baigs and Alams are examples of polo ‘families’ who can boast of four generations of players. In well known player Shamyl Alam’s family there is a tradition. On the seventh day of a child’s birth, the baby is put on a horse and a sword is placed in one hand and a pen in the other. “This rite of passage... symbolises that the child [will] grow up to be a horseman, warrior and

Brig ‘Hesky’ Baig, three-time winner of the Cowdray Park Gold Cup in England. scholar,” he explains.

It thus emerged as a game for the exceedingly rich and well-placed, and as Tammy Alam puts it, it is generally not open to outsiders. The prestige factor is undeniable — after all, you could be called upon to play in lieu of the Duke of Edinburgh, as her father was once in England, or rub shoulders with Prince Charles as Shamyl has. He interprets this as a “humbling experience” but it hardly masks the ‘cool factor’. And the ladies certainly like it.

Players are known to play hard and party harder, but they know that polo will always be their top priority. Girls may show interest in you if you are a player but as thirdgeneration player Gul Mawaz Khan puts it, “It’s usually nothing more than an ice breaker.” They shrug off flattery. “Being a horseman, I am perceived as a snob. But I don’t think that is true,” says Shamyl. “The sport automatically puts you on a pedestal.

You feel like a gladiator.”

For such players, polo is their life. “Once on the ground, you leave the world behind 36 and your life becomes all about riding the JULY 7-13 2013

horse and speeding towards the goal post,” says Ali Malik, who has been playing since he was nine. “It’s like playing golf at 35km an hour!”

It is thus hardly surprising that given the game’s links to ‘lineage’, some of the players look down on relatively newer entrants, who are perceived as social climbers who just play for the money. Shamyl describes it as “people who play polo and those who play at polo”.

The passion means that serious polo players from ‘old money’ have the wherewithal to spend the time required on the ground or in the stables. Sometimes a higher price has to be paid. Shah Qubilai Alam lost six teeth during the 2003 Pakistan-India World Cup Qualifier match after he was hit in the face with a mallet. “It is not one of those sports in which you stop just because you got injured,” he says. “I later found out that I had a broken jaw as well but it was all worth it because we had won the match.”

He stopped playing polo professionally two years ago, but declares that it is still in his “blood”.

Hamza Mawaz, a three-time Pakistan champion. PHOTO: GUL MAWAZ

General Sher Ali, Brig ‘Hesky’ Baig, General Yusaf and an unidentified British player.

If you are not from old money, there are still ways to get in on the game. In corporate sponsorships, private companies pay to create their own teams. Private sponsors put teams together as well and if you can pay for it yourself, nothing like it. The good news is that you can train for free as Qubilai Alam runs the Junior Polo League where he turns entrants into professional players pro bono.

You will have to still be able to afford it in terms of a lifestyle. Businessman Farooq Amin Sufi, who has just ventured into the world of polo in Lahore, explains: one must either work or only play polo because, “No employer will ever understand your need to take three afternoons off every week.”

Pony up The saying in polo goes: four legs, two heads and one heart. The man and beast have to work as one. “You have to sync[hronise] yourself with a beast and work in unison to achieve an outcome,” explains Raja Gul Mawaz Khan, the grandson of player General Mawaz. “How could anything else be as poetic or regal?”

This is, however, easier said than done.

“Training a horse is an art,” says Shamyl, who has been riding for as far back as he can remember. “You need to have a feel for the horse, understand its movements and have the knack [of] communicat[ing] with it. A lot of people can ride horses but not everyone can train a horse.”

Thus they don’t come cheap. A trained mare or gelding costs approximately Rs4

Mughal Emperor Akbar had a polo ground at Ghariwali, four miles from Agra. He would even play at night with balls that were set on fire

Hissam Hyder playing in the Royal Windsor Cup in 2013. PHOTO: FILE million, with upkeep ranging between Rs10,000 and Rs15,000 per month, excluding grooming costs. Sufi has invested in Argentinian horses because they are already trained. “I am a businessman and hence do not have the kind of time one needs to put into the maintenance of horses,” he explains. “One needs a manager for the horse, a permanent vet and someone to constantly train the horse.”

Argentina has created an industry out of and monopolised the sale, rearing and training of polo ponies. Locally the industry has little to offer. “The issue is that Pakistani ponies have been misdiagnosed to have African Horse Sickness and hence we cannot export [them],” says Fakir Syed Amiruddin, popularly known as Iggi, the polo player turned coach who runs an academy in Lahore.

And if someone does try to sell you one, beware. “A newcomer cannot just buy a professional level horse in Pakistan,” says Sufi. “No one will sell you their best horse and you will always be stuck with something close to second best.”

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Polo can thus today be seen as a mix of corporate cut-throat competition and old school romanticism. Serious players say it teaches them humility, patience, hard work and determination as well. But perhaps they are drawn to it for the sheer thrill and glamour. It is after all, known as the game of kings and the king of games. T JULY 7-13 2013

Princess Diana gets the giggles after Prince Charles smooches her in 1985. PHOTO: MAGESTY MAGAZINE, AASTA

PORTFOLIO

PAR

Styling: Nabila Wardrobe: F.A.D. Photography: Abid Saleem

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RLOUR I

f

your moustache has reached dali-esque lengths or you are battling a uni-brow, perhaps the new male grooming salon, N-Gents, can offer some assistance.

Model: Wasim Akram Location: N-Gents Grooming: N-Gents

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“We can suggest ways for the client to address factors that potentially limit the way they appear or feel,” they say euphemistically. The salon offers an extensive list of personal grooming services.

It might be the place to go if you are a looks-savvy male who has made it over the ugly puberty hump. Haircuts start at Rs1,200 or perhaps you fancy an age-smart with eye treatment facial for those dark circles. Grooms can get a little buffing for their special

day from Rs9,000 upwards. In this shoot, Nabila and Zair were inspired by the Victorian and Edwardian eras and spaghetti Westerns. But it was Quentin Tarantino’s Django that emboldened the model, Wasim Akram, to let the stylists experiment. If you aren’t feeling as adventurous, you can go for a simple shave or head massage in their luxurious setting replete with leather barbershop chairs. Oh, and full body waxes are priced at Rs2,500. Shame they won’t take women.

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FEATURE

A brush with history only sheds the absurdities of the present

BY HASSAN NAQVI

In candid tones, journalist and analyst Raza Rumi explores an Indian city, and indeed his own identity as a Muslim in the Subcontinent, in his first book, Delhi by Heart. He admits to being an ‘outsider’ but as his stories unspool, it becomes clear that he approached this ‘enemy territory’ with an open mind. The Express Tribune asked him briefly about the experience

Writing

The Express Tribune: Don’t you think it’s a daunting task to write about a city that you really don’t know about and which has been the subject of some celebrated books by prominent authors?

Raza Rumi: Indeed, it was a tough call. I was extremely unsure about my abilities as a writer when I started to work on the book.

However, the encouragement I received from the publisher, as well as friends who read the book, made me a bit comfortable about the process of writing, and I continued to research and write. This is why the book is not a linear account of either travel stories or the history of the city per se. In fact, it is a more of a journey of exploring the past, celebrating the diversity of our shared culture.

ET: Were you concerned about the fact that writing about the Indian capital might be viewed unfavorably in Pakistan?

Rumi: My book is not about India-Pakistan relations, Kashmir or other disputes the two countries have wasted their energies on, nor is it about the invincibility of one nationalist narrative [over] the other. In fact, a brush with history only sheds the absurdities of the present.

How can we write off nearly a thousand years of co-existence with non-Muslims in the Indian subcontinent? What about Amir Khusrau, Ghalib, and other cultural references that are still shared and refuse to follow initial state mantra? In my book, I have been critical of the way the Indian nation state has also distorted the narrative and how we need to move beyond that.

ET: There is a lot of emphasis on sufism in your book. Any particular reason for that?

Rumi: To understand the spread of Islam, and the construction of Hindu Muslim identity, an exploration of the sufi thought and 48 how it discovered a fertile indigenous culture in South Asia is JULY 7-13 2013

most important. Contrary to the common misconceptions, Islam did not spread in India due to kingship and the policies of Sultans or Mughals. Instead, the plural and tolerant methods of sufi engagement were most helpful in propagating the simplicity and equality inherent to Islamic thought.

Delhi, also known as the ‘courtyard of the sufis’, was a special

‘home’

ET: Your book seems to have a central theme which some may not agree with, even in India.

Are you concerned about receiving criticism, as you make some bold assertions throughout the text?

Rumi: I’m sure that there will be aspects of my book that may ruffle a few orthodox feathers. However, I’m also certain that most people will not ignore the honesty with which I have presented my views in the narrative. Yes, I am a bit of a brainwashed Pakistani visiting a known-unknown territory. The central argument in the book deals with how ancient and medieval Delhi led to the evolution of the north Indian cuisine, music, Urdu language, mannerisms, and other everyday references that Indians and Pakistanis are so familiar with. But there is another dimension to this narrative. There is a constant evolution of the city, and its symbols, underneath all the destruction and frequent plunder that the city faced in millennia, and [therein] lies its resilience and ability to resurrect itself. Few cities can boast of such dynamism, for Delhi has always risen from ashes, and its layers of history make it an eminently exciting and wondrous arena.

ET: What about the modern city? You are not too impressed with post-1947 Delhi?

Rumi: Really? Did I give that impression? Of course post-partition Delhi has a different history and its architecture, values and trajectory have pulled it into the rise of democratic India, struggling with an imperial past and a colonial state. The most fascinating part, not unlike [in] other cities [of] South Asia, is the emergence of different cities within one metropolis. I have mentioned these stories in my book, yet I am cognizant of the [problematic] that an ‘outsider’ will never be able to write it all. T

The Red Fort in Delhi. PHOTOS COURTESY: RAZA RUMI area of my interest. In every corner of the city, there is a visible or hidden shrine. Some of them I explored with my sufi soul mate Sadia Dehlvi, while others I discovered through older books and texts. There is still so much to know and discover and it would take time for me to fully know about the treasures that lie hidden under the seemingly busy chaotic and powerful capital of India.

FEATURE An excerpt from the book: The Red Fort stands in the heart of Shahjahanabad, like a relic that someone forgot to worship. Imposing in its presence, it emerges into one’s vision from nowhere... ....Entering the Fort through scanners reminded me once again of the word ‘terror’ juxtaposed with the word ‘Muslim’. The Indian media keeps whipping up these words periodically. But is it not a dangerous alienating game? I shrug off such questions and move forward with the little group amid the sound of clicking cameras.

The walkways to the main buildings in the Fort complex were clean and quiet as the stream of tourists had not started flowing in. The Diwane-aam (public gallery) is our first major halt. This was the site of royals’ durbars including the ones organized by the British. The lonely throne made of marble with intricate inlay work can be spotted behind the protective screens placed around it. I imagine what the Delhi Durbar must have been in all its glory. After wandering through the Diwan-e-Khas which were the royal chambers, bedrooms and inter-connected courtyards, we reach the little gate that provided the escape route for Bahadur Shah Zafar, who perhaps had no idea that this exit would be his final one and that the world inside the Fort was going to crumble and disappear with the brutal end to the 1857 Mutiny by the British. The little wooden gate is locked.

On the night of the fall of Delhi in early 1858, General Wilson, the Commander of the British forces, celebrated his victory with a festive dinner in the Diwan-e-Khas, the innermost sanctum of the three-centuries-old Mughal reign in India.

The dinner would be an eclectic mix of Victorian cold cuts, canned fish and meats, and general army mess cuisine. In the days to follow, twentyone Mughal princes were condemned, hanged and eliminated in a flash. Many more were shot dead and their corpses were displayed in Chandni Chowk to inform the public as to

what would happen to rebellious subjects as well as to remind citizens about the brutal capabilities of the new imperial order. The British contemplated demolishing the Jama Masjid and the Red Fort. However, the exquisite Fathepuri mosque was sold to Lala Chunna Mal, a Hindu merchant, as his private property and the Zinatul Masjid was converted into a bakery. Buildings within a radius of 500 yards of the Red Fort were razed to ground. Structures around the Jama Masjid were also cleared in the name of martial orderliness.

Quite symbolically, the buildings blocking the new wider roads and the planned railway line were also demolished.

The kuchas, galis and katras erased in the process represented a larger metaphor—the erasure of not just bricks, mortar and marble, but a centuries’-old way of life. An entire tehzib was dismantled and replaced. For Delhi this was nothing new though; each episode of human suffering is real and unique. Delhi’s melancholy was to stay, but counterpoised by the inner zest of its residents who had seen much worse and reinvented themselves like their beloved city.

The negligence of the Fort as it stands today is quite monumental; in particular, the laterday additions of iron grills and fences which are completely out of sync with the place. The government departments in Pakistan and India are incapable of appreciating fine aesthetics and the buck, as usual, stops at ‘lack of resources’.

Many walls of the Fort have been tastelessly white-washed for purposes of ‘conservation,’ and the shoddy patchwork amid small Mughal bricks or sandstone conspicuously mars the impact of the old structures. In many ways, the Delhi Fort is modelled after the Lahore Fort—the public and private quarters, gardens, Sheesh Mahal and the underground chambers. The differences can be attributed to the innovations of Shah Jahan and his highly refined female companions, the Queen and Princess Jahanara, as well as its proximity to Chandni Chowk and the city of Shahjahanabad…

As we reach the sandstone chabutras designed for musical soirées and for poetry sessions or mushairas, the cloistered spaces open up. How magical it must have been! I attempt to explain the concept of mushairas to the Americans but feel inhibited by the impossibility of translating the inner language of culture.

We reach the little gate that provided the escape route for Bahadur Shah Zafar, who perhaps had no idea that this exit would be his final one Mushairas were the high points of Delhi’s literary culture. Young as well as more seasoned poets recited their verses with elegant etiquette in the late evenings; these sessions continuing well into the dawn. Kings and nobles, patrons of the Delhi poets, would be the chief guests, adding decorum to these events. Despite many internal and external attacks, by the early nineteenth century, the Fort grew into a hub for poetry and its experimentation, especially in Urdu. The finest Persian carpets would be unrolled for the poets.

A roving candle would light up the poetry in front of the bards. Ghazals, a genre of poetry, expressing love for the temporal and divine with doses of existential rambling, was popular.

The ghazal is uniquely structured in that each couplet is a universe of meaning and there is no compulsion, despite the formalism, to build on a single theme. Even the mood varies with each couplet and so does the theme. Disparate yet whole, the couplets of a ghazal are connected.

As the comforting sunlight added little patterns on the red sandstone, I mused about how the eminent poets of Delhi— Ghalib, Momin, Azurda, Sahbai—would all gather during a typical mushaira presided over by Bahadur Shah Zafar.

The poets would play games with Ustad Zauq, the king’s favourite poet, by paying compliments to his rivals and by over-rating lesser poets.

Such was the cultural climate of Shahjahanabad that a Frenchman, Alexander Heatherley, adopted the nom de plume of ‘Azad’ and became a pupil of Delhi’s Urdu poets, finding a place at royal gatherings…

Delhi by Heart: Impressions of a Pakistani Traveller (Harpers Collins, India — May 2013 Rs855 on discount at Liberty Books

FILM

How do you like your female homicide victim — innocent or guilty?

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

A woman returns home after drinking at a bar to find that someone has laid out a set of her underwear on her bed. There has obviously been an intruder. She calls 911 and a male and a female officer arrive. When they find no signs of forced entry, they start cross questioning her. Had she been drinking? Did she have boyfriends?

The already spooked victim backs off from pursuing the complaint. A few days later she is murdered.

Violence against women is still the bread and butter of crime shows, but in BBC’s The Fall, set in Belfast, creator Allan Cubitt explores just how biased this television genre has been. Cubitt uses the character of a highranking detective superintendent in London’s Metropolitan Police, Stella Gibson, to cut through the swathe of stereotypes. The perfect choice to play Stella comes in the form of the inscrutable Gillian Anderson (X-Files), whose deadpan detective work is only as expertly crafted as her new blonde coif.

Take the scene in which Stella is writing a press release about the victims with the police chief and the PRO. Take out ‘innocent’, she says to their bewilderment.

If it were a prostitute who was murdered, would she be just as innocent, asks Stella, driving home the point that by leaving out ‘innocent’ for certain victims we send the message that they were culpable or less deserving of being treated like any other victim. Isn’t this the same language we use when reporting homicides in Pakistan?

The stereotypes don’t evade Stella either, who is chastised by the police chief for having a one-night stand with another detective.

Did you know he was married, he asked in tones full of Irish Catholic indignation.

He wasn’t wearing a ring, she replies.

But didn’t you think to ask, retorts the police chief.

He didn’t think to tell me, she says.

Thus, Cubitt brilliantly lays bare the double standards. How quick the police chief was to chastise Stella for having a sexual relationship. How invisible to him was the shared responsibility of the married detective. But the real kicker comes when Stella reminds the police chief that he was a married man when they had had an affair.

Stella’s strength is her chilled demeanour, which would be completely acceptable for a man in her position. It drives everyone around her crazy because they can’t figure her out. Cubitt shows we are accepting of quiet, superior, unexplained male behaviour than when it comes from a woman. And if you watch closely, you’ll see most of the men are hysterical and falling apart in the show. he hunt for a The Fall is centred on the ing new as such, serial killer, which is nothing but viewers in Pakistan will appreciate the Belfast setting. Northern Ireland’s history mple, one police is similar to ours. For example, ed by a suspect. officer is openly threatened ficer is shot A day or two later, the officer dead outside his house. Could have been straight out off a scene in Karachi. T

Packing heat, killing stereotypes DCI Jane Tennison 1 Prime Suspect’s Detective Chief Inspector

Detective Olivia Benson

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Jane Tennison was almost the prototype for the female copper in 1991. The icy Helen Mirren played the inscrutable detective, whose character was based on a real-life DCI, according to the show’s creator, Lynda La Plante, in an interview with The Independent in 1993.

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Detective Inspector Sarah Lund

2

There is not a smidgen of make-up on Sofie Gråbøl’s face in the three seasons she plays Detective Sarah Lund in the Danish show Forbrydelsen (The Killing 2007) created by Søren Sveistrup. Her Nordic facade barely masks her high IQ but it was the masculinities of her character that form its base. She even had to act like a man to get Lund right.

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Mariska Hargitay has played this character since 1999 on Dick Wolf’s Law and Order SVU, possibly one of TV’s longest running crime shows. She is a cop who will go to any lengths to solve a crime, including putting herself at risk of rape in prison. Her vulnerabilities are just as powerful as her strengths which puts Benson in our top 3 female police officers.

Sun Anticipating a glorious death of our

BY SALMAN HAMEED

All good things come to an end. Even the lives of stars. Located 2,300 light years away, the Ring Nebula (right) is a gorgeous announcement of the demise of a star that shone brightly for ten billion years.

Now all that is left is a small white nucleus surrounded by gases that once were part of the star itself. Some of these gases will one day be part of another star. This is cosmic recycling at its best.

While beautiful, this stage is temporary for the star. Most of the gases we see in the Ring Nebula were expelled only a few thousand years ago. The star at the time had bloated into a red giant and subsequently lost much of its outer material to space, leaving behind a central core about the size of the Earth.

This core is called a white dwarf and is one of the densest objects in the universe.

Here on Earth, a teaspoon of white dwarf material would weigh as much as a car.

Made up mostly of Carbon and Oxygen, the white dwarf is extremely hot — about twenty times hotter than the

POWER TRIP

5b

years is the estimated time within which humans have figured out that our Sun will 54 run out of its supply of fuel JULY 7-13 2013

Even the cosmos recycles as the death of a star reveals

The Ring Nebula as captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The whole structure in the photograph is about one light year across. SOURCE: NASA, ESA, AND THE HUBBLE HERITAGE (STSCI/AURA)ESA/HUBBLE COLLABORATION

surface of our Sun. It is the light from this white dwarf that is making some of the gases glow in the Ring Nebula. However, it does not have any energy source within, and from now on it will slowly cool down for eternity, becoming dimmer and dimmer each passing year, eventually — no longer detectable in visible light. This is the final stage — the corpse of a star that shone for ten billion years.

This is the fate that awaits the Sun as well. Our star has been a stable source of energy for the past four-and-ahalf-billion years. Algae, rodents, ferns, seagulls, ants, humans — they have all been dependent on this supply of energy. Quite amazingly, humans have figured out that our Sun will run out of its supply of fuel in another 5 billion years or so. No need to worry about it tomorrow

morning. But if humans — or some form of their descendants — are to survive on scales of billions of years, then journeys to other stars will have to be undertaken.

Whatever happens to us, our Sun’s last rites will also include a beautiful nebula followed by the forever cooling of its white dwarf.

What about life around the star that formed the Ring Nebula? We have not detected any planets there as yet and we certainly have no idea if there ever was any life, let alone intelligence, out there. However, if there were any worlds inhabited by complex, intelligent beings, then I hope they had stumbled upon science, figured out the impending death of their star, and made alternative plans.

They may have implemented mass-evacuation to another planet around a nearby star system. They may have left a billion years before the death of their star. The beauty of Ring Nebula may now be bitter sweet as they watch the demise of their original home star. Or maybe this life form never developed the ability to leave its solar system.

Then most likely all of this life is now gone — just one of many mass extinctions that must happen quite often in the universe.

SALMAN HAMED IS ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF INTEGRATED SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES AT HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE, MASSACHUSETTS, USA. HE RUNS THE BLOG IRTIQA AT IRTIQABLOG.COM