The Express Tribune Magazine - June 16

JUNE 16-22 2013

FAST COMPANY The economy is kaput but a new breed of young professionals, graduates of Pakistan’s premier universities, are carving out a niche for themselves and others

JUNE 16-22 2013

Feature

American espressos in Abbottabad This sleepy university town is getting mean about the bean

28

Feature

Afghan mission impossible Veteran artists return to a wasteland in their homeland

31 Feature

Fit for a King

Cover Story

Fast Company A new breed of young graduates are carving out a niche for themselves and others

4

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture shortlists 20 works in places with significant Muslim populations

20

36 Regulars

6 People & Parties: Out and about with the beautiful people

40 Review: Literary works by

Khaled Hosseini, Tanzila Khan and Nayantara Noorani 42 Health: Brain-eating amoeba

Magazine Editor: Mahim Maher and Sub-Editors: Ameer Hamza, Dilaira Mondegarian, Zainab Gardezi and Mifrah Haq. Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Jamal Khurshid, Anam Haleem, Essa Malik, Maha Haider, Faizan Dawood, Samra Aamir 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 Printed: uniprint@unigraph.com

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Sanam Chaudri

Afshan Soorti and Yumna Imtiaz

Maha Ahmed and Mariam Rasheed

SanaSafinaz’s prét collection launches in Karachi Alyzeh Rahim

6

Maha Ahmed JUNE 16-22 2013

Mariam Pagganwala, Ayesha Bari and Cyra

Safinaz

Rukaiya Adamjee

PHOTOS COURTESY CATALYST PR AND MARKETING

Samia, Maryum and Salina

JUNE 16-22 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Meher Najeeb

Salima Feerasta

PHOTOS COURTESY CATALYST PR AND MARKETING

Sana Usman

Samia, Maira and Marium

Zahir and Sherezad Rahimtoola

Altaf Hashwani and Saniya

Saba Ansari

8 JUNE 16-22 2013

Saba Obaid

Sana Hashwani

Saadia Nawabi

JUNE 16-22 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

PHOTOS COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS & PR

The lifestyle store, KHAS, opens in Lahore

Mehreen and Mariam

Sadia, Komal and Hina

Ayesha and Khurram

Nazish and Awais Hina and Shoaib

Sadia and Nageen Adil and Sana

10 JUNE 16-22 2013

Mehreen and Humaiyun

JUNE 16-22 2013

PHOTOS COURTESY CATALYST PR AND MARKETING

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Saad, Nida, Asad and Neshmia

The Asian Institute of Fashion Design holds an exhibition at Grandeur in Karachi

Zeba

Alizeh and Karishma

PHOTOS COURTESY RASPBERRY EVENTS & PR

Rani Siddiqi holds an exhibition at CafĂŠ Flo in Karachi

Munaaf, Kiran Khan, Umair Qazi, Tabussum Mughal and Rabia Chaudhry

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Saroasha Jimmy, Javed Sheikh and Jimmy Engineer JUNE 16-22 2013

Sana

Saima Nasir, Rani Siddiqi and Arshad Siddiqi

JUNE 16-22 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Mountain Dew and Lays Wavy organise the premiere of Iron Man 3 in Lahore and Karachi

Asma, Saba, Sana and Marium PHOTOS COURTESY VERVE

Hina Butt

Qasim Yar Tiwana and Sania

Nina with a guest

14 JUNE 16-22 2013

Maheen Kardar and Saad Ali

Huria and Amina

Mahra Khan and Batool

Ayesha Omar

JUNE 16-22 2013

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Samar, Sarah and Asma Mumtaz

PHOTOS COURTESY VERVE

Aisha and Saira Tiwana

Rabia and Mrs Rabab

Maram and Abroo

Hira and Mahreen

Qurat and Madeeha

Fawad and Fiza

16 JUNE 16-22 2013

Sadaf, Madiha and Fatima

JUNE 16-22 2013

JUNE 16-22 2013

JUNE 16-22 2013

COVERSTORY

FAST

COMPANY The economy is kaput but a new breed of young professionals, graduates of Pakistan’s premier universities, are carving out a niche for themselves and others

BY GULRAIZ KHAN COVER PHOTO OF ZAHRAH RAZA BY WALEED KURESHI

20 JUNE 16-22 2013

f you graduated from college this summer and are eagerly looking forward to your first job, I have some sobering news for you. The economy has not been doing particularly well for a while now, and big firms have barely been hiring for years.

THE COST OF STARTING A BUSINESS We asked our budding entrepreneurs what it costs, approximately, to set up businesses similar to theirs...

Solar systems manufacturing facility: Rs350m 50-table restaurant in a rented, upscale premises: Rs4m-Rs5m Retail outlet in a rented, upscale premises: Rs3m-Rs10m 20-table cafe in a rented, upscale premises: Rs2m-Rs3m Web-based businesses (Online retail) Less than: Rs50,000 Event Management/PR Company Less than: Rs25,000 Home-based caterer (publicised via Facebook) Less than: Rs10,000

It took roughly a year for my class of 2010 at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) to get their first jobs, and another two years for most of them to get the jobs they wanted.

But that was just one class, less than 500 students, from one of the top universities in the country. About a million students enrolled in universities across Pakistan in 2009, and at least two-thirds of them would have graduated this summer. That’s hundreds of thousands who will make a beeline for the handful of formal, well-paying jobs in large cities of the country. It won’t be long though before they realise that there just aren’t enough to go around.

Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg: there are just not enough jobs in the country, period. In 2011, there were roughly 33m 20-year-olds in the country, with about 60% of them claiming a stake in the labour market. The entire labour force that year, however, was slightly over 53m, with 70% of these jobs in rural areas. Of the remaining urban jobs, only a quarter were in the formal sector. The competition for good quality, well-paying jobs, therefore, is absolutely cut-throat.

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Continued on page 24

ENROLMENT IN UNIVERSITIES

‘12-’13

1,4133,4778

‘11-’12

‘10-’11

‘09-’10

‘08’09

‘06-’07

‘05-’06

1,1077,6882

9355,5599

8033,5507

7411,0092

6055,8885

5221,4773

An enrolment of 1.4m was estimated in 2011-12 in higher education (universities).

Source: Economic Survey of Pakistan 2011-12

THE JOB MARKET AND THE 20-YEAR-OLDS IN PAKISTAN 21 JUNE 16-22 2013

Brewing trouble A recent World Bank report says that both labour force and employment grew 3.6% between 2000 and 2010 in Pakistan, registering the highest growth on both counts in South Asia. Heartening news, but the report does not look at the nuances. The majority of that growth was clocked in before 2007-08, when unemployment hit its lowest level in a decade: 5.5%. Since then, rural unemployment has remained largely stable, around 4.7%, but urban unemployment has soared, from slightly over 6% in 2007, to almost 9% in 2011.

This is the peculiar phenomenon that has been brewing, his is particularly in our cities, for the past six years. This ousands the source of nightmares for the hundreds of thousands me of university graduates today. The economy became iversity particularly sluggish from 2007 onwards, but university enrollment has continued to gallop ahead. sities In the past five years alone, enrolment at universities et’s say has more than doubled. If you go further back, let’s on was a decade, when the Higher Education Commission d. This set up, enrolments increased more than five-fold. means not just more people entering the labour market n and but a large number of highly educated young men emely women entering a sluggish job market with extremely high expectations.

Way out?

So what happens when you push thousands of well-educated young women and men against the wall off unemelves, ployment? They build a door. Not just for themselves, but others as well. mploySelf-employment is the most prevalent form of employur force ment in Pakistan (almost two-thirds of the labour e urban in 2009), but not in urban areas. About 45% of the n the workforce was self employed, compared to 71% in countryside in 2009. A greater percentage of city workers chose regular wage or salaried jobs than theirr rural hough. counterparts. This divide is not just geographic though.

Almost half of all the workforce in Pakistan was self-emnly 13% ployed, but at the low end of the value chain. Only was self employed in high-end jobs. This is the number rm the that will have to rise if Pakistan wants to transform way it works, and, consequently, its fortunes.

24 JUNE 16-22 2013

FC

HANGE

We look at six young, urban professionals who graduated from top universities of the country, but decided to chart their independent, albeit risky course. All of them started in their mid-20s, in the last six years, and persisted despite challenges that forced a large number of traditional enterprises across the country to shut down. This is not a scientifically representative sample, nor aare they the most successful entrepreneurs, but they all have sstories to tell. Stories that may inspire others to take the path of these trailblazers

Zahra Raza CEO - L’atelier Age: 28 Graduated from BNU Accessibility is key to empowerment, and the four young partners beAccessibil hind L’atelie L’atelier — a French-inspired premium multi-brand store in Lahore, Islamabad and a online — provide precisely that. Stocking 65 designers in Islamabad and 50 in Lahore, the store deals in powerhouse brands as well as upcoming labels. c The idea came from the only man in the four-person team, Ahsan, but the wom women bought it instantly, says Zahra Raza, one of the partners who grad graduated from Beaconhouse National University. At that time, Sadaf and Ahsan were living in Paris and were inspired by the Parisian attitude tto fashion and shopping, which is all about the experience. “I marke was marketing Pakistani designers abroad, while Sarah already had an establis established client base for her eponymous brand Sarah Raza,” Raza adds. They pooled their talents — Sadaf’s marketing expertise, Ahsan’s finance bac background, Zahra’s sales skills and Sarah’s fashion knowledge — and started their multi-brand store in 2010.

Three yea years on, there is a second outlet in Lahore, and a website that delivers worldwide in three days. While the quartet had set out with p a goal to provide a superior retail experience, they have inadvertently altered the face of luxury retail in Pakistan.

The store works on a rack rental model. A designer can rent out a half or full rac rack, for roughly Rs40,000 per month. For that price, the store provides spa space, publicity, and customer service. The space is not just for A big names. According to L’atelier’s website, “approximately one-third of the brands p present [at the Lahore outlet] were introduced to Lahore for the first time.”

Karachi iis L’atelier’s next stop and then they hope to expand beyond P Pakistan’s shores. But Raza isn’t ready to say where just yet.

5

Imtisal Zafar

Age: 27 Graduated from LUMS, Lahore

In 2006, Bryan Adams was the first major international artist to visit Pakistan in my generation’s living memory. The concert was organized by a major Dubai-based media group. Then came 2007 and everything collapsed. But in 2010, Romanian band Akcent performed in Lahore in a well-attended but low-key concert organised by a fresh LUMS graduate, Imtisal Zafar, and his business partner Arsalan Khan.

“It was quite a challenge to bring such a big artist to the country considering the security and financial constraints,” says Zafar, who had formed an event management company with Khan in 2007, when he was still at college.

“The security condition was terrible and a recession was just setting in,” says Zafar “Most events were being cancelled, due to bombings, and there was no surplus money that companies wanted to spend in order to organize events.”

Today, Verve specialises in corporate events, private and commercial-themed parties; product, outlet and franchise launches; fashion shows, concerts, sports events and weddings. “Here we are, six years later, working with some of the biggest brands in the country,” says Zafar.

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In 2004, siblings Shahrukh and Shahjehan Chaudhry introduced Karachi and Lahore to Home Express, a glossy, classified magazine replete with discount coupons from restaurants, boutiques, parlours, hair dressers and other services. By the time the company was sold in 2010, it had a staff of 30 people. Shahjehan went on to set up Teamants, a dedicated social media and brand development agency, and Shahrukh set up Dealtoday.pk, Pakistan’s answer to the wildly successful Groupon. Contrary to expectations, Dealtoday delivered 43,000 orders in its first year. The platform now has over 12,000 customers and processes 500 orders a day. Dealtoday’s Facebook page has 615,000 followers.

Meanwhile, Shahrukh is also in the planning stages of a travel website, Traveltoday.pk that will provide discounted deals.

Age: 31 Graduate of Institute of Business Management (IoBM), Karachi

Shahrukh Chaudhary

Waqas Ahmed boils down the working dilemma to this: at one end of the spectrum are firms where you work for a monthly salary which is not representative of the value you provide to the company. At the other end are services like Freelancer.com and Elance. com that provide a marketplace for freelancers where they can find work, in return for a large percentage of their earnings. He, therefore, went on to create a free, open source alternative to the existing freelancing marketplaces where clients and freelancers could directly interact, collaborate and finish projects, and nobody had to pay the middleman. The result is Opencource.com.pk.

“My co-founder [Rishadullah Shaikh] and I had been working as freelancers for many years, besides working full-time jobs. On both these jobs, we were at a disadvantage.

We needed a service that could connect freelancers directly with clients and allow them to collaborate,” Ahmed says.

In the technology industry, knowledge trumps money, he insists, adding that they set up without any funding whatsoever. Growing the team and finding clients who ‘get it’ were some challenges. “At some point, startups need funding and investment from angel investors or venture capitalists. We don’t have those in Pakistan, especially not the ones who understand the value of technology,” Ahmed says.

After six months, they have a website and platform, in addition to a network of professionals who work with them. The company has started paying monthly salaries and has secured contracts that can sustain it for the next year. “We want to be the biggest network of freelance developers, designers, writers and artists in Pakistan.”

2

Age: 26 Graduated from IBA

Waqas Ahmed

Pakistan has been in the dark, quite literally, for years. Scores of small firms providing ‘solar solutions’ popped up, but were only importing the panels. Zaid bin Azam decided to venture beyond the family’s textile business, and set up a solar panel manufacturing plant — the first in Pakistan. “We started off as solar installers, but were always dependent on the importers for the panels,” says Zaid, adding that this propelled him to set up a panel manufacturing plant given the untapped market. But then, he discovered that they needed people who would be able to fix them. So his company sent engineers abroad to train them in installing the manufacturing machines, fixing them, making solar panels, and designing complete solutions. A system that can run three fans, four energy savers and an LCD TV for eight to ten hours during load shedding would cost about Rs180,000 to install. Then, you can forget about it for the next three to four years after which, you would simply have to replace the batteries, explains Zaid. “Our biggest challenge is the mindset. We have to make people understand that the days of cheap, abundant electricity are over.”

Age: 26 Graduate of IBA, Karachi

Muhammad Zaid bin Azam

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Saud Ahmed has yet to graduate, but has a string of startups under his belt. “My experience [as an architectural coordinator] at the industrial plant [of a large multinational in 2008 ] sparked my interest in construction and interiors,” says Saud who went on to set up QS Consultants, a small firm that provided one-window solutions to homes and offices for repairs and renovations.

A friend’s contact helped him set up an event management company, Dimensions. Months later, he joined three other friends to set up a 50-table Chinese restaurant in Clifton, The Lantern, which hopes to open a Pakistani counterpart, Laltain, in Dubai or Malaysia. He also recently partnered with a group of Australian friends to set up an online buying platform, Lootlo.pk. “There is one lesson that I live by: to minimise risk, diversify your portfolio.”

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Age: 25 Student at IoBM

Saud Ahmed

Self-employment: the push factors Entrepreneurship is the new buzzword thrown around at seminars, forums, career offices, and in the media. But for those advised to practice it, it is scary. Why would a fresh graduate sacrifice the comfort and perks of a salaried job to start a new business, with a high probability of failure? The answers, it turns out, are several.

Foremost, is the sheer dearth of good quality, well-paying jobs. Second, is the mismatch between skills available and those required. Universities are churning out scores of business, finance, computers and humanities graduates while the job market still largely demands traditional blue-collar workers.

Third, graduates are more demanding. Salaries have not kept up with inflation, which also means they have not kept up with rising university fees. Tertiary education is an investment, and everyone who makes it, expects a return.

A top university graduate who spent over a Rs100,000 per semester, will not settle for a Rs15,000 per month job.

What attracts?

Over-supply, mismatch with demand, and lower returns are factors that push young professionals away from salaried jobs. Independence — financial, intellectual and otherwise — is the strongest pull factor of self-employment. But along with the perk of having one’s own working hours, the ease of starting up and running a business is also attracting wary young professionals into setting up their own enterprises. What has made setting up and running a business easier?

Connectivity, provided by advancements in technology, and low marketing and promotion costs, thanks to social media. Simply put, social media makes business easier to do — whether that’s traditional retail, or new technology-related enterprise. Facebook replaced print media and YouTube television when it came to advertising.

Another key factor is room for innovation that allows for entrepreneurs to be creative, cut costs and drive revenues. Not every business needs an office. Not every restaurant has to be a dine-in affair. Not every PR agency has to be full-service. Not every clothing business needs a fancy boutique. Ease of doing business means there’s more competition, which, in turn, is fueling innovation. New enterprises are like low-cost airlines — specialized, no frills. They provide a particular service, do a brilliant job at it, and rake in a premium until more players enter their specialised arena. It’s competitive, but in a good way, and it’s where the future of millions of 20-year-olds will lie for years to come.

Can entrepreneurship be taught?

Entrepreneurship is not a fad. It’s the future, and Pakistan’s leading institutions have now started to invest in the discipline.

“There was a realisation at IBA that quality jobs are getting more scarce, and that the college would have to equip its students with entrepreneurial skills,” said Jami Moiz, an assistant professor who is associated with the university’s Centre for Entrepreneurial Development (CED). The centre was envisioned 10 years ago, but only recently reached fruition with the establishment of a swanky facility at IBA’s main campus. The college also started a BBA in Entrepreneurship in association with Babson College, which Forbes declared an ‘Entrepreneurial Powerhouse.’

“Babson is the leading American school that believes that entrepreneurship can be taught,” said Moiz, who was one of the faculty members who went to Babson for training, and have set up the programme at IBA upon their return. The first class of BBA Entrepreneurship, comprising 35 students, will graduate in 2015.

The curriculum is exciting. Students are taught the basics of business in the first semester, and are required to come up with an implementable business plan. The business has to be executed in the second semester, with IBA providing the seed money, anywhere between Rs10,000 to Rs100,000.

After running the business for a semester, the students have to liquidate it.

“We want them to go through the full circle of conceiving, planning, setting up, running and wrapping up a business,” said Moiz. The first batch came up with varied ideas — an on-campus eatery; IBA-branded clothing and accessories; customisable, hand-painted canvas shoes. But the most profitable venture was an online trading concern that exported garments to expats in Canada and the UAE. With a start-up capital of Rs20,000, the business made a profit of Rs24,000 in its six months of operation. It was sold to private individuals at the end of the semester.

It’s not just the privileged students at IBA who are learning these valuable skills. An agriculture-specific entrepreneurship development programme, in partnership with the Sindh government, provided similar training to 60 young men and women from rural Sindh. The programme involved four months of teaching, and two months of working with an established entrepreneurial venture. Businesses that came out of this exercise included a mango-processing facility, a chilli-processing business in Kunri, and a birds business that started with two parrots, and now has 128 different birds.

27 JUNE 16-22 2013

American espressos in Abbottabad This sleepy university town is getting mean about the bean

BY SAAD KHAN

28 JUNE 16-22 2013

Coffity

There is much to be said for that sweet, hot 100-rupee milky coffee in a Styrofoam cup during a chilly walk up north. The Nescafé may be just

powdery granule, but the romance of this hot drink more than makes up for what it lacks in taste. For decades vacationing Pakistanis were more than happy with this limited option. But now it seems, they are getting serious about their bean. Welcome to the American espressos of Abbottabad.

The hill station, made recently infamous for hosting a rather unwanted guest, is a popular tourist spot. The pine-filled valley is also renowned for its top-notch universities and military brass. It is generally cold 10 months of the year and thus tends to be a slightly sleepy student town. But the arrival of a handful of coffee shops is slowly changing its culture.

Regular coffee

Rs180

Espresso single shot

Rs80

Espresso double shot

Rs150

Slice of cake

Rs150

Gloria Jean’s Coffees Regular coffee

Rs250

Espresso single shot

Rs150

Espresso double shot

Rs240

Slice of cake

Rs200

Pipeline Coffee Shop Regular coffee

Rs250

Espresso single shot

Rs200

Coffity is run by a couple who moved to Abbottabad from Lahore.

As with most pioneers in a frontier town, need is the mother of invention. Software developer Sohaib and his wife Sadia moved to Abbottabad from Lahore as doctors advised the climate would be better for their son, eightyear-old Harris. “Moving to another city from a Lahore is always a challenging experience, especially if you are a foodie and used to what Lahore has to offer,” says Sohaib.

“I spent my last two days in Lahore filling up on [my last of its] food and coffee.”

As they had dreaded, Sohaib and Sadia found upon their arrival that Abbottabad only had instant mix to offer. For espresso-drinker Sohaib, this created a near state of emer-

gency. Sadia said that if they wanted good coffee they’d have to do something about it themselves.

Thus, Coffity (coffee and tea), billed at Abbottabad’s first dedicated coffee shop, opened in February 2010. As luck would have it, the cappuccino-starved couple stumbled upon the well-located new Jadoon Plaza in Phase 2 which even had proper parking. “We immediately rented two [shops] and had to settle for the first floor as the ground floor was all gone by then,” says Sadia.

They started with a low-cost interior design because they weren’t entirely sure the business would even take off. The couple had been practicing on small home-use

29 JUNE 16-22 2013

Pipeline Coffee Shop opened in Doona Gali in the summer of 2012.

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espresso machines and a Black & Decker worth Rs30,000.

They hooked up to a supply of Arabica and Robusta, added free wifi as an attraction and were good to go.

The initial offerings were mainly home-baked cakes, some blended drinks and coffee, using semi-automatic machines as it was hard to get a barista. “It was a very tough job for me,” says Sadia, who had to do all the baking, manage the shop and look after her son.

But they found that espresso was popular. “Espresso drinkers discover[ed] us and [were] pleasantly surprised to find real coffee in Abbottabad,” says Sohaib. Army officers tend to like black coffee and, according to Sohaib, espresso is thus their biggest seller.

As Abbottabad is a tiny market, Coffity didn’t experience exponential growth, but business was steady enough to stay open with almost 50 to 60 customers a day. Three years on they have doubled their size, completely redone the interior, upgraded to a proper Italian coffee machine and a small baking team.

They now offer a range of desserts from Death by Chocolate to cinnamon rolls and even New York cheesecake.

Their savoury line is constantly experimenting with pizza, calzones and paninis, but it is their coffee that has developed the cult following of students.

It was then only a matter of time for one of the global chains to reach Abbottabad. Gloria Jean’s Coffees, which first opened in Lahore in 2007, reached Abbottabad in July 2012. “I never thought it would be such a great opening for us,” remarks Hamza Tarakai, a 20-something who now runs the team for the company that bought the franchise rights, Food Express. “It actually surpassed our expectations and got people out of their homes.” Their baristas are trained to produce espressos and even Ristressos. “Juggling cups and beans and extracting that perfect shot is all part of the challenge,” says Tarakai.

But if you want a slightly mom-and-pop experience, you’ll have to take a 45-minute drive north-east of AbbotJUNE 16-22 2013

Army officers tend to like black coffee which is why our espresso has been a best seller Sohaib, owner of Coffity, the first coffee shop in Abbottabad, a military garrison town

tabad to reach the Pipeline Coffee Shop in Doonga Gali.

Anis, a practicing dentist, and his wife Abida, named it after a walking track it is located off.

“It was my husband’s idea to convert our garage into a coffee shop,” says Abida. They opened the 15-seat spot in June 2012 with the help of an architect friend. “We thought that if it won’t run well we’d convert it back into a garage!”

Abida uses a basic oven and appliances and makes the coffee and bakes the cakes. They buy bags of Green Bean Coffee from Islamabad, after they are imported from South Africa. But it has done so well that this year the couple redecorated with a yellow theme. They even acquired a better range of equipment, including a heavy duty Ottima Espresso Coffee machine.

“I wish I had started it some 30 years back, when I was younger and newly married,” says Abida. “But it’s never too late to start something new.”

AFGHAN MISSION

Film-maker Alka Sadat in 2010

IMPOSSIBLE

Down from 20 a year, the handful of Afghan films produced today are screened in wedding tents as the cinemas have been destroyed

BY PEER MUHAMMAD

There was a flicker of hope for Afghan film-making with an Academy Award nomination for Buzkashi Boys last year, even though it wasn’t an entirely indigenous work. But today the reality is that Pakistani, Indian, English and Iranian movies are more successful in Afghan cinemas than work produced at home.

“I am a cinema-lover but the curse of war took away everything from us; now with a broken heart I don’t want to work in the theatre anymore,” says Afghan film director Mamnoon Maqsoodi, who spends his time teaching at the university in Kabul or on the radio. This is a far cry from the work he did after shooting to fame 19 years ago for acting in the film Da Kondi Zoi (Son of a Widow).

“It was during the time of the Mujahideen that the film in-

dustry started moving towards crisis and the Taliban proved to be the last nail in the coffin,” says Maqsoodi, who spent a decade in Pakistan’s Peshawar in self-exile. “Not only were the cinemas destroyed, but the artists were either killed, or fled the country or became old like me.”

When the Taliban took power, reels of film were burnt on the streets and actors and singers were murdered. According to Dr Atef Samer, a pop and classical musician, women singers were the prime target. Many of the popular voices such as Farzana Naz, Aryana Sayeed and Naghma continue to live abroad due to security threats, only to return to their country to perform at concerts.

Although Maqsoodi returned to Kabul from Peshawar, many others remained behind. They were not persuaded by 31 JUNE 16-22 2013

FEATURE the possibilities for growth offered by the government and rightfully so, as it failed to provide financial or technical support to the film industry as earlier promised. With the bulk of inspiring seasoned filmmakers absent from the scene, the next generation of young entertainers found themselves alone.

“As young artists in Afghanistan, we don’t have the opportunities and resources, that are available to artists in other parts of the world,” explains filmmaker, Alka Sadat. Despite the threat to women in the industry she has worked on 16 documentaries. Half Value Life, 1,2,3?, After 35 years and Kabul Sea have even earned her best director and best film awards at several international festivals.

Ten to 20 Pakistani Pashto films and an equal number of Indian ones run in Afghan cinemas, squeezing out indigenous fare Sadat sums up the urgency of having indigenous filmmakers: they are able to accurately portray a people who are too often viewed through coloured lenses. “We Afghan artists focus on both sides of the personality,” she says, adding that she is critical of the way foreigners tend to offer impoverished depictions of Afghan women in particular.

In her work she tries to counter this. Take Half Value Life, for example, which captures the life of Mrya Basher, the first woman in Afghanistan to have become a senior provincial investigative officer.

And then, Sadat argues that Afghan film-makers are needed simply to provide entertainment. “Most of our films deal with issues of security and war that may be of interest to foreigners but Afghans now want to watch fun movies,” she says. They are fed up of war.

But while the government has tried to help when it 32 comes to shooting films, it needs to loosen the purse JUNE 16-22 2013

Women singers were the prime target of the Taliban.

Farzana Naz, Aryana Sayeed and Naghma continue to live abroad Dr Atef Samer, a pop and classical musician

Not only were the cinemas destroyed, but the artists were either killed, or fled the country or became old like me Afghan film director Mamnoon Maqsoodi

Singer Aryana Sayeed left Afghanistan at a very young age.

Most of our films deal with issues of security and war that may be of interest to foreigners but Afghans now want to watch fun movies Documentary-maker Alka Sadat

The Afghan government’s prime focus is security and that’s why the film and entertainment industry has remained [ignored] The director for the Afghan Film organisation, Muhammad Ibrahim Arify

Even if funds do come in from abroad or from donor agencies, they are reserved for artists in Kabul Jalalabad-based film director Amir Talash

With impending civil war, Naghma left for Pakistan in 1992. strings. “Even if funds do come in from abroad or from donor agencies, they are reserved for artists in Kabul,” retorts Jalalabad-based film director Amir Talash, who has starred in Be Imaan (Faithless) and Te Zema Ye (You are Mine). According to him, Jalalabad produced the greatest number of Pashto films, 20 to 25 films annually before the Taliban destroyed the only two cinemas in the city. The number has now come down to only two to three films a year. “When we produce a new film, there is no proper cinema to screen it. We screen films either at wedding halls or in tents and that is the reason why people aren’t interested in watching films anymore,” he maintains, holding the government responsible for never rebuilding the two cinemas.

For whatever it is worth though, the government argues that its main priority is security — and not necessarily supporting the arts at this moment in time. Nonetheless, the director for the state-backed company overseeing the national

film industry, the Afghan Film organisation, Muhammad Ibrahim Arify, was optimistic that two cinemas would be built in Kabul within a year. Out of the 18 cinemas in Kabul, only four have been reopened to the public.

Additionally, while only one film was made last year, the government has tasked Arify’s department with making at least 12 films by the end of 2013. He feels six is a more realistic goal given the funding. To help pay, Pakistani and Iranian cinemas have come forward to collaborate and Turkish, French and German cinemas are expected to follow suit.

But if the government is paying for the films it also means it is dictating their focus. This is why the theme is supposed to be peace and national harmony. These limitations might not appeal to independent film-makers.

The government is also keen to see film-makers return.

Arify is heartened that Maqsoodi is already back in Kabul as is director Sadiq Barmak who had also left for Pakistan. Now all they need to do is find a way to get back to work. T 33 JUNE 16-22 2013

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The grand prize! It’s time for the stars of architecture to walk the runway. Peter Zumthor

was crowned The Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2009 and was singled out by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2013. Renzo Piano should be proud of his special mention at the French Prix d’architecture de l’Équerre d’argent (Silver T-square Prize) in 2012.

In the meantime, the French Global Awards is looking for its laureates. And last but not least, once every three years, the Aga Khan Development Network offers the world another point of view.

From skyscrapers to vernacular architecture, from the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban to the Indonesians Rumah Asuh and Yori Antar... without a doubt the Aga Khan award for architecture offers the widest range imaginable. And on April 30 it announced its shortlist of 20 projects for this year. The current prize fund totals one million dollars and is presented to projects selected by an independent master jury. The final announcement will be made 36 in the Autumn.

JUNE 16-22 2013

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The Aga Khan Award for Architecture shortlists 20 works in places with significant Muslim populations

BY JEAN-PHILIPPE HUGRON AND TRANSLATED BY CATERINA GROSSO

1: Maria Grazia Cutuli Primary School in Afghanistan.

2: Reconstruction of Nahr el-Bared Refugee Camp, Tripoli, Lebanon.

3: The Islamic Cemetery in Austria.

4: Preservation of the conical huts in Mbaru Niang, Wae Rebo Village, Indonesia.

5: Rehabilitation of Tabriz Bazaar in Iran.

3 What is different about the award, founded in 1977, is that it tries to “identify and encourage building concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of societies in which Muslims have a significant presence”. And so, the jury can unanimously award the rehabilitation of a fort, the revitalisation of a downtown area or even a bridge. As the director of the award, Farrokh Derakhshani, puts it, the choices of 2013 mark the importance of “the impact of buildings and public spaces on the quality of life”.

There is also, of course, the strong ambition to show the vitality of some countries that do not come to the media’s attentions.

And so, one of the projects to be shortlisted this year, was a residential building in Mahallat, 200km south-east from Tehran. “The majority of Mahallat’s economy is engaged in the business of cutting and treating stone, over half of which is discarded due to inefficiencies in stone-cutting technology,” says a note on the AKDN website. “This project turns the inefficiency to economic and environmental advantage by reusing leftover stones for both exterior and some interior walls, and has led to the increasing adoption of stone recycling by local builders.” The project has thus set a real example for local builders.

In Indonesia, it was a project of thatched conical houses in ‘worok’ wood and bamboo that drew the attention of the jury. “A group of young Indonesian architects in the habit of touring a part of Indone- 37 JUNE 16-22 2013

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6 sia each year arrived to find four of the last surviving examples of these houses, two of which were in need of renovation,” notes the awards committee.

But the building skills, having traditionally been handed down, from generation to generation, had faded from memory. “The architects initiated and facilitated a community-led revival of traditional techniques, enabling all the original houses to be rebuilt.” The intention of renewing the ancient ‘savoir faire’ is certainly a noble one Other projects are strongly more political; among these is the reconstruction of a refugee camp hosting 27,000 people built in Tripoli, Lebanon, in 1948, which “was 97% destroyed during the war in 2007”.

And so is the building of a girls-only school in Herat, Afghanistan, at the Iranian-Turkish border.

The Museum of Paper museum in Gaoligong, China, offers another occasion for the foundation to remember that the region is “an area of significant Muslim presence”. A message doubtlessly addressed to the authorities in Beijing.

Finally a school in Kigali, Rwanda, has been shortlisted and that too a choice for a country that is mainly Catholic and Protestant, unlike its neighbours.

Twenty projects, known and unknown names, all different from one another. This list of running works is a snapshot of the architectural scene and of the world as it is.

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8 6: Thula Fort Restoration, Thula, Yemen.

7: Nagaur Fort in India was fixed up with materials and construction methods of an earlier era.

8: The Museum of Handcraft Paper in Gaoligong, China.

9: Preservation of Sacred and Collective Oasis Sites, Guelmim Region, Morocco.

10: An apartment building in Mahallat, Iran using leftover stones.

11: Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, Damascus, Syria.

12: The Met Tower, Bangkok, Thailand.

THIS PIECE APPEARED IN LE COURRIER DE L’ARCHITECTE ON MAY 29. THE ORIGINAL HEADLINE WAS ‘AGA KHAN, LA POLITIQUE ET SON PRIX’.

THE TRANSLATION HAS BEEN EDITED FOR CLARITY. JUNE 16-22 2013

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BOOKS

Bonds, breaking and re-building

Khaled Hosseini’s new work examines the family unit against the backdrop of a nation

BY ZARMINA RAFI

One of the most compelling images in Khaled Hosseini’s new novel comes early on: loving siblings, twoyear old Pari and her older brother, Abdullah, make their way across the desert from the fictional village of Shadbagh to Kabul with their father, Saboor. Upon reaching Kabul their worlds are changed forever.

Pari is given away and the reader is hooked. Will the two siblings ever meet again? Will Pari find the yellow feather her brother has painstakingly acquired for his sister’s prized collection of feathers?

As time passes, Abdullah continues to pine for his sister but Pari under the spell of her adoptive mother, Afghan-French temptress, Nila Wahdati, is whisked to places of her mother’s choosing. Decades later in the narrative we experience similar heartbreak over the rupture of separation when Saboor’s youngest son, Iqbal comes home from Jalozai. The place where once the sweetest grapes grew has been razed and a “narco palace” has been built on top of his ancestral home. Pari and Abdullah are eventually re-united but not before they travel various parts of the world and meet with other pairs of characters: friends and siblings, cousins and strangers, masters and caretakers, all of whom define how family may be shaped and re-shaped.

With this novel, Hosseini attempts at a sweeping tale covering the continents of Europe, the Americas and Asia. However, the storytelling is at its best when the narrative is grounded in Afghanistan. Most interesting of the peripheral narrative arcs is the camaraderie between the teenagers Adel and Gholam, but their friendship is short-lived as each is essentially his father’s son. Their relationship highlights inter-Afghan relations between exploiter and exploited. Beautifully rendered is the story of Nabi and his employer, Suleiman Wahdati, for whom Nabi becomes not only the household driver but also a caretaker, a companion and a partner of sorts. While some of the peripheral arcs seem to digress from the central narrative, this is a novel of absences and of reconstructions. Just as Pari’s exclusion from her father’s home creates a void for her siblings, Thalia’s face being bitten off by a dog leaves behind only the suggestion of a face. Roshi’s face disfigured by her uncle allows Hosseini to address not only Taliban-spearheaded violence but also domestic violence. Second generation Afghan-Americans, Timur and Idris, are borne out of Hosseini’s own experiences as an Afghan returning home after a long hiatus in the West. Overall the book engages both in the range of storytelling and in the core examination of the bonds of siblinghood.

Postcards from the edge A Fort of Nine Towers

by Qais Akbar Omar (2013)

As homes were looted and rockets launched in Kabul during the Afghan civil war, Qais and his family were forced to take shelter in the abandoned Qila-e-Noborja.

Narrated by Qais, this is a brave coming-of-age memoir. It is a story of living through personal and political hardship but emerging stronger and more determined in the end.

40 JUNE 16-22 2013

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood

by Marjane Satrapi (2003) Persepolis is a graphic novel in which Satrapi recounts growing up in Iran during the Islamic revolution from ages six to 14. With a wonderfully precocious way of looking at the world, Satrapi’s book is not only humourous but also points to a society under transformation in which public life and private life are performed quite separately from each other.

A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan

by Nelofer Pazira (2005) Pazira is an AfghanCanadian film-maker and journalist. This memoir documents her life and that of her family in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the late 1970s, their crossing over to Pakistan and later being given refugee status in Canada. Post 9/11, Pazira returns to Afghanistan in search of her childhood friend, Dyana.

The secret lives of teenagers

Tanzila Khan takes up the challenge of writing young adult fiction in Pakistan

BY ZAINAB GARDEZI

Remember this story?

Two decades ago 11-year-old Nayantara Noorani became the author of children’s fiction

When Tanzila Khan and her friends would watch Hillary Duff in the show Lizzie McGuire, they yearned for her adventure-filled life. The next best thing, figured Tanzila, who has had to use a wheelchair all her life, was to create stories full of adventures.

Tanzila, now 22, started writing when she was 16. Her first novella A Story of Mexico was published by Topical in 2008. She kept at it and Ilqa Publications has just backed her latest foray into young adult fiction: The Perfect Situation — Sweet Sixteen. And even though Tanzila was initially inspired by Lizzie McGuire, she realised that she had to write something closer to home as the cultural divide between Lizzie’s lifestyle and life here in Pakistan was too great. The Perfect Situation seeks to bridge that gap and inspire teenagers here to live fulfilling and entertaining lives.

The book is set in Lahore where Tanzila grew up. Javayria Khan or ‘Jay’ is approaching her 16th birthday. In an attempt to be the perfect teenager, Jay attempts to take charge of her life and get everything right down to a T. She strives to be the embodiment of perfection for the sake of her future, all the while strongly believing that the habits and values you pick up at this juncture in your life remain with you forever. She eats healthy and studies hard. Needless to say, everything does not go according to plan.

Young readers will enjoy The Perfect Situation for encapsulating and giving voice to their lives. Tanzila makes you feel the heat in the school canteen and smell the crisp, freshly ironed uniform. You hear the playground ruckus during break and can see in your mind’s eye the “pastry-cheeked” principal.

Tanzila denies that Javayria’s character is autobiographical and only accedes that the fictional teenager might be a “better version” of her. In real life, however, self-improvement appears to be one of Tanzila’s prime motivations. She is the brains behind Creative Alley, a production house that nurtures and promotes Pakistani talent through various forms of art and community work. She is also an activist for education with projects such as ‘I Wish Knowledge,’ affiliated with Global Changemakers (British Council). She has taken an interest in The Ramp Movement that works to improve spatial accessibility for people with limited mobility. She also has to her credit an online counseling facility for Pakistani youth called the Angel Network. T

Twenty-three years ago there was terrible excitement among young readers in Pakistan with the publication of A Dream Come True. For the first time, someone their age had written a book and it had been published by none other than the giant Ferozsons.

That 11-year-old, Nayantara Noorani, may today be an analyst who only prefers to conjure stories for her children or give guest lectures on writing children’s literature in the US and Pakistan, but for those who read her back in 1990, that story lives on forever.

The story of how a seventh grader came to write a book is as fantastical as the work itself.

Ferozsons had approached Nayantara’s mother, a school teacher, to write a children’s book in English. She politely declined, having never done that kind of writing but an ebullient Nayantara took

on the project.

The first chapter was handwritten and eagerly presented to her father. It eventually landed in the hands of Gul Afshan of Ferozsons whose young daughter read it and declared that she wanted to know more.

Nayantara aka Nayna and her sister were voracious readers of Enid Blyton. It is no wonder then, that her book was inspired by the original demigod of children’s fantasy. Nayna had, however, never been to a circus but she still doggedly pursued the story of a girl named Sarah who runs away with one. She befriends another girl her age and is adopted by her parents.

The Noorani family played a part in helping Nayna, whether it was typing on the newly purchased PC, or proof-reading ten pages each. An ‘h’ was added to

Sarah’s name and Nayna had to accept the pet dog Bobo’s death in an accident and not from a poisonous bone, which she was told didn’t exist. Otherwise, the story was hardly edited. a

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Don’t suck it up HEALTH

Karachi’s water has small quantities of the braineating amoeba — here’s how to do wuzu safely

BY MIFRAH HAQ

The ‘brain-eating amoeba’ has claimed its first victims for the season. On May 10, a semi-con-

scious 14-year-old Adeel was brought to Liaquat National Hospital from Korangi with a high fever. He died six days later. Then, 20-year-old Mohsin arrived at the Aga Khan Hospital from New Karachi’s Godhra Colony on May 27. He died the next day.

The symptoms of vomiting and a sudden, inexplicable fever make it easy to ignore the attack and dismiss it as a stomach bug. But as these cases have shown, seizures, coma and death are right around the corner.

THE SYMPTOMS The symptoms can appear within a week of exposure. They include headaches, high fever, loss of appetite, vomiting, blurred vision, loss of smell, stiff neck, hallucinations, fits and coma. The patient usually dies within three to seven days.

It is frightening that this singlecelled organism called Naegleria fowleri works so quickly. Its documented victims have been males between the ages of four and 49 years. There is precious little research on its treatment because it hits so rarely around the world. The reality is, however, that it is living in our water.

Dr Naveed Ahmed Khan and his team at AKU tested 52 samples from several points in Karachi’s water supply and discovered that 8% were infected with N fowleri. “The water is contaminated, no doubt about it,” he says, “But there is no reason to panic.” We just need to take precautions.

While most reported cases have emerged from private hospitals in Karachi, Dr Khan says the situation in villages and unplanned settlements, 42 and even in Punjab where commu-

nal swimming in canals is common, must be terrible. “Hundreds of people must be dying but no one is discovering them,” he says. “Karachi is the only place where we are looking for the infection.”

The amoeba, in its inactive form, is often found in stagnant freshwater, whether in lakes, puddles or water supply lines. When the temperature of the water rises to 45 degrees Celsius, the amoeba grows tentacles that allow it to move on its own.

If this warm, contaminated water enters a person’s nose and hits the roof of the nose it can pass into the brain through the cribriform plate.

The cribriform plate is a piece of perforated bone. It allows tiny nerves to pass through its small holes from the nose’s roof to the brain.

The amoeba thus swims up to the nerves, attracted by the chemicals they produce, and ‘eats’ its way to the brain. It feeds on the nerve cells, one by one, at such an alarming rate that 3. The amoeba attacks the olfactory bulb, leading to inflammation and infection of the brain

2. It attaches itself to the smell-detecting nerves and eats its way up to the brain through the cribriform plate

1. Water carries N fowleri into the nasal cavity

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PATRICK J LYNCH

the victim doesn’t stand a chance.

Precautions need to be taken during the warm months from June to September. A harmless dip in the pool or a lake can prove dangerous.

Interestingly, though, most victims in Pakistan have not had a history of swimming. Doctors are, thus, speculating whether the organism entered their bodies via wuzu.

“Some religiously orthodox people say that you should send water twothirds up the cartilage of the nose,” says ENT specialist Prof Dr Kalimullah Thaheem. “Many force water in and up the nose and bring it out and down the pharynx to clean the area thoroughly.”

Dr Khan recommends instead bringing water close to the nose and sniffing it out instead of inhaling. If you insist on taking the water all the way up, do it gently, ideally with water that has been boiled for three to four minutes.

Wear a nose clip if you go swimming.

Drinking water contaminated by N fowleri doesn’t have the same effect. T