The Express Tribune Magazine - March 30

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

try is n u o c a n y that ra n a dian p n I m n o a c y e b h T now run

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

Feature

Cover Story

Feeding the soul

Postcolonial payback The East India Company is back in business 144 years later

The people of Thar revel in a riot of colour despite the recent famine

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Feature

NO WAY to spell Villages along the Karakoram Highway lose their identity to misspelt nameboards

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26

4

Regulars

6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people

42 Review: The Lego Movie and House of Cards season 2 46 Health: Fat is good

Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Sub-Editors: Dilaira Mondegarian and Zehra Qureshi Creative Team: Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Samra Aamir, Kiran Shahid, Munira Abbas, S Asif Ali & Talha Ahmed Khan Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. Executive Editor: Muhammad Ziauddin. Editor: Kamal Siddiqi For feedback and submissions: magazine@tribune.com.pk Twitter: @ETribuneMag & Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ETribuneMag Printed: uniprint@unigraph.com

PEOPLE & PARTIES Kayseria, in collaboration with Garnier Color Naturals, holds a festival in Lahore

Natasha Hussain

ia Qamar

PHOTOS COURTESY FAISAL FAROOQUI AND HIS TEAM AT DRAGONFLY

uat and Naj

Adeela Liaq

im

Juggun Kaz

Zara Peerzada

Omar Zaman

an

Hamid Zam

6 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES

The Frankenstein Restaurant opens up in Islamabad

Nada Mr and Mrs

Shehzad

Anoushey

Nida

Farwa

8 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

PHOTOS COURTESY NUCLEUS EVENTS & PR

Haroon and

Tanya

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Kamal Lawn launches its spring/summer 2014 collection in Lahore

Amber Gohar and Mishal

uf and Nur

Aisha Yous

PHOTOS COURTESY LOTUS PR

Benazir and Naila

Oberoi

Aniqa and Asma Waqar

Aysha and Maira

an

Amna Usm

10 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES Ali

Momina Malik and Fizza

Seema Sajjad, Ayesha

Mir PHOTOS COURTESY LOTUS PR

Mishel Elahi and Sana

n

Rahim and Zainab Salma

Sonu, Lubna Farhad and

Minahil

Sana Ashraf and Sehr Adnan

a

rium Saqib and Momin

Sundus, Shazia Din, Ma

12 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

PEOPLE & PARTIES Bonanza’s Satrangi launches its spring/summer 2014 collection in Karachi

ani, Natasha noushey Baw

Khalid and

Marium and Yumna

Rana Khan PHOTOS COURTESY TAKEII

A Alicia Dias

Maheen Karim

Alizeh Imtiaz, Khush Momo Pasha and Sara Owais

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PEOPLE & PARTIES The Lahore Polo Club hosts the 2014 Borjan Punjab Polo Cup Final

Afreen and Lubna

a

ela and Nid

Hiba, Hira M

Reema

Hina Rabbani Khar

Rizi Maria and Magdalena

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26 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

BY MAHIM MAHER DESIGN BY MUNIRA ABBAS

The company that ran a country is now run by an Indian I went to the East India Company (EIC) last year... barely able to contain my mirth on the way to its flagship emporium at No. 7 Conduit Street in London. And when an extremely pleasant ‘white’ man served me tea to sample there as I browsed, I nearly fell out of my skin. You will experience such post-colonial glee only once in a lifetime, I told myself as I gingerly sipped from the glass teacup. This ‘native’s’ encounter was further enriched upon learning of a double irony: The East India Company is owned today by — an Indian.

Fifty-year-old businessman Sanjiv Mehta bought the defunct company’s registration in 2005. News of the EIC’s revival made international headlines five years later when he opened its London store, incidentally on the same day the company was shelved 135 years earlier. He told the Financial Times then that, “People are rejoicing because an Indian has bought the EIC — it is a symbol of redemption.”

The EIC emporium is located on Conduit Street, close to the famous toy store Hamleys and a short walk from Oxford Circus. You enter its luxurious crimson and shale interior to encounter wooden caskets and chests spilling over with gourmet delights — the EIC has about 350 luxury food products. Their Poppy cordial, in particular, stands out as a reminder of the vast opium trade that the EIC engaged in to pay for Chinese tea.

For the less naughty there are floral and syrup cordials in the inviting Hibiscus, Violet, Orange Blossom and Mimosa flavours, among others. Tea drinkers can choose from Blend No. 65 pomegranate and lemon, Bombay chai and even Custard Apple ‘Soursop’ leaves, which are just a few of the names. For those with a predilection for hi-tea acrobatics, there is the Thousand Year Red, a green tea bulb woven with the Globe Amaranth Flower which ‘blooms’ when you put it in water.

Each cover of a jar of tea carries the red ‘wax’ seal of the Company’s logo, a heart-shaped figure containing the initials of the company in its three chambers and topped by a figure four. This symbol used to help people identify goods arriving at the ports and was referred to as the ‘chop’, a British linguistic 27 interpretation of our ‘chhaap’ or stamp.

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

Tea accounted for more than 60% of the Company’s total trade in the late 18th century White needle green tea leaves with a vibrant red Globe Aramanth blossoming at its centre for the Thousand Year Red (£10).

PHOTO: EICFINEFOODS.COM

In the East India Company’s London flagship store hundreds of luxury food products are on display, from condiments to coffee. You can buy them online at eicfinefoods.com. PHOTO: TOOBA MASOOD. If you aren’t much of a tea drinker please try the Tiger of Mysore Mocha Mysore Espresso Grind (250g). Perhaps some dark chocolate with red peppercorn might interest you? The prices for the gourmet line range from £3.50 for tea to £15 for coffee.

In a completely other league, though, is the EIC’s return to the bullion trade. In 2012 it started remaking coins to target collectors and connoisseurs. Of course, the Company is famous for bringing the word ‘cash’ into circulation (Tamil ‘Kasu’ for coin) and used to make its own currency, starting in 1677.

Now you can buy an original 1841 Queen Victoria One Mohur Gold coin. It comes with a letter of authenticity, costs 4,500 pounds and there are only four available.

If they are snapped up and you still want to get in on a piece of the action, you may have to wait for the company’s jewellery line which would include pieces inspired 28 by the Mughals.

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

History and future The EIC was created on December 31, 1600, via a royal charter by Queen Elizabeth I, the virgin queen, when she gave 200 merchants a monopoly on trade in South Africa. She died within two years.

Eight years later, the EIC’s ships landed in Surat.

One of the first men to make contact with the Indian rulers, in this case Emperor Jehangir, was a man called William Hawkins, who spoke fluent Turkish. Details of their encounter are spelled out in Anthony Wild’s splendid book, The East India Company: Trade and Conquest from 1600 (Harper Collins and reprinted by the EIC).

Jehangir was so impressed by Hawkins’ ability to speak the language that he found him an Armenian Christian wife and gave him command of 400 cavalry with the title of ‘Khan’ and a huge salary.

A staffer pours a cup of tasting sample. Today, the EIC’s curated tea library offers over 120 varieties.

PHOTO: TOOBA MASOOD

CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

1874

is the year the original East India Company was abolished

(Above) Delicate, flowering teas, such as this rose bud one, gently bloom in hot water to unfold an exquisite bouquet of colours, fragrances and flavours (£10). (Top right) Cordials were famously used throughout the East to add an essence to water or tea and even to flavour sweets. The EIC has eight flavours each bottle priced at £7.95. (Inset) The EIC’s new owner Sanjiv Mehta. PHOTO: BBC (Below) This artisanal black salt (£10) is produced in natural lava pans with the purest of Hawaiian waters. It owes its rich colour and robust flavour to detoxifying charcoal. Next to it is the Murray Darling salt, extracted from Australia’s longest river and uniquely peach-hued salt (£10). PHOTOS: TOOBA MASOOD

The EIC’s focus was spices but it soon caught up with the textile trade which involved cloth such as calico, chintz, muslin and raw silk. What we know today as the famous ‘British’ floral Chintz pattern is actually ‘Indian’.

This fast-dyed cotton emerged in India and the word comes from a Sanskrit word meaning coloured or spotted, according to experts from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that inherited much of these collections. The textiles from India were famous for their stunning red madder dye and violet-blue indigo.

Textiles became so important that the EIC set up factories in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta, which became the company’s main administrative hubs or “presidencies” and “have since developed into the largest cities of modern India,” as Wild notes.

Lingering post-colonial misgivings aside, it would not be fair to ignore that the EIC was instrumental in changing how the world does business. At one point it conducted and controlled 50% of world trade and its influence extended to one-fifth of the world’s population. The company’s jewel-toned website says, quite aptly: “The East India Company’s employees did not set out to change the world. They were people who set sail to establish trade routes, to discover and bring back new goods, and in doing so broke down the barriers of the world.”

Refreshingly, though, the website also says that the people who ran the Company — explorers, traders, innovators — took risks, broke new ground and “sometimes got it wrong”. This indicates that its new managers are

29 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

COVER STORY A chintz dress, fabric from Coromandel Coast, India (1779-1780).

SOURCE: V&A MUSEUM

The Koh-i-Noor diamond was confiscated at the conclusion of the Sikh war, writes Anthony Wild in his book that the EIC reprinted. It is now part of the Crown jewels. “John Lawrence, with admirable otherworldliness, tucked it into a waistcoat pocket, and promptly forgot about it. His valet saved him his subsequent embarrassment when Queen Victoria enquired about it, recalling that she had seen a piece of glass in his master’s pocket. The Company had wanted to keep the diamond to pay for the war, but the Governor General, Lord Dalhousie, had promised that it would ‘find its final and fitting resting place in the crown of Britain’.”

India was alien to the concept of cutting and faceting stones before the Company’s time. Jewels were crudely rounded off as seen in the rubystudded gold Mughal spoon below.

30 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

not pretending as if the EIC’s history of slavery, colonialism and oppression is something they can simply sweep under the carpet.

One wrong, for example, was ruling large parts of India from 1757.

But there are many other documented wrongs. When drought struck Bengal in 1769, the Company raised taxes and refused to intervene; as many as seven million died in the resulting famine, reports Nick Robins in his book, The Corporation That Changed the World: How the East India Company Shaped the Modern Multinational (Pluto Press, 2006). Hypocrisy and double-standards are some of the lesser sins. “Tea would become the Company’s commercial swansong,” writes Robins. “But this glamorous trade rested on a deadly secret: its growth was paid for by the mass smuggling of opium from the Company’s Indian territories into China.” And of course, then was the use of force. Its private army took over the bulk of the subcontinent.

In 1757, the EIC’s private army defeated the Nawab of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey. A puppet ruler was installed and this was the turning point at which historians have generally felt the British Empire in India was created. Its end was marked by an uprising in 1857-58, which we know as the First War of Independence in India. On June 1, 1874, the company ceased to exist.

Local craftsmen quickly responded to the requirements of the English merchants living in India. The metal bidri ware hookah bowl was not a significant export item but was appreciated by the Company employees who had taken up smoking the hookah.

FUN FACTS 1. The benefactor after whom Yale University is named, Elihu Yale, worked at The East India Company and worked his way up to become governor of Fort Saint George, Company’s installation at Madras.

2. In 2008, the UK scrapped laws on the East India Company because it had shut during the 19th Century.

3. The city of Singapore was established by the EIC. 4. Words like calico, dungarees, gingham, khaki, pyjama, sash, seersucker, shawl, are all Indian-inspired because of the EIC trade. It also involved nainsooks, sassergates, alliballies, humhums, jamdanies.

5. Charles II had acquired Bombay which he leased to the EIC in 1668 for an annual rent of 10 pounds. Its name comes from the Portuguese ‘Bom Bahia’ or beautiful bay.

6. By 1857, the EIC had 43 warships and 273 European officers.

7. Punch was a favourite with the Company’s employees in India. The word is from the Hindi/Urdu‘Panch’ meaning five. This refers to the five ingredients then used in the drink: tea, arrack, sugar, lemons and water.

8. The word factory originally meant an East India Company trading station.

The word factory comes from factor: A factor was a Company buyer/ seller. Staff were promoted by grades: writer, factor, junior and senior merchant.

9. The word ‘Posh’ comes from ‘Port Outward Starboard Home’. It originated in the days of The East India Company’s ships departing from the UK for the Indian Ocean. The Port or left side of the ship’s cabins faced east and received the sun (plus the coastal view). The opposite was true on the return trip.

(Top left) Tipu’s Tiger, one of the most popular exhibits at the Company’s museum in Leadenhall Street, London. You can now see it at the Nehru Gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum, which inherited many of its Indian exhibits from the Company.

A reverse view of Tipu’s Tiger, showing the organ keyboard carved into its side.

Tipu, Sultan of Mysore, was the most powerful threat to British hegemony in southern India in the late 18th century, says Wild.

(Top right) A spectacular pawn from a Company chess set. As it is a white piece, this elephant is ridden by a sahib and his wife. Chess was invented in India in the sixth century AD. Special ‘Company’ sets were commissioned from local ivory craftsmen, featuring the Company soldiers in white and those of the Maharajas stained red: such sets are rare now, and much sought after by collectors.

(Left) V&A map of British possessions in India in 1857.

It is safe to say that reviving the company 144 years later probably doesn’t open any wounds. But given its pivotal role in shaping the trajectory of India and Pakistan, do people react badly to bringing it back? Sanjiv Mehta told the BBC that he had received 15,000 emails of support from Indians. And while we no longer live in a time when companies can take

over countries, as I left the emporium with a small blue tin box (which was all I could afford), I couldn’t help but muse: imagine the East India Company ruling England today. T Mahim Maher is an editor at The Express Tribune.

She tweets @Mahim_Maher Images courtesy: The East India Company: Trade and conquest from 1600

31 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

FEATURE Mithi, the capital of Tharparkar’s district, is located roughly 122km from Umerkot.

Drive 10 minutes from Mithi and you encounter the villages encircling the city. The first village that falls on the route from Mithi is Jageh jo Thar and even though it is the first day of Holi, the children’s hands and faces are clean — they have not been able to buy any coloured powder yet.

Feeding

the soul The people of Thar revel in a riot of colour despite the recent famine OUR CORRESPONDENT PHOTOS BY TOOBA MASOOD

34 MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

While Mithi and Umerkot are dotted with stalls or encampments offering relief goods, it is here in the villages that the headlines are made. On March 7, 2014, it was announced that 121 people had died due to malnutrition here since December. Amidst a flurry of official and unofficial reports, the Mithi taluka hospital said nearly 32 children had died in the month of February alone and five children had succumbed to malnutrition within the first week of March. The Tharparkar district, home to 1.5 million people, has four other talukas, including 2,000 villages spread across the largest desert region in Pakistan — the effects of drought across this area still unknown.

As the provincial government turned its gaze to the desert region, official death tolls swiftly plummeted and officials denied that malnourishment was leading to deaths here. “It will be wrong to say that all the deaths were caused by food deficiency and a shortage of wheat,” said Information Minister Sharjeel Memon, as official reports cited sepsis, blood infections, pneumonia, asphyxia and premature births — not food deficiency or malnutrition — as the cause of death.

On the day the news broke, the National Disaster Management Authority chairman, Saeed Aleem,

Sohni has lived in Jageh jo Thar, a village 10 minutes from Mithi, since she was born.

A girl’s school is under construction in the village. Girls and boys currently attend classes together, but residents of the village say they are often out of school as the three teachers employed here skip classes.

Villagers in Jageh jo Thar make their living primarily from selling firewood and leaves or plants utilised in fodder.

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FEATURE

You won’t be able to tell here which one is a Muslim home and which one is a Hindu home Mandir caretaker Ghansham Das Waghani

The entrance to the Shiv mandir in Umerkot district. The mandir is the largest of hundreds of temples located in the district.

Ghansham Das Waghani, who has maintained the Shiv mandir for nearly 30 years, says nearly

36 1,000 women had celebrated Holi at the temple over the two days.

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

said that there was no confirmation of a severe famine in the area and a report by the National Drought Management Centre in January indicated that a ‘mild drought’ was being experienced in Cholistan, Tharparkar, Sukkur and Khairpur. Officials explained that drought-like conditions preceded the annual migration of Tharis to other areas of Sindh as they waited out a dry spell in September and March. Timing here is crucial as parts of the Tharparkar region did not receive monsoon rain in July and August, while other areas received sporadic rainfall. And so, while the provincial government declares the area as drought affected by mid-August every year, the announcement this year was delayed from August 2013 till February 28, 2014. While there has been no rainfall in the district since November, none was expected in the near future either.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department confirmed that Thar was experiencing weather drier by 30% this year, categorising the situation as a socio-economic disaster, not a drought.

As the government focuses its energy on the provision of relief goods and medical treatment, the residents of Thar soldier on despite these challenging conditions.

On the first day of Holi, celebrations in Umerkot district kick off with young couples encircling pooja paths — offerings of agarbattis, diyas, coconuts, flowers and pictures of Lord Krishna — in the narrow lanes of their neighbourhoods, marking their first season of spring together. While the women gather in the courtyards of larger houses or on the rooftops of their homes, the men take to the streets. Hoses spray stream after stream of fuchsia coloured water, and a fine mist of glitter and coloured powder coats every surface.

The celebrations spill over into the next day as locals make their way to Shiv mandir, the oldest temple in a district of nearly 100 mandirs.

Ghansham Das Waghani, who has maintained the mandir for 30 years claims that this year’s drought in Tharparkar has not dampened celebrations in the district’s headquarters. “Our celebrations grow by the year,” he says. “I remember when I was a boy, maybe 200 people would celebrate Holi and perform pooja in three or four spots in Umerkot.

But now you’ll find celebrations in each lane.” He says the people of the mandir receive a lot of protocol on religious occasions and at least 40 to 50 police officials are deputed for security on such days. “You won’t be able to tell here which one is a Muslim home and which one is a Hindu home,” he boasts. In the villages, however, a small black half-moon and dot marks the foreheads of some of the little girls, distinguishing them from the Muslim girls in their villages.

The mirth on the faces of the young and old alike temporarily erases the crisis that has befallen on these people, and you can’t help but wonder how long before they are forgotten again. T

Some of the girls in the villages near Mithi are distinguished from the Muslim girls by a small dot and crescent on their foreheads.

Locals in the Raama Peecho area of Umerkot celebrate Holi. The women stick to the mandirs or gather in the courtyards of large houses in their neighbourhoods.

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FEATURE

NO WAY to spell Villages along the Karakoram Highway lose their identity to misspelt nameboards that paint over their history and cultural heritage

BY AZIZ ALI DAD PHOTOS BY ADIL KARIM DESIGN BY ASIF ALI

Incorrect pronunciations can be jarring but misspelt names are offensive — especially when the identity of a town rests on it.

The July 2008 expansion of the strategic Karakoram Highway (KKH) has forced dozens of villages sprawled along the Khunjerab-Raikote section of KKH to surrender their pride to the glaringly misspelt nameboards that announce their existence.

Despite conducting the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) — mandated by the Environmental Protection Agencies (EPAs) set up in Pakistan in 1993 as a consequence of the natural resource depletion after the highway’s construction in 1978 — the project has endangered the history 40 and culture of the region.

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

The completion of the first phase of the project covering 335km from Raikote Bridge up to Khunjerab, although laudable, has left many villagers distraught with the National Highway Authority’s (NHA) delinquency. Mujeebur Rahman, an assistant professor at Karakoram International University (KIU), says, “The NHA has done a commendable job by expanding and upgrading the highway, however, its efforts are marred by sheer negligence in the naming of villages along the highway. It also shows its indifference to local culture and history.” And while the error may be limited to shuffling or omission of alphabets, its consequences extend far beyond faulty nameboards explains Rahman.

“It confuses foreign tourists and visitors to the region (the Karakoram) who came here not only for its natural sceneries but also to learn about cultural diversity and the historical heritage of Gilgit-Baltistan.”

Names of villages in Gilgit, for example, reflect human interaction and contact with the surrounding geography. They contain traces of the past and often provide anthropological cues to historians and anthropologists, which makes their correct documentation an absolute must.

By turning Jutal into ‘Juata’, the village which derived its name for being a grassland is lost in translation. Similarly, turning Juglot into ‘Gaglot’, Khanabad, which originated when the king of Hunza, Nazeem Khan, declared the land free, into ‘Khanbad’, Thalichi into ‘Thalchi’, Parri Bangla, derived from the first development in the area, Dak Bangla, a place to stay, into ‘Parri Bhagla’ and Grall into an inventive ‘Garlet’, the authorities have twisted the meanings behind the names.

Borith Lake, to the northwest of Husseini, a village near Gulmit, in upper Hunza has been reduced to ‘Borith Laek’ on its nameboard and village names that take the suffix ‘abad’ have been completely deprived of it. For instance, Murtazabad is written as ‘Murtaza’, Sikandarabad as ‘Sikander’ and Jaffarabad as ‘Jaffar’. And these are still minor errors when compared with the entire renaming of the Baltit Fort in Hunza to ‘Hunzan Kingplace’.

In some instances, it has been speculated that the misspelt names have cropped up due to their Chinese pronunciation. Since 85% of the project was funded by China, their direct involvement in the project could have

Borith Lake

Juglot village

Jaffarabad village

perhaps resulted in the naming anomalies. According to an NHA official, since the nameboards were spelled by the Chinese, the incorrect names were a result of their distinctive accent. He also assured that the boards will soon be taken down.

Along with misspelt names, authorities have overlooked many significant landmarks. “Despite the presence of numerous historical and other prominent sites, like the rock inscriptions of Haldikish, site of the Anglo-Hunza war, Bhoop Sing Padi, confluence point of three mighty mountain ranges etc, the company has completely ignored these,” says Rahat Karim Baig, assistant director tourism. According to him, such mistakes can be avoided in the future by involving the tourism department.

“Such blunders can be avoided by involving local communities in the overall project plan and consulting tehsil officials and documents in the local administration,” says Wajahat Ali, a conservation architect. “But it seems that the

Baltit Fort

company working on the KKH has relied more on guides for naming. As a result, we see the highway peppered with incorrect names.” When KKH was completed in the ’70s, the area was cut off from modern means of communication and deprived of advanced technologies. To work around this, authorities had hired individuals with good handwriting to complete the task of chiseling town names on milestones that were later painted over in black. The task was completed with visibly fewer mistakes, if any.

Currently as the boards stand in their upgraded form, the odds of finding one with the correct spelling are close to impossible. For some villages, they seem to be missing completely. And while the blatant errors are noticed by commuters along the highway, they have managed to slip past the watchful eyes of the authorities.

Aziz Ali Dad is a social scientist from Gilgit.

He can be contacted at azizalidad@gmail.com

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FILM

OUTSIDE THE In the digital age, there may still be place for brightly coloured building blocks

BY SCHAYAN RIAZ

Think back to when you used to play with Lego bricks — chances are that you don’t remember the very first time. Now, with the arrival of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s bizarre but beautiful The Lego Movie, your first viewing shall remain etched in your memory forever.

With its array of bankable pop-culture references and glorious visual trickery to keep the little ones entertained, The Lego Movie is an out-and-out winner, but the real key to its success is entertaining the grown-ups too, the people who have paid for the tickets.

This film, which has breathed life into characters lifted from popular films with the aid of a Danish toy manufacturing giant, has a narrative heavily inspired by The Matrix which evoked a lot of initial skepticism. But somehow, the makers have managed to miraculously make this film funny and clever enough, without any guilt on the viewer’s part.

Emmet (Chris Pratt) is an average construction-site worker, who sees the world through rose-tinted glasses. Everything is Awesome 42 is the song he plays on a loop where he lives MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

and works and the irony is lost on nobody — while the song is clearly awesome and catchy, nothing else is. Emmet’s fellow men, or rather fellow bricks, are all living a meaningless existence, blindly following orders by Lord Business (Will Ferrell).

When Emmet notices the mysterious Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) at his construction site, he follows her and from then on his life changes completely. Emmet is thrust into a world that, it seems, has been cooked up by a child given free rein to assemble a userdefined Lego set at his or her will. Batman, Superman, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Potter and Han Solo are just some of the many characters featured in the ensuing narrative. Some cameos are wittily blink-and-miss, which is just as well, as The Lego Movie demands repeat viewings. Liam Neeson’s bad cop/good cop routine alone is worth the price of admission. It’s the film’s highlight; a note-perfect performance that outdoes any action film the Irish actor has done in the past few years.

As far as Emmet is concerned, he is fulfilling a quasi-prophesy from Vitruvius (Morgan

Freeman), a wizard who blabbed something in the film’s prologue about a certain ‘Special’, who will prevent Lord Business from using a dodgy-looking super weapon called the ‘Kragle’ (a superglue, which will render the Lego figures immobile). What that really means is where the film falters slightly. Lord and Miller turn their climax into an anticlimactic affair, trying too hard to convey the core message with Brechtian techniques that feel a bit patchy. It’s not terrible, but the scene’s enjoyment depends on how much thought parents put in building their kids’ toys.

The film feels like a whole-hearted Lego endorsement throughout, but our world and the times we live in have ingeniously been tackled head on by corporatism itself. In the end it all comes together though, as smooth as two interlocking Lego blocks, with Emmet’s robotic superficiality being replaced by a profound sense of self belief.

Rating: Schayan Riaz is a Germany-based writer who loves cinema. He tweets @schayanriaz

TV

Of Matadors and Men There is no winning hand when you play the Underwoods

BY ZINNIA BUKHARI

Season two is all about our favourite antihero Frank Underwood’s unchallenged ascent to power. Once Zoe Barnes is literally pushed out of the way, the viewer knows exactly how the season will end — with Frank becoming the most powerful man in the free world.

Removing Barnes, a major character in season one and the moral compass of the show, so early on in season two was an exciting decision albeit a problematic one plot-wise for the viewer. It made for some great television, but deprived viewers the pleasure of seeing Frank do what he does so deftly in season one — deal with a worthy adversary. Despite all his billions, Raymond Tusk, this season’s malefactor, is never more than a pesky fly flitting around the periphery of Frank’s circle of power. “There is but one rule,” says Frank at the end of the first episode, “Hunt or be hunted.” This time around, the hunt is jjust ust not that satisfying;

it is obvious from the get go that the one person who could bring Frank’s house of cards tumbling down has been eliminated.

The show is definitely at its best when both the Underwoods are on screen, but it has some fascinating supporting characters on its roster who were instrumental in making the show what it was in the first season. Most of them, however, are reduced to mere pawns in season two, including Zoe, Freddy, Adam, Lucas and President Walker. At times, the viewer is left feeling that the Underwoods move them around the board with perhaps too much ease.

Season one opens with a docile Frank being passed over as secretary of state. His meteoric rise to the position he now has is more than a tad unbelievable. There is masterful manipulation and then there are odds just absurdly in his favour. Season two leaves the viewer wondering if Frank is just that good or if everyone around him is completely devoid of common sense and the ability to

think for themselves. There are multiple times when you question how Garrett Walker made it into the Oval office if one vulnerably worded letter can sway his opinion of Frank. Or when Rachel finally catches on to the fact that Doug is not her saviour but the very person she needs to be saved from and flees.

This season is certainly compelling television, and given its unforgiving breakneck pace, it is more self-indulging than its preceding season. Given the immense acclaim and fan following the first season cultivated, it fan-following it’ss inevitable that viewers will be far more critical of season two. The show is not about legislation, the dynamics of Washington, or political realism but a grandiose study of power, and a warning to those who are too weak to reach for it. The butchery Netflix promised does not disappoint. It is swift and savage and leaves you with only one question: Now that Frank is the most powerful man in the world, where can he go from here?

The 10 shockers from season two WARNING: Spoilers ahead

1. Zoe catches a train In a moment that will undoubtedly live forever, Frank Underwood, Vice President of the United States pushes the fearless reporter, Zoe Barnes, into the path of an incoming train. It was all over in the blink of an eye, but we are still picking our jaws up off the floor.

2. Claire Underwood — Sexual assault survivor Mrs Vice President had a fantastic character arc this season, and most of it was driven by the unsettling revelation that she had been assaulted in college by a man who is now a high-ranked, decorated Marine.

Seeing her calm façade crack when she is forced to cross paths with her assaulter, followed by Frank’s rage, was one of the most humanising moments of season two.

3. Claire’s pro-choice spin Claire’s TV interview is a highlight of season two as she chose to reveal on live television that she had an abortion. As viewers, we are privy to the information that she has had more than one, but what was unexpected was the connection of her abortion with the sexual assault.

4. Just a ‘good customer’ Frank may have pushed Zoe in front of a train, but it hurt much more when he threw his one true friend under the bus. Seeing the dignified Freddy, who was perhaps the only innocent character left on the show, lose everything he had worked for his entire life was painful. But Frank turning his back on him was gut-wrenching. While we can forgive the vice president for a lot of collateral damage in his wake, reducing decades of camaraderie down to a few dollars is just unforgivable.

5. Three’s not a crowd Frank’s penchant for the other team was subtly referred to in an episode of season one. But what we didn’t expect was the twist in Frank’s relationship with his former bodyguard-turned-secret service agent Meechum. It all changed one night when everyone let go a little more than usual and gave viewers that one moment which still has them buzzing.

6. You can’t Walk-er over me President Walker was nothing more than a pawn in Frank’s schemes until the latter half of season two.

It was simultaneously frustrating and awe-inspiring to see the ease with which Frank manipulated the exact outcomes he wanted via the POTUS. For Garrett Walker to turn around and be the one and only person on the show to correctly identify Frank’s motives, but also confront him was an absolute shocker.

7. Claire me a River In the season finale, after Claire speaks to the soonto-be former first lady of the United States, there is a moment when she crumbles into a crying mess.

It’s over almost as soon as it begins, but it happened.

The scene almost makes her as human as everyone else and reveals that she may not be as immune to the sacrifices she has made for Frank, as she lets on.

8. Rachel and a rock Doug Stamper emerged as one of the most interesting characters on House of Cards this season. From his back story as a recovering alcoholic to his almost paternal unrequited love for a fragile, naïve prostitute, redeemed him in the eyes of most of the viewers. All of that was cut brutally short when Rachel attacks him while trying to escape, and Doug Stamper is no more.

9. White House down In a throwback to the bioterrorism attacks of 2001 in the United States, someone sends an envelope containing a white powder to Capitol Hill which effectively shuts it down. Agents in hazmat suits take over and a quarantine is enforced throughout the building. What’s a presidential term without a deadly outbreak, right?

10. The Hammer falls Tom ‘The Hammer’ Hammerschmidt may be a disgraced former editor, but there is nothing wrong with his reporter instinct. He was more than skeptical of Lucas’ claims, but it is clear as a pins-and-needles interview, where he confronts Vice President Underwood, that he is becoming more of a believer with every passing second. He doesn’t hold back with the questions but Frank deflects them as he so often does, leaving much to the imagination. T

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Rating: Zinnia Bukhari heads the life and style desk at The Express Tribune. She tweets @ZinniaBukhari

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

Fear not the Fat

Fat-free living might not always be the smartest option. For the past several decades, the consumption of dietary fat, especially saturated fat, has been disparaged as the cause of many ailments like cardiovascular disease and obesity. However, this conventional wisdom has been challenged by recent studies, claiming that fat was blamed for all the wrong reasons.

A myth

“Compelling argument can be made for the general lack of evidence in support of a low-fat diet,” emphasises Dr DiNicolantonio, a leading cardiovascular researcher in the United States, in his research article in the journal

BY OMAR HAYAT Open Heart. He admits that doctors in the past “got it wrong,” and that we “have been led DESIGN BY KIRAN SHAHID down the wrong dietary path for decades.”

The fear seems to have stemmed from the multi-country studies completed in the ’70s that purportedly found that populations with increased intake of saturated fat were also at increased risk of heart disease.

However, new analysis of the previous studies has found several flaws with the study methodology, and among them is the failure to take into acGOOD FATS count a few critical variables such Monounsaturated fat Polyunsaturated fat as smoking. More importantly, it Olive oil • Soybean oil is also noted that Canola oil • Corn oil people who followed standard Sunflower oil • Safflower oil advice and subPeanut oil • Walnuts stituted vegetable Sesame oil • Sunflower, sesame and fat for animal fat pumpkin seeds Avocados died sooner than people who stuck • Flaxseed Olives to the traditional • Fatty fish (salmon, tuna, Nuts (almonds, peanuts, saturated fats of mackerel, herring, trout, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, butter and lard. sardines) pecans, cashews)

It is not fat, but carbohydrates in your diet that are the real enemy

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Peanut butter

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Soymilk

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Tofu SOURCE: HELPGUIDE.ORG

MARCH 30-APRIL 5 2014

Fats triumph over carbs The body has HDL (good cholestrol)

and LDL (bad cholestrol) and it was long thought that increased consumption of saturated fat increases LDL cholestrol, contributing to cardiovascular disease. However, according to the newer understanding of nutrition, the LDL cholestrol is further subdivided into big floaty particles (type A) and small dense particles (type B). When someone reduces cholestrol by reducing consumption of saturated fat, they are reducing only type A cholestrol. But it is actually the type B cholestrol that is linked to increase in cardiovascular disease and it is controlled by carbohydrate consumption, rather than fat consumption.

Inverting the food pyramid on its head entirely, the problem then seems to be with carbohydrate consumption. This is the thesis Dr DiNicolantonio is advancing in his work. “A public health campaign is drastically needed to educate people about the harms of a diet high in carbohydrates and sugar,” he says.

Go good fat Saturated fat is now touted to be beneficial to people in several capacities. It has been established as monumental to liver health by encouraging the liver to dump fat cells to function more efficiently. It seemingly also plays an important role in regulating the immune and the hormonal system. The shift in dietary perception of fat is already being seen through the world, with Sweden becoming the first country to steer its population to a high-fat and low-carb diet in the year 2013.

In Pakistan, adopting the new dietary guidelines may mean as little as abandoning the latest margarine and vegetable oil products and embracing the traditional ghee and animal fat for cooking. The new research also promotes that newer industrialised products may not hold the key to longevity over an all-natural traditional diet. Of course, one still needs to be careful with avoiding trans-fats and overly generous portions.

Omar Hayat is a freelance writer who contributes to several local publications.