MAY 11-17 2014
Infographic
Health(s)care
Cover Story
The impact of infectious waste from Karachi’s hospitals
Unmanned Utilities A chapter on an underutilised technology
36
Travel
The living dead Visiting cemeteries can be an emotionally fulfilling experience
28
4
42 Regulars
6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people
46 Review: Books and movies
50 Framed: Celebrating Mother’s Day
Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Sub-Editors: Dilaira Mondegarian and Mifrah Haq Creative Team: Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Samra Aamir, Kiran Shahid, Munira Abbas, Sanober Ahmed & 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 Pasha and Samra
PHOTOS COURTESY DESTINATION EVENTZ
Rough ’n Tuff launches its flagship store in Lahore
Diya and Azeem
Rida Ali
Saba Haider, Xain and Ejaz
6 MAY 11-17 2014
PEOPLE & PARTIES
The Firdous Concept Store opens up in Lahore
Sadia and Ayesha
PHOTOS COURTESY QYT EVENTS
Nadia Ali, Cybill and Rachel
Iffat Hafsa
Aliha
8 MAY 11-17 2014
Fiza and Fatima
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Farrar Gallery showcases Alee’ Hassan’s work in Karachi
Tapu Javeri
PHOTOS COURTESY PHENOMENA PR
Mehreen
Saba and Alee
Raania Azam
d Kaukab Nada, Pomme an
10 MAY 11-17 2014
Amin Gulgee
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Peek Freans’ RIO holds a premiere for Rio 2 in Karachi Saud and Shaista with their children
PHOTOS COURTESY PITCH MEDIA INC
Nazia, Pari Hashmi and Kiran
Syeda Shahammah Rizvi
Amber Khan Nabeel
12 MAY 11-17 2014
Shahood Alvi and family
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Tara Uzra Dawood holds her annual tea party at her residence in Karachi
PHOTOS COURTESY THE ART OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
Zarmeen, Mahnaz and Kamila
Khadija, Onaiza and Aamna
Nadia Ellahi
Saira Saigal
az
Aymen and Mehn
Sharmila Faruqi and Tara Uzra Dawood
14 MAY 11-17 2014
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Second Cup flagship store opens up in Lahore
Seyham Vahidy, Momina, Amira Shafiq and Rabiya Mumtaz
PHOTOS COURTESY QYT EVENTS
Henna, Alizay and Sahyr
Noor
a Kamal Amina and Natash Hafza
Zainab and Schzreh
16 MAY 11-17 2014
ww
Unmanned
Utilities A chapter on unmanned technology that can revolutionise the way we view the world
BY DILAIRA MONDEGARIAN PHOTOS BY ARIF SOOMRO DESIGN BY ESSA MALIK
28 MAY 11-17 2014
Guided by sensors instead of sensibility, unmanned systems have been designed to carry out a mission. Now whether the mission is destructive or constructive is determined by motives not machines. “Everything that drops a bomb and doesn’t have a pilot [steering] is called a drone, even if it’s delivering medicines or supplies or books. We need to make a distinction,” says Raja Sabri Khan, elaborating on the general misconception surrounding the technology in Pakistan. The MIT graduate has been involved in innovative product development in the aerospace industry for the past 27 years. “You can’t discard a technology based on that.”
It’s [a]miss “To make a potentially lethal drone capable of carrying explosives to a certain point, completely unattended, would take a few PhDs in software, avionics and recovery systems,” says Khan. The Predator, an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with strike capabilities, when juxtaposed with Japanese kamikazes, may appear similar but the two are inherently different. “In the case of a fighter aircraft, it is one person taking an instinctive decision within a few seconds. In the case of a drone it is a crew of several people, a government and an operating agency which [instructs it] when to press the trigger,” he clarifies. To therefore alienate the misdirected technology is to accept the supremacy of matter over mind in an unthinking moment. “The word drone should be erased from our vocabulary, it needs to be unmanned helicopters or unmanned aircraft,” states Khan. Having started out as a model aircraft hobbyist at the age of eight, Khan initiated Pakistan’s first official unmanned aircraft project in 1988 at the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commis-
sion (SUPARCO). And in 1997, after deciding to take his passion to the next level, he set up a small workshop on the roof of his parent’s house and now runs his own company named Integrated Dynamics, supplying unmanned surveillance solutions to the government, R&D organisations and other countries seeking civilian scientific applications of the technology. The facility is packed with friendlylooking, grey, black and white multicopters displayed neatly in a row with their supporting controls and add-on cameras. Almost life-sized UAVs are stationed on the tile floor while smaller vehicles hang majestically on the walls and several British bikes are parked against the wall behind — all things that Khan is passionate about. the framed certificates and photographs that line the conference room walls are a testimony of his past achievements. According to Khan, the word ‘drone’ is a 1920s pseudo name, which originated just before the outbreak of the Second World War when Britain and America were first playing around with large-sized remotecontrolled aircraft to simulate an aerial target for air defence gunnery practice. And although the technology has been around for decades, it was introduced in Pakistan in the mid to late ’70s, informs Khan. “The Pakistan Army then was flying remotecontrolled model aircraft type aerial target drones imported from the UK.” Having designed early warning drones that can detect hostile activity at the borders, Khan says he now focuses solely on the civilian application of the technology.
UAV — Unsung Assistive Vehicles “This [UAV] is a very decent alternate to replace people on the ground in hazardous situations,” says Shaheryar Popalzai, a journalist who previously worked for The Express Tribune and a model aircraft hobbyist who assembles MAY 11-17 2014
29
A showroom for UAVs at Integrated Dynamics displaying a full-size manned aircraft sheltering two smaller unmanned aircraft and a colthe “out-of-the-box solutions” at home. He has been flying quadcopters, fitted with four rotors, for six months and aims to incorporate the technology in his field of work. He even demonstrated its use by using a multicopter fitted with a camera to report on the 2014 famine in Thar and insists that even government agencies can use it to monitor industrial areas for pollution. “Filmmaking, reporting, advertising, in disaster areas... The uses are endless.” Along with disaster reporting, even rescue missions can be facilitated by multicopters. “Water levels could have been monitored by multicopters to give out early warning signals before the 2010 floods in Sindh,” says Uzman Jaffrey, who was part of the rescue team from AMAN Foundation at the time. The Foundation deployed 10 rescue boats with a specially trained Emergency Rescue Team (ERT) from the UK to help out, but without eyes in the air a lot of time was wasted locating survivors who had climbed up trees. “Rescue teams could have easily reduced the response time by accurately locating the victims across a large area without the deployment of rescue helicopters” he says, insisting that along with locating survivors the technology can also be used for 30 fire, traffic and sewerage monitoring and to conduct surveys MAY 11-17 2014
The word ‘drone’ is a 1920s pseudo name, which originated just before the outbreak of the Second World War when Britain and America were first playing around with large-size remote-controlled aircraft to simulate an aerial target for air defence gunnery practice that can provide invaluable information for numerous projects and research. Khan exports his UAVs for surveillance and mapping purposes to countries who use them primarily for research. Several countries have been making rounds in the news for their use of UAVs in a mostly conservational capacity: Italy and Spain use them for agricultural mapping and land use
lection of British bikes. monitoring, Australia to watch over marine mammals and coastal patrol, South Korea for Antarctic ozone layer depletion studies and South Africa for anti-poaching activities. Jaffery affirms that Khan’s UAVs are quite popular, adding that Brazil imported them for rainforest mapping. If the technology is used resourcefully it can maximise innovation in the country. “The same module can be applied to a boat, a car or to other machines,” says Khan. He launched the Design Assemble Research Explore (DARE) programme to showcase the technology’s multiple uses and enable students and innovators to learn about it and incorporate it into their area of expertise. Students from the country’s numerous engineering universities attend workshops to back theories with practical learning.“Some of the students from DARE are working on biomedical respirators right now which are basically created using the same air data sensors out of our unmanned aircraft auto piloting systems,” he says. The technology has the ability to seamlessly integrate into everyday life. For one of DARE’s future projects, Khan enthuses designing a UAV that will change the fate of education in inaccessible areas. “A classroom with audio visual connectivity will be able to uplink a signal to the drone circling over-
head and this can then be relayed out to schools with receivers and TV screens several hundred kilometres away without the need of direct human intervention,” he says, explaining that the makeshift unmanned aircraft platform, acting as a mobile phone ‘tower in the sky’ will be fitted with solar cells on its wings providing propulsive energy to an electric motor driving a propeller. Alongside DARE, Khan has also initiated a project on aerial photography and videos under the name of Pegasus Films that has used multicopters for the purpose of documenting several heritage sites in Pakistan.
Target market Many hobby shops in the country are now readily supplying easy-to-assemble model aircraft and other smaller unmanned systems. Hobby Lobby in Karachi, a sanctuary for hobbyists since 1975, is stocked with all the technical paraphernelia. “It’s a very expensive but safe hobby,” confirms Jaffery, standing beside his highly modified hobby truck at the store. He developed the hobby during the early ’80s in Turkey when everyone was pursuing it, adding that he uses his remote control truck for dune bashing and in races with 31 friends. MAY 11-17 2014
According to a forecast, around $80 billion to $90 billion is projected for the civilian applications drone industry sales over the next decade Integrated Dynamics, Raja Sabri Khan
Medium-size multicopters used for aerial filming and photography on display at Integrated Dynamics. At the Model Aeronautical Society of Karachi (MASK) founded in 1980, enthusiasts enjoy regular flight sessions under full approval from the Air Force and the Civil Aviation Authority, informs Khan. Due to security threats they are only allowed to fly on weekends now. Khan is also a member of the club and flies his model aircraft there. “Nobody is flying drones here which means you are not flying out 5kms or 50kms away from the airfield,” he says. “Hobbyists are flying an aircraft which basically operates in a 200 metre radius and less than 50 metres in altitude.” In order to control a model aircraft, one requires constant visual contact as they are not fitted with an auto piloting system. “You can’t even convert a model airplane into a drone,” he says. With hobbyists on the rise, business is flourishing for most model aircraft manufacturers. “Ready-to-fly options can range from Rs15,000 to Rs135,000, excluding a camera,” says Popalzai, adding that the right sellers are those who can even modify and repair them. “If you want to carry heavier cameras you will need to invest in ones that can 32 handle larger weight, and these ones cost the most.” For inMAY 11-17 2014
stance, a hexacopter and an octocopter, with six and eight rotors respectively, are more ‘heavy lift’ copters. With the fear of being labelled as ‘drone sellers’ imbedded deep in the minds of shopkeepers, only hobbyists come forward to share their side of the story. “These shops sell model aircraft, not drones,” says Khan, adding that he builds everything himself which includes UAVs fitted with highly modified cameras, data links and sensor elements, allowing a wider visual range and cost around $100,000 to $200,000, or more per system. “We would make a lot more money if they [importing countries] were buying expendable aerial targets [since] the civilian unmanned systems are generally built to last a few years,” he says, adding that a simple environmental drone costs under $2,000. The potential for the technology to be an income generator in several sectors has increasingly come into the limelight. “According to a forecast, around $80 billion to $90 billion is projected for the civilian applications drone industry sales over the next decade,” says Khan.
Uzman Jaffrey’s HPI Savage RC Monster Truck.
Raja Sabri Khan conducts a DARE workshop on building robots for student applications at Integrated Dynamics. PHOTO: DARE Facbook page.
An image taken by a multicopter showcasing the potential for aerial photography in Pakistan. a model aircraft can also make a UAV and pose a threat to security. “Model aircraft won’t teach you about the avionics, auto-piloting systems or the data links required for the operation of a UAV,” Khan says. Operating the latter would require extensive training.
Future flying
A mini ground control station for receiving live videos from multicopters at Integrated Dynamics.
Technology trap Armed and civilian UAVs are worlds apart in terms of application and technology. According to Khan, while Pakistan doesn’t yet possess the colossal infrastructure required to manufacture armed UAVs, it can easily produce smaller, model aircraft-sized UAVs for surveillance that require less time and resources. Model aircraft are stage one, drones are stage two and full-sized aircraft are stage three, informs Khan. “The technology will allow them [developing countries] to create an aerospace sector,” he says, adding, “The basic skills involved in making a UAV are a great training ground for the structures that you could use later on at different levels in a full-size unmanned aircraft.” But this doesn’t mean that all who can assemble and fly
As awareness and use grows, regulations are bound to eventually catch up with the use of UAVs in the country. The US and Australia are already at the forefront of devising a regulatory framework. Even in the UK strict regulations need to be followed, informs Popalzai, adding that people need to acquire licenses to fly their copters. In an independent incident in Punjab where a quadcopter flew into one of the minarets at Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, the government made an instant decision to ban quadcopter flying in the province, says Khan, hoping that any future regulations introduced in the country will be based on sensible recommendations. “Vacuum cleaners are noisy but we put up with them because they are of some use — noise aside. I think the same applies for aircraft, manned or unmanned,” he says. The misconceptions about the technology are traced by many to the negative portrayal by the media. “Unlike other dual-use technologies, drones are not designed solely for lethal applications but, unfortunately, they have only been used and highlighted for this in our part of the world,” remarks Khan. T Dilaira Mondegarian is a subeditor on The Express Tribune magazine desk. She tweets @DilairaM MAY 11-17 2014
33
INFOGRAPHIC
HEALTH
The infectious waste from Karachi’s hospitals may be small in scale BY THE NEWS DESK but has an enormous impact DESIGN BY SAMARA AAMIR
Prof Noman Ahmed of NED University of Engineering and Technology shares information from an ongoing research project into the lack of healthcare waste management in Karachi, a city of about 19m people. The Karachi city government incinerator has not been working since 2010. Therefore, the rudimentary separation of waste materials has become the Kabari’s domain who sells some of it for recycling purposes. The Karachi city government staff doesn’t lift waste and instead farms it out to contractors. Private hospitals do not make waste management a part of their budget either.
How much:
1 650 1,120
TON is how much a small car weighs
TONS of infectious waste was generated per day in Karachi according to 2005 estimates
TONS
36
of infectious waste will be generated per day in Karachi by 2020 according to projections
MAY 11-17 2014
Who produces it:
3,550
is the number of hospitals, health centres, dispensaries, maternity homes in Karachi which are all producing infectious waste.
4
incinerators exist in Karachi government hospitals, according to a 2007 study at Abbasi Shaheed Hospital Saudabad Government Hospital North Karachi Government Hospital Korangi Government Hospital
2 out of 8
teaching hospitals with over 200 beds, in Karachi, separate sharps, pathological waste, chemical, infectious, pharmaceutical and pressurised containers at source.
5 out of 8
teaching hospitals in Karachi disposed off their hazardous waste by burning in incinerators, 2 disposed off in municipal landfills and 1 was burning waste in the open air without any specific treatment.
(S)CARE What is produced:
Key Factors Primary stakeholders in the hospital waste management process:
Communal: this is noninfectious, non-radioactive and chemical free
Pharmaceuticals
Pressurised containers: liquid or gas carriers
Infectious
Private Hospital Owners: Consider hospital waste management unimportant and a non-profitable area to invest in. Find municipal authorities and regulatory bodies corrupt and lazy. Consider hospital waste management someone else’s business.
Anatomic: body parts
Medical Superintendents of large government hospitals: Wish to manage hospitals ‘smoothly’ without government or media criticism on poor sanitary conditions. Suffer shortage of staff, funds and equipment, poor sanitary staff, limited knowledge, few options to choose from.
Chemicals
Doctors: Treat patients according to facilities and don’t consider waste management their headache. Sweepers: Remove what they can re-sell. Have no protective gear. At high risk, low salary.
Heavy metals: Material, devices and equipment containing heavy metals (batteries, thermometers)
Radioactive material: unused solutions from radiotherapy or laboratory research, excreta of affected patients, glassware
Genotoxic: toxic chemicals that damage DNA molecules in genes, causing mutations, tumors, etc. (anti-cancer drugs for e.g.)
Storekeepers, hospital staff: Remove waste but because of poor pay use unethical methods of waste management. Municipal staff: Make illegal income from stakeholders through unlawful use of authority. Don’t allow proper waste management clients to link up with the system due to petty interests and bribery.
37 MAY 11-17 2014
How it should be done:
Solid waste
Infectious waste
Incinerator
Underground neutralistion tank
A two-step burning process
Neutralisation of infectious liquid by limestone
Burning @ 600° C— 800°C
After burning @ 1,000°C — 1,200°C
Non-infectious fumes in the air
Non-infectious ashes
Dumping in city government-selected landfills
38 MAY 11-17 2014
Liquid waste
Main sewage line
Impact: According to a report by the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association, not all healthcare waste but, infectious waste and sharps constituting 10-25% of the healthcare waste are hazardous to health. However, this infectious waste, if not disposed properly, could convert the rest of the normal waste into hazardous material too. It can lead to a variety of infections such as gastroenteric infections, respiratory infections, skin infections, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, haemorrhagic fevers and viral hepatitis due to the presence of pathological organisms in the waste. There is special concern about being infected with HIV and Hepatitis B and C as well.
How it really happens: Diagnostic clinics
Dispensaries
X-Ray laboratories
Consulting clinics
Seperation of recyclables at source
Sold to itinerary waste buyers by staff
Pharmacies
Dumping at case/ neighbourhood level point (kundi)
Welfare estabilishments
Removal by municipal vehicle
Disposal at dumping / landfill site
COST
Rs
48,400
per month is the cost, including transportation, of waste to an incinerator for the largest or 400-bed hospital. The cheapest rate is Rs2,000 per month paid by general practitioners.
The Law: The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, under the provision of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act 1997, issued guidelines for the management of hospital waste in June 2004. They apply to all hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, maternity centres, dental clinics, pathological laboratories, blood banks, nursing homes, research institutes, veterinary institutions and other health care facilities, including temporary medical camps.T SOURCES: KARACHI STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2020 (PREPARED IN 2007) AND ‘HOSPITAL WASTE MANAGEMENT IN THE TEACHING HOSPITALS OF KARACHI’ (JOURNAL OF THE PAKISTAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION,
Countrywide statistics: — Around 250,000 tons of medical waste is estimated to be produced from all sorts of healthcare facilities in Pakistan every year. (Source: Eco Watch) — One estimate shows that nearly 5.2 million people including 4 million children die each year from waste-related diseases in Pakistan. (Source: Environment Protection Department) — While numbers from Sindh and Punjab paint a messy picture, it is hard to make the same deductions about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan due to the lack of concrete data.
MAY 2005), ‘WASTE DISPOSAL OF GOVERNMENT HEALTH-CARE FACILITIES IN URBAN AREA OF KARACHI — A KAP SURVEY’ (PAKISTAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH VOL. 46, NO. 1, 2007)
39 MAY 11-17 2014
TRAVEL
The living
dead
Visiting cemeteries can be one of the most fulfilling ways of celebrating life TEXT AND PHOTOS BY FARAHNAZ ZAHIDI DESIGN BY SANOBAR AHMED
The Jewish section of the Montparnasse Cemetery, Paris.
Let’s talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs; Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let’s choose executors and talk of wills —William Shakespeare, Richard II Why do some of us want to go through a whole lot of trouble to visit the remains of people who died long ago? There is this thing about cemeteries. Visiting them is an understated joy, and a neglected part of most touristic and sight-seeing escapades. But once you acquire a taste for listening to the sounds of silence, few wanderings are as rewarding. Most people who visit cemeteries have one of two common-most responses: they either feel what they call “a sense of peace” or a feeling of morbidity, darkness, depres42 sion and melancholy. MAY 11-17 2014
But for serious cemetery enthusiasts, it is not much of either. Cemeteries are places resplendent with art, history, symbolism, culture and most importantly spirituality. You can know more about a people by visiting a cemetery then you ever will by going shopping in the same area. As I became a tombstone tourist as they call it, I learnt terms I never knew earlier. I found out that tomb is a commonly used word, but mausoleum is a building specifically constructed for people considered important. The empty tombs are cenotaphs. A coffin is the (usually) wooden case for keeping a dead body and sarcophagus is a similar case made of stone. A chest or case box or well with remains of the human skeleton is an ossuary. Catacombs are interesting underground cemeteries, interconnected by tunnels. And then there is the necropolis, a place where large numbers have been buried and traces from olden burials still remain.
The gravestones in the Jewish part of Montparnasse Cemetery emphasise the family name.
Technology has made life easier for gravers as well as geneaology enthusiasts. Websites like ‘Find A Grave’ and other mapping sites tell us exactly what we are looking for. Yet, you don’t always get personalised experiences on the internet. For that, one must chat with people who share similar interests. Whenever you visit such a site, observe how visitors quietly exchange glances, trying to assess how the others are reacting. We feel pressured to react in expected ways. But if we let go of that strain and breathe in the experience, cemeteries have a lot to offer. Sites like the underrated Chowkandi Tombs near Karachi and Makli near Thatta are often neglected. I have been lucky enough to discover the wonders of Pakistan’s culture by delving into them. It is almost like going through an album of photographs of a people or reading biographies. Just look out for the nuances. The people buried there are inarguably dead, yet their lives are being celebrated. In that sense, cemeteries are very futuristic places. They are an extension of life as it slides into another realm, no matter what belief system you belong to. But few, apart from connoisseurs with a taste for the macabre, have an appreciation of how humans honour their dead. There is an unsaid paranoia when it comes to homes of the deceased. It’s almost as if talking about it will kill us before time. Like a bad omen. We miss out, thus, on so much beauty and a deep study of culture. And so when you visit a cemetery, tread a little lightly, move a little cautiously. You may be stepping on an entire lifetime if memories, wrapped up and resting underneath your feet. Each cemetery has its own story to tell and is uniquely beautiful. Out of the ones I visited other than within Pakistan, these three impacted me the most.
The Montparnasse cemetery, Paris The temperature is below freezing. It is my last day in Paris. I am taking a city walk. In my broken French I ask passersby about any nearby cimetière, trying to roll the “r” correctly, making it as guttural as I could. I’m led to the Montparnasse Cemetery. For months, I had been planning to visit cemeteries in Paris. “Hey Florent. I will be traveling to Paris soon. Can you tell me about cemeteries I must visit? I am willing to travel anywhere for that,” I wrote a few months back to a French friend who was guiding me about how to make the most of a visit to Paris. Paris — of the Eiffel and the Moulin Rouge and the River Seine and the Louvre. I was travelling to a dream destination. Yet, what I wanted to visit most were the repositories 43 The Chowkandi Tombs are a hidden necropolis located 30 kilometres outside of Karachi .
MAY 11-17 2014
FEATURE of the best of France, now dead, yet alive. Florent Condé told me about clandestine tours of the Catacombs through hidden entrances into tunnels that through the city. “That’s technically forbidden. I haven’t had the chance yet to do that,” he wrote back, adding tempting names and details of Parisian cemeteries. The fellow taphophile had given me just the info I needed. Standing in front of the Montparnasse Cemetery, a dream had come true. Shaded by around 1,200 trees such as lime trees, conifers, maple and ash, it is one of the most peaceful parts of Paris. Home to 35,000 plus tombs, some 300,000 people have visited it since it opened its gates in 1824. Montparnasse is often called the Cemetery of the Intelligentsia and there is a certain energy and vibrance in the quiet there. Understandable, with residents like Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, Sosan Sontag, and a cenotaph of Charles Baudelaire. The Jewish side of the cemetery was a new and impactful experience, with families and clans making up an important part of the design. I brushed the cobwebs off medals of World War I veterans carved onto graves, and saw Brancusi’s statue called ‘El Beso’ or The Kiss, sitting on top of the tomb of Tania Rachevskaia, a Russian anarchist who had committed suicide for love.
Montjuïc Cemetery , Barcelona It was honestly something I was not prepared for and had not researched in advance. On the drive from the airport to the far-end Poblenou district of Barcelona, there it was, sprawling on the hills, unlike any cemetery I have ever seen. Mediterranean graveyards are different as the dead can be buried in walls many storeys high. The cemetery is like a miniature city, lined by cypress trees and plants and full of architectural and artistic delights. Opened in 1883, this cemetery has more than one million burials and cremation ashes in 150,000 mausolea, plots and niches. There are fascinating stories going around about how the cemetery was originally divided into four sections — one each for Catholics, Protestants, non-Christians, and the
The sculpture of a guardian angel at the Montjuïc cemetery, Barcelona. PHOTO COURTESY: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
44
The cemetery rests on the rocky slopes of the Montjuïc hills in Barcelona and has over 150,000 graves. MAY 11-17 2014
PHOTO COURTESY: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
fourth for aborted feotuses. Also known as Cementiri del Sud-oest, it is picturesque, with a view of the sea from top of the rocky hills. Interesting residents include Joan Gamper, founder of FC Barcelona, and surrealist maestro Joan Miró, who is buried in a plain, small family vault. Along with renowned personalities, 4,000 victims of the Civil War are also buried here.
The Pyramids, Cairo For the longest time, I did not know that the pyramids were a kind of graveyard. I visited them when young, but the images and even smell and feel have not left me. Inside, there are passages that are narrow, damp and almost claustrophobic, with warnings for people with lung and heart diseases. But they lead to huge halls that have the feel of being a nexus between life and after-life which is what the ancient Egyptians believed in. They said goodbye to the deceased making sure he or she had enough provisions to lead them through. The mummies, decorated multi-layered coffins, representational art-like individual portraits of the deceased, canopic jars with the organs, aesthetic objects like jewellery and clothes and even incense was made available. The tombs were constructed as places that would be conducive to the re-birth. In a weird way, thus, the pyramids symbolise continuity and hope. They tell you that this is not it. From the outside, the grandeur is legend. Even the chipped off nose of the majestic Sphinx does not make it less royal. There are three main Pyramids in Giza, which draw attention to the Giza necropolis, reserved for the royalty and elite, as long ago as the end of third millennium BCE. Three pharaohs rested here, turn by turn — Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. In adjacent smaller pyramids and cemetery were the Queens and members of royalty. The pyramid of Khufu is the largest, and is one of the last remaining of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But where are the men who built the pyramids buried? I may never have an answer to that. T
(Top) The Egyptian pyramids were built as tombs for the country’s pharoaphs and their cosorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. PHOTO COURTESY: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS (Left) The head of the Sphinx with the pyramid of Menkaure in the background. PHOTO COURTESY: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Farahnaz Zahidi heads the Features desk at The Express Tribune. She tweets @FarahnazZahidi
45 MAY 11-17 2014
BOOK
Break a
Sweat Celebrity fitness trainer Rujuta Diwekar unravels the science of fitness training BY SAMRA MUSLIM
Author Rujuta Diwekar.
The book is available at The Last Word for Rs1,350.
46
Ever wondered what it takes for the likes of Bollywood stars Kareena Kapoor Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta and business tycoon Anil Ambani to flaunt their fabulous, super-fit bodies? All of them have been through months of rigorous physical training and a strict diet under one of India’s most renowned fitness and nutrition experts, Rujuta Diwekar. And with her book Don’t Lose Out, Work Out!, Diwekar lays out the ‘science’ of working out and staying fit for her readers. Even though Don’t Lose Out, Work Out! is a self-help book, it delves into the nitty gritty details of physical training and an appropriate diet regime in a personal tone, without sounding too technical or clinical. The book tackles cardio, strength training and yoga separately, highlighting the importance of each and its ins and outs. The author even includes workout schedules involving different parts of the body for readers to follow. Interestingly, Diwekar debunks many workout myths — from those about walking to lifting weights and even extreme workouts. For example, I always thought weight training makes you bulky, but in fact it makes your body a better fat-burning machine. She also repeatedly asserts the importance of an appropriate diet plan accompanying the workout. The reader will find very useful tips on pre and post-workout meals — the most common reason why many fail to meet their health
and fitness goals. Many people eat erratically, especially before and after workout, which overturns any benefits derived from exercise. Diwekar will tell you what to eat and when — and how they benefit your health. Just a word of caution: you will need to come up with local variants of menu items like idli, poha, upma, sambhar, etcetera that Diwekar has recommended keeping in view her Indian readers. Despite the book’s simple approach, there are parts, such as those about assimilation of nutrients by our bodies, how our body’s metabolism works or how exercise impacts our brain neurons and immune systems and what activities dehydrate us more and why, that nevertheless end up being too technical for a layman’s understanding. My biggest peeve with the book, however, is that it only offers sessions at the gym as a means to achieving fitness. The author has no advice for people such as professionals who ostensibly are the target readers for this book, and who do not have the time or desire to hit the gym but would still like to be fit by playing a sport, or utilising their commute time, home or office space. Yet for someone like Diwekar who is passionate about fitness, it is easy to see why she puts so much stress on following a regular exercise routine. “Just start exercising; that one day that you begin is a stepping stone to a lifelong commitment that you need to exercise,” she writes.
Samra Muslim is a digital marketing professional, an avid reader and a movie buff. She tweets @samramuslim MAY 11-17 2014
FILM
The other face
of beauty Leprosy patients cling on to hope and find joy in everyday life BY KARTHIK KERAMALU
To find beauty in human suffering may sound almost sadistic and even more so if it is in the form of the stunted limbs and rotting flesh of lepers. But the late Persian poet, Forough Farrokhzad’s poignant portrayal of life in a lepers’ colony in Iran in her documentary The House is Black (1962) finds hope among its dwellers and shows how life can still be beautiful living with an ‘ugly’ disease. “There is no shortness of ugliness in the world,” states the film in its prologue. “If man closed his eyes to it, there would be even more. But man is a problem solver.” At the very outset, the film makes it clear that the 22 minutes of reel time will not belittle the everyday struggle of the colony residents, for they may still present themselves as an “image of ugliness” and “a vision of pain”. Yet, in their everyday life, it will attempt to find beauty and showcase them in a human light. To this end, Farrokhzad styles her documentary like a poetic rendition interspersed with her own verses, passages from the Old Testament and the Holy Quran.
The film begins with a woman’s distorted face looking at a mirror, her eyes curious. Through this image, we are instantly cautioned that this is not an ordinary house. Life in the leper colony is not vastly different from yours or mine — that is, if you choose to ignore the ugly things like “hands, feet, eyes” as a boy, who lives among faces without noses, palms without fingers and feet without toes, calls them. The rest is pretty routine as another boy featured in the documentary mentions all the good things they have — “the moon, sun, flower and play” — nature that is external to the human body. Some scenes in the film such as the one with a man walking from one end to the other are staged in order to set the mood. Farrokhzad’s poetry adds an air of solemnity to the plot conveying the suffering, the hidden angst and searches for a noble answer. The male voice-over on the other hand sources the good energy that is required to counter the maladies of the psyche. The featured men, women and children are natural: there is laughter, there is sadness and there is banter in the leper colony.
But there is an air of melancholy amidst normal things such as old men playing board, women donning new clothes and children playing ball. And by capturing that subtle misery the documentary achieves what it has set out to. Towards the end of the film, all lepers walk toward the camera but the gates close and the words “Leper Colony” appear on the screen. A bald young student of a school run for lepers is asked to write a sentence with the word ‘house’ in it. He writes “The House Is Black” and it hits the viewer like a profound thought. The gates in the film might have closed, but with this venture Forough Farrokhzad opened the doors of Iranian Cinema to the world. The House Is Black is said to be the pioneer of Iranian New Wave cinema and the film sets a grand stage for this genre.
Rating: Karthik Keramalu is a freelance writer who is interested in literature and film. He tweets @Keramalu
FRAMED
Women play carom at a recreational centre established by the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board for senior citizens in Karimabad, Karachi.
Maternal Ties
As the world celebrates Mother’s day today, it is worth acknowledging women who live and busy themselves with the company of not their own, but strangers. For most of them, the traditional social structure of family could no longer accommodate their challenged bodies and minds.
The Ismaili Council and the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board for Pakistan set up 11 recreational centres across the country, where they provide residents a space to relax and entertain themselves by reading, playing cards and other games, watching movies, and surfing the Abandoned mothers find joy in internet. The centre is equipped with books, magazines, computers each other’s company and audio-visual aids and is managed by a group of volunteers and helpers. These activities not only help alleviate physical ailments such TEXT AND PHOTO BY ARIF SOOMRO as arthritis, diabetes and high blood pressure, but also temporarily distract these women from their troubles.T
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Arif Soomro is a pagemaker at The Express Tribune MAY 11-17 2014