The Express Tribune Magazine - November 10

NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

What is the Pakistani dream?

A country torn by its reality weaves a unified dream in Sabiha Sumar’s new film

NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

Feature

Cover Story

No fixed templates in life

What is the Pakistani dream?

A country torn by its reality weaves a unified dream in Sabiha Sumar’s new film

Naveed Iqbal’s journey is a testimony that sometimes life gives you a second chance

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Travel

Bienvenidos a Bolivia For the extraadventurous, Bolivia is the perfect postcard holiday destination

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Regulars

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

36 Review: Books and movies 42 History: Medal of Democracy

Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Sub-Editors: Dilaira Mondegarian and Manahyl Khan Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Samra Aamir, 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

Uzma Jamil

Naila Bhimjee, Cyra and Mahwish

People & Parties Cyra Ali’s exhibit, Museum Collection II, opens at Grandeur Gallery, Karachi PHOTOS COURTESY NEW WORLD CONCEPTS Nadia Virani

Laila

Giuliana Grandi and Anu Prattipati

Joan Dodman and Cyra

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

Atiqa Merchant and Neshmia

Adil, Ayesha and Maheen

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Ayesha Gul, Buraq and Fethi

Rukaiya Adamjee

PHOTOS COURTESY NEW WORLD CONCEPTS

Perveen Ali and Nausheen Leghari

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Beena Amer Khan with family

Faiza

Fatima Altaf

Saira Saigal

SEPTEMBER 22-28 2013

Narmeen, Adiba, Sahera, Afreen, Ambareen and Saima

People & Parties Afreen Shiraz hosts a fashion exhibition along with a fashion show at Ellemint Pret, Karachi PHOTOS COURTESY IDEAS PR

Nosheen

Farah Gohar

Guests

Ikra

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Kaukab and Aliya Chinoy

Amena and Falak

Madeha and Sarah

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Saima with friends

Angie

Sabeen

PHOTOS COURTESY IDEAS PR

Sophia

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Alyzeh Rahim

Guest

Shiraz

Arjumand

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Kenny Dope Khaled Abdulmannan

Gerd Janson and Gremlin

Liliane Chlela

People & Parties Red Bull Music Academy Bass Camp in Dubai Henry Bennett

Adil Omar

Just Blaze

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Klash and Maria

Hamdan Al Abri

Bojan Preradovic

DJ Outlaw

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Noor

Laila, Anum and Jamshed

People & Parties The N-Gents salon opens up in Karachi PHOTOS COURTESY AHMED JALBANI AND KAMRAN NAQVI

Shazdeh

Rashik, Sadaf and Maheen

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Farhan

Talha, Sadia and Tabesh

Sara

Nabila

Tabbasum and Sana

Amina, Sarwat, Zurain and Faisal

Mr and Mrs Murtuza

Jerjees

Zahir and Shehrezad Rahimatoola

Sana Bucha

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Umair

Humayon, Shahbaz, Ubaid, Abbas and Shehzad

Mustafa

POSITIVE PAKISTANI PEOPLE

No fixed templates in life Naveed Iqbal’s journey is a testimony that sometimes life gives you a second chance

BY MANAHYL KHAN

There was a time in 25-year-old Naveed Iqbal’s life when he spent twelve hours a day, lying on his side, staring at walls. But, Iqbal is now a self-reliant man, who turned his situation around, using nothing but a PC and his resolute will power. From almost no motor movement that left him unemployed; he not only managed to self-educate but now also earns a living by publishing themes and templates for blogging websites which are downloaded by thousands online.

On July 17, 2008, Iqbal’s life fell apart as his friend, and driver of the car, lost control of their vehicle on a busy highway in Jeddah. The car reportedly flipped nearly six times before landing. While the driver suffered minor injuries, Iqbal was hospitalised in a critical condition.

After a month on the ventilator, Iqbal returned to consciousness only to learn he was diagnosed with Quadriplegia, a form of paralysis from the neck-down.

20 “I couldn’t speak for the first few months after the acciNOVEMBER 10-16 2013

dent. When I first heard in the ICU that I was paralyzed, I kept crying. Even for months after, I was in denial,” says Iqbal. “The mere mention of the word paralysis would leave me depressed.”

Dealing with the changes in his body and motor function was not easy, as Iqbal lost sensation in his feet, legs, and torso up till his shoulders. His fingers lost all movement, except for the little finger on his left hand and thumb on his right hand, which can be maneuvered slightly.

Naveed’s mother, Mrs Iqbal recalls the first few days at home with her son post discharge, “My daughters and I would carry Naveed on a bed sheet to move him from his bed to the wheelchair. To be honest, I had lost the ability to speak to him. I could not face my son.”

Along the way, painful remarks from close friends pulled Iqbal down further. People, who could clearly see my state, would ask damaging questions such as “can you stand?” or “will you ever be able to work?”

When I visited Pakistan, I went to 20 different mosques but none of them had wheelchair access says Naveed Iqbal

SOURC E: NAV EED IQ BAL

“Till I didn’t accept I was paralyzed, life was very tough.

Each word would have an impact on me and I could not believe the insensitivity showed by those who pretended to care,” Iqbal says.

Five years on, the situation for the family changed as Iqbal came to terms with his new reality. He found his strength and a new life on the PC in his room. Now earning through his blog templates and other websites, Iqbal says, “Initially I didn’t think I could use a computer. I would move the mouse a little and I was out of breath.”

Iqbal persisted and tried to work his way around his limitations, self-educating himself on how to code using Google. “I spent time making changes on CSS, learned script and played around his footers and headers on my blogs to keep myself entertained.”

With time Iqbal built up his stamina and started using two fingers to type. Unable to use a laptop as the touchcensor complicates the process, Iqbal has an undying devotion towards his PC. “The PC has helped me so much, I don’t think I have shut it down in over two years.”

Iqbal specialises in constructing theme templates for a blogging website known as Blogger. What started out as a hobby suggested by a friend, became a lifeline. “After a while I felt that I was confident enough to try making a

blog template. I spent nearly six months working on my first template. After I had made my own coding, it was simple because I just had to make changes to the existing code,” he recalls.

Even though he is not making a huge sum of money, the gratification of being independent is compensation enough for Iqbal. “In under a year I have published 17 templates, out of which one is premium and allows for video.”

Although his dark days are behind him, Iqbal is now more aware of the way society looks at people with disabilities. “When I visited Pakistan, I went to 20 different mosques but none of them had wheelchair access.” The situation is somewhat similar in Saudi Arabia too, where Iqbal currently lives. “Malls don’t have wheelchair ramps and offices don’t either. Bigger companies do not even respond to my job applications; maybe it’ll affect their reputation if they hire a person like me.”

Reinvigorated by his success, Iqbal advises others to be kind to those who are still struggling. “Try to give such patients new hope. Don’t ask them what the doctors are saying, because you will finish your negative talk and walk away, but your words affect such people. Try to mo21 tivate them, instead of pulling them down.” T NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

COVER STORY

What is the Pakistani dream?

A country torn by its reality weaves a unified dream in Sabiha Sumar’s new film

BY SANAM MAHER DESIGN BY KIRAN SHAHID & SAMRA AAMIR

Sabiha Sumar has had a good month. As her film Good Morning Karachi (Rafina) had its London premiere at the Raindance Film Festival, Sumar and the team of Saving Face — the Academy Award-winning documentary that she served as producer of — picked up an Emmy award for Best Documentary. In the works since 2011, Good Morning Karachi was filmed over a period of eight weeks, following an intensive three-month workshop with the cast and features Amna Ilyas, Atta Yacub, Beo Raana Zafar, Yasir Aqueel, Khalid Malik and Saba Hamid. “It was like running a film school,” Sumar recalls, as she worked with a motley team of Indian and Dutch crew members as well as local film enthusiasts who had never been on a feature film set.

PHOTO: SABIHA SUMAR

NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

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COVER STORY The film found its inception in a chance meeting between Sumar and the author Shandana Minhas at a mutual friend’s house. “I had read Shandana’s articles in newspapers,” explains Sumar, “and I invited her to write a novella on the life of a young woman coming of age in Karachi.”

The story of a girl, Rafina, who dreams of leaving the gallis of Faisal Colony for the glamour of Pakistan’s fashion and beauty industry, Good Morning Karachi moves between the different worlds that Karachi is home to; there’s the bubble that Rafina’s clients at a beauty salon inhabit, where women complain that you just can’t get a decent bagel in Karachi, the corporate world where ad executives look for models who encapsulate a notion of enlightened innocence and look as though they have seen a lot but are not corrupted by it, to sell their products. Then there is the world of Rafina’s fiancé, who plasters images of Benazir Bhutto in his home and the white noise of the city and Pakistan as a whole as the radio intermittently announces news of bombings or terrorist attacks (the film’s title takes its name from a radio show, Good Morning Karachi). Even as she is initially bound between her home and the salon she works at, Rafina moves between these spheres — the clipped received pronunciation of a male voice on an English audio guide teaches her to say, “I would like to see London by night” or ask for a hot chocolate or directions to the nearest nightclub while she washes clothes in her home or whiles away her time staring at a luminous model advertising lawn cloth on a billboard outside her room’s window; her marriage is fixed in this home and later, the police break down the door to her home to arrest her fiancé on terrorism charges.

The heart of the film lies in dreams, 26 more specifically, the Pakistani womNOVEMBER 10-16 2013

an’s dream. “Two of the largest film industries in the world deal with dreams,” explains Sumar, adding, “Hollywood is driven by the American dream and Bollywood by its secular dream of Akhand Bharat (united India).” Sumar feels that the way Pakistan developed as a nation, it did not succeed in manufacturing a dream that would be acceptable to all the people of the nation. The lack of vision, she argues is inextricably linked with Pakistan’s struggle to develop arts and culture, and more specifically the film industry, in the country.

Accordingly, Good Morning Karachi peddles in a number of celluloid fantasies: while Rafina dreams of upward social mobility (“I want my own apartment and my own life,” she informs her brother, telling him, “all modern women live with cats”), her fiancée Arif says, “all women dream of getting married and making a home,” as he dreams of political salvation, a revolution brought about by the leader of the political party he supports. Meanwhile, a young girl at Rafina’s salon says, “I always dreamt of getting married in a white dress,” as she is prepped for her wedding day. Once Rafina finds success as a model, she hopes to help women from her socio-economic strata and launches a campaign with the catchphrase ‘Unveil your loving glow’, featuring the image of a woman lifting the veil of her burqa to reveal her face. The image is plastered on a billboard and on leaflets that are distributed across the city. Thereby, Sumar explains, her film has provided for a Pakistani dream by taking Rafina beyond her personal gain and broadening her dream to reach out to ordinary Pakistani women.

The image, however, of Rafina, clad in a powder blue mini-dress, discussing the campaign on a morning talk show, is problematic, representing the penultimate Pakistani dream as one in which the country’s women are freed from religious conservatism, able to PHOTO: SABIHA SUMAR

PHOTO: ZEESHAN HAIDER

Hollywood is driven by the American dream and Bollywood by its secular dream of Akhand Bharat (united India). But the way Pakistan developed as a nation, it did not succeed in manufacturing a dream that would be acceptable to all says Sabiha Sumar 27 NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

Good Morning Karachi is ultimately a celebration of the spirit of the city of Karachi and the fortitude of its people, a city where, as Rafina believes, anything is possible

PHOTO: ZEESHAN HAIDER

dress and live just as women in the West. The film thereby further reinforces the disconnect between the people Sumar describes as the vernacular educated and the English-educated elite that has opportunities at every corner, as Rafina is unable to straddle her two lives and, by the film’s conclusion, is firmly positioned within the sphere of the elite.

Just as she screened Khamosh Pani across the country through mobile cinema halls, Sumar says she plans to exhibit Good Morning Karachi in towns and villages in Pakistan.

It will be interesting to note the reactions of more conservative audiences, particularly as Rafina comes to embody all that is seen as too modern or Western by many in the country. Sumar isn’t worried, however. “Rafina’s dream represents the aspirations of many young women whether they are rural or urban,” she explains, adding that, “I believe TV and media in general have opened up our understanding of international fashion and I don’t think Good Morning Karachi will be viewed in a narrow perspective.”

While Rafina’s campaign to unveil your loving glow is a tad flimsy in its goals, it is ultimately our inability to emotionally connect with Rafina’s journey that renders her PHOTO: SABIHA SUMAR

PHOTO: SABIHA SUMAR

dream a singular vision. Towards the film’s conclusion for instance, Rafina, now a model for a national brand, says, “I don’t hate my part of the city anymore.” When pressed for details of what she loves about her neighbourhood, she says, teary eyed, “The gola gunda from Five Star.” The sentiment, while it may be true, rings hollow, particularly as the film ends with Rafina’s successful transition from Faisal Colony to a more affluent neighbourhood in the city. At the film’s screening in London, actor and comic Beo Raana Zafar explained that, “One thing Sabiha taught us was that there’s a line and there’s a subtext. You don’t act the lines, you act the subtext.” With this film, unfortunately, much of this subtext fails to translate, most tellingly as a mystified member of the audience asked Zafar, “So, really, how did your character die at the end?”

Good Morning Karachi is ultimately a celebration of the spirit of the city of Karachi and the fortitude of its people, a city where, as Rafina believes, anything is possible. “This city is not like any other city in Pakistan,” says Sumar. “It’s sad that Karachi has sunk into violence in the past few years but its potential as a city that drives ambition is certainly palpable.”

Despite its shortcomings, the film is an important contribution to Pakistan’s fledgling independent film industry, which can only learn from its successful and not-so-stellar productions. Sumar notes that the industry is changing, buoyed by the successes of projects such as Saving Face, Zinda Bhaag or Seedlings and the recent inclusion of Pakistani entries for consideration at the Academy Awards. “The audience was always receptive,” she explains, “but there were no opportunities.”

But times, it seems, are changing and Sumar has thrown herself back into work, with two feature films and a doc29 umentary in the pipeline.

NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

Bi e nveni d os

a Bol i v i a

For the extraadventurous, Bolivia is the perfect postcard holiday destination TEXT & PHOTOS BY MYRA KHAN DESIGN BY ASIF ALI

Bolivia is a country like no other. For the adventurous travellers, its arid deserts, tropical rainforests, snow-capped peaks, silver mines and colourful inland lakes prove there is so much more to this landlocked country than ever imagined — or at least more than I had expected.

Our Bolivian journey begins in La Paz after landing in El Alto (part of greater La Paz) at the El Alto International Airport. If you’re brave enough to arrive in the dead of night, you can avoid the morbid-looking scarecrows hung on lampposts — a sign to ward off thieves and not crows. In earlier times, the scarecrows were apparently bodies of thieves who had been executed if caught and hung high to instil fear in criminals.

El Alto gives street justice a new definition altogether but that is not the only defining point of the city. La Paz is a culturally rich, sprawling and chaotic city with just around three million inhabitants. It represents modern Bolivia with its restaurants, bars, universities and museums and the hard-tomiss Witches’ Market which, quite like the name suggests, offers an interesting selection of good luck charms and voodoo-like items. Dead baby llama foetuses are also sold here and according to a myth, if you bury one under a building before construction, the fetus will act as its protector.

Although grateful for the revenue that tourism brings in, the inhabitants don’t seem too pleased by the horde of backpackers who flock to La Paz each year. The heavy tourist influx is not just limited to La Paz but can be seen all across Bolivia.

From La Paz, one of the easiest trips to make is to Copacabana, a small town beside the infamous Lake Titicaca, believed to be the birthplace of the Incas, one of the oldest knows civilisations in the Americas.

Its intense azul sky and reflections during sunset almost make you believe the same.

The remainder of the town is graced with only about six short streets, lined with bars, shops and restaurants. There isn’t much to do here other than wander around.

With a quick look at South America’s largest lake and also one the world’s highest large lakes, you can now head to the town of Corioco. Its tropical climate and thriving jungle will allow you to put your adventure gear to good use. Here you can go hiking through the tropical mountains, bathe under the waterfalls or go river rafting. And if you desire a more upscale experience, you can lounge around your hotel pool all day. A mere three hours away from La Paz, Corioco is the ideal getaway.

Cochabamba on the other hand is a vibrant and thriving Bolivian city. It hosted the world’s largest statue of Jesus Christ until 2010, when a larger one was completed in Poland. As another one of Bolivia’s larger cities, Cochabamba is quite different from La Paz — and actually quite like Karachi and Lahore.

The city holds a wealth of archaeological treasures. Rising above the surrounding tile roofs is the dome of the convent of Santa Teresa, perhaps one of the world’s most underrated wonders. Designed and constructed by architect Pedro Nogales and engineer Martinez Caceres in 1760, the convent exudes a sense of peace that touches those who walk down its hallway. And as the guidebook rightly states: “It looks like you have walked into a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel.” The convent houses a small number of nuns who have devoted themselves to the place and are not allowed to speak or interact with anyone from the outside world. Until 2005, they resided in the convent’s original structure, in dire conditions.

(Top) La Muela del Diablo (The Devil’s Molar) is a popular landmark that can be seen from the valley of La Paz. (Bottom left) A lady practices yoga on the skyline of the Valle de la Luna, just outside La Paz. (Bottom right) Sunset over Lake Titicaca. From the highest point of Copacabana (the town next to the lake) the Peruvian mountains can be seen on the other side of the lake.

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From sacred to simply serene, Bolivia is dotted with abundant tourist destinations.

Only a few Bolivianos can take you a very long way, also making it an extremely budget-friendly holiday. For instance, for around 90 Bolivianos (Rs1,400) you can travel for 16 hours in a bus, in a comfortable cama seat that can fold down quite literally into a bed.

Unfortunately for those who suffer from vertigo, it is one of the most economical ways to get to Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat. It offers a truly magnificent sight, especially if you can manage to get there well before 100 other jeeps make it their parking lot. With a little bit of rain, the dried, crusty salt plains form the world’s largest natural mirror and it is almost sinful to not try and capture this beauty on camera.

South-West Bolivia has a lot more to offer other than the savage beauty of the salt flat.

If you have a booked a tour, you will embark on a spectacular three-to-seven day journey that will take you through its arid deserts, hot springs, the red lake that is home to flamingos, the green lake with enough arsenic to kill anyone who attempts to take a swim in it and stunning mountains and rock formations along the way.

Mountains are plentiful in this country, especially in its silver mining city of Potosi.

It used to be the largest city in the world at one point in time — larger than London and Brussels. This was due to the silver-rich mountains that provided thousands of miners with jobs. But after the price of silver dramatically fell in the international market, times in Potosi got tough.

The first thing that strikes you about this

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1: The death road gives cyclists a mere few metres wide road to bike downhill.

2: The railroad tracks running outside the town of Uyuni.

3: A jazz band performs in one of La Paz’s upscale cinemas.

4: Dancers on the streets of Cochabamba during a carnival.

1 5: The courtyard of the terrace of the convent in Cochabamba.

6: A lady collecting salt from the salt flat in Salar de Uyuni to be transported to the rest of Bolivia.

7: Cyanide treatment at a silver refinery plant in Potosi.

8: The view of the mountains from a mirador (lookout point) in Sucre.

9: A 20-minute paragliding ride over the outskirts of La Paz. 10: At the centre of Cochabamba lies a giant lake, that is overlooked by the statue of Jesus.

11: El Tio — protector of the mines in Potosi.

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city is the grit — in the streets, in the cafés and in the city’s architecture. As an additional source of revenue, miners now offer mine tours. This comprises a four-hour crawl through jagged tunnels illuminated by torches, with a tour guide repeatedly shouting, “don’t look up, sulphuric acid is dripping from the ceiling.” Later you are required to climb down to an unused tunnel to light up a few sticks of dynamite, right after wishing for good luck before the statue of El Tio (The Uncle), Lord of the Underworld who is believed to be the protector of the mines, by showering him with coca leaves and alcohol.

Having experienced fear in the mines of Potosi, you can head for some calm and fresh air to the city of Sucre. At only a few hours away, it is surrounded by breath-taking mountain views. Sucre has a very European feel to it and much unlike the fast-paced Bolivia, it moves to a rhythm of its own. Buses don’t seem to run on time and restaurants often serve lighter food. Also, unlike the long skirts that most cholitas (indigenous Bolivian women) adorn in La Paz, women here wear shorter skirts that cut off at the thighs, due to Sucre’s warmer climate.

In Bolivia, almost every city has defined its own skirt length and style, quite like its different tourist attractions. The Bolivia that I fell in love with was one that reminded me so much of Pakistan with regards to its political, social and economic diversity — except for the fashionable skirts. But what makes it a country worth exploring, despite the similarities, is how you can find yourself on the other side of the globe and feel that we’re all somehow still connected.

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Ride down the world’s most dangerous road Also known as the ‘Death Road’, the North Yungas Road was given its title after it claimed to have taken the most number of lives due to its narrow, rocky and slippery structure. Since the road isn’t quite safe for cars and trucks, many tour companies offer you the opportunity to ride a bike down the 60km road.

Recommended tour company: Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking Price range: BOB500 to BOB750 (Around Rs7,700 to Rs11,500) Swim with piranhas and dolphins Taking a flight to the Amazon River is not for the faint-hearted. You fly in a small aircraft to Rurrenabaque, a small town in North Bolivia, before eagerly jumping on a riverboat that takes you down the Amazon. If your guide asks you to jump into the water, don’t worry as the crocodiles and piranha are kept at bay by the pink dolphins.

Recommended tour company: Bala Tours Price range: Around USD65 or BOB50 for three days (Around Rs6,900) Adventure awaits you in La Paz Apart from the thriving life inside the city, areas surrounding La Paz have many escapes. Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) and Muela del Diablo (The Devil’s Molar) are popular places that are easily accessible from La Paz and many tour companies offer horse riding, paragliding and dirt biking there.

Recommended tour company: Kanoo Tours Approximate prices: BOB300 to BOB400 per activity (Around Rs4,600 to Rs6,100)

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BOOK

Books: [re]kindle the magic Robin Sloan tackles the tug-of-war between technology and books with immense warmth and intelligence

BY ANAM HAQ

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 hour Bookstore flourishes in the nebulous terrain between super-powered digital information and the text warriors of yore. It rocks in terms of crazy imaginative leaps and is so optimistic about the longevity of books in print that it makes bibliophiles like me positively clap with glee. It does have its share of shortcomings though, but more on that later.

Clay Jannon is an unemployed art school graduate. One day, Clay’s life changes completely when he walks into a shabby little bookshop with a vacancy. He is greeted by the mysterious and seriously old Mr Penumbra who asks, “What do you seek in these shelves?” Clay soon begins work at Mr Penumbra’s 24-hour bookstore and realises that what is ostensibly a decrepit bookshop, with very few readable books and even fewer customers, is actually a vault for thousands of books written in code, held for customers who borrow them at alarming regularity and even more alarming haste. His job is to write minute descriptions of each customer — down to the last triangle-shaped button and fifth sneeze.

The books in code, as Clay discovers, lead towards the discovery of the holy grail of a secret society called the Fellowship of the Unbroken Spine, the headquarters of which lie beneath Manhattan’s busiest district, a five hundred-year-old underground lair with ancient tomes and robed, hooded whispering figures. In a modern, heroic quest, investigator Clay together with his Googler-wizard girlfriend, Kat, and his best friend, warrior/financer Nee, unravel the centuries-old mystery of the relationship between books and immortality.

Despite all the trappings to go over the top, the book is quite grounded. One of the reasons, ironically, is the author’s imagination.

Undeniably, we have here a writer who is able to channel an old-world love for books in all their glory while refusing to entertain the scorn of proud Kindle wielders or Google users. He co-opts the enemy, as it were, and makes Google the torchbearer of a movement to digitise all knowledge — bringing the written and spoken word into the realm of NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

Available for Rs740 at The Last Word

Book bonanza Where'd You Go Bernadette?

Bernadette Fox is notorious: to her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward for a family trip to Antarctica. To find her mother, Bee creates a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

digital information and codes, and making it available to all. Google is a world conqueror and its headquarters is a sprawling campus with a controlled environment resembling the robot-like air from the Stepford Wives, but with happy, bouncy, under-30 army of employees who represent the best of the human species world over. It is Darwinian but with Katy Perry and her California girls in charge of the selections.

Then there is Google Forever, the division pondering questions of extended life and immortality, because as Kat agonises, there is so much to do and such a limited window of opportunity for humans.

Google Forever is hence a reality — Google la launches Calico, a combiot pany dealing with medicine and biotechnology with the goal of extending the human lifespan. Sloan is spot on with imaginative invention that is cra crazy enough to be real.

In a world where bibliophiles would rather preserve books for a scarce few a and where digitisation of books is done carelessly to mass produce, Sloan gre tradition of reading pays due respect to the great complet with the accompanybooks. This, complete book ing milieu — bookstores, eccentric but bookselle the charm of an old lovable booksellers, thum book with thumbed, yellowed pages, the thrill of a brand new book with crackling s covers and the smell of brand new seabs crets — is an absolute joy to experience.

However, there iis also a sincere appeal uni to allow universal access to the w written word.

Sloan shows that machin can be good and machines the sp spider-handed Google book scanner loves books

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society It is 1946 and the author, Juliet Ashton, can't think of what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey who has acquired a book that once belonged to her. And spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her curiosity is piqued and it's not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under the German Occupation, Juliet soon realises that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.

and takes great care to preserve the delicate pages and spine. Appropriate technology can help traditional methods of information and knowledge progress in a way that is fitting for the fast pace of the modern reader.

There are however some shortcomings; one is that the book is too clever for its own good. The mysteries presented are gripping. What do the code books in Mr Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore mean? Clay finds the answer easily via a data visualisation project. Why does Mr Penumbra disappear halfway into the book? A bit of old fashioned sleuthing in Mr Penumbra’s office, a lot of Google Mapping and boom, Clay reaches Mr Penumbra’s destination even before he does.

What is the final answer to the puzzles contained in the Fellowship of the Unbroken Spine? Google runs an extensive operation to find out but fails and then Clay, within days, trots out the answer. It’s all too easy and not good enough given that the writer is playing with an extended metaphor of the quest. It’s like Odysseus found Google Maps, a fancy yacht with a tech-savvy crew, and went from Troy to Ithaca in two days and gave a thumbs-up to the audience watching him via satellites.

In the same vein, there are some parts which could have been trimmed; the love story between Clay and Kat is underdeveloped, in fact his bromance with Neel is much more engaging. There is unnecessary text devoted to expounding the details of Google the Gargantuan Conqueror; much of that could have been part of a larger picture as opposed to the picture.

Having knocked it down a few notches, I still hold the book a winner. It is great writing, fast paced for the most part, with seriously exciting moments. And the best part, it puts a big smile on your face and makes a part of you want to go back to that quest and find the magical world that you closed off in your mind long ago.

Alif the Unseen He calls himself Alif — few people know his real name — a young man born in a Middle Eastern city that straddles the ancient and modern worlds. When Alif meets the aristocratic Intisar, he believes he has found love. But their relationship has no future and as a remembrance, Intisar sends the heartbroken Alif a mysterious book. Entitled The Thousand and One Days, Alif discovers that this parting gift is a door to another world — a world from a very different time, when old magic was in the ascendant and the djinn walked among us.

NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

FILM When you think of mega action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone starring together in an action flick, you can’t help but envisage the intense action sequences that would unfold in Escape Plan. But disappointingly enough, not only is the movie lacking a proper script, it also fails to impress with its weak action sequences.

Ray Breslin (Sylvester Stallone) is a professional jailbird, who gets paid millions for uncovering weaknesses in security systems. After being recruited by a rather mysterious CIA client, Stallone finds himself locked away in ‘The Tomb’, a government-funded shadow prison, with no communication with the outside world. There he meets the tyrannical warden, Hobbes (Jim Caviezel), and realises he’s bitten off more than he can chew.

The movie only comes alive once the two stars meet. Emil

Prison Break for Dummies In this classic escape plan from a highsecurity prison, the duo raises expectations but fail to steal the show

BY AIZA NASIR

Rottmayer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a wily criminal, who befriends Stallone when he seems to be in danger of being overwhelmed in a fight. What follows is a story of tactics that the pair employ in order to escape this notorious prison. Compared to previous ingenious plans of Ocean’s Eleven and Prison Break, theirs can be best described as primitive and unimaginative.

What is further putting off is the performance by the supporting cast. 50 Cent unconventionally plays a computer nerd while the prison doctor is played by Sam Neill from Jurassic Park. And then, what is a maximum security US prison without a gang of Muslim terrorists. Stepping up to this challenge is Faran Tahir, cast as a Muslim terrorist, who assists the pair in their plan to break free.

However, the same cannot be said for the action heroes. While Stallone is stoic and acts like he’s giving a noteworthy performance, it’s Schwarzenegger who steals the show. You can see him having fun playing the eccentric Rottmayer and at one point ranting and raving in Austrian German while being interrogated.

You can see that he’s not taking himself too seriously, which results in a rather fun performance.

There is no doubt that the two are superstars, and the concluding action sequence is an ode to how they reached the pinnacle of their careers, especially when Schwarzenegger totes a machine gun and literally demolishes the villains. You can’t help but feel like you have travelled back to the ’90s with the quality of action sequences and the ‘banter’ the two share on screen. You also question the choice of director Mikael Håfström, better known for his horror movies, who perhaps lacks experience in the action genre and fails to deliver. His decision to get close-ups just leads to an inadvertent focus on the aging stars’ wrinkles.

Clocking in at almost two hours, some necessary editing would have enhanced the viewing experience. For all Schwarzenegger/Stallone fans, it is highly recommended that you watch the movie. But for those who can’t keep their eyes from rolling at the cheesy one-liners, it’s best to steer clear.

SPACED OUT

Gravity strips you to a bare minimum and forces you to rethink your link with Mother Earth

BY SAIM SAEED

There are very few shots in Gravity that do not have the Earth in its frame; sometimes pale blue or dark, its ubiquitous presence both haunting and inviting at the same time. And it’s only in space, stripped of basic necessities like oxygen, sound and ground to walk on, that we are compelled to reassess our relationship with Mother Earth.

These reflections are intermittent however, as director Alfonso Cuarón, of Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too) fame, plugs fleeting scenes of calm between desperate efforts at survival and scenes of catastrophe. But at its heart, Gravity is a survival movie. Mission specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and mission commander Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are astronauts doing repair work when a storm of debris destroys their shuttle. What follows is quite predictable. The movie shows them meandering from one space station to another — placed rather conveniently close to each other — to ultimately find a capsule to make it back to Earth.

Although the movie’s plot is predictable, the visuals have enough impact to leave you spellbound. When the storm strikes, the audience watches on rather uncomfortably and helplessly as Bullock veers towards the darkness, spinning relentlessly, as the Earth, reflected on her helmet visor, appears to move with her. And to emulate this lack of any physical or metaphysical certainty, the camera work, deftly executed by Emmanuel Lubezki, is also free from similar physical

grounding. The camera is part of the three dimensional framework that allows you to experience the Earth above, below or behind you as you too spin around like Stone and Kowalski, hanging on to handlebars, wires and anything you can hold on to for dear life. To experience this utter loss of control, 3-D is fundamental to Cuaron’s film, and it is brilliantly orchestrated.

The film is technologically well-equipped.

The visuals are spectacular; easily the best use of 3-D since James Cameron’s Avatar.

The debris storms in particular, are breathtaking. From the buzz of flies to the country music playing on Kowalski’s space suit, the sounds, and their lack thereof, complete the experience.

The movie will however not be remembered for its script. Clooney’s wisecracks and Bullock’s personal baggage do nothing to elevate the film. And with two likable, familiar characters, Cuaron should have known that the audience would empathise with the characters even in the absence of their rather clichéd back stories. Despite everything, the two put in worthwhile performances, especially Bullock with her portrayal of a distant and indifferent woman after facing a personal life tragedy.

In the end, Clooney’s yammering and Bullock’s heavy breathing are welcome sounds in an otherwise dark, weightless and infinite silence that make our meaningless and grounded lives a tad bit more bearable. T NOVEMBER 10-16 2013

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FILM

BUTCHERED SECRETS Sometimes knowing who you are may eat you up on the inside

BY SAEED REHMAN

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You know things are askew with the Parkers when hours after their mother’s death, patriarch Frank Parker (Bill Sage) tells younger daughter Rose (Ambyr Childers) that tradition will be followed with elder daughter Ivy (Julie Garner) stepping into her mother’s shoes. Jim Mickle’s American remake of the original Mexican film We Are What We Are is one of the most lyrical and beautiful horror films of recent times.

After Emma Parker’s (Kassie DePaiva) death, local doctor, Doc Barrow (Michael Parks), begins finding what look like human bones in the local stream. He makes the connection that other than his own daughter, close to 30 people had disappeared in the last twenty years in the area. His investigation keeps bringing him closer to the Parker clan.

Frank, obsessed with tradition and religion, demands that his reluctant daughters obey his rules. We don’t know what those are but we are pretty sure they are horrific. Rose makes her defiance clear in a muted fashion. Iris, however, placates her younger sister, telling her that she will follow her father’s wishes for the time being.

The real pleasure of We Are What We Are is that even though there is no outright, in-your-face horror for most of the film, Mickle keeps ratcheting the tension.

In this, he is aided by his excellent crew of actors. Sage, Childers and Garner are pitch perfect and carry the burden and unease of their family dynamic throughout the fil film.

Mic Mickle’s film sets a gloomy tone from the very first scene as we see Emma Parker totter to her death in dit when a flood hits the town. And this gloom is a ditch mai maintained by his excellent use of sound and lighting.

By not giving the audience any gore for most of the film and instead subverting our expectations, We Are W What We Are cleverly magnifies the horror that lies b buried in the Parkers’ shed. You wait for the gory o outbursts and each time you think you are close, Mickle pulls back and takes yet another detour. For the most part this is an effective strategy. wh the money shot is delivered, and it is But when u in the last ten minutes, it is magnificent. served up T pping his hat to horror and gore fests of the Ti Tipping wi a nod to our present day preoccupapast with tion of inversing the role of the beleaguered blond Mickle delivers a knockout ending that blonde, i not for the squeamish. Sitting down for a is f m dinner might never feel safe again. fa family

Every family has something to hide The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Considered one of the greatest and most controversial horror films, this 1974 film follows a bunch of friends who fall prey to a family of cannibals while on their way to visit an old farmhouse. At the time of release, the film was banned in several countries and played in a limited number of theatres due to its violent content but went on to become a raging success later.

Dogtooth

A 2009 Greek film, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, is about a couple who keep their children confined to their isolated property and ignorant of the outside world. A tale of terror, fear and family secrets, the film was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards.

Parents A 1989 American black comedy horror film set in the 1950s, tells the story of Michael Laemle, a young boy who suspects his suburban parents of chopping up the wrong kind of meat. Despite failing at the box office, the film has a strong following over home video.

HISTORY

THE LONE AVENGER For a nation that has struggled endlessly for democracy, the medal celebrating it has only seen one recipient to date

BY MUHAMMAD ADIL MULKI

For a country that has made countless sacrifices in the name of democracy, it is surprising that there are hardly any accolades for those who have played an instrumental role in holding up those values.

A couple of months ago, newspapers were abuzz with news of a medal of democracy being conferred upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Turkish president during his visit to Turkey. The title in question is called Cumhuriyet Nisani in Turkish or Jamhuriyat Nishani (Medal of Democracy) as our media puts it. However, there is one problem — the Jamhuriyat does not refer to any democracy that the recipient may or may not have strived for, but the fact that Turkey itself is a Republic or a Jamhuriyat. This is the reason why the official website of the Turkish president chooses to translate the award as Order of the Republic Medal of Turkey.

The medal has maintained the tradition of cordiality between the two countries. The Devlet Nishan was for example, bestowed on former president Asif Ali Zardari during his 2011 visit to Ankara. Earlier, former President Pervez Musharraf who spent his childhood in Turkey, also called the country his second home.

On the other hand, the local version of the award, the Tamgha-e-Jamhooriyat or Medal of Democracy, is sup-

posed to be conferred upon those who perform an extraordinary service to democracy. The medal has only been bestowed once in the country’s history, when former prime minister Benazir Bhutto awarded it to the then chief of army staff, General Mirza Aslam Beg, in 1988. After General Zia ul Haq’s death in the Bahawalpur plane crash, Beg was appointed the COAS and given the circumstances at the time, martial law might have been an easy and tempting prospect. Instead, the general showed a commitment towards democracy and held the elections conducted duly, which ushered in Benazir Bhutto’s first government.

However, between 1990 and 1994, the Mehrangate scandal surfaced whereby it was alleged that the office of the COAS had used state funds to strengthen the PPP’s opponents. In October 2012, the Supreme Court of P Pakistan, deciding upon a petition filed by Retired Air M Marshall (ret’d) Asghar Khan, ruled that General Beg, th the recipient of the Medal of Democracy was indeed g guilty of extending funds to political parties of choice.

T There were talks of the general being stripped of his m military and civilian medals, but nothing ever came th through.

However, like most other things, the Pakistani nati tion moved on. Today, a replica of the Medal of Democra racy hangs in the gallery of the State Bank of Pakistan M Museum — a small silent reminder of another strange ch chapter in Pakistan’s history that has more twists and tu turns than a John Grisham thriller.