The Express Tribune Magazine - September 14

SEPTEMBER 14-20 2014

THE GHOSTS OF

MAUTHAUSEN Members of two faiths unite in the face of a tragic past

September 14-20 2014

Feature

City Pleasures

Cover Story

Karachi Walla lifts the curtain on his city’s hidden treasures

The Ghosts of Mauthausen Muslims and Jews from 38 countries come face-to-face with a tragic past

28

Human Resources

One size does not fit all Tips to write an effective and insightful resume

22

4

32 Regulars

6 People & Parties: Out and about 38

with beautiful people 34 Reviews: Books Health: Coping with vitamin D deficiency

Magazine In-charge: Sarah Munir and Senior Subeditor: Dilaira Dubash Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Essa Malik, Jamal Khurshid, Munira Abbas, Mohsin Alam, Omer Asim, Sanober Ahmed & Talha Ahmed Khan Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. 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 NUR Student Leadership Program celebrates its 19th annual internship programme closing ceremony in Lahore

PhoToS coURTESy LoTUS PR

Shazia and Zareen Arif Ijaz

Samira Maroof, Zenab Maroof and Noreen Farooq

Mehr Manzoor

d Sayaan Nawaz an

6 September 14-20 2014

Dr Abeera

Tehmina, Naheed and Shazia

PEOPLE & PARTIES

PhoToS coURTESy LoTUS PR

Mavra Mushtaq and Asma Rao

Hira Naeem

Roomi Aziz

Rubab

8 September 14-20 2014

Uzma Faisal

PEOPLE & PARTIES

cyra Ali exhibits her work at Grandeur Gallery, Karachi

PhoToS coURTESy NEw woRLd coNcEPT

Amina and Khadija

Eman Rana and Cyra Ali

Saira Habib

Faiza Feroze

10 September 14-20 2014

Zara and Maryam Dadabhoy

PEOPLE & PARTIES

PhoToS coURTESy NEw woRLd coNcEPT

Maliha and Anusha

Kiran and Samia

Frieha Altaf

Nashmia and Sadia

12 September 14-20 2014

Shezray and Adil

PEOPLE & PARTIES

Filmmakers hold a music launch for the movie Na Maloom Afraad in Karachi

Nabeel Qureshi, Mohsin Abbas Haider and Fizza Ali Meerza

Fahad Mustafa

Mehwish Hayat

Javed Sheikh

14 September 14-20 2014

i Khan

Azaan Sam

COVER STORY

THE GHOSTS OF

MAUTHAUSEN Muslims and Jews from 38 countries come face-to-face with a tragic past TEXT AND PHOTOS BY ZEESHAN SALAHUDDIN DESIGN BY MUNIRA ABBAS

Nearly 140 of us stood in a loose circle inside a concrete room on the last day of the week-long Muslim Jewish Conference — a platform where young Muslim and Jewish leaders from around the globe get together to promote dialogue, encourage coalition building and foster lifelong friendships — held this August for the fifth time in Vienna, Austria. The room with its plain walls, wooden benches, harsh fluorescent lighting and metal and stone fixtures was oddly representative of this place. Somber. Silent. Reverent. Some stood with their arms folded and heads bowed while others held hands, offered a supportive shoulder or leaned against the walls. Each one of us was stunned at what we had witnessed over the past few days.

The silence was pierced by Samuel’s voice, a Moroccan Jew, as he recited a prayer for the deceased in Hebrew. Once he finished and stepped back, Bashar Ibrahim, a Serbian Muslim came forth and recited a prayer, in Arabic this time. As Muslims and Jews prayed together for the departed souls, united by the sheer scale of the tragedy that transpired here, only one thing was clear — no matter what religion, cast, creed or background you come from, some things are just decidedly inhuman.

In a square room before the gas chamber, there are several panels with names of all the people known to have been killed at Mauthausen.

How is it possible that a few SS soldiers and officers managed to murder nearly 90,000 people in a period of seven years at the Mauthausen camp, surrounded by a civilian population?

It is customary to write the name of a lost, loved one on a piece of stone since they last forever.

A confrontation with the past On the morning of August 12, 2014, participants of the Muslim Jewish Conference travelled two hours by road from Vienna to Mauthausen, one of the largest labour/death camps built by the Nazis. It is estimated that during the seven years of the camp’s operation, nearly 90,000 people were killed at Mauthausen, of which 40,000 were Jews. The vast majority of those killed were Poles and Russians, with Germans, Austrians, Italians, Spaniards and Yugoslavians accounting for the rest. Mauthausen was a Stufe III (grade three) camp, which meant that it was intended to be one of the hardest camps for the political enemies of the Reich. Hitler’s major paramilitary organisation, The Schutzstaffel (SS), referred to it as Knochenmühle — the bone-grinder.

From the beginning, we knew the tour would be emotionally taxing and draining. Each one of us, however, had severely underestimated the power and presence of Mauthausen and the hard-hitting lessons we would learn there.

At the visitor centre that morning, we were divided into six tour groups. Our tour guide, Wolfgang, took us to the outer perimetre of the camp, where you could see houses, barns and other structures of the surrounding town. Prisoners were tasked with building the camp on August 7, 1938, and the location was selected because of a nearby granite quarry.

24 Initially a prison for criminals, it was converted to a labour SEPTEMBER 14-20 2014

camp on May 8, 1939. Mauthausen and nearby Gusen formed the basis of the Mauthausen-Gusen camp system, which resulted in 101 camps spread out across Austria by the end of the war. The camp was extremely profitable. For example, in 1944 alone, the Mauthausen-Gusen camp system made a profit of 11 million Reichsmark, which amounts to nearly 144 million Euros today — profits at the cost of unimaginable human death and suffering. Of the 320,000 prisoners incarcerated at the camp system, a mere 80,000 survived.

As we took in the surroundings, our thoughts were interrupted by a simple question from Wolfgang. How is it possible, he asked, that a few SS soldiers and officers managed to murder nearly 90,000 people in a period of seven years at this camp, surrounded by a civilian population? The answer to this question would be revealed to us over the next three hours, through a series of revelations, each more harrowing than the last.

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference” The first link in this horrendous chain of murder was the indifference and tacit acceptance of the townsfolk of what was happening at Mauthausen. Everyone knew these prisoners were being marched to their probable deaths, as the average life expectancy at Mauthausen was less than three months by 1945, yet no one objected. For the town, the SS were friends, lovers, ordinary folks. The prisoners,

Adina, a Jewish attendee from Australia, lit a candle for her grandfather who was one of the survivors of Mauthausen.

PHOTO CREDIT: DANIEL SHAKED

There were two wash basins in the barracks for 500 prisoners. Each of them just had 25 minutes to eat, wash and clean.

The tiny living quarters where up to 500 people were crammed at times.

Many succumbed to suffocation.

and by extension their misery and plight, were practically invisible.

Inside, on the main walkway, Wolfgang traced the steps of freshly arriving prisoners at the camp.

Taken in through the main gates, they were first documented, then stripped and shaved from head to toe. Next, they were marched, naked, into the adjacent shower, where they were mass bathed in ice-cold water. A single Hebrew word was painted on one of the pillars inside the shower room.

Adina Lieblich, a Jewish attendee from Australia, winced and turned away when she saw it.

“What happened? What does it say?” I asked. “‘Revenge’,” she said. “It says ‘revenge’.”

Even in a place like this, it was a stark reminder of the mindless hatred that bubbles beneath the surface.

Adina, whose grandfather survived Mauthausen, recounted the story of his interrogation. Her grandfather was pulled from the prisoner barracks without warning one day, and brought into one of these rooms with four SS officers. They wore brass knuckles. By the end of it, all he could see was his own blood painted on the walls of the room. Dur-

ing her childhood, her grandfather would have Adina sit on his lap, and place her finger inside his mouth. A wide crack could easily be traced along the roof of his mouth, a lifelong reminder of his ordeal at these hallowed grounds.

Wolfgang warned us about the memorial section of Mauthausen, saying we could skip this part entirely if we wanted, as most people found the following section exceptionally unnerving and shocking. This part of the complex housed the gas chambers, which could kill 120 prisoners simultaneously, the crematoriums where dead bodies were disposed off and various interrogation rooms. The walls were lined with memorabilia, tokens of remembrance left behind by prisoners and families of the deceased alike. In one corner of the room sat a set of cremation ovens. Inside was a lone bouquet of fresh white flowers.

One room was filled with black panels, with names of the identified victims lit up in white across the surface of the panels. There were tens of thousands of names. Registers that were several feet thick also contained an alphabetical list of prisoners, those who survived and those who didn’t.

An interrogation room connected us to the final section of this area — the gas chamber. At least 3,455 people were killed here by pumping poisonous gas into an otherwise airtight, small room. The only thing an SS officer had to do was push the button to release the gas. Every other 25 SEPTEMBER 14-20 2014

COVER STORY

Tragedy can be strangely liberating — it allows those who have witnessed it closely to rise above their differences and reach out to others who maybe experiencing the same pain step was carried out by prisoners, who were forced to strip fellow inmates, pile them into the gas chamber, remove the bodies and cremate the remains. Prisoners, thus, were made a part of the chain of murder at Mauthausen, forced to participate in all kinds of prisoner executions, torture and maltreatment.

Our next stop was the prisoner barracks, small wooden buildings with tiny, cramped rooms, which housed up to 500 prisoners. The two residential sections in each barrack were connected by an entranceway with two washbasins.

Prisoners were given 25 minutes to eat and wash up at the end of the day before being stuffed in their rooms. Several suffocated to death as a result.

Dazed and overwhelmed, our group was led by Wolfgang back outside, to the other side of the prison which overlooked the granite quarry. Ailing and underperforming prisoners were forced to repeatedly march up the 186 steps with a large stone on their backs. Those who survived were made to stand in rows of two at the edge of the quarry and given the option of being shot in the back of the head or to push the prisoner in front of them into the quarry below. Murder was institutionalised in every shape and form at Mauthausen and everyone was a voluntary or involuntary participant.

One survivor recounted 62 separate ways of murdering people at the camp that included everything from being beaten to death, icy showers that induced hypothermia, mass-shootings, starvation, drowning in barrels of water, electrocution at the perimeter fence and medical experiments

by Aribert Heim, dubbed the ‘Butcher of Mauthusen’.

Wolfgang had asked us a question at the beginning. By the end, all of us had the answer to his question but no one had the strength to voice it. Ninety-thousand people died because everyone, including prisoners and guards, officers and executives, townsfolk and local businesses, either directly participated, willingly or otherwise, or indirectly allowed the inhumanity to continue. Like most crimes against humanity, this one also flourished because of unchecked hatred, tacit or explicit consent and blatant apathy.

26 Bassi Gartenstein, a Jewish attendee from Israel, SEPTEMBER 14-20 2014

summarised the entire experience most aptly while quoting renowned political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel. “The opposite of love isn’t hate, its indifference,” she said. “[At Mauthausen] we witnessed this very indifference which caused the atrocities that mock the promise of ‘never again’.”

Healing in unison Tragedy can be strangely liberating — it allows those who have witnessed it closely to rise above their differences and reach out to others who may be experiencing the same pain. Something similar happened after the joint Muslim Jewish prayers at the visitor centre. Strangers reached out for comfort and found it in the unlikeliest of places. I found strength in the comforting words of Nadia Randera, a South African. Eilaf Farajullah, a Muslim Egyptian, found comfort in the hands of Gaelle Frischknecht, a Swiss Jew. “I was overwhelmed by how much [emotion] I felt,” she recounted later. “And when my emotions got me to the floor and I

An aerial shot of Mauthausen from 1944, taken after most of the barracks had been dismantled.

reached out, Gaelle was there for me, feeling what I was feeling, and just holding my hand. So I got to make a friend and that was the only good part about that day.”

Gaelle also remembers the moment. “It was just her and me and in that moment we understood that it didn’t matter where we are from or what religion we follow,” he shared.

“We were just two people mourning for the pain that others felt. I don’t remember how long we sat there but I know one thing for certain. I found a friend for life and that moment will always stay with me.”

The main Mauthausen memorial. Almost every nation that lost someone at Mauthausen has built a memorial but each of them is different from the other.

N Nearly 140 Muslim and Jewish participants prayed ttogether for the departed souls at the Mauthausen ccamp. PHOTO CREDIT: DANIEL SHAKED

The entire conference was designed in a manner that allowed members of both faiths to communicate openly and understand the other’s point of view. Apart from the trip to the Mauthausen camp, there was also a trip to the biggest synagogue and mosque in Vienna where the rabbi/imam explained how religious prayers worked and also answered questions. Guest speakers such as a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor and members from Combatants of Peace, an IsraeliPalestinian peace-building coalition comprised of former freedom fighters and Israeli soldiers, also shared their thoughts and experiences with the attendees. A projects team helped people connect and launch collaborative ventures such as a short film depicting historical stories of Jews saving Muslims from persecution and vice versa and the Muslim Jewish Cookbook Project. Journalists from the two communities also partnered to exchange stories.

Each one of us came out of this conference shaken to our very core, yet determined to do whatever little we could to ensure such hatred was not allowed to fester, in our minds, hearts and communities. It was a hard-earned lesson, soaked in tears and painful realisations, but one that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

Zeeshan Salahuddin is an Islamabad-based development professional and journalist.

He tweets @zeesalahuddin.

SEPTEMBER 14-20 2014

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FEATUrE

City Pleasures Lifting the curtain on Karachi’s hidden treasures TEXT AND PHOTOS By FArOOq SOOmrO DESIGN By SANOBEr AHmED

If you really want to get to know someone, take long walks with them. Sit across them and read a book. Share a meal.

Listen to their words and also their silence. Getting to know a place, or a city, is no different and Farooq Soomro — the man behind the blog thekarachiwalla.com — seems to have mastered this craft. His blog, as the name suggests, documents unexplored corners of Karachi and allows people to absorb unnoticed details of the sprawling metropolis. The following are some of his top choices of places for people who want to get acquainted with a city that they live in, but do not necessarily know.

Café mubarak’s manager sits behind the counter waiting to greet customers and to write out bills.

28 September 14-20 2014

A table in the past Saddar’s archaic charm can bowl over even the most rigid contemporaries.

The neighbourhood harmoniously blends rustic family-run stores and eateries with modern malls and hotels, and offers a variety of places to choose from for good oldfashioned entertainment.

Also tucked away in this pulsating part of Karachi is Café Mubarak — a hot spot for oldworld Persian dishes. With its non-fussy décor, that includes arched wooden chairs and white marble-topped tables set in a dimly-lit atmosphere, the place simply focuses on serving good food. Polite, uniformed waiters,

Cafe mubarak’s non-fussy decor attracts customers who prefer to sit in a quiet corner and grab a quick meal.

Café Mubarak’s menu offers a blend of Pakistani and continental breakfast items including biryani, chelo kebab and seafood dishes at economical rates

who serve tea in vintage teapots, are a pleasant reminder of the glory of pre-Partition Karachi. The menu offers a blend of Pakistani and continental breakfast items including biryani, chelo kebab and seafood dishes at economical rates.

And since the joint is a regular spot for students from the Institute of Business Administration’s (IBA) city campus, along with other loyal customers, the conversation is as diverse as the items on the menu.

So, the next time you are in the area, find a quiet corner at Café Mubarak, order a cup of chai and enjoy the energy of a business that hangs on to tradition in a city that 29 is changing by the hour.

September 14-20 2014

FEATUrE

A display of guitars and other musical instruments at the Abdul Waheed music Shop.

Always in tune The Abdul Waheed Music Shop in Lalu Khet, PIB colony, is the place to go to for Karachi’s musicians whenever they need help with their musical paraphernalia. Broken strings are connected and copper wires untangled as the eponymous owner works his magic on the instruments with his nifty fingers. Along with repair services, he also supplies a wide range of musical instruments including violins, guitars, ukuleles, harmoniums and tablas, making the store a one-stop shop for musicians of all kinds. Accolades in the form of momentos, including a picture with legendary singer Mehdi Hassan, line the walls of the shop, bearing testimony to his experience and dedication to the craft.

When asked why he chose a relatively less-visited part of Karachi to set up his store, Waheed explains 30 that many self-made musicians beSeptember 14-20 2014

longed to the same area. But like most people in this field of work, Waheed‘s business has been affected by the general apathy towards art and music over the years. He believes, however, that as long as his loyal clients are creating music, the show must go on.

Accolades in the form of momentos, including a picture with legendary singer Mehdi Hassan, line the walls of the shop, bearing testimony to his experience and dedication to the craft

Abdul Waheed repairs a harmonium at his music shop.

The world in words As reading becomes a rare pleasure, spaces such as libraries and bookstores that cater to this niche also stand the risk of being forgotten. Such is the case of the Tit Bit Book Stall that has fallen victim to Sadder’s excessive traffic, followed by no parking spaces, and a dwindling audience over the years.

Sandwiched between Jehangir Restaurant and the Zoroastrian temple on Daudpota Road, the shop is hardly bigger than a small kitchen.

The distinct flooring and ceiling fan take customers back in time when books were a treasured and widely available commodity. The bookstore was founded in 1944 by SM Khalil, who moved to Pakistan after the Partition and eventually became a favourite among Karachi’s literary connoisseurs.

A quick glance at the shelves may be disappointing as none of the books are classified by genre unlike most modern bookstores. But Salim, one of the store’s owners, along with two other elderly gentlemen, act as the perfect librarians and know

The Tit Bit Book Stall stocks everything from novels to magazines which are available at economical rates.

The Tit Bit Book Stall was founded in 1944

by SM Khalil, who moved to Pakistan after the Partition the exact location and availability

One of the store’s owners, Salim, sorts through a pile of books.

of every book on their fingertips.

From novels by Robert Ludlum, John Grisham and Sidney Sheldon, to popular magazines and cookbooks, the store maintains a wide collection for adults and children.

To increase customer loyalty, Salim even provides personalised services, such as ordering books according to customer demands and selling them below the market price. For example, The Finkler Question

by Howard Jacobson, which won the 2010 Booker Prize, is available at the store at a throwaway price, along with many other classics that are priced at only Rs100.

Farooq Soomro documents unexplored sites of Karachi on his blog thekarachiwalla.com.

He tweets @thekarachiwalla September 14-20 2014

31

HUMAN RESOURCES

One size does not fit all A résumé that gets you noticed is half the battle won

BY MOIZ ALLIDINA

Writing format

DESIGN BY ESSA MALIK

• Be concise. Use brief statements and try to limit

What a predicament it can be to sum up all your qualifications, experiences and accolades in a page (or two) while walking that fine line between sounding accomplished or risk coming off pretentious. Along with the countless 'How-to' books available in the market that promise you the craft of writing the perfect résumé, the internet is also flooded with templates and freelancers willing to do the job for you. The million dollar question, however, remains the same — how to make your résumé stand out and get noticed?

Jargon, slang, grammatical errors, inconsistency and flaws in the format are some of the many reasons why a potential employer would ignore your résumé. Not to mention that these days, most organisations use online databases to filter the résumés and narrow them down to those that match their requirements. To mitigate all this confusion, here are a few tips that can help you write an insightful and effective résumé and get your foot in the proverbial door.

WHAT IS AN INSIGHTFUL RESUME? Your résumé is like a mini-trailer of your personality, performance, persistence, persuasion and presentation. It shows your personality, accomplishments, enthusiasm for work, ability to adapt and work under pressure, and finally, what differentiates you from other candidates. Based on whether it makes a positive impact or not, you get your interview call to show your talent. Remember, employers look for the ideal match based on how trainable the candidate is and if they are a potentially good fit for their organisation.

your résumé to one page.

• Keep font size to 10, 11 or 12 point and set margins to no less than 0.5-inch on all sides.

• Do not use “I” or other first-person pronouns.

• Use the past tense when describing past positions and present tense for your current positions.

• Be consistent with your punctuation usage.

Content • Use verbs such as “do” or “did”, “worked”, “completed” and “helped with” as replacement for low-content verbs.

• Include multiple titles and responsibilities if you had multiple roles at one organisation.

• Do not lie, exaggerate or include something on

WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISTAKES? A common mistake that people make is to write the same thing for different jobs or have an inconsistent format. For example, the bullet points for each job should be tailored according to its requirements instead of using a standard four to six pointers for all jobs. Ripping off pointers from online templates should also be avoided. Some people also confuse a résumé with curriculum vitae — which does not have any specific limit in terms of length — and risk losing the employers attention with pages of unnecessary information. Similarly, in some instances, the candidates’ résumé is not updated, which fails to provide evidence.

32 SEPTEMBER 14-20 2014

your résumé that you would not feel comfortable discussing in a job interview.

• Do not use jargon or other acronyms without explaining what they mean.

• Do not include personal data such as birth date, marital status or excessive information about hobbies and interests.

WHAT TO DO TO MAKE HEADWAY? 1) Update periodically — Be diligent and do not copy-paste. Stop procrastinating and waiting for the last day or until you are ready to start looking for a new job to make changes to your résumé. In fact, experts say it is best to remain proactive and update it immediately after a new promotion, professional development or upon completing an academic degree or a project. It is a good way to guarantee that you do not miss due credit later and increases your chances of getting noticed.

2) Remove less relevant information — Your employment history is important but if you have over a decade of experience or have worked several jobs over the last few years, you do not need to include all the details. Retain the more recent information since times are changing and a lot of skills that were crucial a few years ago may no longer be relevant.

Moreover, you should also remove some of your older references as organisations look for referees within the last few years only.

Last-minute checklist before submitting your application

• Create a log of applications you send. Include position descriptions, dates, contact information, follow-up date (if appropriate) and follow-up communication notes.

• Do not rely on spell-check and get your application material

3) Use keywords — Just like Google and other search engines thrive on keywords to display results, organisations use keywords to find the right candidate. To clarify this further, keywords are certain terms that appear frequently in job postings within a particular industry.

You, as the job seeker, can benefit from keywords by narrowing down your job search and use these keywords in your résumé in order to increase your chances of being noticed. Some HR experts also propose that one should research industry trends to find out which words are doing the rounds these days and then include them in their résumés.

proofread by a second person. Remember to double-check names of companies and people.

• Print the document on résumé paper using a laser printer.

Do not use dark or speckled paper that can be difficult to read once photocopied or faxed.

• Ensure that your documents are appropriately named.

• Ensure that your voicemail greeting is professional on the phone number you have provided to the employer.

4) Format and structure — When it comes to the layout, there is no fixed format. However, apart from the theory-based chronological, functional and combination résumés, the skillbased résumés are the ones that get selected as they target the role directly and can tell the employer whether the candidate is passionate and committed to the field. But with two pages being the maximum length for a résumé, there is only so much information one can add, so it is best to keep it precise. Avoid significant gaps in your work history and check your spelling, grammar and unnecessary use of abbreviations and jargon. Here are some broad categories that the résumé can be divided into: summary of accomplishments, education, work experience, professional activities, volunteer experience and references.

Remember, the goal of your résumé is to sell yourself as the perfect match for the advertised position. Keep the above pointers in mind when you prepare or update your résumé and package it along with a strong cover letter when a job opportunity comes your way. Be creative, be honest and be prepared. Ready — Set — Hired!

• Ensure that your e-mail subject line is relevant and specific.

• Ensure that your e-mail address is professional.

The checklists have been recommended by the Cawley Career Education Center.

Moiz Allidina has worked as a career counsellor and is the founder of ‘M3 Training & Consulting’.

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BOOk

Time travel Twenty stories will take you through 8,000 years of South Asian history

By RAkAe RehmAn JAmil

34

If there was ever a book that I wish I had discovered in my youth, it would be Rahul Sanskrityayan’s From Volga to Ganga — a vivid account of the evolution of civilisation in the subcontinent.

The book which was first published in Hindi in 1944 and translated in English by Victor Kiernan in 1947, has since been published in more than 20 languages and is considered a literary classic.

From Volga to Ganga is an anthology of 20 short stories, written by the inveterate traveller Sankrityayan, who became an authority on the culture, language, philosophy and ethos of South Asia towards the mid-20th century. The stories, which cover a period of more than 8,000 years, document the evolution and growth of the region with remarkable coherence and are equally relevant 70 years later.

For those interested in South Asian history, the book has volumes to offer. The dynamics of the relationship between the individual and society, the rise in complexity of man’s emotional and intellectual dimensions as they evolved through history, the amount of learning undertaken and the author’s progressive thoughts will leave you spellbound. If you are a citizen of South Asia, the book will also give you a sense of your roots and improve your understanding of the current sociopolitical environment in the region.

The edition of the book published

by Pilgrim Books, Varanasi, in 2006, also includes a brief biography of Author Rahul Sankrityayan

Rahul Sankrityayan, written by Prabhakar Machwe. Few may know that one of India’s most venerated scholars, Sankrityayan, did not have a formal education. Instead, he used his extensive travels to study history, culture and philosophy and master 30 languages. Kiernan also mentions Sankrityayan’s reflections on art at one point. According to Machwe, Rahul was against ‘art for art’s sake’. Art, according to him, ought to be purposeful and the purpose should be the uplift of the poor and the downtrodden, towards the creation of an egalitarian society, where each person would have maximum opportunity as well as freedom from want. Sankrityayan, it seems, held his own works to the same high standards since there is not a single pedantic or extraneous passage in the entire book.

From Volga to Ganga is a veritable source of information and inspiration for research scholars, academics and students of South Asian history. For the common reader, it acts as a portal to the subcontinent’s past and provides valuable insight into the sociopolitical and religious frameworks currently in vogue in South Asia. In either case, it is a resource that should definitely be added to one’s literary collection.

Rakae Rehman Jamil is a musician and a lecturer at the Punjab University College of Art & Design and an adjunct faculty member at LUMS. He tweets @rakspaks

Where angels fail to tread A heartfelt tribute to Asim Butt, whose art continues to push boundaries long after he is gone

By AmnA IqBAl

Rebel Angel, a posthumous monograph featuring Asim Butt’s art practices, is a work-in-progress that gives an orientation of the artist’s body of work but lacks chronology. The editor, Nafisa Rizvi, however, takes the reader into confidence about this missing link from the get-go. In her introduction to the collection, Rizvi admits that the book challenged the curators — because the length of Asim’s career was cut short, his body of work can only be measured in its depth. Hence, the viewing lens of the book in terms of a clear theme is distorted.

Asim Butt was an enigma. His work embodied an unfiltered raw artistic expression and hence, his thematic practices were diverse enough to become a challenge if they are categorised. While the compilation accepts the dilemma it doesn’t fall victim to it. The fact that the artist’s uninhibited artistic expression was eventually constrained by labels such as controversial and even censored at times is another hindrance to a clean compilation.

Asim’s work was a speculative use of mediums, material and form. The fact that he used everything from oil on canvas to charcoal on paper and spray paint on benches reflects a process of growth and a constant restlessness to process the world in order to communicate with it. His instinct as an artist, however, was strong enough for him to retain the essence of the various mediums he used, while mastering them and understanding the value of each.

Most artists arrive at the abstract as part of their evolutionary process, or they begin to strip away at the essence of their

chosen material until it is unrecognisable.

Asim was brave enough to use vibrant canvases, elaborate imagery or rough stencils on walls 10 years after he was required to prove his skills as an art student at The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. He became more comfortable with his own technique and used that to enrich his vast language.

This monograph, which meanders on purpose, does the best it can in terms of curatorial decisions. The controversial nature of his work overwhelms any attempt to critique it in terms of his artistic development and expression. The lack of an organisational chronology is, however, confusing and fails to give a clear view of his artistic development and the shift in his influences. For example, an oil on canvas studying anatomical forms is right next to what was supposedly part of ‘The Stuckist’ movement, that aims to produce art with spiritual value regardless of style, subject, matter or medium and the Karachi chapter for which was founded by Asim in 2005. As a result, the collection does not weave a compelling narrative, despite the essays that put him in context as a student, a friend and a colleague.

Rebel Angel is not a collection that could be used as a reference when studying Asim Butt’s creative practice.

However, it is a tribute — an attempt to fill the artist’s absence since the collection of both essays and the curatorial process of his work involved artists, practitioners and writers who had been personally associated with him. T Amna Iqbal is a visual journalist at The Express Tribune. She tweets @amna_iqb

BOOK

The balancing act The Army and Democracy is a simple insight into the complicated civil-military relations in Pakistan

BY SHAHABUDDIN GILANI

Considering the ongoing anti-government agitation, Aqil Shah’s book, The Army and Democracy, is likely to attract a large number of readers. The book gives an in-depth analysis of civil-military relations since 1947 to the present day, with special focus on the army’s role vis-a-vis democracy.

Understanding the army’s role in politics acquires special significance given the fact that since Pakistan gained independence in 1947, only once has an elected government transferred power to another one.

Based on archival material and more than 100 interviews with politicians, civil servants and military officers, including four services chiefs and three heads of the Inter-Services Intelligence, and assessment of military writings, Shah’s book provides deep insight into the military mind. The book traces the organistational culture of the army, whether real or perceived, as an institution that does not accept civilian superiority. It is, however, difficult to tell if the army has acquired this tendency on its own or if the role of the final arbiter has been thrust upon it by the corruption, ineptness and uncouth behaviour of politicians fighting among themselves. As the infighting among politicians continued, so did the army’s dislike and disdain of civilians.

Politicians have tried to reduce the army’s influence in politics without first putting their own house in order, though Shah believes that the army’s 36 superiority complex is built into the SEPTEMBER 14-20 2014

psyche of officers during training in various institutions. The author, a faculty member at the Princeton University, writes that at the National Defence University in Islamabad, very little time is given to explaining officers their role and subservience to civilian authorities as laid down in the Constitution.

He writes that out of the total 987 contact hours, students attended just one two-hour lecture on the Constitution by a civilian legal expert.

As a corporate entity, Shah writes, the military seeks to enhance internal control and limit external

interference. The military’s prerogatives over its internal structure and functions limit the scope for establishing civilian supremacy over the armed forces. He cites the example of General Kayani awarding service extensions to several officers beyond the age of retirement without even seeking the requisite formal approval of the government.

The book also brings home the point that the army considers foreign and security policy its domain.

Shah writes that the military has made nominal concessions since 2008 by allowing the disclosure of an itemised annual budget before the Parliament. The army maintains that the full disclosure of sensitive budgetary matters would undermine national security by exposing critical information to enemy agents.

It has also advised the government to check wasteful expenditures rather than question the military budget.

The author gives several instances of the army’s displeasure with harsh criticism by politicians. For example, Ayub Khan’s annoyance at Suhrawardy’s intense questioning of the accused persons in the Rawalpindi conspiracy case of 1951, which was the first attempted coup in Pakistan against Liaquat Ali Khan’s government.

Overall The Army and Democracy is a treasure trove of information on civilmilitary relations in Pakistan. It is also a lesson on what the country needs the most at this critical juncture — a politics of inclusion by all stakeholders, rather than exclusion. T Shahabuddin Gilani is an editorial consultant for The Express Tribune.

HEALTH

Sun Kissed Add some sunshine to your life to prevent vitamin D deficiency

BY SAADIA KHAN DESIGN BY OMER ASIM

Too much exposure to the sun can harm your hair and skin but too little of it can lead to a lack of vitamin D in the body.

Also known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is not only essential for growth but also provides protection against various diseases.

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Since all the tissues in our bodies have vitamin D receptors, it explains why all our tissues need vitamin D to function. Vitamin D, which is found in foods such as fatty fish and dairy products, is responsible for sustaining heart muscles, brain cells, fat tissue, regulating genes that control cell growth, immune function and metabolic control.

It also helps in bone and tooth development as calcium can only be absorbed into the blood stream with the help of Vitamin D. According to patient accounts, most girls in southern Punjab are deprived of milk, eggs and poultry, due to fear of precocious puberty or menarche. Boys, on the other hand, are given twice the amount of those products to accelerate growth and make them muscular. This lack of calcium absorption in the body can cause an increase in common bone fractures among young adults, especially girls.

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In infants, vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets, body ache, pain, developmental delay, muscle weakness and limb deformity and in adults, it manifests as body and bone pains and aches, weakness and recurrent fractures.

It can also lead to breast, prostate and colorectal cancer, asthma and cardiovascular diseases.

While this form of deficiency is common among all ages, it is more likely to occur in pregnant and lactating women, infants and children under five years, senior citizens above 65 years, vegans and vegetarians. People confined indoors or those with a darker skin tone, milk allergies, malabsorption, renal and liver diseases or on drugs such as anticonvulsants, that prevent seizures, also have a higher chance of suffering from a lack of vitamin D. The Pakistan National Nutritional Survey 2011 has revealed alarming vitamin D deficiency levels in the local population. Approximately 69% of pregnant and 67% of non-pregnant women suffer from vitamin D deficiency, and almost 41% of children in the country are vitamin D deficient.

Prevention Vitamin D production in the human body is inhibited and affected by darker skin tones, obesity, old age, stress, wearing sunscreen, minimal exposure to sunlight and even northern latitude and long winters. Here are a few measures one can take to prevent vitamin D deficiency: Sun exposure is a vital source of vitamin D, therefore, people with a lighter skin tone should opt for minimal sun exposure, around 15 minutes, and those with a darker skin tone should opt for nearly 40 minutes under the sun. Outdoor activities should be promoted at schools, colleges and universities for this purpose and sunscreens should be avoided.

Eat vitamin D rich foods such as salmon, mackerel, mushrooms, tuna, sardines, milk, beef, egg yolk and cheese.

Visit your local physician to receive Vitamin D in the form of shots or supplements.

Saadia Khan is a pediatric resident from Multan. She tweets @drkhanchc