The global reach of Pakistani literature of as sis ta nc e?
Ah ,Is ee I have
es
d an
n he W e. v a le
is he
ts, pec sus e h in, ga da e s es dr
om ro o et ng i los aw as c r d It w
g nin or m e th in ee r th
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ty pi c a lo ft he
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e
ho u s e ’ s a b s t ra nd c t lls a art d t wa e c o velve style, boxed in aroon with no windows, with m
th e dra win g
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in
n orange jumpsui They aring a be we ll i he w
It was c lose to three in the morn ing and we wer es itti ng in th
sit tin g
in
T h e yw ait u n til he is c om pl et e l aders that makes them sqyunadron le think ak bloody that these if t h bout ey l ng a ock ethi you som
up in
ac ell ,p u tt he ir
o u. D d yo rme e ala I hav , I see ou ce? Ah se f assistan Excuse me, sir, but may I be o ’s
m e,
e
ly plete com
e
ing eth The som y ut w a sho it u nd n t i l r, a h e ea i s ur c o yo m p to l e t e th l y ou na m ke g db in e k f o e suspects, he will be wearing a r tin e n ora again, h t nge essed h ey is dr ga n he th . Whe e leaevr u p and h hes i s lot cl is c ot ph h h ru e the th ga of ey al th pic re fo ty be om d d again, he susp e s e o s c e t r s d , s h r i e e w ke ill be hen h wear na eave. Wirs, a s and l ing ely clothe sta a n et wn ora up his pl do downstairs, a room ty ather ing room ng m pical o hey g ing in the draw room e co ft t ore t t h i f e is h ing ous d be we were s e’s raw he nake d abs ed il etely ning an t n th r nt r mpl a ct ng i s co the mo tu art sitti he i ai ere ntil hree in de w we w it u t d he is dressed again, he suspeccto s ey y wa se to g an . When s, th ornin Th The yle will clo leave he m d e b as , ee in t r s an bo e It w e to th the s o xe clo It was cl d his up er th ga The ey re i th s s o re met fo do hing be abou Exc w d u t n s t e e h e m s s e e t , b a l o o dy sq sir, but m irs s uadro ay I b ,a cu n l o e a d ers e Ex thaft assistance ? Ah, I se e I have alarmed you. Do not s
use Exc not
ay tm bu ir, ,s me
I
be
ab st r a ct art
dec o s tyle , box ed in with
sir ,b u tm ay I
be of
ass ist an c e ?A h, I see
I ha v e alarm ed yo u. Do n ot ey Th
is he til n u it wa
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
JUNE 13-19 2010
JUNE 13-19 2010
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
Cover Story 18 The Global Reach of Pakistani Literature Granta’s Pakistan issue highlights the rise of local literature
Feature 24 War Games The depiction of the Afghan War in videogames 28 The Second Wave Thatta’s residents struggle to cope with twin crises
Portfolio 30 Master of the Miniature SM Mansoor shows his expertise in miniature paintings
30
Comment 34 The Courage of Children A first-hand account of Eid with flood survivors in Thatta
24
Review 36 What’s new in film
Regulars 6 People & Parties: Out and about with beautiful people 16 Tribune Questionnaire: Ayesha Tammy Haq on good looks 38 : Parenting: The rise of the superbaby 40 Horoscope: Shelley von Strunckel on your week ahead 42 Ten Things I Hate About: Make-up
16
4
Senior Sub-Editor: Nadir Hassan, Features Editor: Faiza S Khan, Sub-Editors: Batool Zehra, Hamna Zubair Creative Team: Amna Iqbal, Jamal Khurshid, Essa Malik, Anam Haleem, Tariq Alvi, S Asif Ali, Sukayna Sadik Publisher: Bilal A Lakhani. Executive Editor: Muhammad Ziauddin. Editor: Kamal Siddiqi. For feedback and submissions: magazine@tribune.com.pk Printed by: Yaqeen Art Press (Pvt.) Ltd., Karachi
JUNE 13-19 2010
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Baby’s Day Out
Eager parents updated their little girls’ wardrobes at the launch of Bonnie Jean of NYC apparel in Lahore
1
2
4
3
6 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY BILAL MUKHTAR EVENTS AND PR
1. Amna Akhsheed and Aaleen Hussain 2. Fauzan and Sanna with Aysel 3. Haider, Salma Turab and Khalid Salman 4. Abbas and Bilal Mukhtar 5. Aleena with her nieces Rania and Rabia 6. Arun and his niece Mishi 7. Lubna Farhad with Inzar 8. Saira Sheikh with her son 9. Sikandar Mariam Saqib 10. Scherezade with her daughters Schezray and Sameen
JUNE 13-19 2010
PEOPLE & PARTIES
6 5
9
8
8 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
10
7
JUNE 13-19 2010
PEOPLE & PARTIES
Fashion for Flood Relief
Funds for flood victims were raised at a charity drive headed by Jazba Foundation in collaboration with the Royal Palm Golf & Country Club in Lahore
1
2
4
3
10 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY LOTOUS PR
1. Ramzan Sheikh and Resham 2. Hamza Tarrar and Maheen Kardar Ali 3. HSY and QYT 4. Faraz and Sundas Mannan 5. Guests at the sale 6. Nickie and Nina 7. Sabina Pasha, Taimoor Choudhry and Salma 8. Shehr Bano Iqbal with a friend 9. Saad Ali 10. Uzma Ramzan
JUNE 13-19 2010
PEOPLE & PARTIES
6 5
9
8
12 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
10
7
Music and Charity
Ensemble Karachi organized a qawwali and charity sale to raise funds for the assistance of flood victims
1
2
4
3
PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY LOTOUS PR
1. Faryal Murad and Ismet Kahlon 2. Andleeb Rana and Sadaf Malaterre 3. Arif Mehmood 4. Hira Naqvi, Alizeh Pasha and Sana Shahzad 5. Mariam Aziz, Amber Rana and Farhan Zafar 6. Saira Khowaja and Ammad Danish 7. Nomi Ansari and a friend 8. Saeeda Leghari and Maliha Chugtai 9. Sabina Bawany 10. Mohsin Sayeed
13 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
PEOPLE & PARTIES
6 5
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8
14 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
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7
Bollywood Bashes
Stars glittered at multiple events across the border
1
2
4
3
PHOTO CREDIT: IANS
1. Shahbana Azmi at her birthday bash at Juhu 2. Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan arrive to greet Shahbana Azmi 3. Amitabh Bachchan at Azmi’s birthday party at Juhu 4. Anita Hasanandani at Worli Dahi Handi celebrations at Worli in Mumbai
15 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
“My dream was to be one of the Supremes” Lawyer and TV show host Ayesha Tammy Haq on her love for The Eagles, roaches and Attila the Hun. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
To be in the company of good friends.
I have had no major achievements, lots of minor ones. But
What is your greatest fear?
getting profiled by US Vogue was pretty cool.
Am pretty fearless.
If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
A roach. Scientists say their brains can save lives, we use ours to
I like myself, though I am sure there are many others who would be happy to answer this question.
What is the trait you most deplore in others? Meanness, when someone is small-minded and petty. What is your greatest extravagance? Has to be shoes, I love shoes. On what occasion do you lie? I don’t lie but I can sidestep issues when required. What do you most dislike about your appearance? Nothing, though my treadmill is calling out to me. Which living person do you most despise? Despise is an emotion, I am indifferent to many whom I would
it be? take lives.
Where would you most like to live? On Russian Hill in San Francisco. What is your most treasured possession? My grandparents’ wedding rings. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? When someone is stripped of their dignity. If you didn’t do your current job, what would you choose to do? I’d be a scuba dive instructor on some beautiful island. What is your most marked characteristic? Being strong-willed.
not waste emotion on.
Who is your hero of fiction?
What is the quality you most like in a man?
and demons.
A sense of humour. Of course, good looks help. What is the quality you most like in a woman? Graciousness. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? I need to sleep.
Raja Rasalu. We need more people like him to fight today’s ogres
Which historical figure do you most identify with? Attila the Hun Who are your heroes in real life? Strong and brave women like Mukhtar Mai and countless others who work tirelessly to make this a better country for all women.
When and where were you happiest?
What is your greatest regret?
The years I lived and worked in New York and now in Karachi.
Fortunately have no great regrets, a small regret is that I didn’t go
Which talent would you most like to have?
to Australia while I lived in the Philippines.
I would love to be able to sing. My dream was to be one of The
What?s your favourite quote?
Supremes — eyelashes, big hair, sequined miniskirts, the works.
“You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave”
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
How many hours of loadshedding did you experience yesterday?
Be more tolerant and empathetic towards others.
It was a good day, only four. Today has been much worse. a SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
17
COVER STORY
pakistani literature
eters. For a country that’s produced legends like Sadequain, Faiz
Ahmed Faiz and Saadat Hasan Manto, a Granta issue should carry very little weight in cementing the belief that Pakistan is more
than what meets the eye, or in the world’s case, the headlines. Unfortunately, one must be grateful for the half-dozen novels
and dare it be said, the Taliban, for focusing the spotlight on the country.
18 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
s ab e’s us ho the
ally for its export of terrorism, mangoes and match-fixing crick-
of cal ypi
poetry and art from the country that is best known internation-
de co s tyle , bo xed
dedicates its 112th issue to Pakistan, featuring fiction, reportage,
t om a ro airs, ownst room d
me so ut sho nd r, a r ea you
It is unsurprising then that a few years and half a dozen pub-
lications later, the renowned UK-based literary journal Granta
t r ac ta rt
In 2008, Pakistan experienced what is now fondly, or sarcastically (depending on the time of the night), referred to as The Big Bang in its Englishlanguage literary scene. Nowhere in the world would the release of a novel lead to such jubilation, but it made the world sit up and take notice: Pakistanis can write things, and they’re not just ransom notes and fatwas.
to outh ing m that if th ey lock you up in a cell, put their stink
BY HUMA IMTIAZ
lo ck
the global reach of
de r s tha t ma kes them
T erae Ithw sisclose t o s o ng m three in th e m o r n i n g e a n d w e w e re sitting in the drawi thin g a ea bout nl these bloody squadro
t ou ron ad ab qu g s n ody hi blo et m ese h o t t ss bou ei ng a er ethi m h o T e is s Ther Ther e is som eth ing ab ou The tt yw he ait se unt bl il h oo e is d com ple tel yn ak ed be for et he yg at he ru ph is clo th es
Excuse me, sir, but may I b e of a ssist anc e? Ah ,I
se eI
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
ed m
t r, bu e, si se m xcu tE no Do u. yo
19 ha ve al ar
Th ere is
so me th i n ga bo ut
e es th
the s e b loo dy s qua d r on l ead ers t ha t m akes them think
dy oo bl
sq
u a dr on
rs that m leade ake on st dr he a m u q th s y in k
le ad er s
tm ha st r de lea
, ts
d an
dressed aga he is in, he hen W su . e sp v a ec le
th at m ak e st hem e think that if th
ak es t y he mt the hink that if
a e id w e ng ra g in ng ra cs pi to of om fr
COVER STORY
ad m am oh M
t jus
g in er ov
in
t is ha et l y t as
f xo mi ht g i er th
f ro tte ma a d an sty ne o ,h sm rca sa
de tu tti ta c fa
i iJ Al an ib al eT th to
d an
ng hi yt er ev
in
ted writer In t iz No ar Hu ssain n. ’s ess ee ay T tw h e H ouse be by ve , but
s of topic
by local truck artist Islam Gull, is great by truck art standards but
use this hackneyed image, covered to death across the globe. One should be grateful though, that a la Newsweek, Granta did not go
g from rangin
for a picture of bearded protestors as symbolic of the country.
Cover image gripes aside, Granta offers some stunning work
on Pakistan in some of its essays, providing readers not just his-
betwee ing in everyth an and e Talib h to th li Jinna mad A Moham
torical perspective, but also covering a wide range of topics from
Mohammad Ali Jinnah to the Taliban and several things in between. Featured writers include grand master Intizar Hussain, whose essay, “The House by the Gallows”, translated by Basharat Peer, is by far the issue’s highpoint. Hussain takes on the subject of General Zia, religion and the rapid decline of Pakistani society with such ease that one can only sigh with pleasure at the high
standard of literature presented here and then sigh with depres-
sion as Hussain marks the descent of the Pakistani psyche with this essay.
One may have wished, when browsing through the list of con-
tributors, that perhaps there should have been reportage from a
Pakistani journalist or two (no, Fatima Bhutto does not count). However, Declan Walsh and Jane Perlez shine so brilliantly in
their commentaries, be it Walsh’s vividly portrayed cast of char-
ed ot N n.
er rit w
ar tiz In
PHOTO CREDIT: MARK PRINGLE / COURTESY BLOOMSBURY
ah nn
e range g a wid coverin
think, which may have made a finer objective. The cover, painted
the journal, which makes one wonder why the publishers would
acters in Lakki Marwat, or Perlez’s deciphering of the many faces of the Quaid, that the loss of an actual Pakistani perspective
doesn’t seem quite so bad. Guardian correspondent Declan Walsh’s
us H
sain ’s es say The H o u se b y th e Ga llow s , tran slate d by Bas h a r at P eer, is by far
dazzling essay “Arithmetic on the Frontier” is, save for the Kipling reference, cliché-free and stands out for the uniqueness of the
subject and the remarkable understanding that Walsh displays
“I need a familiar space to write in, but I have a home in all three places [US, London and Karachi] now.”
and th e rap id d ecl in e of P aki sta ni s o cie ty w ith s
Source: Daily Telegraph
Zia , re ligi on
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
the
. anta n Gr
you what the world thinks of Pakistan, and not what Pakistanis
pales in comparison to some of the stunning art work printed in
Kamila Shamsie (Karachi, Amherst MA, London)
20
But even Granta, as exalted as it may be, sadly descends into
the clichéd. It comes in handy though as a useful guide to telling
ct of ubje he s on t s e tak sain Hus
eral Gen
of his character: Kamal, the politician, lawyer, ‘’warlord’’ chameleon from Lakki Marwat. Walsh’s essay has the key elements of a thriller: violence, alcohol, political intrigue and a near-tryst
Al iJ in n
cove ring a
ad Al iv e, bu tc ov er i
M oh am m ad
wid e ra ng e o f top ics r ang in g f rom Moh amm
with an unlikely admirer. This helps to not just bring the story
of Kamal to life but also brings home the descent of the tribal areas into a hotbed of terrorism. Declan Walsh succeeds here where many have failed, he brings the war home, without demonising
the characters, yet simultaneously exposing them for the contra-
as ty le th at i
dictions that lie in their personalities, born out of a balancing act between political tact and traditional customs.
It is after reading Perlez’s and Walsh’s essays that one begins
the issue. As dismal as it may sound, local news journalists are rarely, if ever, given the opportunity to improve their technique regarding language, style and content, those elemental blocks of
writing. While one may like to believe that Walsh and Perlez are simply gifted, they have also had an opportunity to hone their talent that has not been afforded to local writers, who are naturally not lacking talent. And while the Walshes and Perlezes of
the world may have never found their stories featured in Granta without the help of their local fixers, it is the sheer craft of their
work that sets them apart. This is something the editors of local papers may look into further, there’s a great deal to be reaped from investing in their writers with something resembling the dedication of international publications.
Granta also ensures that Kashmir, a territory that has been
used in the battle of tug of war between India and Pakistan for PHOTO CREDIT: DANISH KHAN
born Basharat Peer, author of Curfewed Night, writes again of his
homeland with a poignant intimacy and a rich and fully defined
knowledge of the tangled situation. It is heartbreaking. Describing modern-day Srinagar, as “a city of bunkers, a medieval city
dying in a modern war,” Peer’s personal pain is laid bare on the
pages. Kashmir’s war is anything but over, and its descent into chaos is documented here for the world to see.
Other notable non-fiction includes “The Trials of Faisal Shahzad”,
Source: Newsline
haps er tp a h w ay
When I’m abroad and people ask me where I’m from, I say Karachi. And if I’m in Karachi and people ask me, then I say Okara. And if I’m in Okara and people ask me, then I give them the name of my village.”
21
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
nly sig hw
o
the problems faced in trying to find the perfect girl of one’s moth-
Mohammed Hanif (Okara, Karachi, London)
an ec on at th se ea
Failed Bomber” and Sarfraz Manzoor’s “White Girls”, a comment on
ch su
a man who captured the world’s attention recently as “2010’s Worst
ith yw et ci so ni ta
over half a century now, has a voice in the magazine. Kashmir-
eral e: describe the way Gen istan could have don no one else from Pak
Pakistan fo Zia’s tenure changed re ve ri n
to wonder why almost no Pakistani reporter has been featured in
of rd da n sta
es pr re tu a er lit
the
riter In tizar H us
from aw ing ide rang ran s c i ge of top
to nah li Jin ad A m am Moh
sain’s essay The House
COVER STORY
by th eG all ow s, tra ns lat ed by Bash arat Pee r,
is by fa r the bes t offerin g in Gra nta. Hu ssain ta kes
on the s
er’s dreams. Since the West seems to have embraced Fatima Bhutto
at face value, it is no surprise that she is amongst the contributors, with a sub-par essay on the Sheedis in Karachi.
But while relatively unknown writers have left a lasting im-
pression, it is the stalwarts that have truly disappointed in the fiction section.
It may have been 63 years since what is now Pakistan gained
independence from its former colonial masters, but Pakistani
fiction writers appear to not as yet have achieved the state of independence.
Take, for instance, Mohsin Hamid’s short story “A Behead-
ing”, which reads as if it a page of the script of the Daniel Pearl
movie, A Mighty Heart. It’s not entirely surprising, given that Hamid’s work has failed to improve since his stellar debut novel
Moth Smoke – one has only to read The Reluctant Fundamentalist or his
half-baked op-eds in a local daily to understand that Hamid has fallen, nay, jumped into the South Asian writer trap, that of pandering to a Western audience. Uzma Aslam Khan, with her story “Ice, Mating”, seemed to be following another rule employed by The Order of Panderers to a Western Audience: write about sex! Its content is as baffling as its inclusion.
Nadeem Aslam, whose use of florid language and allusions to
the influence of Urdu literature on his work may have served him PHOTO CREDIT: DANISH KHAN
well in his novel Maps for Lost Lovers, but his novella Leila in the Wil-
derness, fails to resonate and is perhaps his worst fiction to date.
A mix of fantasy and cliché, it seems as if Aslam has become a
victim of his own ambition in trying to incorporate religion, violence against women, love and terrorism in the same story.
And then there came the ultimate disappointment, Moham-
med Hanif, perhaps due to one’s high expectations following his stupendous debut novel. It appears from his op-eds, and even his updates on Twitter that this man can do no wrong. Sadly, “Butt
coming novel failed to engage this reader entirely. Perhaps one
should wait for the complete novel to reserve judgment on this endeavour, which feels more than anything else, truncated.
to ffe rin g
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
n i g a wid er e ran ge o ov c f top ics r ut b ang , ing e f v
dw rite r In tiza r Hu ssai
n’s essay Th e
22
House by th e Gallow s, tra ns la te d
is by fa r the b es
“Nations are illusions constructed to perpetuate discrimination. Passports are the new apartheid. Let’s open borders and open minds.” Source: Dawn
and Bhatti” has an amusing title, but this extract from his forth-
sharat Peer,
Mohsin Hamid (Lahore, Princeton NJ, New York City, London)
by Ba
su ch
essay in his brief
s no what perhap
ec lin eo fP ak ist an is oc iet y
wi th
achieves r Hussain hre. Intiza presented e ur at er dard of lit e high stan sure at th h with plea sig ly on n e ca ease that on
subject of Gener al Zia, religion and th e rapid
d
While Granta 112: Pakistan may have successfully portrayed
various faces of Pakistan, it is disappointing to note that a majority of its writers have made their name abroad, and Pakistan is
the to-go place for stories. As a former colleague remarked, “you
pick up a stone and there’s a story underneath it”, one wonders if Granta did not look hard enough at the local literary scene before
choosing their list of contributors. Does it take a work visa in the United Kingdom to make it to the pages of this journal?
However, the contents page in Granta is also an indictment of
Pakistan’s failure at producing the next Intizar Hussain. Local publishers, literature teachers and the Government of Pakistan
should ask themselves why more of their protégés and citizens are missing from the pages of Granta or any other international
literary journal and what steps they are taking, if any, to change the status quo.
So what does the Granta 112: Pakistan do for the local literary
scene? While it is a showcase for some of Pakistan’s best literary talent, articulate and comprehensive reportage, impressive artwork and poetry, it also gives space to newcomers like Jamil Ahmad, whose book is slated to be released in 2011 and has a short
story featured in the journal. He was discovered when he heard
a radio show announcing the Life’s Too Short short story prize, who recently released their own anthology. Despite having had
authors from Pakistan nominated for major literary prizes in recent years, it is remarkable that no international agents or publishing houses have a visible presence here.
PHOTO CREDIT: AFP
Secondly, Pakistan is a country of contradictions, which may
take months, if not years to understand, that have been laid bare by the extensive range of topics covered in the issue. While this is
by no means a Dummy’s Guide to Pakistan for those who have no knowledge of the country, it is a must-read, to try and begin to
understand what the Islamic Republic has achieved, and failed to achieve in 63 years. At least what it’s achieved and failed to achieve from the outside looking in.
h eas e tha t one
on
of Pa ki st an is oc ie ty
w it h
su c
gi nG ran ta. Hu ssa in tak es
a er en fG to ec bj su
de cl in e
e th
id
can o nly
Fatima Bhutto (Afghanistan, Syria, Larkana, Karachi)
“Back in Pakistan I was like an outsider looking in. Pakistan was a dream, nostalgia, folk songs, ice-creams... These were mythical things that only 23 existed in my mind” Source: Rupee News sigh w ith ple asure at the high stand ard o f liter SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010 ature prese nted hre.
war games BY CHRIS SULLENTROP
Unless you regard something like Iron Man as a film about Afghanistan, the movies inspired by America’s contemporary wars have consistently been box-office flops. Even The Hurt Locker grossed only $16 million in theaters. Video games that evoke current conflicts, on the other hand, are blockbusters: Last year’s best-selling game was “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2”, which opens in Afghanistan; it was a sequel to a multimillionselling 2007 game that features an American invasion of a nameless Middle Eastern country. On the day the game was published in November, it sold nearly five million copies in North America and Britain, racking up $310 million in sales in 24 hours. By January of this year, the game’s worldwide sales added up to $1 billion. For years, earlier installments of the “Call of Duty” franchise
and other military shooters — the video-game industry’s term
for these games about warfare — were always about World War II. But the “Modern Warfare” series has demonstrated
that players have an appetite for games that purport to con-
nect them to the wars their college roommates, or their sons,
might be fighting in. Both “Modern Warfare” games are set in a mythical near-future, but the weapons — Predator drones, AC-130 gunships, nukes — clearly conjure Afghanistan and
24
Iraq, as do the games’ good guys (Americans, British) and bad
guys (terrorists). The appeal of this quasi-fictional setting is SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
The video games that bring the Afghanistan war to our living rooms
later puts players behind the eyes of an Army Special Operations soldier, as well as an Army Ranger and an Apache helicopter
gunner, as they seize Bagram air base from the Taliban, ride all-
terrain vehicles through the Shah-i-Kot Valley, snipe al-Qaeda fighters near the mountain of Takur Ghar and more.
In the argot of video games, “Medal of Honour” is a first-per-
son shooter, meaning that players see the action from the viewpoint of the characters they control. One of the most compelling things about video games is this sense of identification between
the player and the protagonist. The best games do not give you a sense that you are controlling someone else — they give you a sense that you are someone else.
“We don’t ever want to break that immersion, that it’s you,
there,” says Greg Goodrich, the game’s executive producer.
One of the buzzwords tossed around frequently by the “Medal
of Honour” team is “authenticity”. The game has more than 50 actors, delivering thousands of lines of dialogue, with foreign
dialogue recorded in Pashto, Gulf Arabic and Chechen. To create
some of the animation used in the game, the computer-graphics team examined videos from Afghanistan that are posted on sites like YouTube and LiveLeak. Using more than 100 microphones,
audio engineers recorded actual weapons fire at Fort Irwin in Cal-
ifornia, in a mock Iraqi village used by the military for training. one reason that “Modern Warfare 2” now sits alongside titles from more-famous franchises like “Grand Theft Auto” and
“Super Mario” on the lists of the top-selling video games ever made.
“Medal of Honour”, the latest iteration of a game franchise cre-
With the Pentagon’s permission, the audio team attached micro-
phones to Apache helicopters and recorded the sounds of takeoffs and landings, as well as the sounds of the helicopters firing their
rounds. They even hooked microphones up to the targets that the helicopters destroyed.
Goodrich described “Medal of Honour” as “historical fiction”,
ated in 1999 by Steven Spielberg, in the wake of Saving Private Ryan,
but it felt transgressively real when I played it. The battles are
ing the path trod by “Call of Duty” — rebooting a popular World
encounter is an enemy — Taliban, al-Qaeda or Chechen — and a
as a World War II game for Dreamworks Interactive, is followWar II series by situating a game in something that resembles the present day. Unlike its rival, however, “Medal of Honour” is
fought in civilian-free zones, where pretty much everyone you threat to your life. I killed a lot, and was killed, a lot.
There are limits to the game’s aspirations to realism. I was re-
not anticipating the very near future. Instead it is delving into
peatedly told that “Medal of Honour” intentionally avoided the
early stages of the American intervention there.
mistakes are made in the game by American troops and com-
the very recent past: The game will be set in Afghanistan, in the
“Medal of Honour” does not aspire to capture the war in Af-
ghanistan in a documentary sense, but like other shooters, it
creates a visceral sensation of combat. In essence, it forgoes one kind of realism while embracing another. Are video games like
subject of politics in favor of “telling the soldier’s story.” Still,
manders. Friendly fire accidents happen. The intelligence agencies get things wrong. No matter how skilled a player is, Americans will die.
A mini-scandal over “Medal of Honour” played out in August
this mere frivolities that dishonour the real soldiers who have
after Karen Meredith, the mother of Ken Ballard, an Army lieu-
lies, have recently charged? Or does their popularity indicate that
and said that any game based on a continuing conflict was “dis-
fought in the wars depicted — as critics, including military famithey are successfully conveying an experience of war to audiences in a way that is at least as effective and affecting as the war stories told in literature or film?
In its opening moments, “Medal of Honour” places the player
in the body of a member of a Navy Special Operations team infil-
trating the Taliban-held town of Gardez, Afghanistan. The game
tenant killed in Najaf, Iraq, in 2004, went on “Fox and Friends” respectful” to those whose family members have died in the war. “Families who are burying their children are going to be
seeing this,” she said. Not long after Meredith’s interview with
Fox News, Britain’s defense secretary, Liam Fox, called the game “un-British” because, in its multiplayer incarnation, it will allow players to fight as the Taliban against coalition forces. “I would SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
25
urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product,” he said. Earlier this month, a Defense De-
partment agency asked GameStop, a chain of video-game stores,
way that is unique to the medium.
After all, the video gamers who choose to play military shoot-
not to sell “Medal of Honour” on Army and Air Force bases.
ers typically take the fictional elements of these games quite se-
the left, have raised their own reasons to find “Medal of Honour”
the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Commu-
Liam Fox is a member of Britain’s Conservative Party; others, on
disquieting. An editor at Mother Jones, Adam Weinstein, blogged
in August that the game is “war profiteering of the first order”, and Adam Serwer, who blogs for The American Prospect, wrote, “Re-
alistic war simulations have always bothered me.” Serwer added, “I’m playing video games to escape from the frustrations of the
real world, I don’t want to be thrust into another, realistic existence far more bleak than the one I’m currently living.”
Many gamers, however — no matter their politics — subscribe
to a McLuhanesque notion that only the form, and never the content, of this medium is of significance. Video games, in this
riously. A survey conducted by Joel Penney, a doctoral student at
nication, found that these gamers viewed their chosen pastime
as something more than simple escapism or problem-solving exercises with good sound effects. The players — adults mostly
between ages 18 and 29 (though some were in their 50s), largely Americans and almost all men — said playing the World War II
versions of “Medal of Honour” or “Call of Duty” made them feel
empathy for their countrymen. One wrote that, after playing the
games, his “feelings have deepened in respect for those who have died.”
Greg Goodrich told me that the “holy grail” of his medium was
view, are about problem-solving and game play, the captivating,
to get game play and fiction to interact in such a way that the
controller and the simultaneous action on-screen. Will Wright,
books cannot. “I think you have the potential to touch them in a
kinetic interaction between the movements a player makes on a the designer of games like “SimCity” and “The Sims”, has seemed
to embrace this view, saying that games are about agency (the
ability to navigate a virtual world), not empathy (relating emo-
fusion of the two would affect players in ways that movies and more emotional and engaging way because they took part in it,” he said.
In The London Review of Books last year, John Lanchester called the
tionally to the particulars of that world).
first “Modern Warfare” game, published in 2007, “more involv-
among video-game developers has been to try to prove Will
pared. “The next decade or so is going to see the world of video
But in many ways, the main project of the past several years
Wright wrong. Maybe the agency that games allow can, in the
hands of the right storytellers, lead to empathy. Maybe the inter-
26
elements like story and character, evoke feelings in players in a
active nature of video games can, when combined with narrative SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
ing” than the Hollywood movies with which it might be comgames convulsed by battles between the moneymen and the artists,” Lanchester wrote. “If the good guys win, or win enough of the time, we’re going to have a whole new art form.”
But the feeling among many video-game players is that the
lina-based studio that was developing “Six Days in Fallujah” for
Britain’s defense secretary, Liam Fox, called “Medal of Honour” “un-British” because, in its multiplayer incarnation, it will allow players to fight as the Taliban against coalition forces.
heart of the controversy that caused Konami to pull out of the
stan and elsewhere. On Father’s Day, I met with three of them
ated with the word ‘game’ and the incompatibility of that with
not tell me their names and instead asked to be known by the
artists lost an important skirmish a little more than a year ago.
In April 2009, the video game “Six Days in Fallujah” was canceled by its Japanese publisher, Konami, in the very same month that the game’s development was announced to the public. “Six Days
in Fallujah” had been billed as an “interactive documentary” about the second battle of Fallujah in 2004. In addition to working with actual Marines who fought in Fallujah, the game’s developers said they were talking to Iraqis who lived through the battle — both civilians and insurgents.
Peter Tamte, the president of Atomic Games, the North Caro-
Konami before it was cancelled, told me this summer that “the project-was the combination of “the stereotypes that are associthe word ‘Iraq’.”
Read Omohundro, the captain of a Marine company that
fought in Fallujah, served as a consultant on the game. “It’s very
for brunch at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, Calif. They did handles — Coop, Dusty and Vandal — by which they are known inside Electronic Arts.
Coop, Dusty and Vandal acknowledged that one of the things
important to have the enemy’s perspective of what’s going on,”
they asked the “Medal of Honour” developers to do was to make
just see it from the American viewpoint, that’s all you know.”
“They’re selling authenticity and realism,” said Coop. “We want-
he told me. “You have to understand the environment, and if you
“Six Days in Fallujah” proposed adding “a layer of moral ambi-
guity” to warfare that Jamin Brophy-Warren, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who now publishes Kill Screen, a magazine about
the game less realistic than its creators initially envisioned.
ed to help bring that to the table. But we also wanted to make sure it didn’t go too far.”
Last summer, Goodrich showed the men storyboards for a
video games, says he hasn’t seen in other military shooters.
game, with the title “Medal of Honour: Anaconda”, that would be
an insurgent or not,” he said. “Do you shoot him?”
be based on the disastrous 2002 operation known as Anaconda,
“There’s an Iraqi who picks up a gun, and you don’t know if he’s Omohundro described the reaction from the public, especially
from a group of mothers whose sons had been killed in action in
Fallujah, as “blinded by fury.” Beth Houck, the mother of David Houck, a Marine rifleman who was killed in Fallujah in 2004,
told me that her objections to “Six Days in Fallujah” apply to
something like a “Black Hawk Down” for Afghanistan: It would
including the battle of Takur Ghar, in which Neil Roberts, a Navy Seal, fell out of a helicopter and was dragged away to his death by al-Qaeda fighters. “We thought it hit a little too close to home” and would “put a sour taste in our brothers’ mouths,” Coop said.
That night, Goodrich told the men at dinner that he would ex-
“Medal of Honour” as well: Despite the genre’s claims to authen-
cise the scene with Neil Roberts from the game and change the
on the home front. “They don’t show the heartache of family
drama. Goodrich says the consultants helped to make the game
ticity, military shooters do not show the toll the wars have taken
members who are left without a spouse, or a father, or a child who does not return,” she said.
Omohundro says he is disappointed the game was never com-
pleted. A video game, he suggested, can portray combat in a way
game into a work of historical fiction rather than a sort of docu“authentic and plausible” rather than “accurate and realistic.”
“There’s nothing so close where it’s a re-enactment,” Coop said
at brunch. “In my eyes, that would be wrong.”
“Medal of Honour” may not reinvent the first-person shooter,
that is impossible to achieve in another medium. “In a movie,
but some in the industry — including several who worked on “Six
quences,” he said. “You simply watch what’s on the screen that’s
cremental step that will pave the way for nonfiction approaches
you don’t get the opportunity to make decisions that have consein front of you.”
The Marines that “Six Days in Fallujah” planned to portray
would have been based on real people who fought in a real battle. The soldiers in “Medal of Honour,” on the other hand, are
fictional characters. But some of them are inspired by the careers
of real service members, men now working as consultants to the
game who have experience in Special Operations in Afghani-
Days in Fallujah” — hope that its mere existence is a brave and in-
to war in the medium. A video-game documentary about Iraq or Afghanistan is inevitable, whether it is a “Medal of Honour” se-
quel, or “Six Days in Fallujah”, or another game altogether, Read Omohundro told me.
“I think that eventually it will be permitted,” he said. “And if
it becomes permitted, it will be accepted. It’s just going to take a while.” — New York Times Syndicated Services a
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
27
FEATURE
the
second wave The rehabilitation of people displaced by the Attabad lake disaster in Gilgit-Baltistan has been delayed by the devastating floods BY SHABBIR MIR
“Nobody paid attention to our problems after the floods hit Gilgit-Baltistan. We have been living in camps
Shishkat, Gulmit, Hussaini and Gulkin — were swallowed up by
dent of Attabad, who lives in a camp set up in Hunza by the gov-
like Focus Humanitarian Assistance and the Pakistan Red Cres-
by the formation of a large lake in Attabad caused by landslides.
bad and other villages to camps in Hunza. Then, In June, when
for the past eight months,” complains Mohammad Zafar, a resiernment and various NGOs, to house about 166 people displaced
“How long will we have to live in camps like this? Our children can’t go to school, our businesses have closed and our lands are
suffering,” Zafar says in frustration, adding that the government has yet to arrange alternate housing and compensation for him and his fellow villagers.
People who have been displaced by the swelling Attabad lake
After the landslide, the government, along with aid agencies
cent Society, immediately shifted over 2,000 residents of Attathe lake threatened to reach full capacity and burst its banks, the government evacuated over 20,000 people from 36 villages downstream and shifted them to camps in Gilgit. The landslide also
blocked the Karakoram Highway, a vital trade link to China, cutting off 26,000 people in the Upper Hunza Valley.
Asif Khan, an NGO worker in Gilgit, is frank in his estimation
faced a second crisis when massive flooding hit the area in Au-
that the unprecedented floods could further delay the rehabili-
dents feel that their needs have been sidelined in the face of the
floods is much greater than the havoc caused by the lake — but
gust. Anger and resentment are rife in relief camps where resifloods that have crippled one-fifth of the country.
At least 19 people died in the massive landslide that struck Atta-
bad early this year. The landslide blocked the Hunza River’s path
28
the lake as it swelled.
and created a lake which, over the next few months, expanded up to 23 kilometres upstream. At least five villages — Ainabad, SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
tation of the displaced people. “The devastation caused by the
still, the government should not underestimate the concerns of the Attabad lake IDPs,” he says.
Farman Karim, another resident of Attabad who, along with
his family, lives in Altit camp in Hunza says the recent rains
and floods further worsened life in the camp. “Water was every-
where, our children and women couldn’t go out to play or work. We remained confined to our camps for over a week,” he says,
adding that a massive blackout triggered by the breakdown of hydel power projects compounded the miseries of camp residents. “Camp life turned into a nightmare,” he recalls. Electric-
ity in Gilgit-Baltistan was cut off for over a week in August after floods swept away three major hydel power projects — Naltar, Guro and Kargah.
Karim came down hard on local politicians for being ‘ineffec-
tive’ during the nine-months between the floods and the land-
“The floods have taken their toll on an already ravaged region, as officials say that around 4,000 people currently live in camps, including those displaced by the Attabad lake.”
slide. “We recently demanded that senior minister Mohammad
Jaffer resign because he failed to honour a commitment that he made to us in July,” Karim says, adding that residents of Attabad still stand by their demand.
In early July, hundreds of affected people had called off their
protests in Hunza after Mohammad Jaffer assured them that he would use his influence to increase their compensation. The
government had offered Rs500,000 to each family that lost land to the overflowing lake. The victims had rejected the compensation, saying the amount was negligible.
For their part, government officials in Hunza said that they
are fully alive to the needs of the displaced people. “We have procured over 150 canals of land for the IDPs of Attabad and they will soon be rehabilitated,” says Zafar Taj, the deputy commissioner
of Hunza-Nagar. He says that most of the people who had been evacuated from villages downstream as a precautionary measure in June had been repatriated recently. “The evacuation was a pre-
cautionary measure to ensure the safety of the public, but the situation is now satisfactory,” Taj says.
Taj agrees that flooding in the region had somewhat overshad-
owed the Attabad lake issue. “It was natural. If a bigger calam-
over one month and sparking a food crisis. In the agriculture sector, about 70,000 kilometres of land and 504 channels were affected or damaged.
After the floods, Gilgit-Baltistan’s Chief Minister Mehdi Shah
ity emerges, our focus is shifted there to overcome the crisis.” He
had told the media that the total loss suffered by the region
compensation initially but later the Gilgit-Baltistan government
had little or no effect on the jaded residents of Attabad and other
says that the government had offered each family Rs600,000 as increased the amount to Rs800,000.
The floods have definitely taken their toll on an already rav-
aged region, as district government official Iqbal says that around 4,000 people are currently homeless and live in camps,
amounted to around Rs12 billion. However, the announcement
villages that were submerged by the expanding lake months ago,
because they had already been living as refugees, in camps or in their relative’s houses.
In fact, other victims of landslides in the region fear they will
including those displaced by the Attabad lake.
face the same fate as the residents of Attabad, because rock slides
lages and 947 roads in Gilgit-Baltistan. Approximately 183 people
sifying flooding. Mustafa, a resident of Chilas, says that Gaise
According to official statistics, the floods damaged over 370 vil-
were killed and hundreds injured in landslides during this time.
Over 2,820 households were affected by the landslides that also washed away 5,000 heads of cattle. The floods also swept away 182 bridges in Gilgit-Baltistan, severing ties between villages for
have begun blocking streams and rivers across the region, intenvillage was completely submerged after a landslide following the floods had blocked a stream. “Out of 300 houses, no house in the
lower Gaise village remains intact,” he laments. “We can only pray that we are spared from similar disasters in the future.” a SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
29
PORTFOLIO
marvel
in miniature PAINTINGS: SM MANSOOR TEXT BY SHAUKAT MAHMOOD
It is said that art, once born, never dies. It is like matter which may
change its shape or location but
is never destroyed — it survives and appears again and again. SM Mansoor’s miniature paintings
have a character of their own but a viewer with a keen eye can easi-
ly see the resonance of traditional
motifs and symbolism. A hint of Mughal, Rajasthani, Pahari and Basohli School is there. Age-old pigments and modern paints are placed side by side. There is a lust
for experimentation, observation
and scrutiny which balances tra-
ditional elements and techniques with modern ones. a
A view of Baltit Fort, Hunza
30 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
PORTFOLIO
32 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
33 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
COMMENT
the courage of
children BY ZAHRA ULLAH
21 MAY 9-15 2010
“I want one! Please, I want one!” screamed Aisha with excitement. Her eyes were bright and eager. She squirmed amidst a gathering of little girls similarly desperate
for bangles and finally jumped up, extending her hand, and got hold of some. Wrapped in torn tissue paper, the plastic bangles were multi-coloured and covered in silver glitter, and whilst they were not worth more than a few rupees, Aisha and her peers looked at them as if they were the crown jewels.
The smile on her face broadened as she got her hands on the treasure. Too excited to wait till she
got home, she sat on the ground and, ripping open the packet, proceeded to place the contents on her bony wrist. As she lifted her hand up, examining her new gift, she caught my eyes on her. Clearly,
she wasn’t taken to shyness since she looked back at me curiously, and then jingled her wrist in my direction to show off her gift to me.
“Look! Look! My new bangles,” she said.
The setting of this scene could easily have been mistaken for an ordinary Eid mela; since the sound
of laughter was spread across the field, and the usual joy felt at Eid ul Fitr appeared to be present. But it was not.
I was at a flood relief camp, and an Eid mela had been organised by the Karachi Electrical Supply
Company (KESC) at one of their makeshift camps in the Thatta region for around 1,500 people who had all escaped the raging waters in Sujawala, Sindh .
Initially I had been skeptical, since this trip to Thatta on the third day of Eid was the result of a
media invitation KESC had sent out to The Express Tribune. So naturally I viewed it as more of a publicity
stunt than as something that could make a tangible difference to flood affectees. Reporters had covered in great detail stories of families starving and living in desperately unhygienic conditions. After
having read and heard stories of the unthinkable suffering experienced by the flood victims even af-
ter the traumatic ordeal of losing everything, I doubted that an Eid mela would help lift their spirits.
So the sight of elated children, laughing and full of spirits, took me by surprise. I had expected to
see depressed and downtrodden people uninterested in the goings on around them. Instead, I was met by hundreds of children running excitedly after balloons, engaging with an entertainer on stilts,
and sitting rapt in front of a stage listening to a comedian telling jokes. Some were even dancing to the music being blasted out across the loudspeakers. “Where do you live?”I asked Aisha.
“Come,” she said, looking at me through kohl-rimmed eyes.
I followed the child past rows of tents. Some of them were in pristine conditions, others had been
damaged by the previous day’s rain. Aisha, however, walked straight past the tents to the white rubble buildings on the side of the make-shift community.
“Baba, baba. A guest,” she yelled as she ran into what was now her home.
Ghulam Mustafa, Aisha’s father, had lost everything in the floods;. his house, money and belong-
ings. Yet he still managed to smile. I was concerned that perhaps his family were not getting food
since they did not have a tent, but Mustafa reassured me, “We are getting food. We get uncooked food weekly.”
“When we arrived all the tents were taken but they said we could live here and they would still look
after us. I cannot provide for my family but I am grateful for the care from the camp organisers,” he said. “I cannot complain about it. We would have nothing else otherwise.”
“Baba! Tell her on Eid we got biryani and I got bangles too,” his daughter added.
As I left Thatta that day I thought of Aisha and of all the other excited children and the gratitude
displayed by so many of the affectees I had met that day. I was in awe. It is often said that it is only in the face of great devastation that we come to see the true strength of humanity. I must add, these are
people who aren’t used to much, for whom desperation is life — it’s taken this for us to notice them. But the extent of these people’s bravery is unthinkable when one considers their ordeal. One only hopes their courage does not go in vain and that their fellow men do not forsake them. I now know I can’t. a
35 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
REVIEW
featured review of the week
film mommy dearest BY SAEED RAHMAN
“Can two mothers live together?” asks the poster of We Are Family. First, a sigh of relief — this is not “Heather has two mommies” Karan Johar style. Then, draw your breath back in, this is a remake of the Christopher Columbus 1998 melodrama Stepmom, starring Susan Sarandon, Julia Roberts and Ed Harris. Maya (Kajol), and her three children take an instant dislike to exhusband Aman’s (Arjun Rampal) girlfriend Shreya (Kareena Karoor), despite her best efforts at ingratiating herself. Kajol is forced to rethink her stance for the good of the family when she is diagnosed with cancer, and requires a surrogate mother for her brood. And so, Shreya moves in, tries her best at wooing the kids and all in all, trains to be their surrogate mother. For the uninitiated, Stepmom was a tepid drama that relied on Sarandon’s fierce intelligence and the gravitas she brings to her projects, coupled with the considerable charms of Julia Roberts, to carry it through. We Are Family puts that onus on Kajol’s shoulders alone, she who is fast becoming Bollywood’s go-to-girl for tragedy. And, as expected, Kajol doles out pathos remarkably well. It is she who chokes out every tear in this film. That she pulls it off so soon after doing the same in My Name Is Khan leaves one begging to find this woman a role fitting of her remarkable talent. Kapoor’s Shreya doesn’t fare so well. This is not entirely her fault; the role is slight and flimsy, lacking any bite. Shreya is merely an interchangeable addition to a lengthy laundry list of K-Jo girls. His female NRIs are sassy and fun, they drink wine and are mildly flirtatious. But this is just the surface. At the root, it’s still the same old traditional Indian values fuelled by a strong desire to live a yuppie life with (an Indian) Prince Charming. These are the fictitious liberal values that K-Jo has perfected in his films and this is a face of India — conservatism with the veneer of daring — that his audience are most comfortable with. To be fair, K-Jo himself isn’t at the helm of this project. It springs 36 from his production house, directed by first-timer Siddarth Malhotra. SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
family matters In this remake of Stepmom, Shreya tries her best to be a surrogate mother to her boyfriend’s children
Bollywood remakes of Hollywood productions about mothers 1. D il Aashna Hai (director: Hema Malini) — Lace (director: Shane Rimmer) 2. Tehzeeb (director: Khalid Mohamed) — Autumn Sonata (director: Ingmar Bergman) 3. Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke (director: Mahesh Bhatt) — Houseboat (director: Melville Shavelson) 4. M asoom (director: Shekhar Kapoor) — Man Woman and Child (director: Dick Richards) 5. B ach Ke Rehna Baba (director: Govind Menon) — Heartbreakers (director: David Mirkin)
It is Malhotra who leaves Kapoor stranded in this snooze fest, lacking the fun, charm and zest of earlier K-Jo creations, who are bland but at least bearable. He is unable to draw from Kapoor the vast charm she exudes in Jab We Met or Chameli. It’s a shame because Kapoor, given an able director, can light up the screen, as seen in Jab We Met and Chameli. Here, she is unable to fill Roberts’ Manolos. Arjun Rampal is competent in a role which is essentially peripheral. As an actor, he has grown from strength to strength and shown remarkable versatility over the years. It’s a great shame that he has as yet failed to achieve the mainstream attention he deserves. This film certainly isn’t going to do it. As for the kids, they’re Bollywood revolting, which is the same as Hollywood revolting, only ever so slightly worse. We Are Family is solidly, consistently unentertaining. While
Malhotra has added some local flavour, none of it adds to the remake. The movie plods along to its predictable finale, not even helped along by a soundtrack of any worth. It appears that even Shankar-Ehsan Loy heard the plot and couldn’t be bothered. If you’re looking for a “Time to Disco”, look elsewhere. Here we are treated to an insufferable version of “Jailhouse Rock”, complete with gyrating from the main leads. This moment will surely haunt them years from now. K-Jo purchased the rights to Stepmom so that We Are Family could legitimately be released globally. His production house generally has an NRI demographic in mind and reaps more money overseas than at home. Latest tallies show that We Are Family has flopped in both markets. Could this possibly mean that people now demand better fare than this banal, one-tone misstep? a 37 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
PARENTING
the age of the super baby BY MINA MALIK-HUSSAIN
Childbirth is not the dawn of a new life. It is the dawn of a competition that begins the moment your baby arrives. Birth weight? When did your infant start eating semi-solids? When did it start crawling? Walking? Talking? The underlying concern is
ing studiously squished into Cheerios and eaten. But we’re told
hope is always that your glorious infant will win. Winning is im-
before that!) If you don’t go your baby might lose the race, and
always how your baby will measure up to someone else’s, and the portant. Winning means you’re a good mother, and we all need to be told we’re good mothers largely because we’re surrounded
that mother-and-baby classes are de rigueur and so of course we must go! Never mind that babies don’t even know how to play with other children until they’re about three (it’s all parallel play you’ll be the bad mommy with the dumb kid. Oh, the horror.
My daughter started walking without any support after her
by people telling us we could be better so they can sell us a lot of
first birthday. A lot of children are whizzing about before they
that no longer whistle and clang, but “stimulate a baby’s aural
lo and behold, one day — not long after said birthday — she did.
junk we don’t need. Cue Baby Einstein. And baby gym. And toys capacities and improve hand-eye coordination”. What’s going on?
Our parents never played us LSD-trippy DVDs of pink goop floating around to Mozart, and I think we all made it safely to parenthood on our caveman own.
It isn’t fair that now you aren’t allowed to be chubby for a while
after giving birth. You have to fit back into your old clothes as
soon as you can. You have to look good, carry on throwing dinner parties and going to weddings and also be breastfeeding, pureeing steamed apples and taking your baby to play-dates. If that
wasn’t enough, now your baby has to look at flashcards, listen
turn one. Turns out, children do things when they’re ready and
She never drank formula because she hated it, she isn’t pottytrained yet and she sometimes eats only custard for lunch. I don’t
obsess as long as she is healthy and happy. Toddlers are supposed to be capricious, curious and a bit strange. They’re the teenagers
of babyhood. And they learn doing everything. They don’t need special activities geared to enhance their motor skills; they’re doing that when they’re lumbering along with a jharoo trying to ‘clean’ bookcases or listening to you sing along to the radio. And I wish I ate custard for lunch too sometimes.
We desperately need to reclaim parenting from all this non-
to Beethoven and go to pre-preschool where they do exactly what
sense. We must reserve the right to be as wackadoo or particular
as climbing onto the sofa and trying to jump onto the chair.
child anyway. a
they do at home, only with a fancy name. Baby gym is the same
38
Baby swimming is the same as splashing in a wading pool and
baby chef is pretty much every mealtime where the cheese is be-
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
as we want. I don’t want my daughter to be like everyone else’s
ADVICE a I recently started working and whilst I am enjoying it, my
call
courtesy
SEND ALL QUESTIONS TO OUR ETIQUETTE EXPERT AT
MAGAZINE@TRIBUNE.COM.PK
boss is loud, obnoxious and an incessant talker. He appears to have taken a liking to me, and as a result considers me one of his ‘buddies’. He insists on taking me out to lunch, and because I don’t want to offend him or jeopardise my job in any way I have been going along with it. However, he recently asked me to go on a boys’ weekend with some of his friends. How do I get out of it? Pressured peer I feel it is my duty to inform you that you need to man up a little.
You are in the real world now, and you can no longer have a “I’ll only socialise with my best friends and skip around holding their hands whilst blowing raspberries at everybody else” attitude. In the working world, there will be times when you have to socialise
and interact with people like your boss, especially if you want to be successful. My suggestion is you politely inform your boss you
will be unable to go on the boys’ weekend away due to a family commitment.
a I bumped into a frenemy of mine from school who I had not seen for over 20 years. Although, our meeting was very civil and polite, seeing her has brought to the forefront all the reasons why I deplored her. However, she sent me a friend request on Facebook which I had to approve since I was on my Blackberry in front of her. Can I de-friend her? Online etiquette Good heavens! You’re not a teenager so I fail to see why on earth you feel the ultimate snub would be to de-friend her on Facebook.
Clearly, your “frenemy” has in the last 20 years had some semblance of a life to get over the issues you both once had. I suggest
you do the same, and forget the petty Facebook politics. Howev-
er, if you really cannot bear her name popping up on your minifeed I suggest you click the “x” button (remove) on the right hand
side when her name appears on your home page and remove said person’s updates from appearing on your news feed.
a Around two months ago, I lent my friend Rs10,000 which she has still not paid back. I am studying abroad and had saved the money for when I go back to college. I will be leaving in the next few weeks and my friend has not mentioned the money she owes me. Should I ask for it back? The lender Of course! You merely lent your friend the money, you didn’t give
it away. You have every right to ask for repayment, and she has probably just forgotten to pay you back. If your friend is as good as
a friend as you are to her then she won’t have a problem with you asking.
39 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
HOROSCOPE BY SHELLEY VON STRUNCKEL
Aries March 20 – April 19 You’d rather forget about the personal, re-
lationship and other issues triggered by the recent Aries Full Moon. But there’s lots to be learned from them. And because there’s a
rare, second, Aries Full Moon in late October, you’ve time to deal with persistent issues in depth. While this may not be what you feel like doing, this is your chance to settle them for good.
Taurus April 20 – May 20 Others are excited by talk of new ideas.
But you’re not. Some are appealing, yet many seem too far out.
Still, explore everything, since the actual circumstances involved Shelley von Strunckel is an internationally acclaimed astrologer who created the first horoscope column for the London Sunday Times in 1992.
are changing so swiftly that these could soon be ideal. Similarly,
view enforced changes in your work, lifestyle or even diet as the breakthroughs that they are. While you’re grumbling now, you’ll soon be thankful for them.
A frequent lecturer, she writes daily, weekly and monthly horoscopes in publications around the world including South China Morning Post, The Gulf News, Tatler, French and Chinese Vogue and now The Express Tribune Magazine.
Gemini May 21 – June 20 Little is more perplexing than coming up against an individual or situation in which decisions, first,
influence your life and, second, have nothing to do with reason. Be patient. And focus on coming up with an alternative strategy. Impossible as that seems now, within a week a combination of
inspired thinking and fortunate developments should enable you find a way around these ridiculous dilemmas.
Cancer June 21 – July 21 Between the recent unsettling Full Moon
and the power struggles indicated by Monday’s clash between the Sun and Pluto, you’re in for a tricky week. Courageously seek
out the source of those dilemmas, and you’ll learn a great deal.
True, this means having the discipline to ignore dramas and ask the necessary questions. Challenging as this may be, what you learn more than justifies the effort.
Leo July 22 – August 22 Certain individuals are being petty or refusing to undertake necessary changes and you’re increasingly exasperated. Stand your ground but don’t force issues. While you’re
unlikely to get far, it’s actually in your best interests, since with circumstances shifting in early October, what you’re battling for now
could soon be meaningless. Instead, focus on exploring options and ideas – yours and others’. This prepares you for those changes.
Virgo August 23 – September 22 Because you’re logical, you’re infuriated by those who simply ignore the facts. But it’s not that simple.
Certain puzzle pieces are missing and won’t appear until potent aspects by your ruler Mercury to Jupiter and Uranus in early October. Consequently, forcing issues now would only make things worse.
Which means being patient. While this doesn’t come naturally,
40
it’s a virtue you’d benefit from cultivating this week. SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
Libra September 23 – October 22 Urgent as certain decisions seem,
you need time to think them over. Telling others they’ll just have to wait may seem abrupt, but it’s wise. It also means you can reflect on these issues now, in the run up to the Sun’s encounter with
Saturn, in Libra, on October 1 when events or, perhaps, insights then make it clear where and now changes need to be made.
Scorpio October 23 – November 21 Much as you loathe acknowl-
edging that situations exist in which you’re powerless, it’s a vital
first step to dealing with these dilemmas. You can then either to seek guidance or, which is more challenging but perhaps wiser,
allow events to unfold as they must. Letting go in this way won’t just improve your mood, it revolutionises your attitude towards certain previously frustrating situations and individuals.
Sagittarius November 22 – December 20 Now that the excitement of recent developments is dying down and you’re facing less appealing practical details and issues involving others, you’re wondering what you’re involved in. Don’t give up. There are no
quick solutions, which means taking things slowly, even though
you’re under pressure. This isn’t easy. But the problems and difficult people you’re dealing with must be faced before things can go any further.
Capricorn December 21 – January 19 You’d always rather know
exactly the nature of any adversary you’re facing than live a fantasy. So alarming as the insights and information that accompa-
ny the Sun’s clash with Pluto, which is positioned in Capricorn, may be, things begin to make sense. Better yet, these insights
spur you into action. Still, with more coming to light in early October, explore - and leave decisions for later.
Aquarius January 20 – February 17 Few things annoy you more
than those who justify being rude or unkind by obscure ideals. But before tackling these individuals, consider whether these is-
sues are actually any of your business. The fact is you’ve other rather dull but rather important business or financial matters to take care of. They, too, annoy you. But for very different reasons. And, sadly, these really must come first.
Pisces February 18 – March 19 The problem isn’t knowing how you want to respond to certain potentially life-changing situations. It’s that you fear in taking things further, you’ll upset others. You might. But if so, their reaction is a purely selfish one, as
what you’re considering is both exciting and in your best inter-
For more information, to order personal charts and to download & listen to detailed audiocasts, visit www.shelleyvonstrunckel.com
ests. You’ve another week of debate. Then, in early October, it’s
41
yes or no. It should be yes.
SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
THE HATER
10 things I hate about ...make-up
1 2 3 4 5
BY BATOOL ZEHRA
How you get suckered into buying all sorts of unflattering make-up in a bid to break out of your ‘boring’ old
look. Consequently, you end up only using a twentieth
of your make-up while the rest goes to waste. Also, blue mascara does not look good — even on Katy Perry.
The expectation that it will somehow transform you.
6 7 8 9 10
It’s fundamentally dishonest and self-loathing. You’re presenting yourself to be something you’re not.
How ridiculous you look putting it on. Mouth open when putting on mascara, sucked-in cheeks when putting on blush. What the hell is going on?
The only thing it is useful for is drawing attention to
yourself, not making you look good. But when you actually need a little help, it’s best to go barefaced and lie low. Make-up is thus entirely superfluous.
And while on the subject of how utterly useless it is-
let’s remind ourselves of all the times that it’s accentuated eyebags, drawn attention to laugh lines and made even 15-year-olds look older than they really are. Makeup ages you.
Makeovers. The notion that if you only change a few things about your daily make-up routine, you can look
sooo much better — not only is this idea endlessly,
depressively iterative, it basically implies that you look like crap as is.
42 SEPTEMBER 26-OCTOBER 2 2010
The false promises. Everlasting foundation will not
even last eight hours — you’ll break into a sweat as soon as you put it on and it’ll all melt away. And that non-
clumping mascara that thickens your lashes 10 times over? It clumps.
Wearing a lipstick will not turn me into a siren, putting on mascara does not make me invincible, can we please stop pretending otherwise?
The names. Kissyfit, In the Nude, Black Honey and
Tenderheart don’t tell me anything about the colour I’m buying, and are more than slightly kitschy. If it’s a peach lipstick, just call it Peach. a
JUNE 13-19 2010
JUNE 13-19 2010