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Lounge Loves Cinnabon
The next time you are heading off to watch a movie or you happen to be in the area, drop by Cinnabon’s stunning kiosk located at the ground floor of Atrium Mall. Though the kiosk can only seat a handful of people, the menu is as extensive as the one available at Dolmen Clifton Mall where you can treat yourself to yummy Cinnamon rolls, Choco Bons as well as Classic Bons.
Veranda at Five
Veranda at Five is out with a fantastic new collection. The brand of home accessories launched by Mahin Hussain, renowned for the line of Mahin Hussain bags she owns is a hot favourite in Karachi. This year Veranda at Five focused on 194, and Karachi as a whole developing graffiti cushions and benches on this theme.
Kyoku for Men
The folks at Kyoku for Men™ have travelled all the way to the tiny Japanese village of Yuzuri Hara to bring you some of the finest herbs in the world for your skin. At Kyoku they view your skin as part of the puzzle that makes a man attractive. Check out Kyoku Pakistan and get your hands on the stunning array of products such as the Daily Facial Cleanser, Reducing Serum and Facial Moisturizer SPF 15. Kyoku Pakistan is available at leading departmental stores.
Laser Hair Removal at Halcyon 40% off on full body Laser and 20% off on individual areas. Halcyon Medicare uses FDA approved Laser which is especially suitable for Pakistani skin types. Location: 9R- MM Alam Road, Gulberg II, Lahore.
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Interview
Seven sins
to relationship rescue The same person who treats the docile obliging counterpart in poor taste is capable of treating the ‘I deserve more’ woman in his life like a princess; be it the mother, sister or the other woman
‘I
’m starting over.’ ‘We are not compatible.’ ‘I need a real partner.’ ‘I need someone who understands me.’ ‘It’s not working out.’ ‘This mess we are in, cannot be fixed.’ We hear these dramatic lines every day, as linear lines of people’s lives change around us. Stop! Step through the looking glass and embrace ‘The Seven Cardinal Sins for Marital Success. Hell is not the anti-heaven, as both are bound under the governance of order and truth. The anti-heaven is life itself. Save your marriage with the seven deadly sins. Remember how it all started when Mr Adam and Mrs Eve wed with one sinful, deadly bite. 1. LUST: Want your spouse more in guilty ways and be desired in even guiltier ones. You know him. So hit the nail on the head every single time. We have three words for you: stilettos, surprise and silence. 2. GLUTTONY: We can get in life what we feel we deserve. The
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same person who treats the docile obliging counterpart in poor taste is capable of treating the ‘I deserve more’ woman in his life like a princess; be it the mother, sister or the other woman. Demand appreciation, space and attention and never sell yourself short. Remember, the greatest business deals are sealed in comfortable hotel rooms not intimidating fenced compounds. 3. SLOTH: Each time you decide to throw in that towel, you call ‘your wedded heaven’, embrace sloth. Procrastinate, my friend! You think it through for so long that you have no energy left to do anything about your angered disposition. Believe in the fact that ‘This too shall pass’. The impulse to teach and punish- let it slide by. The hurt subsides and you realize the love that has found you is greater than the reason for the discord in your home. And when all is calm, achieve understanding and devise repair of the old and loved. It might not be the instyle thing to do but it sure looks good on you- that glow of love and promise to a friend. ‘He’s not a friend anymore’, you say, well he will be, when I’m through talking to you. 4. WRATH: Were you always told that your anger would get the better of you? If you deny your frustrations and suppress your rage, you will one day become a human volcano. It will be no fault of your spouse whatsoever. Your continual denial and unwinding of conflict is your very undoing. We must learn to communicate positively
in the language the person across the table speaks. We must sort our anger issues rather than referring legitimate concerns to anger management due to an inability to communicate effectively. You can be very angry and express it fully and assertively in the most polite tone. For signing a trade agreement with Japan we must speak Japanese and to the French we must say ‘bonjour’ so we can hear the words ‘bon appétit’. 5. ENVY: Go ahead. Make him jealous. Pull out that red lipstick or new perfume and say, ‘This is not for you. I have plans for a girls’ night out. Have fun without him and remember don’t take it too far. A little bit goes a long way in reminding him who you are and what you are to him! 6. PRIDE: Take pride in keeping your family together and happy. Bend a little to accommodate a temperament, a habit or intolerance, inculcated by his upbringing. Work on gradually eroding the stone, till it gives way to a flowing river. The prize is yours and the pride of it adorns your silken forehead. ‘She stoops to conquer where the rigid shall break.’ 7. VAINGLORY: Vanity is to a woman as cocoa is to chocolate. You are a mother, a sinner, a saint and you must not feel ashamed. Tell him, ‘I am your hell, I’m your heaven, I’m your dream; I’m nothing in between.’ And tell yourself, ‘I am a woman and I play to win!’
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A Magical Moment in Lahore, Pakistan Rehana Mallick from Loughton, Essex, recalls a hot day in Lahore… ‘I took this photograph of the Queen in 1961, when she visited Lahore in Pakistan. She was on her way to a special lunch with the All Pakistan Women’s Association. I was a 19-year-old student, studying for a master’s degree in sociology at the university there. As a big fan of the royal family, I was very happy that I might get the chance to see her. My cousin, who ran a photographic shop, managed to get tickets to the cathedral and took me with him as his assistant. I borrowed a camera from him and when I saw the Queen standing up in her car as she drove by, I took this picture. The photo is in black and white, but I can still remember the vivid colors around me that day. The sun was shining and all the buildings in the street had been painted yellow in her honor because it was thought to be the Queen’s favourite colour. She was wearing a cream coloured outfit with a hat decorated with tiny feathers. As she passed, I caught her eye and she gave me a warm smile. It was a magical moment I’ll never forget. For the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, I plan to watch her flotilla on the River Thames. With any luck I’ll take another photo like this one.’- Hello Magazine. Lady Pamela Hicks says about the Monarch: ‘To know our Queen is to admire her above all else.’
‘The thing that appealed most to me was her ability to put everyone at ease instantly. She was so natural in her conversations with us.’ June 17 - 23, 2012 I 41
Have your cake and eat it too!
M
ehr Hassan is a trained ‘cake engineer’, a certified cake designer from Canada, who recently started her own business, Shookay Cakes. She currently resides in Dubai. One of her delectable delights was spotted at a huge wedding in Islamabad this summer and in conversation with Mehr about her company, we discovered that she caters to the Pakistani market as well Where did your journey with cakes begin? Baking has always been a part of my life– from early memories of my mother baking chocolate cupcakes to a near-obsessive phase during my teenage years spent in the kitchen experimenting with different recipes. I always knew I wanted a career in the culinary arts and so, upon the completion of my honors degree at
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University of Toronto, Canada, I enrolled myself in the Cake Design programme at the Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Arts. How did you come up with the unusual name, Shookay, for your couture cake company? Shookay is the nickname my father gave me when I was a little girl. It has always made me feel unique and given me a sense of individuality. So, when it came around to naming my business, it really was a no-brainer. What sets Shookay apart from other home-based cake ventures in Dubai or Pakistan? At Shookay there is no compromise on ingredients or originality. My cakes are baked from scratch and even the jams/ preserves are freshly made for each order. The cake is exclusively designed to reflect the unique requirements of the client. I take pride in what I was taught at Bonnie Gordon, which is to never copy existing designs and to challenge and push my limits to create pieces of art. You recently had a wedding cake
order from Islamabad where you had with a four feet tall/ fourtiered handcrafted cake. Can you tell us about your concept and execution of that cake? I wanted the design of that cake to be a reflection of the bride, so I started by using the colours of her dress as inspiration. The entire process took over three months to complete and each one of the 300 flowers and accents were handcrafted from sugar. I also incorporated 24K gold into the foliage and fondant accents. I flew in all my ingredients from Dubai to Islamabad to bake the final product and sculpt the cake. Can you describe a day in your life? How busy does it usually get? 16-hour work days are not hard to come by when you’re a cake artist. What is the most exciting or unusual cake you have made so far? It would have to be the nose and mustache cake. The nose was quite a challenge to sculpt but I was very happy with the way it turned out.
What do your clients most love about your cakes? From the feedback that I’ve received from clients, Shookay cakes set the mood for the event and end up as the centerpiece. Once its cut, it’s the taste that takes over and becomes the talk of the party. To describe it best, a client once wrote to me, ‘The birthday girl (her two year old daughter) was so enamored by her cake that she chose to sit by the cake instead of playing with her friends.’ What is the creativity process behind your cakes? How do you come up with new designs? I look for inspirations everywhere. If I like a certain font or a print or even an architectural design I try to use in my orders. How long does it take to make and decorate a cake? It usually takes me over five days to bake and design a two-tier celebration cake. Wedding cakes are a whole different ballgame, and it could take me months to deliver. You are based in Dubai, so how easy is it for someone in Pakistan to order your cakes? I will be taking orders for exclusive events only in Pakistan. Given the intricacy, artistry and the fine detailing that is involved in the process of creating each piece, clients will have to place their orders at least five months prior to the event. I can be reached through my Facebook page where I have listed my contact details. Where is Shookay’s future? Do you think you’ll foray into a bakery or restaurant? A cake shop is in the horizon for us. Baby steps!
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Ab ke hum bichhre to shaayad kabhii khwabon mein milen
Shehenshah-e-Ghazal
lives on in our hearts By Madiha Anwar
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T
he man with the velvety voice and the relaxed style of singing that has the ability to charm the listener, world renowned Ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan passed away on June 13, 2012 around noon at Agha Khan Hospital in Karachi. Hailing from a family which produced fifteen generation of musicians, made Mehdi Hassan the sixteenth one - an ancestry that boasts of ‘Darbari Ustads’ who were seasoned performers in the courts of several Maharajahs. However, he was unable to pursue his passion for singing for a long time as the family was plagued by a financial crisis at the time of Partition. He worked at a bicycle shop as well as a car mechanic, following his dream side by side within his home. Recognition of his talent came when he was asked to sing a thumri for Radio Pakistan back in 1957. His interest in Urdu poetry led him to try out ghazals. As Mehdi Hassan, mentioned several times, that he owed a lot to ZA Bukhari and Rafiq Anwar as far as his career is concerned; these two producers of Radio Pakistan were the ones who encouraged him to sing ghazals on radio. He was always meticulous in choosing Ghazals and expressing the correct intonation of the diction and thus came the master pieces such as, ‘Ranjish hi sahi’, ‘Ek sitam aur meri jaan’, ‘Ghuncha-e-Shauq’ and ‘Zindagi mein tou sabhi’. However, he did not limit himself to ghazals only,
Some memorable words about the legend: ‘The gods speak through his voice.’ – Lata Mangeshkar ‘Mehdi Bhai is the most complete ghazal singer.’Jagjit and Chitra Singh ‘I haven’t heard anybody’s singing bathed in sur as Mehdi Hassan’s is.’- Madam Noor Jehan ‘Nobody can sing ‘SAA’ the way he does.’Ghulam Ali ‘The singing of Mehdi Hassan is like roses and jasmine in the garden of ghazals…forever.’ - AR Rahman but also lent voice to numerous songs produced in Lollywood at the time. In fact, it is believed that the decades of sixties
and seventies were in terms of music conquered by Mehdi Hassan’s classics such as ‘Rafta rafta’ and ‘Teri mehfil se’. His unique style, his vocal command over various raga-based compositions and most significantly the vast range of his voice remains unmatched to date – coupled with the beauty with which he brought forth the poetry of Ghazal with flawless precision all contributed in making him the unquestionable Emperor of Ghazals. Following a lung disease, the magnificent career of the Shehenshah-e-Ghazal began to flicker in the late eighties; he bowed out of playback singing. His stage performances gradually lessened. And later due to the severity of his illness he stepped down from music altogether. In 2009, Mehdi Hassan composed and recorded a song in Pakistan that Lata Mangeshkar later heard and wanted to turn into a duet. She recorded her part in India and it was released as a part of HMV’s album ‘Sarhadien’ in October, 2010. He was also the recipient of a number of prestigious awards at a national as well as international level such as Tamgha-iImtiaz, Pride of Performance and Hilal-iImtiaz, Nigar Film and Graduate Awards from Pakistan. Moreover, he received the Saigal Award in India and the Gorkha Dakshina Bahu Award in Nepal. Mehdi Hassan will live on in our hearts till the end of time.
TIMELINE July 18, 1927 1935 1947 1957 1962 1964 1967 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1976 1977 1980 1982 1983 Late 1980s 2010 June 13, 2012
Birth First Concert Migrated to Pakistan Career at Radio Pakistan began His Lollywood numbers rose to fame All time hit ghazal, ‘Gullon mein rang bharay’ released ‘Hamain koi gham na tha’ released ‘Tu jahan kahin bhi jaye’ ‘Ranjish hi sahi’ released ‘Ab ke hum bichhre’ released ‘Zindagi mein tou sabhi’ released Sang his first comedy song in film Noukar, ‘Lakh karo inkar, Sussar ji’ His first and last duet with Ahmad Rushdi was released His film ‘Aaina’ played for 401 weeks in Karachi, ‘Kabhi main sochta hun’ ‘Tujhe jaan-e-wafa dil mein’ released ‘Tera te mera azlaan da pyar’ – duet with Madam Noor Jehan His last hit song in film Dehleez, ‘Aaj tu ghair sahi’ was released Illness ‘Tera Milana’ – a duet with Lata Mangeshkar Death
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HORROR STRUCK By Mariam Aftab
I
was approached by a very disturbed mother, who was under severe stress. She had an eight-year-old child – a daughter - who was in constant fear of ghosts and spirits. The woman thought that evil spirits plagued her child as she would get up from the nightmares she often saw and cry. All the characters she saw in her dreams had evil in them. The mother had taken the daughter to a lot of Pirs. Some told her that a Jinn (a Super Natural Force) had possessed her child. She had been all over the country trying to cure the daughter to no avail. To her dismay, every day her daughter would imagine a new horrifying character. Her husband was of the opinion that maybe his daughter was clinically insane. He wanted her to be treated as a mental patient but the mother was taking her to all sorts of people to exorcise the evil spirits in her. The whole family was on a level of miscommunication. The husband and wife were fighting while their child’s condition was deteriorating. The skeptic husband, like many others, did not believe in the supernatural and therefore shunned the wife’s explanation of ghosts and spirits. I, however, believe they exist and so do many other psychics. The first session began with both the parents fighting again over their analyses. I requested them to open these thoughts and attitudes.
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I requested to see the child and light-heartedly told them that they can continue their argument. The daughter was a pretty child with an innocent face. The father had already taken her for clinical tests and these indicated that there was nothing wrong with her mentally but he was still not convinced. I told the parents that I would like to see the child alone. She had a pleasant personality and having spent some time with her. I felt no presence of any evil spirit or that I was communicating with a mentally retarded child. However, the child would only speak of horror characters very normally and then as her imagination led her she would start shouting and crying. Even her speech would begin to stammer. The parents had to take the child away to control her hysteria. I had to have a detailed session with the mother. In asking her routine I found out that the mother was fascinated by the world of super natural. Whenever, she and her friends got together they ended up making paper Ouija Boards and contacting spirits, for their excitement. The mother was addicted to horror shows and films. The child from the very beginning had also seen the shows with the mother and as a result her imagination had room for horror characters alone.
The Child’s imagination was trained and conditioned towards horror characters. She needed an anti-dote which was creative visualization which is training your imagination towards creativity. There are three elements within you, which will determine how successfully creative visualization will work – desire, belief and acceptance. Desire was the backbone of this particular case. It had to be created for the child to visualize beauty instead of horror. Belief follows desire - when the child got acquainted with fairytales e.g. Cinderella’s story she started feeling the character. The third is acceptance, at first the child was not willing to accept because her imagination knew nothing else but horror. She accepted all the fairy tales characters that she was introduced to and her acceptance automatically was installed. The child had great sense of imagination, slowly and steadily it started to develop positively and instead of horror shows were replaced by fairy tales and beautiful characters. Children are born intuitive; if they are encouraged to stimulate this faculty by using their imagination, they will never lose it. And encouraging a positive self-image from an early age can make all the difference to them. Healing tip: Hold Black Tourmaline in your left hand it will enhance your meditating ability.
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