International Women's Day Functions 2013

By : Annam Lodhi

Lahore, 7^th March: CAD (Chanan Development Association) held its 2^nd women’s day festival to commemorate “International women’s day 2013” the theme being “Gender Agenda; Gaining momentum, young girls taking leadership from home to the world” with the participation of over 300 youngster at the Punjab Institute of language, Art & culture, Qaddafi Stadium, Lahore.

The speakers included Taranjeet Singh (Producer & Host, PTV), RJ Sophiya (FM91), Samia Amjad (MPA,PML-Q) & many others motivational panelists they  talked on the agendas & many other prevailing problems in the society. The participants shared their inspiring ideas, stories & work. CAD motive is not only to educate women on their rights but also the males, as women empowerment is not possible without them.

Lahore 7^th March: South Asian Women in Media (SAWM) conducted a discussion session in honour of the “International women’s day 2013” which took place at South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA).

The event began with the screening of the Oscar winning “Saving Face” & was followed by a discussion on rights and safety of women. The addresses were Justice (r) Nasira Javed Iqbal, Civil society activist Abdullah Malik, scholar Amaar Massod, journalist Farrah Warraich, Justice (r) Malik Hassan, Tayyaba Bukhari and others present on the occasion.

They said that women played a vital role in the progress of a nation, pointed out the voting rights of women & how everyone should participate. They also said that the society should change their behaviour towards young girls, to let them serve the society rather than getting them married after their education is completed. They further showed the facts stating that almost 80% of the women face violence in one form or the other & the only way to change this is to start at grassroots level that is from in with their houses.

LLF Feb 2013

By :Annam Lodhi

“Without literature, life is hell.” ― Charles Bukowski

Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, is well known for its art, literature, theatre and music. A city with history filled with a plethora of brilliant writers including the great Allama Iqbal himself. It had for a while though, been for something to quench its love for knowledge and literature. On the 23^rd and 24^th of February, the wish was fruitfully fulfilled.

The Lahore Literary Festival took place at the “Al-Hamra Arts Council” situated on the Mall road. The heavy rain didn’t stop the lovers of literature from showing up on the first day of the event. There was a pleasant diversity among each session that was held. However the truly inspiring part was the presence and the interest partaken by the youth.

'When the revolution comes they will take your Birkins and turn them into a herd of cows ' - Tariq Ali.

 The inaugurating session was conducted at 9:30 am by Tariq Ali on “Politics & culture: past & present”. The area was already swarming with literature hungry individuals and groups. Tariq Ali, a graduate from the Oxford University UK, is the writer of the Famous “Lion & leopard” and has numerous BBC documentaries to his credit. He answered a lot of queries and left the audience even hungrier for the forthcoming sessions.

The only highly disheartening part about the whole event was not being able to attend each session as each time slot was reserved for three separate sessions. The crowd was energetic at all times and not once did the numbers seem to decrease. It seemed as if only more people kept coming in till the very end, making it hard to find places to rest.

I desperately wanted to attend “The holy warrior & the enemy (1958-2008): film, news media and music in frontline Pakistan” but it was packed up. Instead, I attended “Chinaman: the legend of Pradeep Mathew” with a heavy heart. To my surprise however, the moment the author and speaker, Shehan Karunatitaka, started talking I was left mesmerised. He spoke of his love for cricket and his endless quarrels with his wife due to his addiction and convinced me which book I must read next.

As the sessions changed we got time to interact with others in the same quest of knowledge. Age didn’t matter and each person had a wealth of information to share with each other. The day was followed by sessions like “Globalization of Pakistan’s literature”, “Pakistan, A modern country?” and “Polemics of time & space 1”. There were the ones I personally attended; you may find the complete list on their website, along with other information.

I particularly enjoyed “The Courtesan in Literature – From Umrao Jaan to Gohar Jan”. The panel included Afzal Ahmed Syed, Musharraf Ali Farooqi, Navid Shahzad and Zehra Nigha.

They described the courtesans who they are different from prostitutes, their journeys, lifestyle and purposes. They also discussed courtesan romanticism, weaknesses and strengths along with the eastern appeal of the character as many directors and writers have made them their subject. It intrigued me to such extent that my imagination took the best of me and I floated the poetry, the prose and their feelings the way one wrote it out. It was truly heartfelt, helping one fall in love with words, making one think that arranging words in a poetic manner can make comprehension of feelings so touching.

Intizar: “women poets are leading the revival of Urdu poetry...resistance poetry is led by them now.”

The day came to an end with a great “Mushaira” followed by “Kahtak” that left the audience applauding with joy only to return with the same zeal the next day.

The 24^th of February was a bright sunny day that further lifted the spirits for the festival. The day started with “future of Urdu literature in the Punjab”, “commonwealth, nationalism, Globalism: storytelling in the 21^st century” then came Manto by Ayesha jalal (his grandchild), she talked about her how Manto wrote about his experiences & nature, he witnessed the partition & was an honoured author pre-partition. She said: “I really think Manto has not been translated adequately yet.” She wrote Manto’s Translation in English & is herself a novelist.

Next “how to get filthy rich in Asia” a book by Mohsin Hamid, the books appeal is that it has no names, that just widens the scope of the reader. His “reluctant fundamentalist” is being filmed & will be out in a couple of months. He stated: “there are yellow balloons outside, I wish there were yellow kites instead” this made the audience roar with applause & sigh deeply.

“Beyond veil” by Tehmina Durrani was yet another pleasure to attend, & the queues for this one did break the record! Beyond veil is Tamina's journey through the various phases of her life.

Tehmina expressed that “I couldn’t have written My Feudal Lord but it was because of the injustice, my reality was different to what I was supposed to be.” She explained that it was
painful to bear the consequences of the book when even my own parents disowned me for thirty years. Talking about the changing times said that “I find new generation very open to my book today which is a sign of acceptability”.

She also shared “Happy thing in Sorrow time’s” idea, which is through the mind of a young child & invited everyone to her next exhibition titled “Love Affair”

“I find the new generation very open to ‘My Feudal Lord’. I can see change in the form of acceptance compared to the past when even my parents disowned me for 30 years.-Tahmina Durani

The Conversation with “Bapsi Sidhwa” was indeed the highlight of the Festival, an honour for all who attended it. To listen to her talk so freely & openly about her feelings, encouraging the youth & giving out all the positive points of Pakistan today was heartening. She read form the book Crow Eater (Jungle wala Shaib), talked about the Ice Candy man (a book based on Lahore). She shared her life journey, love for writing & how she wrote her first novel as a newly wedded bride.

The festival wrapped up with riveting performance by The Laal Band & Qiyass, everyone danced out all their stress & the emotions bottled up within them, they did leave with regret as a great weekend came to an abrupt end, but with hope for the next one to be a greater one.

Pakistan today in this situation showed that it has a great weapon, as Sir Francis Bacon said “Knowledge is Power”, such portrayals of power is very much needed today, by the youth by our nation.

**Quotes taken from Dawn**

CHINAMAN the Legend of Pardeep Mathew

By: Kashaf Mansoor

Lahore Literary Festival held at Alhamra Art Centre on 23rd and 24th Feb. 2013 was organized to revive art and culture of Lahore.

In conversation with Sehan Karunatilaka, Owen Bennett Jones (the moderator) discussed Sehan’s debut novel Chinaman; The Legend of Pardeep Mathew. Sehan talked about the narrator of book, who is an alcoholic sports writer WG (Wije Karunasena) and he struggles to find the missing cricketer’s of 1980s. WG has been told by doctors that he should not drink otherwise he will die within a month but the problem was that he couldn’t write without drinking. ”.

He was Deaf to the protests of his wife but at last Wije decided to finish drinking before his liver fails to work and he admits that life is not like cricket field & that WG loves his wife Sheila. Sehan read a paragraph from his book in which Sheila asks WG that do you love cricket more or do you love me, he answered in humorous way that he likes cricket but he likes his wife more.

Chinaman is about Pradeep Mathew who was a talented spinner but his career was influenced by terrorism, politics, and racism.

Sehan Karunatilaka said “Chinaman was supposed to be a detective novel.”  He further narrated that in his childhood, he used to play cricket with his elder brother on the streets. He indulged himself in cricket and he us to think for several hours on how to bowl and how would he play better, But after years he realized that life is not only about cricket.

Cancer, innovation & a boy named jack

By : Annam Lodhi
“Have you ever experienced a moment in your life that was so painful and confusing, you just want to learn everything you can to make sense of it all?” Jack Andraka asks.

Jack created a simple test for the identification of pancreatic, lung and ovarian cancer.

 Here are some of his facts:

·                     -His test is 168 times faster than what is currently available.

·                     -It’s 26,000 times less expensive.  That’s not a typo.

·                     -And it’s potentially almost 100% accurate.

Here’s what makes it even more astonishing:

·                     -Jack is 15 years old!

The journey began when he lost a close family friend he considered an uncle due to pancreatic cancer, the cancer was not detected in the early stages as the doctors didn’t anticipate its occurrence.

Jack didn’t even know then what pancreas was, so he began researching on the topic, on finding out that almost 100 people die every day due to cancer, he set on his mission. Science always did fascinate him as his parents never answered his questions so he learned how to make hypotheses and test them without knowing he was ‘doing science’!

Andraka started developing a new test for pancreatic cancer that’s inexpensive, rapid, simple, sensitive, selective and minimally invasive. He began by looking for a protein in the bloodstream that would be a biomarker for pancreatic cancer — one found in all cases, even in the earliest stages. The problem: there were 8,000 possible proteins. When Andraka was “close to losing sanity on the 4,000 protein,” he finally found one that could work — mesothelin.

During his science class it occurred to him — that he could lace antibodies to these nanotubes so that they would react to mesothelin. This gave him the idea to make his cancer sensor out of paper. He then realized that he needed to find a lab in which to do his work.

Andraka wrote to 200 scientists asking for space in their lab. He received 199 rejections. & finally Johns Hopkins University replied positively, where a professor was willing to entertain his theory.

In the end, Andraka has created a paper censor that costs 3, the test takes five minutes. This accomplishment not only made Andraka the winner of the Intel International Science Fair – it has the potential to save many lives.

 “Thorough this journey, I’ve learned an important lesson — that anything is possible with the internet,” says Andraka. “You don’t have to be a professor with multiple degrees to have your idea work.”

North Korean’s punished for not being sad enough!

By : Annam Lodhi
Ever heard of a penalty for not being unhappy? Well! North Korea’s harsh regime has been punishing citizens who have not showed enough grief on the passing of Dictator Kim Jong-il, who has been succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, becoming the third of his line to head the world's only hereditary totalitarian Stalinist state, according to reports.

Dictator Kim Jong-il died in December at the age of 69 after running world's most reclusive state for 17 years. He was announced dead on December 19, although official media reported his death two days earlier, on a train journey to give guidance to his subjects.

The Daily NK, an online newspaper based in South Korea quoted a source, as saying that the “authorities are handing down at least six months in a labour-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gathering during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry & didn’t seem genuine”

So during the 100day “mandatory” mourning period the Citizens suspected of “not mourning enough” were sent to labour-training camps for at least six months. Others were sent to re-education camps, were they will be taught about the greatness of their new leader & Those truly unfortunate were sent to remote areas with their families for unspecified punishment. The number of people captivated is un-known.

In these crucial circumstances those who tried to flee or contact anyone with their cell phones will be “punished accordingly”. Despite its large population the flow of information in & out of the country is muffled.

Monal – Paradise in Islamabad

Sitting on top of the Pothar , nestled against the pristine Margallas, & looking over the plains of  Peshawar & Lahore , the brick &mortar of Islamabad may be modern, but its culture & traditions are embedded in the centuries of our history that have unfolded between ranges of Khyber & bolan & the Valley of Mehran.

And in many ways, The Monal – named after a pheasant of rare & exquisite beauty dwelling a little further north- personifies this mixture of the modern & the ancient. The resort is a touch of modernity set in the golden ages. Situated at the height of about 1173 meters above sea level, completed in 2006, it is equipped with the latest facilities, but offers an ambience cultivated by heritage.

Thanks to the CDA, the long and winding road leading to The Monal is perfectly carpeted and steel belted, well-lit at night and the strategically placed boards give you directions along the way making it a very safe and scenic journey.

The road to Monal twists & turns in the mountains of margalla that are embedded in emeralds. It opens to both tourist & locals a panorama of ALLAH’s Glory. As you reach the top, Islamabad & the Rich white of the Faisal Mosque melt away in the background, leaving you to admire the beauty that promises the experience of a lifetime.

Sunset at the Monal offers some of nature's most glorious moments. Crimson skies over the rapid shadows of a hilly dusk; the rustle of leaves in a gentle breeze; soft calls of birds as they climb to roost; and if the day has been warm, an occasional chirpings of crickets. Finally, twilight settles in the valleys against the backdrop of Islamabad's golden radiance.

As you enter Monal, with its spiral & woods The Monal is an Architectural splendor that blends effortlessly into the natural beauty that surrounds it. Yet the building is designed to provide the utmost luxury & comfort of a sophisticated environment. With parking space of 250 cars & separate space for people with disabilities, once you enter from any of the two entrance you are warmly welcomed by the staff with hospitality & courtesy that’s an old-tradtion of the region.

When you come to The Monal, there are a number of options you have in seating, making the visit better at every bite.

 The conference hall, designed to suit professionalism along with the taste of beauty. In addition to it all, the Monal also has a 3-storey tree house, built to extend the dinning, this house offers, Italian, French & Mediterranean cuisines.

In addition to all this, Monal has 5 live kitchens. Here the culinary skills of the well trained chefs are exhibited, along with their total care for hygiene. Watching the chefs preparing the meals is entertaining as well as mouth watering.

At Monal you are offered authentic Pakistani cuisine that is rich & diverse as Islamabad’s legacy. It’s produced by the

fusion of indigenous flavors & aromas with culinary bequests from Arabia, Persia & central Asia, as the many tribes, people & culture blended over the centuries across the valleys & plains of the Indus.

In addition to the culinary delights Monal also offers food for soul, with occasional “Gazal Nights”. At The Monal you will also have an opportunity to shop for souvenirs and traditional jewelry and handicrafts. An array of traditional shopping carts lines the main entrance, offering trinkets and treasure straight out of Ali Baba's magical cave. With the burners ablaze, the air dense with the aroma of scrumptious foods, the breeze brings wisps of cheers, laughter & talks, the mood all set for delectable meals & divine beauty, the magic is felt to twinkle of the nights at Monal. The visit is a memorable one, a place that one would dream to live in, & an experience of a lifetime, one has to be there to believe it. Because seeing is believing & Monal is a place to indulge.

Annam Lodhi