Noorilhuda's Blog
April 16, 2024
Annual Schedule for Free Ebook Versions of 'The Governess' & 'Catharsis':
The Governess & Catharsis will be free across Amazon on the following events:
* Christmas+New Year's Day (25-29 Dec.)
* Memorial Day Weekend (25-29 May)
* Independence Day Weekend (4-8 July)
* 'Catharsis' on Halloween Weekend (31 Oct.)
* 'The Governess' & 'Catharsis' on Thanksgiving Weekend (4th Thursday in Nov.) 21-25 Nov.
Ebook: ASIN: B00MF8BJQE
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MF8BJQE
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MF8BJQE
Ebook: ASIN: B010IQSFN4
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010IQSFN4
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B010IQSFN4
Thanks.
* Christmas+New Year's Day (25-29 Dec.)
* Memorial Day Weekend (25-29 May)
* Independence Day Weekend (4-8 July)
* 'Catharsis' on Halloween Weekend (31 Oct.)
* 'The Governess' & 'Catharsis' on Thanksgiving Weekend (4th Thursday in Nov.) 21-25 Nov.
Ebook: ASIN: B00MF8BJQE
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MF8BJQE
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00MF8BJQE
Ebook: ASIN: B010IQSFN4
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B010IQSFN4
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B010IQSFN4
Thanks.
September 12, 2020
ISHTIAQ AHMED'S INSPECTOR JAMSHED SERIES TURNED INTO A (COOL-LOOKING) WEB SERIES!!!
Excitement overload right now:
https://youtu.be/NPw4Sg4LIzs
(P.S.: is that masked guy super villain Jeeral?)
Author Links: GR: Ishtiaq Ahmad, FB: @AuthorIshtiaqAhmed
(Budding viewership for this iconic series should help in generating renewed interest in Ishtiaq Ahmed's work and its republication in Urdu as well as its much-needed translation in English, introducing Pakistan's most famous detective series to the entire world, in which a police officer and his brilliant kids save the day).
December 2, 2019
The Great Pakistani Urdu Novel_
'Man-o-Salwa' من و سلویٰ (Manna and Quail) by Umera Ahmed, available in Urdu and English.
Thoughts: As opposed to the door-stopper-sized fiction of yore on partition, bureaucratic structure, moral or financial corruption, even violence and terrorism, or romantic ideals and unrequited love, this one feels like the Pakistan I know or believe to be so. Neither the story nor the character arcs are to be taken literally, the title itself is a misnomer (an arbitrary propulsion of morality on what is essentially human struggle for dignified success, honest relationships and authentic meaning in life - the pot of gold - whatever that means for anybody.) At the heart, it is a story of individuals who run after a mirage or charade (thinking it's their Man-o-Salwa), brimming with endless hope, either being exploited or making disastrous choices, navigating themes which are universal and timeless.
Alert: Nobody should take the garbage synopsis written on Amazon seriously - this book is NOT based on any religion, nor does it talk of any religion, and does not glorify any over the other!
Book in Urdu: http://www.urdunovels.pk/man-o-salwa-...
https://www.scribd.com/doc/248435156/...
Book in English-translation: Man-o-Salwa
TV series: HUM TV production, 2007, available online on various sites, free, without subtitles. Google it. Dynamite performances all around.
Author Link: https://www.facebook.com/umeraahmedof...
Thoughts: As opposed to the door-stopper-sized fiction of yore on partition, bureaucratic structure, moral or financial corruption, even violence and terrorism, or romantic ideals and unrequited love, this one feels like the Pakistan I know or believe to be so. Neither the story nor the character arcs are to be taken literally, the title itself is a misnomer (an arbitrary propulsion of morality on what is essentially human struggle for dignified success, honest relationships and authentic meaning in life - the pot of gold - whatever that means for anybody.) At the heart, it is a story of individuals who run after a mirage or charade (thinking it's their Man-o-Salwa), brimming with endless hope, either being exploited or making disastrous choices, navigating themes which are universal and timeless.
Alert: Nobody should take the garbage synopsis written on Amazon seriously - this book is NOT based on any religion, nor does it talk of any religion, and does not glorify any over the other!
Book in Urdu: http://www.urdunovels.pk/man-o-salwa-...
https://www.scribd.com/doc/248435156/...
Book in English-translation: Man-o-Salwa
TV series: HUM TV production, 2007, available online on various sites, free, without subtitles. Google it. Dynamite performances all around.
Author Link: https://www.facebook.com/umeraahmedof...
October 11, 2018
Sarmad Khoosat, endurance art and the death penalty:
https://www.dawn.com/notimetosleep/
The anti-death penalty live drama ‘No Time To Sleep,’ spearheaded by INGO Justice Project Pakistan and heavily promoted by Dawn Group went live a night ago via YouTube and Dawn’s special site link. It shows the supposed-to-be last moments of a convicted death row inmate who is awaiting execution in the next 24 hours. A lot happens along the way. The point is to highlight the futility of man-made punishments, the loopholes in the justice system and the (lack of) humanity accorded to a prisoner by jail staff as he awaits death by hanging in solitary confinement.
The production design has the top-shot of a (make-believe) solitary jail cell, the titular character played by Sarmad Khoosat and a supporting structure of cast comrpising of the prison guard on duty, the superintendant and other jail staff, his family (father, brother, daughters) and his legal team.
It is extremely brave of Khoosat to attempt a ‘method’ acting project (bird’s eye view; fish out of water; David Blaine stunt in NY, etc.). The starkness of the image of a prisoner spending time in a cell, knowing it may be his last day (his execution has been postponed/ deferred plenty of times before), left in solitary with no one to talk to other than an occasional grumble with the guard, with every burp, snitch, and toilet problem on display for viewers around the world without any cut, edit or break. I have no idea how many hours it took to flesh out every detail of his act, the script or blocks, but it is all there, handled minutely.
This is a first for Pakistan and Pakistani creative medium (whether social media, TV / Film, or theatre) because it is a naked performance, literally so by the end when the prisoner takes his last bath 15 minutes from the hanging, and stands frozen with his back to the bars, silently staring at the wall, trying to grip pieces of it, while the jail staff comes forward to take him away, clothing him and then carrying him, his limbs all weak and hope all gone - only to be told that his execution has been stayed. A card on screen tells us, the viewers, that the prisoner lived another month till his execution was re-scheduled and he was again placed in solitary for three days and then promptly hanged.
It is a good idea. It is supposed to stir your consciousness, your conceptions about crime and punishment and the cruelty meted out to a man who will not be alive tomorrow: e.g. you find out that the prisoner killed two men out of self-defense (thereby raising questions of culpability, the capacity of his legal team to make a good case, strength of evidence against him and the attitude of the deceased's families for accepting / rejecting money / diyat / khoon maaf under Hudood Ordinance); you find out that in solitary awaiting death, as per jail rules, he is on a tea and biscuit ‘diet’, and his last meal is equally non-fussy - and he is kept hungry from breakfast till midnight when he is supposed to be hanged - with not even a cup of tea in sight; you find out that in the decades he spent on death row (appeal over appeal over appeal) he taught fellow prisoners and helped them get diplomas, complete schooling, etc. thereby raising the argument that the state is not killing the man it punished ala Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn’s 1995 film Dead Man Waling; you find out that his lawyers, and NGO, have been talking to the judge and family of the deceased for delay/ stay and compromise, that he latches on to hope against hope; you find out the inane, absurd things that occupy your mind and body. even when it’s the last day you’ll be alive; you find out the mental torture given to this man in the name of carrying out his sentence as per law and justice.
It doesn’t work. While Khoosat is extremely brave - and gifted - to put on a show - the performance (or the way it’s written) doesn’t say much. He is a good actor as evidenced in the brilliantly superlative film ‘Manto (that he also directed) and the TV drama ‘Istikhara‘ (even if the subject matter and story were regressive, and I thought he was much too bright and sensible to accept such a part or play), but he is no Faisal Qureshi. He isn’t charismatic enough to stand out on screen and isn’t ordinary enough to look like a common man. He comes across as way too much refined and educated to look lower-economic middle-class (which the rest of his role-family is), his voice is such that dialogues end up feminized and don’t carry punch, he is not good at emoting or histrionics that this role requires, he is also an actor who does well in tight shots (none exist here) as opposed to wide-shots (a camera hanging far away). It’s hard to take him seriously even though he is the one dying. He bares everything but his soul.
Also, seeing a man spend the last night / day on earth within the confines of a jail cell, and how he spends it, may look cool on paper or as a script or as a performance project or as a challenge to an ambitious producer / director / cameraman / content designer but the reality of it is that most of it is banal and voyeuristic and repetitive and makes chump-change out of the very human predicament of what to do or how to treat a man on death row. The ‘Big Brother’ style of television and countdown timer is popcorn fare. The non-execution is anti-climactic. The viewers are seeing it for the first time, but the prisoner is not doing things for the first time. So the novelty is lost when you see Khoosat sneeze for the nth time. You don't get the sense that this guy has been through this routine a dozen times (without getting hanged). You don't see the frustration or the mental agony till the last scene. The co-stars are stunted, wooden and don’t add any value. Irfan Khoosat, Khoosat’s real-life father and a great actor (‘Andhera Ujala') hams it out of the park. The sound volume is low, it’s hard to hear the conversations, the best sound quality is the one from the tap water flowing in the red balti.
I was more curious to see the actions / conversations in MCR (production’s control room) and the workings of the cameramen than Sarmad Khoosat trying to kill time. It would have been great if more information was given on how he prepared for the role, the rehearsals and the entire production design at Bari Studios, Lahore.
The viewers on midnight (10th Oct.) were 200-300, and it trickled to 1300 in the last half hour before midnight (11th Oct.), most probably because of the nude scene and the awaited execution. The viewers were 1800 or so when the transmission ended. The comments from viewers on YouTube were lethargic and pointless, even sensational in nature. Yes, I watched the whole of it, minus the 4 hours at night when I had to sleep.
Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the man on whose life (and trials and death) this drama is based, killed two men. He said he and his brother were being robbed and it was self-defense. His brother got a bullet wound on the arm. Many delays / stays in execution occurred until he was hanged. Between 1991 to 2014 (including seventeen years on death row), Ali not only got his degrees and diplomas but also reportedly educated hundreds of prisoners. Khan’s case went all the way to SC where technically the trial court’s misadventures and high court’s stubbornness is usually overthrown. It wasn’t, in his case. So should the benefit of doubt be given to him or the murdered? Is a prisoner like him an asset to society or not? Would we be even discussing him if he had been hanged a few years after the murders? Would we have even have cause to alarm ourselves if the death-row convict had not spent as many years in prison as a life sentence convict does? And then denied a conversion of sentence after decades in captivity? I think the writers / JPP want viewers to connect with this notion of doubt: they seem to be asking if it is enough to hang a man when a cloud of doubt exists? Is it okay to put such a man to death or allow him to do more in life imprisonment? The other side of the coin is why should this person be believed and allowed to have a life when he snatched the promising futures of two boys? An argument can be made for leniency out of compassion but it is arrogant of anti-death penalty crusaders to expect families of victims to deny themselves what they consider their right.
This notion of assumed innocence in a heinous crime is important for the anti-death penalty advocates: viewers would not react to a man paying for his deed through death by hanging, if they thought he was innocent. The 24-hour marathon is an attempt to desensitize the public (put a human face on the moral dilemma) and it is a good attempt in that regard - more of such stuff needs to be aired for people to start talking, thinking, feeling, understanding, questioning and conversing (on their charpoys with guns and axes in tow as well as over cups of cappuccino in F-6 and bodyguard in Honda Civic Ivtec Prosmetic). It’s the only way civilizations progress. And the chosen platform - social media - promotes across-the-board interaction. And if a society still thinks it’s okay to have death penalty so be it.
I hope Khoosat and JPP and Dawn are not sued for this crazy, brave, underwhelming live TV drama (you know, the usual charges of indecency / obscenity / ‘contrary to pakistani culture’ crap).
This drama is another one in the direction of what ‘Udaari’ accomplished: a channel’s creative forces researched and developed a TV drama with the help of an NGO working in the field for female uplift and justice. Here too, it’s a collaboration between research (by JPP and others) and visual treatment of the gained material by an independent crew (Olomopolo Media and Highlight Arts).
The best and most effective death row inmate going-to-the-gallows scene that I’ve ever seen, is the one enacted by Talat Hussain and his last visitors: his TV-family played by Ghazala Kaifi (wife), Huma Nawab and Komal Rizvi (daughters) in the 90s drama ‘Hawaein’, written by Farzana Nadeem. Hussain plays the worker (right or left-hand man) of a feudal who is accused of a murder (actually committed by the feudal, played by Nawaz Baloch) - in political enmity, six people got killed, Hussain absconded, his name was placed in FIR, police searched for him, he was arrested and put on trial, he accepted the blame (one of his daughters is also married to the feudal’s son - a marriage exploited by the feudal later on - but that’s just the usual dope in any melodrama). So the handyman / target killer never tells the police the truth because that’s what a loyal worker of a feudal does (ahem), his family knows he didn’t do it, he is about to be hanged for a crime he didn’t commit. This is the last meeting. Waterfalls. And then he is led off and hanged.
God Forbid anyone has to go through something like this, where you feel innocent but the world has you condemned but here, in ‘No Time To Sleep,’ you don’t feel sorry for the death row prisoner, rather I tried to look for ways to ‘better’ the experience for the dying man: okay so he should have a full stomach, a fan, more cigarettes, all the water in the world.
It's a bit too woke for me. Art may push the boundaries via social experiments, but justice has no second acts.
----------------------------------------
For those interested in seeing the now-recorded performance:
https://www.dawn.com/notimetosleep/
https://twitter.com/z_prisoner
On durational / endurance performance arts:
https://junkee.com/origin-stories-a-b...
On Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the convicted murderer on whose life Prisoner Z is based: https://www.facebook.com/JusticeProje...
https://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/201...
https://www.propergaanda.com/prisoner...
Sarmad Khoosat's views on the drama:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1436978
Rehearsals for the drama:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1438876/cur...
Justice Project Pakistan:
https://www.jpp.org.pk/
https://www.jpp.org.pk/no-time-to-sleep/
Olomopolo Media: https://www.facebook.com/olomopolo
Highlight Arts: http://highlightarts.org/projects/no-...
Dramas / Films on Criminal Justice System:
Pakistani TV drama: 'Hawaein' (90s)
Ayeshah Alam Khan's directorial telefilm and fictional retelling of a real-life honor killing (90s)
Paradise Lost: Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
The Act of Killing (2012, documentary)
The Thin Blue Line (70s documentary)
Shawshank Redemption (90s)
Book:
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
------------------------------------------
(Edit 17/10/18: Ironically, the production was held a few days before convicted child murderer Imran Ali was hanged, for rape and murder of a 6 year old Zainab Amin Ansari of Kasur in January this year, under ATC / SC judgments. I wonder whether the producers thought about the timing of the telecast - after all, not much sympathy can be expected for a child killer on death row. But 57 of his own relatives came to say goodbye to him! The fact that not much is known / researched about how or why such crimes occur and responsibility of parents of victim / survivor and that of the criminal's, is another thing for another day. But humane treatment of death row prisoners is necessary).
-------------------------------------------
(Edit: 12/12/18: Werner Herzog's 'Into The Abyss' is a dud. It's like a Jackson Pollock painting - all over the place, no balance between the two convicted criminals' backstory and family interviews, and that of the victims' families, and no forensics of triple homicide - in fact he spends more time on the injuries the two arrested got, during the shoot-out with the police before their arrest, than how the victims' died. The 19-year old on death row for ten years - Michael Perry, executed seven days after the interview - is not asked the right questions. His family isn't interviewed / didn't agree to be interviewed (we are never told). Too much time is given to Justin Burkett and his family. Both convicted come across as uneducated, clueless and selfish (and about to crack a laugh). But their answers offer no explanation for the senseless, stupid, cruel way they acted. No such convenience is in store for the victims. I only saw the face of the dead mother Sandra Stotler as a photograph somewhere at the end when her daughter holds it up to the camera! Nuts.
The only interesting tidbit - and I had to google it - is that Perry was charged and convicted of just one murder, and got the death penalty, while Burkett was charged and convicted of all 3, but got a life sentence.)
-------------------------------------------
The anti-death penalty live drama ‘No Time To Sleep,’ spearheaded by INGO Justice Project Pakistan and heavily promoted by Dawn Group went live a night ago via YouTube and Dawn’s special site link. It shows the supposed-to-be last moments of a convicted death row inmate who is awaiting execution in the next 24 hours. A lot happens along the way. The point is to highlight the futility of man-made punishments, the loopholes in the justice system and the (lack of) humanity accorded to a prisoner by jail staff as he awaits death by hanging in solitary confinement.
The production design has the top-shot of a (make-believe) solitary jail cell, the titular character played by Sarmad Khoosat and a supporting structure of cast comrpising of the prison guard on duty, the superintendant and other jail staff, his family (father, brother, daughters) and his legal team.
It is extremely brave of Khoosat to attempt a ‘method’ acting project (bird’s eye view; fish out of water; David Blaine stunt in NY, etc.). The starkness of the image of a prisoner spending time in a cell, knowing it may be his last day (his execution has been postponed/ deferred plenty of times before), left in solitary with no one to talk to other than an occasional grumble with the guard, with every burp, snitch, and toilet problem on display for viewers around the world without any cut, edit or break. I have no idea how many hours it took to flesh out every detail of his act, the script or blocks, but it is all there, handled minutely.
This is a first for Pakistan and Pakistani creative medium (whether social media, TV / Film, or theatre) because it is a naked performance, literally so by the end when the prisoner takes his last bath 15 minutes from the hanging, and stands frozen with his back to the bars, silently staring at the wall, trying to grip pieces of it, while the jail staff comes forward to take him away, clothing him and then carrying him, his limbs all weak and hope all gone - only to be told that his execution has been stayed. A card on screen tells us, the viewers, that the prisoner lived another month till his execution was re-scheduled and he was again placed in solitary for three days and then promptly hanged.
It is a good idea. It is supposed to stir your consciousness, your conceptions about crime and punishment and the cruelty meted out to a man who will not be alive tomorrow: e.g. you find out that the prisoner killed two men out of self-defense (thereby raising questions of culpability, the capacity of his legal team to make a good case, strength of evidence against him and the attitude of the deceased's families for accepting / rejecting money / diyat / khoon maaf under Hudood Ordinance); you find out that in solitary awaiting death, as per jail rules, he is on a tea and biscuit ‘diet’, and his last meal is equally non-fussy - and he is kept hungry from breakfast till midnight when he is supposed to be hanged - with not even a cup of tea in sight; you find out that in the decades he spent on death row (appeal over appeal over appeal) he taught fellow prisoners and helped them get diplomas, complete schooling, etc. thereby raising the argument that the state is not killing the man it punished ala Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn’s 1995 film Dead Man Waling; you find out that his lawyers, and NGO, have been talking to the judge and family of the deceased for delay/ stay and compromise, that he latches on to hope against hope; you find out the inane, absurd things that occupy your mind and body. even when it’s the last day you’ll be alive; you find out the mental torture given to this man in the name of carrying out his sentence as per law and justice.
It doesn’t work. While Khoosat is extremely brave - and gifted - to put on a show - the performance (or the way it’s written) doesn’t say much. He is a good actor as evidenced in the brilliantly superlative film ‘Manto (that he also directed) and the TV drama ‘Istikhara‘ (even if the subject matter and story were regressive, and I thought he was much too bright and sensible to accept such a part or play), but he is no Faisal Qureshi. He isn’t charismatic enough to stand out on screen and isn’t ordinary enough to look like a common man. He comes across as way too much refined and educated to look lower-economic middle-class (which the rest of his role-family is), his voice is such that dialogues end up feminized and don’t carry punch, he is not good at emoting or histrionics that this role requires, he is also an actor who does well in tight shots (none exist here) as opposed to wide-shots (a camera hanging far away). It’s hard to take him seriously even though he is the one dying. He bares everything but his soul.
Also, seeing a man spend the last night / day on earth within the confines of a jail cell, and how he spends it, may look cool on paper or as a script or as a performance project or as a challenge to an ambitious producer / director / cameraman / content designer but the reality of it is that most of it is banal and voyeuristic and repetitive and makes chump-change out of the very human predicament of what to do or how to treat a man on death row. The ‘Big Brother’ style of television and countdown timer is popcorn fare. The non-execution is anti-climactic. The viewers are seeing it for the first time, but the prisoner is not doing things for the first time. So the novelty is lost when you see Khoosat sneeze for the nth time. You don't get the sense that this guy has been through this routine a dozen times (without getting hanged). You don't see the frustration or the mental agony till the last scene. The co-stars are stunted, wooden and don’t add any value. Irfan Khoosat, Khoosat’s real-life father and a great actor (‘Andhera Ujala') hams it out of the park. The sound volume is low, it’s hard to hear the conversations, the best sound quality is the one from the tap water flowing in the red balti.
I was more curious to see the actions / conversations in MCR (production’s control room) and the workings of the cameramen than Sarmad Khoosat trying to kill time. It would have been great if more information was given on how he prepared for the role, the rehearsals and the entire production design at Bari Studios, Lahore.
The viewers on midnight (10th Oct.) were 200-300, and it trickled to 1300 in the last half hour before midnight (11th Oct.), most probably because of the nude scene and the awaited execution. The viewers were 1800 or so when the transmission ended. The comments from viewers on YouTube were lethargic and pointless, even sensational in nature. Yes, I watched the whole of it, minus the 4 hours at night when I had to sleep.
Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the man on whose life (and trials and death) this drama is based, killed two men. He said he and his brother were being robbed and it was self-defense. His brother got a bullet wound on the arm. Many delays / stays in execution occurred until he was hanged. Between 1991 to 2014 (including seventeen years on death row), Ali not only got his degrees and diplomas but also reportedly educated hundreds of prisoners. Khan’s case went all the way to SC where technically the trial court’s misadventures and high court’s stubbornness is usually overthrown. It wasn’t, in his case. So should the benefit of doubt be given to him or the murdered? Is a prisoner like him an asset to society or not? Would we be even discussing him if he had been hanged a few years after the murders? Would we have even have cause to alarm ourselves if the death-row convict had not spent as many years in prison as a life sentence convict does? And then denied a conversion of sentence after decades in captivity? I think the writers / JPP want viewers to connect with this notion of doubt: they seem to be asking if it is enough to hang a man when a cloud of doubt exists? Is it okay to put such a man to death or allow him to do more in life imprisonment? The other side of the coin is why should this person be believed and allowed to have a life when he snatched the promising futures of two boys? An argument can be made for leniency out of compassion but it is arrogant of anti-death penalty crusaders to expect families of victims to deny themselves what they consider their right.
This notion of assumed innocence in a heinous crime is important for the anti-death penalty advocates: viewers would not react to a man paying for his deed through death by hanging, if they thought he was innocent. The 24-hour marathon is an attempt to desensitize the public (put a human face on the moral dilemma) and it is a good attempt in that regard - more of such stuff needs to be aired for people to start talking, thinking, feeling, understanding, questioning and conversing (on their charpoys with guns and axes in tow as well as over cups of cappuccino in F-6 and bodyguard in Honda Civic Ivtec Prosmetic). It’s the only way civilizations progress. And the chosen platform - social media - promotes across-the-board interaction. And if a society still thinks it’s okay to have death penalty so be it.
I hope Khoosat and JPP and Dawn are not sued for this crazy, brave, underwhelming live TV drama (you know, the usual charges of indecency / obscenity / ‘contrary to pakistani culture’ crap).
This drama is another one in the direction of what ‘Udaari’ accomplished: a channel’s creative forces researched and developed a TV drama with the help of an NGO working in the field for female uplift and justice. Here too, it’s a collaboration between research (by JPP and others) and visual treatment of the gained material by an independent crew (Olomopolo Media and Highlight Arts).
The best and most effective death row inmate going-to-the-gallows scene that I’ve ever seen, is the one enacted by Talat Hussain and his last visitors: his TV-family played by Ghazala Kaifi (wife), Huma Nawab and Komal Rizvi (daughters) in the 90s drama ‘Hawaein’, written by Farzana Nadeem. Hussain plays the worker (right or left-hand man) of a feudal who is accused of a murder (actually committed by the feudal, played by Nawaz Baloch) - in political enmity, six people got killed, Hussain absconded, his name was placed in FIR, police searched for him, he was arrested and put on trial, he accepted the blame (one of his daughters is also married to the feudal’s son - a marriage exploited by the feudal later on - but that’s just the usual dope in any melodrama). So the handyman / target killer never tells the police the truth because that’s what a loyal worker of a feudal does (ahem), his family knows he didn’t do it, he is about to be hanged for a crime he didn’t commit. This is the last meeting. Waterfalls. And then he is led off and hanged.
God Forbid anyone has to go through something like this, where you feel innocent but the world has you condemned but here, in ‘No Time To Sleep,’ you don’t feel sorry for the death row prisoner, rather I tried to look for ways to ‘better’ the experience for the dying man: okay so he should have a full stomach, a fan, more cigarettes, all the water in the world.
It's a bit too woke for me. Art may push the boundaries via social experiments, but justice has no second acts.
----------------------------------------
For those interested in seeing the now-recorded performance:
https://www.dawn.com/notimetosleep/
https://twitter.com/z_prisoner
On durational / endurance performance arts:
https://junkee.com/origin-stories-a-b...
On Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Khan, the convicted murderer on whose life Prisoner Z is based: https://www.facebook.com/JusticeProje...
https://www.bbc.com/urdu/pakistan/201...
https://www.propergaanda.com/prisoner...
Sarmad Khoosat's views on the drama:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1436978
Rehearsals for the drama:
https://www.dawn.com/news/1438876/cur...
Justice Project Pakistan:
https://www.jpp.org.pk/
https://www.jpp.org.pk/no-time-to-sleep/
Olomopolo Media: https://www.facebook.com/olomopolo
Highlight Arts: http://highlightarts.org/projects/no-...
Dramas / Films on Criminal Justice System:
Pakistani TV drama: 'Hawaein' (90s)
Ayeshah Alam Khan's directorial telefilm and fictional retelling of a real-life honor killing (90s)
Paradise Lost: Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (1996)
The Act of Killing (2012, documentary)
The Thin Blue Line (70s documentary)
Shawshank Redemption (90s)
Book:
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
------------------------------------------
(Edit 17/10/18: Ironically, the production was held a few days before convicted child murderer Imran Ali was hanged, for rape and murder of a 6 year old Zainab Amin Ansari of Kasur in January this year, under ATC / SC judgments. I wonder whether the producers thought about the timing of the telecast - after all, not much sympathy can be expected for a child killer on death row. But 57 of his own relatives came to say goodbye to him! The fact that not much is known / researched about how or why such crimes occur and responsibility of parents of victim / survivor and that of the criminal's, is another thing for another day. But humane treatment of death row prisoners is necessary).
-------------------------------------------
(Edit: 12/12/18: Werner Herzog's 'Into The Abyss' is a dud. It's like a Jackson Pollock painting - all over the place, no balance between the two convicted criminals' backstory and family interviews, and that of the victims' families, and no forensics of triple homicide - in fact he spends more time on the injuries the two arrested got, during the shoot-out with the police before their arrest, than how the victims' died. The 19-year old on death row for ten years - Michael Perry, executed seven days after the interview - is not asked the right questions. His family isn't interviewed / didn't agree to be interviewed (we are never told). Too much time is given to Justin Burkett and his family. Both convicted come across as uneducated, clueless and selfish (and about to crack a laugh). But their answers offer no explanation for the senseless, stupid, cruel way they acted. No such convenience is in store for the victims. I only saw the face of the dead mother Sandra Stotler as a photograph somewhere at the end when her daughter holds it up to the camera! Nuts.
The only interesting tidbit - and I had to google it - is that Perry was charged and convicted of just one murder, and got the death penalty, while Burkett was charged and convicted of all 3, but got a life sentence.)
-------------------------------------------
May 25, 2018
The Greatest Story Ever Told (Best Thing On TV Right Now)_
This was not a drama, it was an experience.
Image source: Twitter: @Sotong_Q
Drama info sites: https://forums.soompi.com/en/topic/40...
http://www.koreandrama.org/my-mister/
http://asianwiki.com/My_Mister
Official TvN snippets:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
OST-Song: Adult by Sondia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx0PO...
Nothing that you read or watch will prepare you for what unfolds onscreen. It will change you. Multiple viewings will reveal new layers of meaning and lessons. So my suggestion is to just go to one of the online sites (kissasian, ondramanice, viki, dramacool, dramafever, viewasian, newsasiantv, etc. etc.) and start episode 1.
Image source: Twitter: @Sotong_Q
47. You are all decent people. May you hang in there until you find some comfort for yourselves.
— Sotong_Q (@Sotong_Q) May 22, 2018
-The End-
Thank you for reading this quote thread. May you receive some healing and comfort from these words. #MyMister pic.twitter.com/LjNvk6drFi
Drama info sites: https://forums.soompi.com/en/topic/40...
http://www.koreandrama.org/my-mister/
http://asianwiki.com/My_Mister
Official TvN snippets:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
OST-Song: Adult by Sondia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx0PO...
Nothing that you read or watch will prepare you for what unfolds onscreen. It will change you. Multiple viewings will reveal new layers of meaning and lessons. So my suggestion is to just go to one of the online sites (kissasian, ondramanice, viki, dramacool, dramafever, viewasian, newsasiantv, etc. etc.) and start episode 1.
February 18, 2017
‘RAEES’ AND MONSTERS WITHIN
[This blog post is in response to the ban imposed by Pakistani censor board on a film by Indian superstar SRK; the given reason being that “the content undermines Islam, and a specific religious sect, (while also) portraying Muslims as criminals, wanted persons and terrorists." - dated 6th Feb. 2017;
The film's story may or may not be based on the life of a real-life Muslim gangster / powerhouse who ruled the roost in prohibition-struck 80s Gujarat, India.
Ironically, Pakistan is not immune to illegal sale and consumption of alcohol; gangsters e.g. Ladla, Chotoo, Pappu, Uzair, Beater, etc. who also happen to be Muslims; extra-judicial killings occur to get rid of notorious criminals. And tagging something 'anti-Islam,' like this movie has been, ensures no debate occurs for fear of reprisals.
The film also marks the debut of Pakistani actress Mahira Khan in an Indian film - and that too, opposite SRK, a cool, history-making win for Pakistani talent - fulfilling a long-held quoted dream of Pakistani actresses and actors to be in an Indian blockbuster with any of their A-list actors].
Banning ‘Raees’ is the least of our problems. As a country, we are so used to being told what is right for us, who is morally upright, who is patriotic, who we should trust, how much of our money is required for a project or institution, what the true face of Islam is and who is a good terrorist, that we have forgotten how to ask questions, how to communicate non-violent dissent and how to get heard.
The same goes for art and artists. Let’s be honest: Pakistan has never cared about singers, musicians, painters, artisans, poets, actors and actresses, writers, technical crew, extras. As a society we look down upon these professions. If an actor has a hit drama or film, his first instinct is to open up a designer shop or some other form of business so that he has a secure form of income. An actress starts looking for a sugar-daddy or husband. Noor Jehan is not studied anywhere. Mehdi Hassan is not commemorated beyond a ticker. Nadeem Baig is not revered. Sultan Rahi is a meme. No one knows nor celebrates Anjuman's birthday. Nazarul Islam who? Shaan and Saima are never invited on radio or TV (PTV or cable) to talk about their decade of No. 1 stardom. Afzal Rambo is not asked to a business / creative seminar in any educational institute to speak on how he battled social, religious, financial and family pressures to make it in the industry as an outsider and thrive as the perennial second-lead. Dancers from 80s are not considered worthy of being remembered. Books on Pakistani cinema are few and have the feel of graveyard shift to them. No tourism is generated by promoting locations of iconic scenes in films. No artist has ever received a 5-minute silence, 20-tank salute or national holiday. Unlike Pakistani cable TV's obsession with celebrating even D/Z-list Indian wannabes, giving them airtime and talk shows, you will never see a prime time anchor talking about Pakistani entertainment or talent unless the episode is airing on Eid holiday - when nobody watches the 8 and 10 o’clock programs, too busy in festivities - basically recording an unimportant filler episode. (I am witness to top anchors recording Eid interviews with some actor / actress / director / writer in lethargic boredom, and were negative, derogatory and vapid in their questions as opposed to celebratory, interested and informed). In fact, generally, anchors thought it was beneath them to cover film / TV / theatre. Culture is just not serious business unless it’s politicized or islamized. Pop culture is reduced to popularity contests or scandals as per social media, not actual work.
There has never been an organic cinematic growth in Pakistan. As long as there was money to be made, a film was produced. Pakistani filmmakers were never brave enough to talk about issues that existed in society and made either age-old romantic dramas till late 70s or gandasa films rooted in OTT primal fiction till early 2000s. It is beyond parody that 'Maula Jutt' (1979) remains the only original film ever created in Pakistan (even though it's a sequel to the lesser known 1975 film 'Wehshi Jutt'). Syed Noor's muse-invention and forgettable B-grade pelvic thrusted 'inspirations' of Hindi films dominated the 90s, followed by hackneyed TV-movie style 'revival of cinema' in late-2010s built around promoting C-grade m/f copies of Indian stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Salman Khan, SRK, Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh and fishing an entire catalogue of potboiler commercial Hindi films for 'inspiration,' basic story, dialogues, look, dress, style, music, sound, framing, editing, coloring, and even controversies! (No one can dance like them but they sure try). All this is being stage-managed with the support of big channel houses, sponsors and ISPR. The movers and shakers of this copy-paste 'revival' have forgotten that when Waheed Murad was IT in 60s commercial social/family films, there was no one like him during that entire decade in India, or anywhere else; he was an original, breath of fresh air, and made by audience, not ISPR or Momina Duraid or Dawn.com; same is the case with Sultan Rahi and Shaan. By copying others, you may earn easy lame money, but cannot manufacture magic or creativity or build an audience around exciting memories, because why should anyone watch a Pakistani copy of 2-3 films when they can readily click on the net to watch the actual Salman Khan, veteran of 35-years, strut his stuff. The movers and shakers are stuck in medieval time-loop of ideology and inferiority complex. Innovation and pushing boundaries here means getting the leads to use expletives and having a sex / dating life. This is the scope and length and breadth of thought. They are busy playing catch-up with Pakistanis, who have long moved on.
There is no excitement or magic or craze or fandom - and no real audience either, i.e. non-orchestrated, organic audience in Pakistan of 'Pakistani' films. No one is waiting in Pakistan for a Pakistani film to open next Friday.
Compare this state of affairs with two countries that defy historical and geographical 'established truths' time and again through their films, and show a level of cultural and political maturity lacking in Pakistan: South Korea and India.
South Korea is a product of war and strife, monarchy, military dictatorship, numerous occupations, and fractured independence - it even has an annexation: that with North. Technically, it should be raising battles with China and Japan, not having cultural exchanges with them. It should have unresolved grievances against U.S. and Russia too. And yet, it has the audacity to produce a film like ‘Joint Security Area’, where border soldiers from North and South become friends, get killed under mistaken fire and military bureaucracy of both sides lies to its people over the incident; ‘Silmido', true story of a prisoners unit trained by military for infiltration and assassination in a foreign land; ‘Inside Men’ that shows the comfortable corrupt nexus between news media, political leaders, business enterprises and judiciary; ‘Silenced’, a true story of systemic sexual abuse by teachers who got lenient sentences for the crime; ‘New World’, a tense thriller about skewed vision of law enforcement officers.
All of these films were blockbusters in Korea, showing the propensity of the people to embrace controversial and unpleasant topics - and of the Establishment to grudgingly accept the will of the consumer. Happily Ever After is not sought or coveted in Korean cinema. The primary importance is placed on the human condition - not welfare of an institution, ideology, caste, democracy or religion. It is cinema’s way of saying ‘This is who we are today, not tomorrow,' taking ownership of all warts and grey of events, society, people.
There was a time when Indian art cinema existed on the fringes of mainstream commercial ventures, albeit a 'Pyaasa' here and there. Not anymore. Roughly 16 years ago, Indian Hindi filmmakers started merging socially ambiguous realities in commercial films and produced stuff like ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘Company’, 'Munna Bhai MBBS 1 &2', 'My Name is Khan', 'Chak De India', ‘Jolly LLB’, ‘Udta Punjab’, ‘Talvar’ and ‘PK,’ among others.
Even American cinema with all its prestige, power and genre-variety cannot boast of multi-layered portrayals and exploration of themes beyond the hackneyed status quo. In a 100 years, they haven’t moved beyond summer movie super-hero bonanza, crime-bosses, dysfunctional families, WW2, brotherhood / sisterhood and race issues littering each film with one caricature after another.
Women are more real, have meatier, non-exploitative roles in Korean and Indian films too. No woman is running in a tank top through the fields having make-out sessions in 'Berlin File' and girls are people with goals in 'Dangal'. In fact Korean action films routinely have male and female actors of similar age groups (unless the story demands a teenage tag-along), and women are not wrinkle-free and stick-thin like in American films (though they may have had 'feature-enhancing' procedures of their own). U.S. and Pakistani cinema is still stuck in objectification of women because the society hasn't moved forward or vice versa.
The world is also not black and white in Korean and new Indian films: A person doing a bad or illegal thing may not necessarily be a bad human being - a mythical evil to an impossible good - he just happens to have a dark shade in personality or circumstances make him so. Cowboys and Indians? Maula Jutt and Noori Nuth? No, each portrayal is much more complicated and humane than that.
Culture - be it in the form of science, art, literature, architecture or environment - takes a people forward, helps them start a conversation, evolve and grow. It’s a very powerful thing. And that’s why under-developed countries, insecure governments and institutions try to control freedom of thought and expression. No one in Pakistan will ever make a film on armed forces like ‘Rang De Basanti’, no one will showcase a corrupt news media ala ‘Inside Men', no one will make a casting call for ‘PK’ to highlight Shia-Sunni problem or religious exploitation, no one will raise a camera for Karachi gangs like ‘Company’. No one will tell a true story, and no one will come to see it either.
At least let us watch ‘Raees’.
The film's story may or may not be based on the life of a real-life Muslim gangster / powerhouse who ruled the roost in prohibition-struck 80s Gujarat, India.
Ironically, Pakistan is not immune to illegal sale and consumption of alcohol; gangsters e.g. Ladla, Chotoo, Pappu, Uzair, Beater, etc. who also happen to be Muslims; extra-judicial killings occur to get rid of notorious criminals. And tagging something 'anti-Islam,' like this movie has been, ensures no debate occurs for fear of reprisals.
The film also marks the debut of Pakistani actress Mahira Khan in an Indian film - and that too, opposite SRK, a cool, history-making win for Pakistani talent - fulfilling a long-held quoted dream of Pakistani actresses and actors to be in an Indian blockbuster with any of their A-list actors].
Banning ‘Raees’ is the least of our problems. As a country, we are so used to being told what is right for us, who is morally upright, who is patriotic, who we should trust, how much of our money is required for a project or institution, what the true face of Islam is and who is a good terrorist, that we have forgotten how to ask questions, how to communicate non-violent dissent and how to get heard.
The same goes for art and artists. Let’s be honest: Pakistan has never cared about singers, musicians, painters, artisans, poets, actors and actresses, writers, technical crew, extras. As a society we look down upon these professions. If an actor has a hit drama or film, his first instinct is to open up a designer shop or some other form of business so that he has a secure form of income. An actress starts looking for a sugar-daddy or husband. Noor Jehan is not studied anywhere. Mehdi Hassan is not commemorated beyond a ticker. Nadeem Baig is not revered. Sultan Rahi is a meme. No one knows nor celebrates Anjuman's birthday. Nazarul Islam who? Shaan and Saima are never invited on radio or TV (PTV or cable) to talk about their decade of No. 1 stardom. Afzal Rambo is not asked to a business / creative seminar in any educational institute to speak on how he battled social, religious, financial and family pressures to make it in the industry as an outsider and thrive as the perennial second-lead. Dancers from 80s are not considered worthy of being remembered. Books on Pakistani cinema are few and have the feel of graveyard shift to them. No tourism is generated by promoting locations of iconic scenes in films. No artist has ever received a 5-minute silence, 20-tank salute or national holiday. Unlike Pakistani cable TV's obsession with celebrating even D/Z-list Indian wannabes, giving them airtime and talk shows, you will never see a prime time anchor talking about Pakistani entertainment or talent unless the episode is airing on Eid holiday - when nobody watches the 8 and 10 o’clock programs, too busy in festivities - basically recording an unimportant filler episode. (I am witness to top anchors recording Eid interviews with some actor / actress / director / writer in lethargic boredom, and were negative, derogatory and vapid in their questions as opposed to celebratory, interested and informed). In fact, generally, anchors thought it was beneath them to cover film / TV / theatre. Culture is just not serious business unless it’s politicized or islamized. Pop culture is reduced to popularity contests or scandals as per social media, not actual work.
There has never been an organic cinematic growth in Pakistan. As long as there was money to be made, a film was produced. Pakistani filmmakers were never brave enough to talk about issues that existed in society and made either age-old romantic dramas till late 70s or gandasa films rooted in OTT primal fiction till early 2000s. It is beyond parody that 'Maula Jutt' (1979) remains the only original film ever created in Pakistan (even though it's a sequel to the lesser known 1975 film 'Wehshi Jutt'). Syed Noor's muse-invention and forgettable B-grade pelvic thrusted 'inspirations' of Hindi films dominated the 90s, followed by hackneyed TV-movie style 'revival of cinema' in late-2010s built around promoting C-grade m/f copies of Indian stars Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Salman Khan, SRK, Katrina Kaif, Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh and fishing an entire catalogue of potboiler commercial Hindi films for 'inspiration,' basic story, dialogues, look, dress, style, music, sound, framing, editing, coloring, and even controversies! (No one can dance like them but they sure try). All this is being stage-managed with the support of big channel houses, sponsors and ISPR. The movers and shakers of this copy-paste 'revival' have forgotten that when Waheed Murad was IT in 60s commercial social/family films, there was no one like him during that entire decade in India, or anywhere else; he was an original, breath of fresh air, and made by audience, not ISPR or Momina Duraid or Dawn.com; same is the case with Sultan Rahi and Shaan. By copying others, you may earn easy lame money, but cannot manufacture magic or creativity or build an audience around exciting memories, because why should anyone watch a Pakistani copy of 2-3 films when they can readily click on the net to watch the actual Salman Khan, veteran of 35-years, strut his stuff. The movers and shakers are stuck in medieval time-loop of ideology and inferiority complex. Innovation and pushing boundaries here means getting the leads to use expletives and having a sex / dating life. This is the scope and length and breadth of thought. They are busy playing catch-up with Pakistanis, who have long moved on.
There is no excitement or magic or craze or fandom - and no real audience either, i.e. non-orchestrated, organic audience in Pakistan of 'Pakistani' films. No one is waiting in Pakistan for a Pakistani film to open next Friday.
Compare this state of affairs with two countries that defy historical and geographical 'established truths' time and again through their films, and show a level of cultural and political maturity lacking in Pakistan: South Korea and India.
South Korea is a product of war and strife, monarchy, military dictatorship, numerous occupations, and fractured independence - it even has an annexation: that with North. Technically, it should be raising battles with China and Japan, not having cultural exchanges with them. It should have unresolved grievances against U.S. and Russia too. And yet, it has the audacity to produce a film like ‘Joint Security Area’, where border soldiers from North and South become friends, get killed under mistaken fire and military bureaucracy of both sides lies to its people over the incident; ‘Silmido', true story of a prisoners unit trained by military for infiltration and assassination in a foreign land; ‘Inside Men’ that shows the comfortable corrupt nexus between news media, political leaders, business enterprises and judiciary; ‘Silenced’, a true story of systemic sexual abuse by teachers who got lenient sentences for the crime; ‘New World’, a tense thriller about skewed vision of law enforcement officers.
All of these films were blockbusters in Korea, showing the propensity of the people to embrace controversial and unpleasant topics - and of the Establishment to grudgingly accept the will of the consumer. Happily Ever After is not sought or coveted in Korean cinema. The primary importance is placed on the human condition - not welfare of an institution, ideology, caste, democracy or religion. It is cinema’s way of saying ‘This is who we are today, not tomorrow,' taking ownership of all warts and grey of events, society, people.
There was a time when Indian art cinema existed on the fringes of mainstream commercial ventures, albeit a 'Pyaasa' here and there. Not anymore. Roughly 16 years ago, Indian Hindi filmmakers started merging socially ambiguous realities in commercial films and produced stuff like ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘Company’, 'Munna Bhai MBBS 1 &2', 'My Name is Khan', 'Chak De India', ‘Jolly LLB’, ‘Udta Punjab’, ‘Talvar’ and ‘PK,’ among others.
Even American cinema with all its prestige, power and genre-variety cannot boast of multi-layered portrayals and exploration of themes beyond the hackneyed status quo. In a 100 years, they haven’t moved beyond summer movie super-hero bonanza, crime-bosses, dysfunctional families, WW2, brotherhood / sisterhood and race issues littering each film with one caricature after another.
Women are more real, have meatier, non-exploitative roles in Korean and Indian films too. No woman is running in a tank top through the fields having make-out sessions in 'Berlin File' and girls are people with goals in 'Dangal'. In fact Korean action films routinely have male and female actors of similar age groups (unless the story demands a teenage tag-along), and women are not wrinkle-free and stick-thin like in American films (though they may have had 'feature-enhancing' procedures of their own). U.S. and Pakistani cinema is still stuck in objectification of women because the society hasn't moved forward or vice versa.
The world is also not black and white in Korean and new Indian films: A person doing a bad or illegal thing may not necessarily be a bad human being - a mythical evil to an impossible good - he just happens to have a dark shade in personality or circumstances make him so. Cowboys and Indians? Maula Jutt and Noori Nuth? No, each portrayal is much more complicated and humane than that.
Culture - be it in the form of science, art, literature, architecture or environment - takes a people forward, helps them start a conversation, evolve and grow. It’s a very powerful thing. And that’s why under-developed countries, insecure governments and institutions try to control freedom of thought and expression. No one in Pakistan will ever make a film on armed forces like ‘Rang De Basanti’, no one will showcase a corrupt news media ala ‘Inside Men', no one will make a casting call for ‘PK’ to highlight Shia-Sunni problem or religious exploitation, no one will raise a camera for Karachi gangs like ‘Company’. No one will tell a true story, and no one will come to see it either.
At least let us watch ‘Raees’.
July 26, 2016
ROOSTING CHICKENS
Violence is, by and large, a learnt trait. Unlike some of us who are predestined to be aggressive due to certain genetic markers, we are not born violent. The trouble begins when a society rewards violence. Whether it is in the name of justice, us versus them, war on terror or terror after war, skewed version of religion or language, ethnicity, institutional need, patriotism, tribal law, an eye for an eye, Qisas and Diyat or honor, all forms of violence are justified, instead of punishing the criminal. The guilty become the proud cornerstone of history of a mohallah, generation and nation, instead of becoming a reprehensible footnote. The lesson is simple: it’s good to be bad.
The chaos that engulfs Pakistan today is not the invention of a single party or institution, not even the judicial or bureaucratic bourgeois. We did this to ourselves. Or rather, we were never allowed to rise above the myopic, mundane and ruthless. We have been kept ignorant, illiterate, poor, emotional and angry. This is the only way the powers-that-be could remain in control. If we were not told to hate, to suspect and to separate ourselves from The Other, we would never have existed in the first place. And that same arrow was aimed at everyone who was considered a threat to the status quo - a state of affairs decided by an elitist few. So instead of focussing on improving the quality of life of citizens, rooting out cultural evils, investing in the financial autonomy of common people, we were told that lack of constitution was the problem, Bengalis were the problem, military was the problem, so was democracy, socialism, rich-poor divide, India, America, women, larger provinces, Balochis, then Sindhis, then Punjabis, Pushtuns, Urdu-speakers, then Afghans, non-Muslims, lack of values, lack of Islamic laws, madressahs, good Taliban-bad Taliban, clash of civilizations, war in Muslim countries, lack of taxes, abundance of taxes, criminal gangs of political parties, media, corruption, etc. etc. The noise is absolutely mind-numbing, making us nothing more than zombies living a semblance of a life not of our choice, being told that the grass is greener on this or that side, and that good days will come if we believe in the status quo - and the people running it. We begin each new decade with a new theory about nationhood, threats and budgetary concerns. Each year, we are taxed more than the year before, we pay more on bills, we get more frustrated. We keep killing each other. We keep hating each other. And we take that all over the world. No one can say that we are better off than we were seventy years ago. Is the law and order any better? Do we have social justice? Financial equality? Common sense?
We could have been so wonderful. We could have made inroads within the tribal thinking of indigenous populations by making bad cultural truths part of the syllabus and making basic education free for all. Right now, a kid reads one thing and sees quite another in his or her village, tribe, class, gender - and so they do what their elders have done for centuries. We could have focussed on enforcing punishments for crimes - irrespective of whether that crime was done by a rich man or poor, a military man or feudal, a mullah or Ahmedi - and built a sense of fairness where none exists now. Infrastructure and facilities would exist from the Arabian Sea to Hindu Kush and not just a mall road or Cantt. People would be treated with respect in administrative departments that are supposed to serve them. Religion would have been the source of sympathy and personal growth as opposed to fear and intolerance. Muslim scholars would also work as scientists, medical professionals, philosophers, researchers and modern development experts. Artists and literary figures would be cheered upon and allowed to flourish. Had the elitist few really cared about us, they would have invested in the majority of the people instead of pocketing funds for their institutions, ministries, governments. Guess what? We were never a priority. What we could do for them was - not us, not our life or well-being or success. We were never told that quality of life is a right, not a privilege. And we never rose to the challenge.
And so it goes in most of the Muslim World.
So when a young man from an unsettled, under-developed part of the Muslim World massacres citizens of a Western country, he’s snuffing out a life and comfort he never knew. He was simply told that the blame for the weakness of his nation lay outside, not within. True power always stands on the calibre of citizens - the knowledge, empathy and prosperity of the collective majority. Who has time, patience or desire for all that work?
The chaos that engulfs Pakistan today is not the invention of a single party or institution, not even the judicial or bureaucratic bourgeois. We did this to ourselves. Or rather, we were never allowed to rise above the myopic, mundane and ruthless. We have been kept ignorant, illiterate, poor, emotional and angry. This is the only way the powers-that-be could remain in control. If we were not told to hate, to suspect and to separate ourselves from The Other, we would never have existed in the first place. And that same arrow was aimed at everyone who was considered a threat to the status quo - a state of affairs decided by an elitist few. So instead of focussing on improving the quality of life of citizens, rooting out cultural evils, investing in the financial autonomy of common people, we were told that lack of constitution was the problem, Bengalis were the problem, military was the problem, so was democracy, socialism, rich-poor divide, India, America, women, larger provinces, Balochis, then Sindhis, then Punjabis, Pushtuns, Urdu-speakers, then Afghans, non-Muslims, lack of values, lack of Islamic laws, madressahs, good Taliban-bad Taliban, clash of civilizations, war in Muslim countries, lack of taxes, abundance of taxes, criminal gangs of political parties, media, corruption, etc. etc. The noise is absolutely mind-numbing, making us nothing more than zombies living a semblance of a life not of our choice, being told that the grass is greener on this or that side, and that good days will come if we believe in the status quo - and the people running it. We begin each new decade with a new theory about nationhood, threats and budgetary concerns. Each year, we are taxed more than the year before, we pay more on bills, we get more frustrated. We keep killing each other. We keep hating each other. And we take that all over the world. No one can say that we are better off than we were seventy years ago. Is the law and order any better? Do we have social justice? Financial equality? Common sense?
We could have been so wonderful. We could have made inroads within the tribal thinking of indigenous populations by making bad cultural truths part of the syllabus and making basic education free for all. Right now, a kid reads one thing and sees quite another in his or her village, tribe, class, gender - and so they do what their elders have done for centuries. We could have focussed on enforcing punishments for crimes - irrespective of whether that crime was done by a rich man or poor, a military man or feudal, a mullah or Ahmedi - and built a sense of fairness where none exists now. Infrastructure and facilities would exist from the Arabian Sea to Hindu Kush and not just a mall road or Cantt. People would be treated with respect in administrative departments that are supposed to serve them. Religion would have been the source of sympathy and personal growth as opposed to fear and intolerance. Muslim scholars would also work as scientists, medical professionals, philosophers, researchers and modern development experts. Artists and literary figures would be cheered upon and allowed to flourish. Had the elitist few really cared about us, they would have invested in the majority of the people instead of pocketing funds for their institutions, ministries, governments. Guess what? We were never a priority. What we could do for them was - not us, not our life or well-being or success. We were never told that quality of life is a right, not a privilege. And we never rose to the challenge.
And so it goes in most of the Muslim World.
So when a young man from an unsettled, under-developed part of the Muslim World massacres citizens of a Western country, he’s snuffing out a life and comfort he never knew. He was simply told that the blame for the weakness of his nation lay outside, not within. True power always stands on the calibre of citizens - the knowledge, empathy and prosperity of the collective majority. Who has time, patience or desire for all that work?
May 4, 2016
#AmazonGiveaway: 'Catharsis', 4-19 May 2016
https://giveaway.amazon.com/p/212e0ed...Hi, it gives me great pleasure to announce the free giveaway being hosted by Amazon for the next 15 days.....here's your chance to be one of 20 lucky winners of 'Catharsis' ebook - if you are a resident of U.S.
Amazon rules: https://amzn.to/GArules
Tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/book_tribe...
GR photo: https://www.goodreads.com/photo/work/...
Whether you end up being one of the 20 lucky winners or not, do send your pic with a message to: https://www.facebook.com/bookofnoor
I'll share it on the page.
Looking forward to it.
All the best. Noor
March 13, 2016
Historical Novel Society reviews 'The Governess'
“The art of life is to believe … Believe in the power of God, in His better judgment, to trust Him that each person was accorded a life for a reason” – so says Jane Adams’ merchant father often to her while she’s growing up in rural 19th-century England. When he dies, Jane is forced to seek employment and finds a position as governess for the children of the wealthy Cavendish family, presided over by imperious Lady Cavendish and her wastrel nephew, whose children Jane is now enlisted to instruct in Noorilhuda’s long, detailed, and frequently absorbing novel, The Governess.Jane is a remarkable, well-drawn character, a woman who has known pain and hardship in her life and refused to let it curdle her. A great deal of the pleasure of this sedately-paced novel comes from watching her slowly and subtly change the lives of everyone connected with the Cavendish family.
The novel itself has slight style and format questions (the cover is blurry and the author’s penchant for triple-exclamation points should have been curbed by a strict editor), but the story in these pages is a very satisfying – and ultimately uplifting – one that will win over all but the most skeptical readers.
Link to review:
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re...
Link to Reviewer (Joanna Urquhart, for HNS):
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re...
Historical Novel Society reviews 'The Governess' (paperback)
January 28, 2016
Rick Ohlarik reviews 'Catharsis'
Is Aurora Fox the female equivalent of Dirty Harry?
Published 25th Jan. 2016
3-stars
Noorilhuda has written a psychological thriller that some of the other reviewers don’t seem to like. Instead they are concerned that Detective Aurora didn’t go to counselling after shooting one of the kidnappers, or the author’s prose is bad, or her characters are not realistic. Does anybody know what’s really in the mind of a pedophile or serial killer? Whatever. Anyway the novel is cleverly broken down into four days...and a few days later. And what about the characters? We have Maxwell Caine, a wacko <spoiler> who is both the father and son, </spoiler> Detective Aurora Fox who is every bit as nasty as Dirty Harry and just as focused, DA John Smith who has severe hangups, and Daniel Logan’s parents, Josh and Helena, who have a very severe love-hatred relationship (heavy on the hate). I got carried away again and forgot to tell you what the story is about. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I thought the novel wasn’t treated fairly by a some of the reviewers.......
This is where I’m going to stop the review so you can buy your own copy of this brainteaser. I liked Noorilhuda’s novel and dismissed most of the flaws, but the only one that bothered me was in the chapter named Friday. <spoiler> Clearly Josh Logan was talking with Maxwell Caine, yet the character quoted was Ethan Maxwell (I know that they are the same person but throughout the book the two people were separated in their individual dialogues). </spoiler> But with all the twists and turns in this novel, maybe I'm getting confused (not!)...go figure. This has to be the first novel that I ever read where every character had some sort of emotional disorder or schizophrenia. Do I recommend this novel? Does a bear poop in the woods?
I’m sure that my review will be heavily attacked on Amazon because I recommended the novel for what it was...a good story. Not every book has to be on the Bestseller List, does it? There were some items to criticize in Noorilhuda’s novel which I brought up, but overall I thought she was a good storyteller. And that is my main concern when reading and reviewing a novel. The prose and edit parts take a backseat to good old storytelling.
I’m only bringing this up because when I gave A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin’s last review five stars for A Dance with Dragons (see my review of 8/01/2011) and loved it...well the Amazon reviewers destroyed my review because they generally hated the novel. Even the idiots that gave one liner reviews like, “Great read” chimed in. Oh well.
By the way, the dictionary defines Catharsis as the process of releasing strong or repressed emotions. Touche Noorilhuda!
-----------------------------
Mr. Ohlarik reviewed the paperback version.
Review posted on Amazon.com
Link to review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R29ED39U...
Complete review on RickO.'s blog: http://ricksreviews.blogspot.com/2016...
Rick Ohlarik's blog: http://ricksreviews.blogspot.com/
Published 25th Jan. 2016
3-stars
Noorilhuda has written a psychological thriller that some of the other reviewers don’t seem to like. Instead they are concerned that Detective Aurora didn’t go to counselling after shooting one of the kidnappers, or the author’s prose is bad, or her characters are not realistic. Does anybody know what’s really in the mind of a pedophile or serial killer? Whatever. Anyway the novel is cleverly broken down into four days...and a few days later. And what about the characters? We have Maxwell Caine, a wacko <spoiler> who is both the father and son, </spoiler> Detective Aurora Fox who is every bit as nasty as Dirty Harry and just as focused, DA John Smith who has severe hangups, and Daniel Logan’s parents, Josh and Helena, who have a very severe love-hatred relationship (heavy on the hate). I got carried away again and forgot to tell you what the story is about. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I thought the novel wasn’t treated fairly by a some of the reviewers.......
This is where I’m going to stop the review so you can buy your own copy of this brainteaser. I liked Noorilhuda’s novel and dismissed most of the flaws, but the only one that bothered me was in the chapter named Friday. <spoiler> Clearly Josh Logan was talking with Maxwell Caine, yet the character quoted was Ethan Maxwell (I know that they are the same person but throughout the book the two people were separated in their individual dialogues). </spoiler> But with all the twists and turns in this novel, maybe I'm getting confused (not!)...go figure. This has to be the first novel that I ever read where every character had some sort of emotional disorder or schizophrenia. Do I recommend this novel? Does a bear poop in the woods?
I’m sure that my review will be heavily attacked on Amazon because I recommended the novel for what it was...a good story. Not every book has to be on the Bestseller List, does it? There were some items to criticize in Noorilhuda’s novel which I brought up, but overall I thought she was a good storyteller. And that is my main concern when reading and reviewing a novel. The prose and edit parts take a backseat to good old storytelling.
I’m only bringing this up because when I gave A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin’s last review five stars for A Dance with Dragons (see my review of 8/01/2011) and loved it...well the Amazon reviewers destroyed my review because they generally hated the novel. Even the idiots that gave one liner reviews like, “Great read” chimed in. Oh well.
By the way, the dictionary defines Catharsis as the process of releasing strong or repressed emotions. Touche Noorilhuda!
-----------------------------
Mr. Ohlarik reviewed the paperback version.
Review posted on Amazon.com
Link to review: http://www.amazon.com/review/R29ED39U...
Complete review on RickO.'s blog: http://ricksreviews.blogspot.com/2016...
Rick Ohlarik's blog: http://ricksreviews.blogspot.com/
