OST - Lahore

I came across this video in Recommended for you section on you tube (which basically suggests videos based on user profile and search history). And I have to say, It's a pretty short and sweet find. Other than the alluring name (for lahoris!), I find it's iranian/farsi undertones quite hauntingly appealing. Although Lahore's music is composed by MM Kreem but Wayne Sharpe did this background score.

But you speak such good Hindi

An Indian student's innocent query triggers off a series of memories

The other day, a new student of Year 5 (age group 10 years) at the school I work in at Sydney came up to me and asked, "Miss, where in India are you from?"

I explained that I was not from India but Pakistan. The girl, who obviously had an Indian background, said with absolute wonder in her voice, "But Miss, then how do you speak Hindi so well?"

"I speak Urdu," I replied.

"But you even look Indian!" she exclaimed.

Her comment transported me back to Bloomington, Indiana in 1996 when I was studying at the university there. As we walked along a road there, my husband and I were chatting to each other in Urdu. An undergrad student walked up to us and said, "Hello, it is so good to see some more Indians
here".

We told him we were Pakistani. "But you speak such good Hindi," he exclaimed.

We explained that we were speaking in Urdu, and that the spoken versions of Hindi and Urdu were pretty similar. He was genuinely surprised and said it was "awesome".

He ended up coming back to our place for lunch. By the end of the evening we had discovered many other similarities. By the end of the week our circle of friends had increased and included many Indians. Over a decade later, we are still friends with all of them. We realised that the myth that Indians and Pakistanis can't be friends because they are completely different was just that, a myth. We share many cultural values.

And we can work together as I found out while organising 'Women's Day

Festivities 1997' at Indiana University. I worked with a team of six wonderful women, two of whom were Indian. We had lively discussions about the issues that South Asian women face. We concluded that many of the issues were the same -- lack of education, dowry and so on. It was a great learning experience.

My parents had migrated to Pakistan after the partition in 1947. Like many such families some of their loved ones chose to stay back. Many a tear was shed on both sides when visas were denied and relatives couldn't join each other for special occasions.

Growing up we heard stories about how much fun our mother had with her friends celebrating their festivals of Holi and Diwali, and them coming over to celebrate Eid with her. On the other hand we kept hearing from the media and in textbooks about the Indians who were our arch-enemies.
So who were we to believe?

In the 1980's we moved to Malaysia for about three years and I had my first experience of meeting Indians. Not the ones that we heard about from Ammi or watched in movies but real ones in flesh. To an 11-year old mind the similarities were striking. They dressed like us, looked like us and even talked like us. And guess what, they even ate food that was really like our food, and their kids liked the same TV shows we watched and enjoyed the same books. So I guess Ammi and Abboo were right, we could be friends.

Raised with the values that all humans are the same, that we should respect all beliefs and that the basic moral values all over the world are the same -- truth, honesty, respect, love -- we had friends from different parts of the world. So maybe Indians were no different either.

Yet obtaining a visa for going to India always seemed to be a formidable task, given all the stories I had heard of the long lines and then the heartbreak of rejection. However I decided to brave it all when my aunt from the US suggested we travel to India in 1988. To everyone's surprise and my disbelief I got a visa pretty easily. The long wait in the line was completely worth celebrating my birthday at the Taj Mahal.

We went to India again in 1989. It was an interesting experience both times. I met so many cousins and aunts and uncles that it was hard to keep track of them all. But it wasn't just the love that the family showered on us that made those trips so amazing. It was the love and empathy showed by the local people that made us feel really welcome. There was the kid selling flowers outside a temple near the Gomti river in Lucknow who would give me a flower because I was a guest from the neighbouring country, or the girls who gathered around to get a picture taken with a Pakistani who could speak "Hindi" and looked just like them.

Visiting the villages that my parents came from was another revelation. Locals, both Hindu and Muslim, remembered my grandparents and parents and asked after them and shared stories about them. They were excited and happy to see "Vakeel Saheb's" (the lawyer's) granddaughter visiting the land of her forefathers. When we decided to stay the night in my mother's ancestral home, bedding was sent down from so many different houses that we had far more than we needed. The generosity showed by these people from our neighbouring country tells us that though we may be divided by people from both sides who continue to fan the flames of enmity for their own gains we are really not that different and we can coexist in peace and harmony.

It is time to put the ghosts of the past behind us and move into a happier, harmonious future. Let us be the ones who leave a legacy of hope, love and peace for the future generations of the Indian Subcontinent.

My bilingual 11-year old is frequently called upon to translate for new students from Pakistan and India who do not have much English. "The Indian kids speak Urdu too but they call it something else," she says, "and they are cool just like the Pakistani kids. We should go to India sometime".

Let us give these children the message that we share common values and hopes. Let's use all the energy we waste in harbouring animosity against each other to work together for the progress of our part of the world.

By Huma Ahmar

The writer is a teacher based in Sydney, Australia, with an Honours Degree in English Literature and MA in Linguistics from Karachi University and in Applied Linguistics and TESOL, Indiana University.

Future of Capitalism

About twenty years ago, the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, was the symbolic end of the cold war and the victory of capitalism over communism. About two years after the great recession of our times began; we can look back in retrospect, analyse and dissect the reasons for such a spectacular failure of the economic policies of the world. It is time to question the three pillars of modern capitalism: privatisation; de-regulation; and global economic 'liberalisation'.


On March 3rd, The Al Jazeera television network aired its television show 'Empire' which featured a number of luminary panellists. It features a number of strong messages and opinions and plenty of fodder for comments. Chief among those are:

What does the future hold for crony capitalism? What are the alternatives to neo-liberal globalisation? Is there room for democracy in capitalism? Should the world have gone in the way of Communism or Marxism? Will national debts ever be buried? Will economists/politicians learn from their mistakes?

The future of web search

A peek into the future – Google's Goggles

The way we search the web is set to be revolutionized by including methods such as image recognition in our search. The first steps seems to have been taken. Meet Google's new visual search engine, Goggles which lets you search by using a image captured by your phone camera.

Already a working app on the Andriod, it would soon reach the iPhone app store and other smartphones. Till now search has worked by matching tags that describe the webpage. The intelligent algorithms then would scourge and give you the best possible results for your search. Taking this a step further, voice search converts words (input as voice) into text and then searches the web.

Image recognition works by matching features and not words, which would be a huge leap in search technology. These matches are than used to give descriptions and even matching to tags. As this is just the beginning, the potential applications and implication would be immense. The first steps seems to be taken by google, but if others get onto this bandwagon and combine it with query based searches, we would see a new leader emerge. And that would have Mountain View on its toes.

Lets wait and watch.

For more information go to http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/#landmark

Tere Bin Laden

Ali zafar is going to do his bollywood debut when Teray Bin Laden releases in theatres this july. So, cross-border collaborations continue amid all political drama we found ourselves in on daily basis now.

This trend started in musharraf’s era when we started seeing some of the main stream pakistani singers doing playback singing for Indian movies. If you ask me, I am usually the one rooting for collaborative spirit (although some of these projects don’t always turn out to be all that special).

Many in India, as I read in blogs and other avenues openly oppose artistic collaborations as something that deprive Indians or mumbaikers (judging by shiv sena's stance) of jobs that are snatched by Pakistani artists. My stand on this is very simple - although I am not so well versed on laws/complexity of running a business involving international elements. Whether it’s Hollywood, the British film industry or Bollywood – all the projects are green lit only when they are considered profitable and not based on any emotional connotations. Just like bollywood finds it market in main stream pakistani masses, pakistani artist go across the border because they find they have something to contribute. At end of the day, it’s show-business and we find the same thing happening in other parts of the world. Some of biggest star in Hollywood today are actors with australian/english origin and it doesn’t mean they are robbing american-born artist of any opportunities.

And to be fair, bollywood technicians/production companies have become technical savvy over time and increasingly more capable of bringing quality to their presentation – even if most of bolly flicks still lack in content. In terms of music, they seems to have their hands on pulse of our people and usually know what the masses want to hear. I know there are musicians in pakistan who think bollywood music is too loud and over the top. I do think it’s a fair assessment on some part and respect their opinions. But then bollywood also has music composers/producers who got Oscar nods and that’s not an easy feat to accomplish by any means.

Form Follows Technology

So, swaying away from controversial topics and maybe towards something I might have more knowledge about.

In 1896, American Architect Louis Sullivan coined the phrase "Form Follows Function". This phrase became closely associated with 20th century modernism and functionalism. The principle was that the shape of a building should be primarily based upon its intended function or purpose. "Form Follows Function" along with "Ornamentation is Crime" (Adolf Loos, Austrian, 1908) influenced the thoughts of a generation of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, etc,. It continues to influence architects and is considered a vital juncture in the history of architecture. It was the defining driving force of modernism until Robert Venturi's book "Complexities and Contradictions" gave rise to a new brand of thinking now labeled as 'Post-Modernism'.

Over a hundred years later a prodigious roommate of mine (Ruqun Uddin Bhuiya, Bangladeshi, 2008) put his twist on it and said "Form Follows Technology". While he said it in the most casual of tones, I instantly knew he was onto something there. The current generation of architects look to exploit computer technology and embrace the inconceivable/impossible. This upcoming generation of architects implement algorithmic, geometric and parametric functions to derive a CG form. One in which the designer establishes parameters and uses formulae to derive a multitude of design permutations and combinations. One in which the the architect can see a computer generate the design and the only control an architect can exercise is on its parameters.

The following videos and pictures are exmples of generative and parametric design in architecture and urban design. I would especially like to hear from Kunal and Wajid considering their expertise in CG & FX.

Behind the Arabian Veil

So, to kickstart the blog and conversation, I chose to dive right into the controversial and sometimes misunderstood concept of the burqa. Honestly, I might not have a great deal of expertise on the subject & maybe Wajid can shed some light, but anyhow, the reason I chose to talk about it is the impending French vote on banning visual aids of religious orientation (which also includes a ban on Sikh pagdi's).

Considering how the west perceive the burqa as a metaphor for imprisonment this article was liberating (http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/02/04/france.burqa.ban/index.html?hpt=C2). Granted it is purely an individuals opinion (as opposed to a consensus) but then again this blog is about the meeting of personal opinions.

On doing some basic research, I find that Oumkheyr's statement - in the first line of the article, is false (Wajid - correct me if i'm wrong). The Quran simply "urges men and women to dress and behave modestly in society". Never does it state the burqa as a religious dress. 

The burqa was the attire of the dessert people in the gulf - long before islam came into existence. Its purpose was to sheild the eyes and skin from the sun and sand. In that case shouldn't clothing be subjective to location as the purpose of the attire is lost in some other parts of the world. Over the centuries the dress has become synonymous with a religion as opposed to a location. 

Considering that most people perceive the fair skin as a vital ingredient in idealistic beauty,  I wouldn't be surprised if people wear it to avoid tanning. I see women in Chennai wearing elbow length gloves and scarves at the peak of the south Indian summer. go figure.

Anyways, getting back to the issue of religious tolerance and cultural relativity. If I were to dare to compare I would equate a burqa (in the east) to high heeled shoes(in the west). Both of which can be interpreted as tools of society. From what i hear burqas are suffocating and high heels are painful (really, i havent tried either). They are both worn by women to find social acceptance and a majority of the men think girls in either, directly or indirectly make them more attractive.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to reading the comments about this. It would be awesome to get a girls point of view - maybe a stiletto-wearing conservative muslim? Anyways, lets hope for freedom of expression, religion and fashion.

Welcome to Curtains & Umbrellas

Over a year ago, upon Neves's recommendation, we had registered this blog but were too lazy to post anything. Considering most of us live in different cities having a dialogue is tedious especially one where multiple views and opinions are aired. The lack of constructive discourse in Chennai has led me to relaunch such a venture.

For now, I have invited 5 guest authors (who I deemed capable of making a civilized contribution to the discourse & who might represent a diversity in personality and viewpoints). The blog will be open to comments but we can restrict it if we get spam. 

Topics can be as varied as art, design, architecture, India, economy, culture, religion, food, travel, sports, politics, change, music, language and psychology; more often than not, in reference to current affairs. But is open to anything that you might fancy. 

All too often has mainstream media tried to force upon us their biased agenda. This group shall seek to dispel certain notions and stereotypes and strive for objectivity, diversity, credibility and holistic thinking. Heres to many stimulating and engaging discussions.