Image via Wikipedia

[Guppu Exclusive] A reliable source close to Pakistani pop singer Annie Khalid has revealed that the producers of the upcoming Indian singing reality TV show Sur Kshetra which is all set to air on Sahara One TV channel of India, had approached Annie Khalid to come on board as the mentor of Pakistani team. The show’s format will feature a singing competition between the contestants from two traditionally rival nations India and Pakistan. And the two teams will be mentored and judged by Pakistani rockstar Atif Aslam and Indian playback singer Himesh Reshamiya.

The show is created by Gajendra Singh of Saibaba who has also created other popular Indian reality shows including Star Voice of India, Saregamapa, Chhotte Ustaad.

Even though the name of the show is Sur Kshetra, approaching Annie to mentor Pakistan’s side does raise an eyebrow! And not just her, the other two mentors aren’t very popular when it comes to traditional “sur” stuff. There have been several controversies about Atif, Himesh and Annie with regards to sur and accurate singing. The auditioning of the show has already begin and lets see where it gets. You might like to see the video clips from the press conference and the promo of the show.

FiveRivers, the Lahore based multi-award winning company said in a video statement that they will begin porting a relevant subset of its over 150 applications to the new platform as soon as the tablet hits the market in November 2011.

Pepper.pk’s portfolio of applications includes three world No. 1 titles including the four-time AppWorld No. 1 app, Photo Editor. The company’s apps are available across several major mobile platforms including iPhone/iPad, BlackBerry phones and BlackBerry PlayBook, Windows Phone 7, Android and Nokia.

Congratulating “our friends in India” on the launch of the tablet, co-founder of Pepper.pk, Mahe Zehra Husain, said: “We are announcing our effort to add value to Aakash and enrich it with our leading software products. Information Technology is critical to both our countries as it can be a powerful force to reduce poverty and eliminate illiteracy.”

He says this is the message to be conveyed to all the Hindus and “Hindu Pandits” who deliberately hide the true message of Islam from the masses. He also equates Hindus with the Jews. Zaid Hamid openly threats the Hindus that if they don’t convert and accept Islam, they will be responsible for their ill-fate themselves.

He pretended to be speaking on behalf of all the Muslims and acted as the supreme leader of the Muslim ummah. Here’s the clip from his series which he released a couple of days ago.

According to Press Trust of India, security personnel also positioned themselves on the rooftops in the adjoining buildings of the stadium to maintain strict vigil. Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, said that anti-sabotage teams, mounted police, 150 CCTV cameras, bomb disposal and sniffer dog squads would also be in place for Wednesday’s match.

Nearly 1,200 police officers were deployed around Hotel Taj, which is about 12 km from the stadium, where the two teams are staying.

Over 16,000 match tickets were sold in less than two days in the 28,000-capacity stadium while the rest were to be distributed to officials and guests.

Cricketing ties between the two countries were suspended in the wake of Mumbai terror attacks in 2008. Pakistan’s official announced on Sunday that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani will visit India at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh to watch the cricket match.

The invitation for the match came just ahead of the Interior Secretary-level talks between both countries, scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. According to officials, the talks, the first since the attacks, will discuss terrorism, humanitarian issues, removal of visa restrictions and cooperation to fight drug trafficking.

The November 26 attack in Mumbai was executed by ten Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives which arrived by sea. The group divided in two and carried out an unprecedented attack for 60 hours at the Hotels Taj Mahal and Oberoi-Trident and Jewish outreach centre Nariman House in South Mumbai.

Overall, the terrorists killed 166 people and injured 238 others. Nine of them were killed by Indian security forces after the siege. The attacks caused damages worth around $34 million.

While the Indian government did manage to salvage its pride as the common wealth games are finally underway It is Pakistani’s who are in the news for the wrong reasons again. Pakistan common wealth games squad has been hit by controversy after its Chief de Mission Dr Mohammad Ali Shah in a deranged manner insisted of carrying the National flag instead of Shuja ud Din Malik who was the designated leader of the squad. Dr Mohammad Ali Shah who is a successful orthopedic surgeon based in Karachi is known to have a keen interest in sports and owns a cricket stadium in the port city of Karachi. He is also known to have strong political connections with the MQM the strongest political party in Karachi, may be the reason why he was appointed the Chief de Mission in the first place. Dr Shah has over the years has used his good fortunes to make himself a known figure in the cricket community.

According to the news Dr. Shah insisted on carrying the flag and took it at the last moment from the gold medalist weight lifter Shuja ud Din Malik whose name was actually displayed on the giant screen as the athlete supposed to carry the Pakistan flag. Dr Shah who loves to be known as a Nelson Mandela for Karachi cricket should know what a joke he has made of himself. A Chief de Mission who is like a manager for the squad has no business trying to steal the limelight from the athletes who should be the actual show runners. It is also reported that he has insulted the athletes and threatened to send them back home. Dr Shah actions have actually shown that he isn’t exactly a sports lover but just a successful self promoter. His actions have caused shame to the country and must have left athletes who have the real business to be there at the games disappointed. This shameful incident shows the cheapness in character of our national administrators. Dr Shah must closely look at his picture while he is carrying the National flag and see for himself what a jerk he looks!

The Indo-Pak pair popularly known these days as the “Indo-Pak express” went into the finals at the flushing meadows as underdogs against the top seeded pair of brothers Bob and Mike Bryan. It was a contest between method and flair, with the Indo-Pak pair proving to be stiff opposition for the top seeded pair of Bob and Mike Bryan, who claimed their third US Open crown, 65th doubles title and ninth major championship with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) win in the title match. Match started with Bhopana and Aisam putting up a very disciplined effort against the top-seeded pair with some excellent return shots. The pair had strung up a total of 26 winners in the first set against 14 by the American duo. It was the clinical performance by the American brothers in the tie breakers that swayed the game in their favor. The Indo-Pak pair’s Cinderella run in the tournament has won them many fans and they certainly had the crowd behind them when they managed to get 3-1 ahead in the first tie breaker. But it was the experience of handling the pressure of such a crucial tie breaker in a grand slam final which the Bryan brothers had that proved critical. The Americans ruffled their opponents by some quick returns close to the net and took fours points in a row. Bhopana sent down a crucial ace to even the tie breaker at 5-5 before a couple of unforced errors decided the game in Americans favor. It was this close throughout the match with Indo-Pak players matching their opponents on every shot.

Bhopana and Aisam started the second set confidently and got to a break point in the seconds game thanks to some clinical returns by Bhopana but the Americans pair never got unsettled and denied the Indo-Pak duo any advantage in the game. The pair would get another chance to get ahead on 2-3 when they got to another break-point but Bob and Mike were relentless in their effort. Bhopana did well on his last serve to take the match to a tie breaker but it was again the experience and the skills of the American duo who did well to come back from behind in the tie breaker to win the title.In the end the top seeded pair proved to be too good for the Indo-Pak pair who also have had a very successful time this year in the court.

Aisam speaking to the media after the match said “Obviously we would love to win the match, you know but to me, winning and losing is a different matter. I know I gave 100%, and Rohan gave 100% also. So we can easily have pleasant dreams tonight. We had opportunities. I think the Bryans played the big points really well, and they just proved why they are No. 1 in the world and definitely the best team in the history of tennis. I just see this Indo-Pak Express winning a long way, and in the future gonna win a lot of titles, as well.”

The pair is worthy of praise as they have been excellent ambassadors for sports and indeed their home countries.Both have tried to promote healthier ties between the two hostile neighbors and often giving their harmonious relationship as an example that people from both countries can work together to achieve greater successes. Aisam mindful of the hard times that his country men have been suffering has been very vocal in giving out very passionate messages during his exchanges with the media. Bryan brothers announced to donate half their earning to the flood victims of Pakistan. Aisam ul Haq deserves special praise for his outstanding performances. He has sent out a well needed message of peace from Pakistan. We often under estimate the role sports can play in bringing different people and cultures together. It was heartening to see an American crowd cheering for the Indo-Pak duo and It is not often that Indian and Pakistani are backing the same but it certainly was the case today!

Imagine how techy our Police Department is; or perhaps they have no realization of the sensitivity of the issue? I think that has got something to do with the literacy! After all, the officials seem to be all busy with their degrees verification stuff.

Or lets imagine people who are trying to control the media aren’t capable enough to run one form of media i.e. web media successfully. Well, to all the officials of Punjab Police out there, for your information, let me explain it to you! A website is kind of a virtual police department where everyone across the world can find information about department. The international standard websites are interactive and dynamic, where the surfer gets information within the matter of few clicks.

And for more information about what a website is; I strongly recommend you read Wikipedia’s article ; )

He made many statements that were out of my understandings or you can say his understanding of the Two-Nation Theory was entirely different then mine. I am trying to sum up the information he presented.

He started off with a question that who presented the Two-Nation Theory? He got many answers including Quaid-e-Azam, Allama Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan but guess what he said. He said that the roots of the Two-Nation theory are deep enough which go some 1400 years ago during the times of Prophet Muhammad SAWW. He maintained that there are only two nations in the world i.e. Muslims and Non-Muslims.

He then said that the foundation of a separate land for Muslims was laid down in the sub continent when the first Muslim arrived there and recited Azaan (Islamic Call to Prayer).

He further said that the Nation is formed by religion and not by the country. Throughout the session, he kept slamming the famous Aman ki Asha.

He started telling the stories of Hindu religion and tried to portray Hinduism as a bad/dirty religion as he quoted many examples like Hindus having multiple gods and godesses. He also said that Hindus worship animals including rats/mice, snakes, elephants, cows and so on. He sensationalize the so called traditions of Hindus using cow’s waste and urine for drinking and other uses. He quoted an example that his friend, in his tour to India, witnessed this incident that a person sprayed cow’s urine in the sweets and other food items.

In short, He tried to portray Hinduism as dirty and inferior religion and tried to part away from them and said that we are totally opposite to them. His next statements sounded so like those of Zaid Hamid’s. When he started saying that Muslims are superior, especially the Muslims are of Pakistan because we have to correct and rule the world. He totally associated the Two-Nation theory with the religion or the unbelievable corrupt thoughts.

He was taking the pledges from the students telling them to become a preacher of the Two-Nation Theory.

Now lets come to the questions part, the questions that I had in my mind. I couldn’t get answer to any of them. But before I put those questions here, I want to make it clear that I am also a believer of the great Two-Nation theory but not in the context presented by this so called presenter.

• If religion forms the nation, then what about the non-Muslims living in Pakistan ? Are they not the part of our Nation ? or if Hindus are that bad, what about the Pakistani Hindus? Are they not the part of our country Pakistan? Did he meant that Pakistan or Pakistanis are NOT one nation? Is he sure?

• If Muslims are the one nation, then what about the Muslims living outside Pakistan? The Muslims of India for example. If they are not the believer of your Two-Nation theory then what you’ll declare them?

• If the foundation of a separate state was laid when first Muslim arrived here in sub-continent, what about the Muslims living in other non-Muslim countries? Will they demand a separate state within the country they are living?

• If Muslims/Pakistani Muslims are so great and honest and what not, then what would you say about the corruption and crimes happening in each and every sector of Pakistan ?

My mind is still filled with questions but I am summing this post here. Before you come to wrong conclusion, I’d like to make it clear that I am also a believer of the Two-Nation Theory but obviously not in the context that was presented by the speaker of the so called Dou Qaumi Nazaria Foundation. Visiting and speaking in the local universities to manipulate the minds of unaware students is a bad idea really.

No matter wherever you may be in the world, the truth of the matter is that in this male dominated society, women are not given the kind of opportunities and liberties that men enjoy.
Women, especially in the media are used are props.

The prettier she is the better her job prospects and the more skin she is ready to show the better her chances of climbing the so called corporate ladder.

Let me state a very small example to strength my view.

Look at hotels and the airline industry, no matter the ‘star-value’ of the hotel; if one was to apply for a job there emphasis will be given to the looks of the individual, be it male or female. This particular and most important requirement will be subtly mentioned in the job advertisement as follows:

‘The candidate should be smart and presentable and should meet all other requirements’

At this point I want to ask what exactly is “smart and presentable” and how does one set a benchmark for “smartness” or “presentable”. Obviously a potential hotel receptionist won’t show up for an interview in his/her pajamas so then why this line in almost all adverts?

It’s sad to see women being used as mere show ponies almost everywhere.
Be it media, our films (I am speaking in the Indian subcontinent’s context), music and even our sports (check the IPL’S cheerleading girls).

I personally blame the media in playing a big part on this whole “looking-good” phenomenon.
The media, especially the Indian media is such that it can and does glorify even the most mundane of events while ignoring the bigger picture, for example Kareena Kapoor’s sudden weight loss will become national priority, if and when she does loose weight suddenly!

I deviated somewhat from the initial topic, but the above lines were to present the misleading notion of the media which is quite central to the topic.

Even men are being caught up in this whole ‘sex-show’ with top notch male stars promoting “male-whitening” creams??!!!
Take a glossy magazine, and I am quite sure there will be a picture of a man flaunting his sex-pack abs.
or a scantily clad female model showing off her almost perfect hour glass figure.

(to be continued…)

Author: Imran Rajamiya