Saving Face: Oscar Winner, Recipe For the Problem & Hope for the Future

And the Oscar went to Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Daniel Junge for their co-directed documentary Saving Face. I was watching the Oscars live in anticipation for this and the moment they said ‘Saving Face’ I literally punched the air very much in the same manner as I would in a Pakistan India cricket match. It was a wonderful feeling to see Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy get this achievement. The nomination alone was great but then winning it was like wow. And this same feeling was across the board for most Pakistanis at home who were rooting for her to win. The outflow of congratulations and positive messages for the team of Saving Face after the Oscars was brilliant to see. Facebook/Twitter and other social media platforms were just bursting with news about them. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy was trending on twitter.

 

 

Now amongst the plethora of good wishes there were also a few critics. The major concern was ‘Why couldn’t she make a documentary about the good things about our country?’ or ‘Why did she make this movie which will make people think Pakistan is a horrible country?’. First of all she made a documentary on how victims of Acid attacks can survive. The documentary is for the survivors of this heinous and horrible attack. The documentary for me is a message that good still exists and that we need to be strong enough to rise through all the bad. For the population living in urban centres of Pakistan I think the message should be that this happens and instead of sitting on the side and maybe discussing it once in a while in our drawing rooms we can do something to help the cause. A short brief for the documentary on IMDB says:

Every year hundreds of people — mostly women — are attacked with acid in Pakistan. SAVING FACE follows several of these survivors, their fight for justice, and a Pakistani plastic surgeon who has returned to his homeland to help them restore their faces and their lives

I think this is a wonderful achievement and which should be seen as the following:

Bad things happen all over the world. Some places and some events are more severe and more heinous then others but that doesn’t mean that we simply choose to ignore it to ensure that our ‘image’ in the world is preserved. And that we give up thinking nothing can be done about it under the label of hopelessness. We have to be stronger in our commitment and desire to help. The story of Saving Face for me is of Survival and Courage. It is the story of those survivors being helped by a Pakistani Doctor who returned to his homeland to work for this cause. To help these women. To give them a sense of not being left to their fate and for their fight for justice.

To say that one should make positive documentaries is not a unreasonable concern. I think there needs to be balance. I think more so than the world our own people especially the urban centres need to be aware more in detail with the issues of the country and at the same time need to be shown the positives and the good things about our country. I think Saving Face is one example where winning the Oscar is the positive and the documentary itself highlights a serious issue but also the story of how victims survived and someone did stand up and help.

I think that’s the message we need to take from Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s effort. Acid Attacks can disfigure around 200 women every year. There is a organization which is working towards helping and rehabilitating the victims of acid attacks, Acid Survivors Pakistan. I didn’t know all this. I mean I knew there were acid attacks and it was a problem. But I didn’t know the extent of it. I didn’t know there was an organization set up for the victims. I looked up their website and found out they are working with the UN and other partners. And that I can help as well in the very least in the form of a donation.

So while we celebrate the Oscar win let us not forget the cause for which this documentary was made. And let us not focus on why make this kind of documentary or that kind of documentary. Let us do something about this issue. Let’s try to increase awareness of this issue on our part as well and do whatever we can in our individual capacity to help. We can visit www.savingfacefilm.com and also http://acidsurvivorspakistan.org/ to find out more.

To quote Daniel Junge, the co-director for Saving Face:

The film must be more than an expose of horrendous crimes, it must be a recipe for addressing the problem and a hope for the future

 

The Classics

I was just listening to the sound track of ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly’ and got transported back to the movie. One of my all time favourite classics. A spaghetti western to defy all other spaghetti westerns. Entertaining throughout and full of back stabbing , gun slinging action. The almost completely evil and spawned of the devil himself villain, the rough and rowdy ‘wanted’ man who is almost always after a good booze and then Clint Eastwood as mysterious blonde cowboy who is pretty lethal with the gun. Actually all three of them are supposed to be pretty lethal with the gun. The final scene of the movie is absolutely epic when all 3 face off each other in a good old western three-way show down in a desert graveyard. The sheer magnitude and intensity of that scene is awesome.

That is just one of the many classics from yesteryears which were so well made without any of the modern stunt possibilities or CGI or graphic enhancement techniques for the movies of today. Don’t get me wrong, I think there have been many great movies in the modern day cinema as well. The Departed, The Dark Knight Rises, Lord of The Rings trilogy and the Terminator movies to name a few. All of them are great movies but one really has to appreciate the all time classics. ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly’ was one. The Godfather 1 & 2 has always been and will always remain the best movies ever made. And I am not just talking from any single genre point of view here. Across Genres also The Godfather is to put it simply, Awesome.
Micheal Corleone, Dirty Harry, Inspector Closuae (Pink Panther) are all characters that had been performed and brought to life perfectly by their respective actors. The same actually holds true for Bollywood as well. Don, Sholay, Masoom were all great movies with characters that were played to perfection. Like a natural fit for the actors playing them. Case in point: Shahrukh’s performance in Don doesn’t hold a candle to the great Bachan and the original Don.

One of the reasons there are so many good classics is probably because the focus was more on getting the basic ingredients of the movies right. You want a villain who you physically hate. You want a hero you want see as the golden boy of his time. You want comedy you don’t have to think too much about. And you want a serious movie which doesn’t involve a lot of complications in terms of theories. And most of all… I think for classics the movies that came out were stories that hadn’t been repeated too many times as yet in various different ways with different tools. Since the Godfather there have been numerous inspirations in Hollywood and Bollywood both.

Another reason is that there wasn’t an overflow of movies being made. There was focus on making really good movies. Hollywood still isn’t overflowing. The really good actors focus on their projects. Bollywood is a different story: there are so many movies coming out through so many different production houses. Somewhere along the line you do of course lose the quality of the work being done. The focus gets divided.

The classics , the really good ones , have made it to movie buffs personal hall of fames. I mean a really honest and strong movie buff will probably end telling you classics as more than half his all time top 20 list or something. They are hard to push out of the list. Some of my all time favourite classics are:

1. The Godfather 1 & 2
2. Star Wars
3. Indiana Jones : Raiders of the Lost Ark
4. The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
5. To Sir With Love
6. Gone With The Wind 1 & 2
7. Scarface
8. The Great Race
9. Hatari
10. Lawrence of Arabia

And some of the really good bollywood classics for me were:

1. Sholay
2. Amar, Akbar, Anthony
3. Burning Train
4. Don
5. Namak Halal
6. Masoom

All in all, classics will always be classics and you wouldn’t ever hesitate just grabbing a bowl of popcorn or bag of chips (or whatever your movie time snack fix is), put it on for the umpteenth time and spend the next 2 hours wonderfully entertained.

P.S
I know for most of you this was a useless blog but please understand that it was written during a time of absolute uselessness.

The V-Day!

Valentine’s Day, the ultimate commercial holiday. It has been the same for years. Observed in full force in the west it has now become quite popular in our part of the world as well. So much so that it has evoked the sensibilities of different quarters of the society. There are those who follow and adore this day to death. There are those who are moderate and just think of it as one of those silly things but all in fun and good spirit. And then of course there will be those who will raise the banners, cry shame, create a lot of noise on and during the day and then later on in the night wish it at 11.59 to their special one or special one to be .. or whoever they are stalking .

In my humble opinion… it is just a commercial holiday. I don’t think it should be taken as either the ultimate day of love and match making and soul mates and neither as an all out attack on one’s religion because it isn’t either. It is just a commercial holiday. The story behind V-Day and St. Valentine are actually quite brutal and sad and has nothing to do with flowers and hearts and candies whatsoever. The commercial holiday that we celebrate today is merely a concentration of Flowers, Chocolates, Heart shapes candies, Heart shaped balloon, Heart shaped X Y & Z purchases made by Men & Women, Boys & Girls around the globe. It is supposed to be a day of love.

Interestingly enough for the various working men I came across yesterday it was more of a ‘You had better be home early from work tonight’ day. Where they could not afford to give the home ministry any sort of disappointment or failure. I mean because this is after all the ultimate romantic day of love. One person got flabbergasted at the idea of their being an official dinner on the 14th that he actually sat me down and asked me if I had lost my marbles. When I told him for me it was just a commercial holiday he said he sympathized with me but the ring on his finger did not. Another man when he heard this story started laughing because he thought I was making a cruel joke of some sorts. Then there was this individual who was thanking his lucky stars that his wife was not in the tv lounge that night when a Sitcom was on and one of the characters on it had made a fantastic arrangement for V-Day for his wife. I believe he thanked his lucky stars 3-4 times as the show was on. There is another example as well: while I was on my way back home from work I saw a man frantically park his car in the sidelane on Shahbaz, dart through the traffic ensuring he doesn’t get hit by a car, into the florist shop across the road. He grabbed the first Bouquet that was on the shelf (and a big one too) threw some money at the shop keeper and dart back to the car. Now I don’t know about anyone else… but I think that man was actually scared for his health over the consequences of not getting flowers. All these guys made it seem like this is more of a performance or assessment day by the home ministry than anything else.

For all the singles out there it is the ultimate opportunity to be cheesy. A friend went to park towers yesterday. What she witnessed there last night left her in a fit of barrels. Apparently there was red all around (not just the decor). Men and women were wearing all sorts of red outfits. Red shirts, red kurtas, red dresses (and this is not just the various promotional marketing people in their uniforms… but well… the general populace). I mean for crying out loud … can someone please tell me if there is a red rule for V-Day written somewhere and if no one has ever tried to rectify that hideous mistake?!

I have nothing against V-Day. I just think it should be taken as what it is. A day of celebrating love (although I have my reservations on that too. You aren’t allowed to celebrate love on the remaining 364 days?). It is a commercial day of love. Show your love to the various brands out there by giving them your money and wrapping it up nicely and giving it to your significant other. And also it doesn’t really have to be just couples. You could love anyone. Your parent, sibling, a friend… just show them that you love them as well. Let’s try to attach a deeper essence to this day than just heart shaped scented candles .

Yes there are some of you reading it out there who might say that I am writing what I am writing and the vein in which I am writing because I am single. Well you are wrong. That is my humble opinion on V-Day. I am not saying that I haven’t been sucked into it in the past. I have. But when you are with someone unfortunately you can’t avoid being sucked in. But I’ll say this much- I was never cheesy about it!!

Go Green, Go Pakistan

So Pakistan lost the first ODI against England yesterday after whitewashing the test series 3-0 against the top ranked side in tests. A bad performance was bound to happen. It was almost due. But I am not saying that in any cynical way. I am saying that as a matter of normalcy. It can happen. Even the best of teams on an extremely good run will have an off day. We unfortunately had an off day yesterday and England completely capitalized on it. Our bowlers did an ok job but our batting let us down badly. But let us not focus on yesterday’s match alone.

The last 1 year has held much promise for the Pakistan cricket team. We reached the semi finals of the world cup. Our team has been through somewhat of a stable spell since the World Cup with a good number of series wins away from home. In fact given that we haven’t played at home (Pakistan and not a second home in UAE) for 2 years I think our boys in green have done remarkably well. Misbah has come in as a very mature captain and has influenced the side in a low key way but effectively. In fact if one was to look at the stats then you would see Misbah has actually led by example when it comes to tests. He has averaged almost 70 as a captain against his average of mid 30s as just a player. We have won all our test series since the World Cup. Most of them have been against minnow teams but we played an excellent series against a strong Sri Lankan side (Them being out of form shouldn’t take away our achievement) and then the 3-0 whitewash of England in the test series was like the icing on the cake.

What has also contributed to this is the verdict against Amir, Asif and Butt in the spot fixing scandal. All three players were slapped with fines and jail time and I think that has sent a very strong message to the dressing room. Stay clean or get out.

The expulsion of Kamran Akmal is a blessing for us. We really needed a strong wicket keeper especially in the longer version of the game and Adnan Akmal (yes apparently you can’t really get the Akmal out of Pakistan… for now) is much superior to his elder sibling with the gloves. And he is handy with the bat. We should probably try bringing him into the shorter format of the game as well and let Umar Akmal remain a batting specialist rather than making him keep as well. Shoaib Malik should have been kept on the sidelines. He is as useful to the team now as a fairy in a wrestling match. (yes it is a lame example but I couldn’t really think of anything else). It is boggling that Misbah had apparently wanted him back in the team and that too on the basis of an all-rounder. I think we should stick to keeping these few players away from the cricket setup and continue on the same vein of stability that has been there for the past 1 year.

Another contributing factor I feel has been the new PCB chairman. To the PCB’s credit, they haven’t really been in the news all the time for the most ridiculous stories as much as they had been under the tenure of the former chairman, Mr. Butt. That in itself is a huge blessing. I think it also signals a much lower level of interference. I don’t think that has been completely eradicated but significantly brought down. As long as they continue to be passive meddlers the team will continue doing well and growing.

Finally we come to the coach. Mohsin Khan has played the role of en elder brother type presence for Misbah. I think the two M’s together have brought a much required good working relationship between Coach and Captain to the team. There doesn’t seem to be any friction or any sort of power struggle. I would have serious objections to him being changed at this juncture. The M partnership is working and changing anything would only be counterproductive. Especially if we opt for a foreign coach which hasn’t ever proved to be successful in the past.

All in all I don’t think we should focus our energy on yesterday’s match. Our team needs continued support to continue the good work that has been done in the last 1 year. Go Green, Go Pakistan.

Kids vs The Haircut

A trip to the barber shop is like an announced impending doom for kids. Like they have been put on the plank, a sword being poked in their back and a scary and disagreeable pirate voice from behind going ‘Walk that plank and into the water with the sharks matey’. Ok so maybe that’s not what all kids think exactly but none of them look forward to haircuts. They simply do not like barbers. I don’t know if I used to get hysterically scared when I was a kid but I do remember trying to fake stomach pain to avoid the barber. Hardly ever worked thou and I always ended up having to sit in the backyard on the stool and keep up my ‘brilliant’ acting performance of a stomach pain even through the haircut. But this was when I was probably 6-8 years old. The age I am referring to are under 6.

I accompanied my brother yesterday as he took his 5 year old son to the barber. Bribes of a toy and McDonald’s happy meal were not enough as he was hysterically crying from home till the barber. He isn’t the only one. I have often seen frightened, uncomfortable, crying, shouting and in some serious ‘emotional’ pain kids at the barbers. Its like all kids have it programmed inside their heads from birth that Barbers are not to be trusted. Or maybe it is the site of the metal being jagged around your head so much. And hair falling everywhere. I mean from a kid’s perspective it isn’t really a pleasant experience if you think about it. The build up to it alone is enough to ruin the kid’s mood and then once you get there – your parent is ensuring you are tied down to the chair and constantly saying things like ‘don’t move your head’ or ‘Close your eyes or the hair will fall inside’. I mean you really couldn’t make the whole experience any more worse. Actually if there is another kid there at the same time and he/she too is crying and wailing about the haircut that can make it worse. That could actually result in physical panic. The kid will lose what little nerve he had left and make a mad dash to the door. Doesn’t work of course and the kid probably knows this too.

I read the following on a website called ‘babycenter’ in an article written by Ms. Penelope Leach who is a Child Psychiatrist. Honestly it sums it up perfectly:

Starting at around 14 months (and sometimes until age 5 or 6), many children find haircuts absolutely intolerable. Perhaps it’s those big, shiny scissors coming so close to their vulnerable lobes and napes. Upon getting his first trim, for instance, one little boy I know simply howled, "Them’s my EARS!"
You’re right in thinking that forcibly restraining your toddler makes things worse. In fact, I’m surprised that you can hold him still enough for those tender ears to remain unscathed. Coupled with the trauma of being pinned down while haircutting shears slash their way around his head, a child’s natural fear of haircuts may become a phobia. If that happens, a picture or the mere thought of a haircut can frighten a toddler terribly. Even if your child’s apprehension centers around an actual, imminent haircut, the worst part of his fear isn’t those looming scissors, but the horrible panicky feeling of fear itself. That’s why you can never teach a child not to be afraid by frightening him even more. Indeed, every time you force your toddler to sit through his fear, you make it grow. The only haircut that will truly convince him that "there’s nothing to be afraid of" is the haircut that doesn’t scare him. For some kids, the formality of a trip to the barbershop is what’s frightening: entering a strange, funny-smelling environment; getting teased and cooed over by the assembled patrons there; climbing into a large, odd-looking contraption; and being wetted down and wrapped in plastic garments

link to the above: http://www.babycenter.com/404_my-toddler-gets-hysterical-when-he-has-his-hair-cut-what-can_14076.bc

She also goes on to say that there are steps that can be taken to make the haircut experience more pleasant for the kids. I think we are so auto-programmed to accept that Children will naturally hate barbers and haircuts that we as a reflex action assume the role of a defensive approach towards the whole thing. We should try tackling the thing with positive reinforcement. A defensive approach only adds to the kids woes. Start him out on haircuts at home. Replace the usual orthodox long and creepy looking metal scissors with maybe a more cartoonish handled scissor or something bright and kid vision friendly. Having a sibling around at the same time also helps.

In the end this is sort of a rite of passage for all kids and they will eventually move on from being hysterically panicked by haircuts to thinking of it as a loathsome activity to eventually well … adding the perks of a head massage.