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With all these days passing by and this year coming to an end, am getting happier, gay and proud – of myself, this city, its art, the artists and my love. A new gallery opens up at the much ancient Shafi Courts, Poppy Seed, by Indus TV group. The principal curator at Poppy Seed, the excitingly named gallery, is Sumbul Khan.

Sumbul has carefully curated a collection comprising works of Mohsin Shafi, Samar Zia, Ambreen Hameed, Mariam Ahmed, Arif Taha, Sonia Shah, Sausan Saulat, Ammad Tahir, Huma Shah and Emaan Mahmud. The exhibition titled ‘Dear Diary’, is not inspired or curated keeping Britney Spear’s song of the same name, but these are confessions of the showcased artists.

The launch day started with readings by Sanam Saeed, Momin Zafar, Omar Bilal Akhtar and Zoe Viccaji, who came to the gallery a week prior to the opening day and studied the pieces which were going to be on exhibit. Accordingly, they chose what poems to read which related to the work exhibited. Reading session was a welcome change and added more flavour to the entire showing, also one could relate easily to the work displayed. One could hear pieces read from Faraz Maqsood Hamidi’s book SKIN.

Worth Mentioning Displays:

- Arif Taha’s ‘I see, I record’ is an eye-catching visual presentation of a pencil which hangs from the ceiling with strings on a mirror with wooden stand..
- Sonia Shah’s ‘Self Portrait’ is a girl behind a locked carved door. Her dress is stuck in between the door and one could see her frightened eyes peeking behind the chained wooden door. This is one of the best pieces at display here.
- Sausan Saulat’s ‘Bored on Board’ was a series of paintings showing a young boy playing, thinking and contemplating on the canvases which were pages from a notebook. Sadly this is not for sale.
- Ammad Tahir showcased a series of paintings. His work showed growth of a dancer or most likely how he himself wanted or still desires to be a dancer. The first piece showed shades of the dancer’s past and then how the dancer loses himself in this world amongst all the machinery and finally how he starts dancing in his dreams once he could not fulfill his desires in reality.
- Huma Shah’s ‘The Struggle’ was a beautiful painting of a man struggling to climb a dangerous edgy mountain range.

Poppy Seed gallery is a breath of fresh air in the local art scene. One hopes to see excellently curated exhibitions here keeping in mind Sumbul’s study of history and Islamic art. Dear Diary exhibition is on till 9th January 2010.

Karachi will host its first ever FIFA Youth Gaming Tournament on 20th December 2009, where teams from different educational institutes will participate in an intense gaming activity to prove their football-gaming skills. The twelve hours long event will be based on knock-out format. The winning teams will play the first round, second round, semi finals and the final match.

The FIFA football game is a very popular among the youth and will be played in two categories individual and a team of two, on PlayStation3 with pre-defined rules & regulations for the competition to avoid any issues later. Students from all participating institutes and gaming lovers from the age group 14-28 will be attending the event to cheer their favorite teams to victory and participate in the variety of other activities organized for the audience.

“The prime motive of organizing the event is to engage our youth in constructive and competitive environment and to provide them an opportunity to feel the FIFA spirit before the upcoming FIFA Worldcup 2010″ stated Mr. Irfan Basit, brand manager Mountain Dew, the main sponsors of the event.

The event is expected to attract youngsters and football lovers alike and will provide a unique experience to watch and enjoy football in Pakistan.

Hearing the news of a friend passing away is in itself devastating, not to mention he was merely 32, a father of 4 very young children, aged between 7 & 2. He was probably the most cheerful person you’d ever meet, and was the 1st in everything among friends, now including leaving us all with memories.

Apart from my personal account, Saad’s death is becoming a closely guarded secret by the multinationals involved in the campaign of the show. Ironically, that has become the very reason of it being widespread internationally on blogs and social networking websites.

Unilever and Mindshare, the 2 advertising giants involved in the promotion of the show are making all efforts to cover the incident across the media, to the extent that all blog posts are being slowly blocked. I still can’t understand why this is being done, but with this post, I want to set some facts straights and publicize some questions that I’m sure would arise in your minds as well upon hearing the details of Saad’s death:

Here’s what is known about the show / event which took his life:

According to the details given by Unilever, the fateful challenge involved 4 participants to carry a 7kg weight on their backs across a pond. Saad reportedly drowned as he lost his balance. It is also reported that he suffered a cramp and could not stay afloat, and yelled for help before going down for the last time. It is to be noted that he was an excellent swimmer and had an athletic build of height 6’2″.

GEO news went on air with Saad’s news for the first time on 28th August at around 5 PST.
The Head of Corporate affairs Unilever Pakistan (Farishtey Gati Aslam) spoke to Geo claiming this to be an accident. She said that the participants were given the option of wearing life jackets but Saad opted out of it. All safety measure were taken.
She never spoke about the 7 kg bag which was fixed with each participant during this stunt, or the fact that none of the participants wore life jackets and the jackets were NOT mandatory.
She also said on air that Unilever is also trying to compensate the family and is in touch with the family, friends etc.

Please note that Farishtey Gati Aslam is the wife of Imran Aslam who is the CEO/President of GEO network. The questions which Geo asked were most likely the questions which were told to them by Unilever to ask!

As a representative of the grieved family & friends, I would like the following questions to be answered:

1. Corporate Social Responsibility of Unilever & Mindshare in the making of this reality show? Was there ever a document regarding the planning of the event?
2. Were the safety precautions adequate at the time of shooting any stunt?
3. Were the participants given any safety trainings / briefing for the stunt?
4. What are the credentials of Unilever & Mindshare to host and manage a reality show? Any corporation while undertaking any project develops a project plan / manual. We would like to see the project manual for the show.
5. Were the contestants insured?
6. On what criteria were the candidates selected? Did the organizers inform the participants of potential danger involved?
7. If the stunt involved danger of drowning, why was the life jacket optional especially when there was a 7kg bag affixed with every participant?
8. How may lifeguards were present? In other reality shows like Fear Factor, there is usually 1 guard for each participant who is responsible to look after that individual. Why did it take around 15 minutes to search and take out the body when there were cameras watching the precise spot where Saad went down?
9. The pond in question is located in Chatuchak park in Bangkok. The pond is reported to be muddy with precise depth unknown. Why was the pond selected without measuring the depth and being tested by professional safety officials before the stunt?
10. Was this place randomly selected or through a series of approvals?
11. Why is Unilever / Mindshare avoiding the media on the subject if they took the necessary precautions? Has any staff from Unilever (the main organizer) actually scene the place before / after the incident?

There are many more such questions in the minds of people who have heard or read about the incident. We demand an official explanation from the officials at Unilever and Mindshare in an open forum.

I was probably the last among the friends to see Saad Khan alive a couple of days before he took off for Thailand. He was very excited and though never told me about the show, said there was a big surprise for everyone out of this trip!

I request you to spread this post as much as you can so that more and more people are aware of the incident. Please also take part in the Official Facebook Community.

May Allah bless Saad Khan’s soul & give his family (wife & 4 small kids) the strength to overcome this irreplaceable loss. Ameen.

ParkwayHealth, one of Asia’s leading private health-care group sent two of its top surgeons to held free consultations in Pakistan.

The visiting surgeons provided free consultancy to the Neuro and Gastro patients in free sessions held at a local hotel in Karachi.

The consultation was done by Senior Consultant Neurosurgeon Dr. Prem Pillay, who specializes in Computer-Aided/Image-Guided Surgery for Brain Tumors; and Consultant General Surgeon Dr. Melvin Look, specialist in Gastrointestinal Surgery and Minimally Invasive Surgery.

PakwayHealth has organized the consultancy sessions through its Pakistan based Patient Assistance Center where the patients can follow-up on their cases and if necessary can avail the newly launched attractive packages at any of the Parkway Health facility in Singapore.

The recently launched series of fixed price package covers various surgical procedures and includes all costs relating to inpatient care such as hospitalization, nursing care, facility charges and doctor’s fees.

The move is in response to the current economic condition and is aimed at helping patients better manage costs.

The event will enhance the already existing healthcare facilities extended to Pakistani citizens in all key medical areas such as cardiology, ENT Surgery, gastroenterology, general surgery, neurosurgery, obstetrics & gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedic surgery and urology.

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About ParkwayHealth

ParkwayHealth is one of the leading private healthcare groups based in Singapore, operating 15 hospitals with more than 3,400 beds in Asia, as well as 43 patient assistance centres throughout the world. It has an extensive network across Asia, Europe, North America, and the Middle East with operations in nearly all Asian countries including Pakistan,

With a team of more than 1,300 accredited specialists covering over 40 different specialties, ParkwayHealth is committed to its vision to be a global leader in value-based integrated healthcare.

For more information, please visit the website at: www.parkwayhealth.com

Post credits: Hasan Zuberi

Timings: 11am – 3:00pm (test sessions every 30 minutes)
 
at: New Horizons Pakistan (formerly TEC)

49-C, Block 6 PECHS (Behind Habib Bank Limited (HBL), behind main Nursery Bus stop)
off main Sharah-e-Faisal, Karachi
Tel: (021) 4554772
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Test fee Rs. 500
Walk-in registration facility at the venue

More on Mensa: www.mensapk.org

The question here is whether the authorities were able to recover the stolen parts of the fountain, or is it just another huge bill waiting to be settled?

The lawyers’ movement is once again making sure it does all in its power to agitate the commuters on the busiest road of the city.

Shahra-e-faisal is closed for public traffic beyond the Drigh Road station due to a demonstration by the lawyers. Traffic is being diverted on Rashid Minhas Road which is causing great inconvenience to the commuters. A friend called and said he had to navigate through Gulshan to get to his home across the airport.