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  • IN PICTURES: Varun Dhawan ties the knot

    IN PICTURES: Varun Dhawan ties the knot

    Varun Dhawan and Natasha Dalal have made it official after years of being in a relationship. The couple tied the knot in a low-key ceremony (by Bollywood standards) in Alibaug on January 24.

    Announcing the news on social media and sharing pictures from the wedding rituals, Varun wrote: “Life long just become official.”

    Despite the media frenzy and excitement surrounding the nuptials, the traditional Hindu wedding was a very private affair with only close friends and family present. There was a strict no-phone policy at the wedding and security was tightened to ensure that there are no leaks.

    From the film industry, only Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar, and Kunal Kohli were spotted at the festivities.

    After the nuptials, Varun and Natasha made an appearance in front of the media and posed for pictures. The couple looked resplendent in matching ivory outfits. While Manish designed Varun’s sherwani, it is being reported that Natasha, who is also a fashion designer, designed her own outfit.

    Sweets were also distributed among the paparazzi and media personnel present outside the wedding venue.

    Later, the bride’s makeup artist Namrata Soni shared a close-up video of Natasha’s makeup and look.

    Varun also shared pictures from his haldi ceremony, captioning them: “Haldi done right.”

    Varun and Natasha met while they were in school but started dating much later. The couple initially kept their relationship very private and strictly away from media attention. Varun, only recently opened up about his relationship on Kareena Kapoor Khan’s show What Women Want, saying: “I actually met Natasha in the 6th standard. We were friends till 11-12th. We were very close friends. I remember seeing her for the first time. We went to Maneckji Cooper [Education Trust School in Mumbai together]. It was on the basketball court that I saw her and I fell in love with her that day. That was it! She rejected me three to four times, but I didn’t give up hope.”

    Earlier, Natasha while talking about the relationship had said: “Varun and I were in school together. We stayed friends until we were in our mid-20s and then, I remember, we started dating just before I moved away. It was around then that, I think, we realised we were more than just good friends.”

    Meanwhile, Karan also penned an emotional note for Varun as he congratulated him on his wedding.

    Considering the wedding was limited to approximately 40-50 guests only in view of COVID-19 protocols, it is being reported the couple will host a lavish reception in Mumbai for their friends and members of the film fraternity on February 2.

  • Rs93bn on education, Rs25bn on health, Rs1,289bn on defence: How govt is spending in ‘Naya Pakistan’

    Rs93bn on education, Rs25bn on health, Rs1,289bn on defence: How govt is spending in ‘Naya Pakistan’

    Public sector universities are facing a financial crunch due to budget cuts and the coronavirus pandemic. Despite tall claims, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government didn’t allocate much for the higher education and the budget for the Higher Education Commission (HEC) remains nominal.

    Pakistan has at least 135 public-sector higher education institutions that cater to at least 1.8 million students, says a report in The News. But how much the country spends on its education? Not a lot when compared to other expenditures, such as defence and development.

    Education:

    The government had allocated Rs93 billion — Rs29.4bn is development budget — for the HEC for 2020-21 for development and non-development expenditures in the education sector. The HEC, however, had asked the government for a budget of Rs104bn, reported Dawn at the time.

    The decision to keep the education budget static amid a pandemic has proved expensive, as a number of universities are struggling to make ends meet. According to The News, the University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, the University of Peshawar, Shah Abdul Latif University Khairpur, Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad and others are facing issues regarding finances.

    Health:

    Pakistan is one of the countries that do not spend a lot on health. In 2019-20, the federal government had budgeted Rs11 billion for the current expenditure on health, reported Express Tribune. However, the government funneled Rs1bn more into the budget to counter the coronavirus threat. In the current financial year, Pakistan more than doubled the health budget to Rs25.5 billion due to COVID-19.

    However, the decision was still criticised as the country’s healthcare needed more than that to battle the deadly pandemic.

    Defence:

    The government spends a major chunk of its money on defence-related expenditures. In financial year 20-21, the allocations to the defence sector saw an 11 per cent increase from the previous year. Rs1,289 billion was allocated to the military.

    According to Ayesha Siddiqa, the author of Military Inc., “major acquisitions by the armed forces, spending on the public sector development programme (PSDP), expenditure on the nuclear programme and para-military forces, payments for military pensions, a newly set-up national security division and a few other military expenditures are not reflected in the budget. If these were to be added to it, Pakistan’s defence spending would be even higher — at around $11bn”.

     Development budget:

    Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lull in economic activity, the government could increase its public-sector development spending. It had been budgeted at Rs1,324bn, 18pc below than last year’s budget.

    Of this, federal PSDP had been allocated Rs650 billion, while Rs676 billion had been allocated to provinces, as per Dawn.

  • Class and privilege

    Class and privilege

    A video of two women, who are the owners of Cannoli by Café Soul in Islamabad, mocking the café’s manager for not being fluent in English went viral on the internet this week.

    #BoycottCannoli trended online and even Prime Minister Imran Khan weighed in on the issue when he said on Thursday that he doesn’t use English phrases in public because it would be disrespectful to the majority of Pakistani citizens who don’t speak or understand the language.

    The elitist and classist owners were criticised on social media as well as mainstream media, but it seems that they remain unfazed by all the backlash. An ‘apology’ was posted by them on the café’s social media pages but it was anything but an apology. It said that this was just a banter with a team member.

    “We are not required to prove or defend ourselves as kind employers. Our team has been with us for a decade, that should speak for itself,” it said further. This non-apology led to more outrage and rightly so. There was no remorse in the apology, no acknowledgment that they did anything wrong, no sincerity. The thing that the owners need to realise is that not just their video but their so-called apology reeks of elitism, classism and workplace harassment.

    Unfortunately, these two women are not the only ones who are elitist but that as a class-based society, which is very conscious of status, many of us are very much part of the problem. We forget that we have no control over where we are born and being born in a privileged family is just an accident of birth.

    We have complexes about speaking in English, how being fluent in the English language opens up a lot of doors for us in the job market as well as society, how a certain accent would show that we come from a privileged background because we went to the ‘right’ schools and colleges.

    We all make fun of Meera jee’s English, we criticise our cricketers for not speaking proper English (remember Inzi’s ‘boys did well’?), we don’t treat the English language as just a medium of communication but as a status symbol.

    We hope that all of us have learned something from this unfortunate incident, which is to treat our employees with kindness and compassion and also not insult someone for not knowing the English language. Our society needs to break the barriers of class and be more tolerant and less judgmental.

  • Do Hareem Farooq and SRK think alike?

    Do Hareem Farooq and SRK think alike?

    Shah Rukh Khan recently posted a picture of himself playing pool on Instagram, captioning it: “As long as there is pink in the world, it will always be a better place.”

    The actor was seen sporting long locks in the picture, reportedly his look for his upcoming action-thriller Pathan.

    Hours after SRK’s post, Hareem Farooq shared a picture with a caption similar to the Bollywood star’s.

    “As long as there’s pink in the world it will always be a better place,” Hareem wrote alongside a picture of herself wearing a pink dress.

    When a follower asked Hareem if she had copied SRK’s caption, the actor said that she “had no idea” King Khan had posted the same caption.

    “I guess we think alike,” remarked Hareem.

    In response to Hareem’s comments, the user replied: “No doubt you think like a superstar.”

    Meanwhile, another Instagram user commented: “We all copy the captions from somewhere.”

  • Larry King passes away at 87

    Larry King passes away at 87

    Iconic TV and radio broadcaster Larry King, who interviewed anyone worth interviewing over a career spanning six decades, passed away on Saturday at the age of 87.

    The company he co-founded, Ora Media, did not state a cause of death but media reports said King had been battling COVID-19 for weeks and had suffered several health problems in recent years.

    King, with his trademark suspenders and black rim glasses, was best known for a 25-year run as a talk show host on CNN’s Larry King Live. He retired in 2010 after recording more than 6,000 episodes of the show. He also conducted an estimated 50,000 interviews in his six-decade career.

    “For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry’s many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster,” Ora Media said in a statement posted on Twitter.

    King is survived by three sons. Last year, two of his adult children died within weeks of each other: Andy King, 65, suffered a heart attack and daughter Chaia King, 52, died after being diagnosed with lung cancer. King is survived by three sons.

    Meanwhile, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry expressed his grief and condolences over King’s death.

  • Babar Azam opens up on his journey from ‘ball-picker’ to Test captain

    Star batsman Babar Azam has opened up and shared his journey from being a ‘ball-picker’ during a match between Pakistan and South Africa in 2007 to becoming the Test captain and leading the team against the Proteas on their first visit after fourteen years.

    In a video shared by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), the 26-year-old recalled the time when he was a ball-picker in the Test match in 2007 between the Green Caps and the Proteas at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore which increased his passion for the game.

    “My cricket journey started back in 2007,” said Azam. “I had a passion for the game but I really wanted to see international stars play in front of me. At the time, South African team was here so I asked someone to help me become a ball picker. I used to go daily from Gulberg to Gaddafi Stadium.”

    Azam continued: “I used to enjoy picking up balls. I remember watching Inzamam-ul-Haq’s farewell innings where he got out before breaking the record of great Javed Miandad. I witnessed it live the way he went back to the dressing room and took his anger out.”

    “This journey has been long and tough but I feel blessed to be making my Test captaincy debut against the same team,” he shared further.

    It is pertinent to add here that Babar’s cousin Kamran Akmal was the first-choice wicketkeeper for Pakistan from 2007 to 2010.

    Later, sharing PCB’s video, Babar said: “This humble story is for our youth. May your dreams keep you awake and motivate you to run that extraordinary yard.”

    “You are enough. A thousand times enough,” he added.

    Babar will be leading the national team for the first time in the five-day format in the first Test against South Africa which will begin from Tuesday, January 26 at the National Stadium in Karachi.

  • انگریزی کا ہیضہ

    انگریزی کا ہیضہ

    کہنے دیجئے کہ  ہمیں بطور قوم انگریزی کا ہیضہ ہو گیا ہے  ۔ جی چاہ رہا ہے کہ    ملک کے   انگریزی سے نابلد عوام کو بتاؤں کہ تم کیا  اردو  یا کسی اور زبان میں خیالات کی چڑیا اڑاتے رہتے ہو انگریزی زبان کے در پر اپنا ماتھا ٹیک دو گیان وہیں سے ملے گا۔    کینولی والی خواتین  کی تحقیر آمیز ہنسی ، مینیجر اویس کی واضح بے چینی  معاشرے میں زبان کی بنیاد پر پائی جانے والی ایک نا محسوس لسانی تقسیم    کی طرف اشارہ کرتی ہے  جو باقاعدہ طبقاتی تقسیم میں ڈھل گئی ہے۔  تقسیم در تقسیم کے شکار  معاشرے میں اگر کوئی کمی رہ گئی تھی تو  اس پر   انگریزی زبان  کی بنیاد پر پائے جانے والے احساس کمتری نے  چار چاند  لگا د ئیے ہیں۔

    اس واقعہ نے اور کچھ نہیں کیا سوائے اسکے کہ ہمارے روز مرہ کے معاشرتی رویوں کی ایک جھلک دکھا دی ہے جہاں    انگریزی بولنے  پر اگلے کے دل میں ویسے ہی ایک رعب پڑ جاتا ہے کئی در تو صرف دو فقرے بولنے سے ہی کھل جاتے ہیں چاہے سامنے والا زیادہ عقلمند اور صاحب علم کیوں نہ ہو اسکی ساری قابلیت انگریزی زبان نہ جاننے کی بنا پر ٹھس ہو جاتی ہے۔ بھائی انگریزی ایک زبان ہے جیسے باقی زبانیں ہوتی  ہیں اس میں کون سا سرخاب کے پر  لگے ہوئے ہیں  ہاں اسے  بولنا سیکھنا ایک مہارت یا اہلیت تو گردانا جا سکتا ہے  فوقیت نہیں ۔ ہاں اگر انگریزی زبان کی وجہ سے زیادہ ارفع و اعلیٰ خیالات آتے ہوتے تو بات بھی تھی لیکن افسوس سوائے اسکے مجھے تو کوئی ایسی خوبی نظر نہ آئی کہ انگریزی زبان دنیا میں رابطے کی بڑی زبانوں میں سے ایک ہے اور شاید مختلف بولیاں بولنے والوں کے درمیان پل کا کام کرتی ہے۔  اس  میں  میسر علمی مواد  بھی اچھا خاصا ہے لیکن روسی ،چینی ، ہسپانوی اور دیگر زبانوں میں بھی اسی پائے کی چیزیں پائی جاتی ہیں بلکہ بعض زبانوں کے ادب ، فصاحت و بلاغت کے سامنے تو انگریزی زبان پانی بھرتی ہے۔

    خلا میں روسی انگریزی زبان جاننے کی بنا پر تو پہلے نہیں پہنچ گئے تھے یا چین کی معاشی ترقی کا راز انگریزی زبان کی وجہ سے تو نہیں ہے بلکہ عظیم چینی رہنما چو این لائی سے منسوب جملے کے بقول ‘ چین گونگا نہیں ہے’۔ صاحب دوسری زبانو ں کو چھوڑئیے اپنی  اردو کوہی لیجئے  بھلا  میر غالب کے پائے کا شاعر اور داستان امیر حمزہ جیسی دیومالا  جس زبان کے پاس ہوں اسے تو بڑے چاؤ  اور ناز سے  رکھنا چاہئے۔ یہ الگ بات ہے کہ ہم نے اسے نصاب کے رٹوں تک محدود کر کے رکھ دیا ہے ۔

    خیر بات بھی کہاں سے کہاں نکل گئی دیکھنا یہ ہے کہ  اس  واقعہ سے حاصل کیا ہو گا؟ سماجی رابطوں کی ویب سائٹس پر ہر ایک نے اپنے دل کی بھڑاس نکال لی، جی بھر کر صلواتیں  سنائیں اویس صاحب کو ان لوگوں نے بھی نوکری کی پیشکش کر دی جو اپنے ملازمین کو چھ چھ ماہ تنخواہ کی مد میں  لٹکائے رکھتے ہیں  ، ہاں جو چیز ہم   بھول گئے  وہ یہ کہ  دو خواتین جو ایک زبان پر پوری طرح سے مہارت نہ رکھنے پر ایک دوسرے انسان کا مذاق اڑا رہیں تھی وہ کوئی اور نہیں میں اور آپ تھے۔ کیا  انگریزی زبان نہ جاننے یا اس پر پوری قدرت نہ رکھنے کی بنا پر ہم  بھی  کیا دوسرے کا مذاق نہیں اڑاتے ؟ کیسا لگا آئینہ میں اپنا اصل روپ دیکھ کر جس پر پتا نہیں کس کس ریا کاری کی پرت چڑھا رکھی ہے  اصل میں  ہم نے کبھی اس گٹر کے ڈھکن کو اٹھانے کی زحمت ہی نہیں کی جہاں زبان کی بنیاد پر ، رنگ اور شکل کی بنیاد پر  اور کسی دوسرے انسان  کے رہن سہن کی بنیاد پر اسے اپنے سے نیچا سمجھا جاتا ہے۔

    اگرچہ اس واقعہ میں  مظلوم اردو بن گئی ہے لیکن  کیا یہی معاملہ ہم اپنے ملک کی دیگر زبانوں کے ساتھ نہیں کرتے ؟ پشتو، پنجابی ،سندھی اور بلوچی بولنے والے کو اردو میں بات کرنی پڑ جائے تو اسکا مذاق بن جاتا ہے ۔ اسی لئے مسئلہ اردو انگریزی کا نہیں    بلکہ ، عدم برداشت، معاشرتی رویوں اور سماجی آداب کا ہے ہم سب کے اندر چھوٹی چھوٹی کینولی آنٹیاں بستی ہیں ، ان کو صلواتیں سنانے سے پہلے اپنے گریبان میں بھی جھانک لیجئے۔

  • Multiple ‘Game of Thrones’ prequels in ‘early development’

    HBO is reportedly planning several Game of Thrones (GOT) prequels with the project in the early stages of development.

    According to reports, one of the projects is based on the stories of Dunk and Egg from GOT author George R.R. Martin which follow the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg). The story is set 90 years before the events of the main series.

    Martin has published three novellas in the Tales of Dunk and Egg series – The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight. All three were collectively published in 2015 with the title of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

    Further reports have said the show will have one hour-long episode. However, no writer or talent has taken on board yet. The project is said to be on the high priority of HBO but representatives from HBO and Martin have refused to comment on the project.

    In December 2020, the first look of Game of Throne’s prequel, House of Dragon was released. House of Dragon is expected to premiere in 2020.

    As per details, House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s House Targaryen chronicle Fire & Blood and set 300 years before Game of Thrones.

    The famed Dance of Dragons — the Targaryen civil war occasionally referenced in GoT that ripped apart Westeros — will be tackled during the series.

  • COVID-19: Sindh reopens shopping malls on weekends

    COVID-19: Sindh reopens shopping malls on weekends

    The Sindh government has allowed shopping malls in Karachi to remain open on the weekends (Saturdays and Sundays). 

    According to the notification issued by the government, shopping malls will now be allowed to operate seven days a week under the government’s COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs).

    The notification added that if a shopping mall is situated in a virus hotspot within the city, then it will remain closed as only essential businesses are permitted to operate therein. 

    Meanwhile, as of January 21, the province has recorded 12 COVID-related deaths, elating the overall number to 3,855. Some 716 new cases were diagnosed taking the positivity rate to 11.2%. 

  • We have made Urdu a symbol of illiteracy, says Yasir Hussain

    We have made Urdu a symbol of illiteracy, says Yasir Hussain

    Yasir Hussain has said that “we have made Urdu a symbol of illiteracy,” and the “English language cool”.

    Sharing his thoughts on the Cannoli incident and the criticism the owners received for humiliating their manager, Yasir said: “[The] interesting fact is that owner of Cannoli made fun of their manager’s English and everyone (including my actor fraternity) raised their voice in English.”

    “Did anyone think why the manager needed to speak English?,” he questioned. “From where did this complex come into our society?”

    “We have made English cool and Urdu a symbol of illiteracy. It is something to be ashamed of,” he added.

    In the viral video, the owners of Cannoli Café Soul in Islamabad, Uzma and Diya joked that their manager, who has been working at their café for nine years, has taken three language courses until now and still cannot speak fluent English.

    The two ladies asked the manager Owais to introduce himself in English and when he struggled with speaking fluent English, they made fun of him by commenting on his salary. Owais was visibly uncomfortable in the video.

    Soon after the video was posted on social media, people started calling out the women for their elitist behaviour and though they later issued an apology, people called them out for their “arrogant non-apology”.

    Several celebrities including Sheheryar Munawar, Adnan Siddiqui, Sarah Khan and Ahsan Khan among others slammed the women for their distasteful comments and behaviour.

    Meanwhile, Ameer Gilani took to Instagram and shared details about his meeting with Owais. In a story posted to his Instagram, Gilani said that Awais is a very nice and positive man. He also urged people to focus on the good side to eradicate the wrong.