Pakistan Today Paperazzi issue 11, November 17th

Issue 11, 17-23 November, 2013 www.paperazzi.com.pk

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Meet the rockers, trendsetters, hipsters & scholars of the future, dressed in bright new looks from SUPER SQUAD - The brand that helps the generation of tomorrow truly celebrate their uniqueness.

contents 16 It’s My Party Ayesha Naveed’s Birthday 18 True Love Zara Shahjahan at Labels Karachi 24 Diamonds Are Forever Damas goes to Isloo 30 Singh is King Mika Singh live in concert 34 Who’s Hot This Week Find out who made it to the list 46 Life on Paperazzi Ayesha Omar 48 The Lace Effect Hottest bridal trend

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Publisher Arif Nizami l Publishing Editors: Samina Khan & Meher Tareen l Contributing Editor: Ali Nizami | Sub Editor: Natasia Khalid Contributing Features Editor : Laaleen Khan l Contributing Fashion Editor: Amna Salman | Creative Director: Muhammad Asif Marketing: Zahid Ali 0301- 8479758, Saad Malik 0321-4466100, Sohail Abbas 0300-4652194, Zulfiqar Butt Turab Shah 0300- 2018217 l Photographer: Irfan Younas l Printed at PTPRINT Press, 4- Shaarey Fatima Jinnah Lahore.

Paperazzi is a project of Paper Magazine and Pakistan Today. l Contact Details: papermagazine2010@gmail.com

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an to ode happiness Karachi’s highly coveted private label that has been creating customised showstoppers for almost a decade brings forth its latest couture collection “An Ode to Happiness”.

The collection focuses on illuminating the contemporary bride’s femininity, youth and most of all happiness.

Farah Talib Aziz bridals focus on the sheer joy that a young bride radiates and intends to compliment her emotion with their outfits.

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ModelM ModelM

Designer: Farah Talib Aziz | Model: Sana Ansari | Photography: Ali Khurshid of Lighthouse Photography | Makeup: Natasha Khalid | Jewellery: Ali Javeri Jewellers 2013

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FARAH TALIB AZIZ by appointment only 0333 2344658 farah.talib.aziz@gmail.com Karachi 2013

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last few years, people I know have started making their way back up to the North of Pakistan and have brought back with them stories of large hearted people, gorgeous landscapes, delicious food and dynamic landscapes. In my current state of falling back in love with Pakistan, I convinced my team that we should go and shoot a scene up there.

sometimes we need to look inside (the country) ADNAN MALIK Armed with a guitar, a dslr, a few lenses, a tripod, plenty of optimism and a sense of adventure, singer Zoe Viccaji, Cinematographer Mo Azmi and I boarded a 38 seat PIA Fokker at the Islamabad airport early one morning last week. We had all been collaborating for a music video that I am directing for Zoe Viccaji’s latest single, Tanhai. The narrative of the video revolves around the anguish of young love and learning to create a distinction between loneliness and being alone. For this particular scene that I had dreamt up, we needed a place to shoot that would reflect the artists abrasive and barren emotional space, and yet be awe-inspiring enough to result in a positive emotional transformation.

Also, we wanted the video to show the magnificence and beauty of Pakistan, without being trite or observational like in a documentary.

You see, I have this mole at the bottom of my foot, and was told from a young age that I would travel a lot. Having grown up in Islamabad and having staunch professionals as parents, who moonlight as serial hobbyist and adventurers, I spent a lot of my youth traveling up north to Gilgit Baltistan, Hunza, Chitral and Azad Kashmir, taking pictures, hiking, camping and breathing in the fresh air.

However, since I moved back to Pakistan nine years ago, in desperate fits of averting emotional claustrophobia, I have often rushed to travel outside the country. But in the 42

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My family had recently been on a trip to Shigar (which is about an hours drive away from the Skardu airport) and told me about the incredible renovation project that the Aga Khan Cultural Service Pakistan (AKCSP) had undertaken at the Shigar Fort. The local Raja bequeathed his palace and it has since then been renovated for $1.4 million and is now a heritage hotel run by the Serena. My sister pointed out how they had Grohe fittings in the bathroom, and my parents were both suitably impressed with the detailed restoration, gorgeous landscaping and generosity of spirit of the Shigri people So here we were, the 3 of us, on this shaky little plane, hovering over the magnificent mountain ranges of Pakistan. The flight didn’t just seem like a plane ride to a different destination, but a flight to another time. Perhaps one that existed in the past, or perhaps one that never really existed and is a romantic notion. But there was something honest and retro about the experience. It was wholesome and Pakistani; in the way it was when I was growing up in a one TV channel country. A simple country with good people and good values. When PIA was still ‘Great people to fly with’.

The flight staff were very kind, the people on the plane friendly, generally quiet and with plenty of integrity etched into their faces. On noticing our excitement at shooting the view out of the plane window, the bursar offered us a quick view of the cockpit. There was room for only one at a time and the pilot, co-pilot and the panoramic, handsome view of the Hindu Kush and Karakoram ranges welcomed us one by one.

The view made me feel both awe-struck by our superior vantage point of these mammoth ancient structures and also vulnerable, in a core way that humans should feel when confronted by the majesty of nature. The magic of flight hit me again. Here we were on this small little machine made of metal and bolts, hovering over nature’s magnificence. It’s nice to be humbled every once in a while.

After an hour-long flight that was way too short, we arrived in Skardu, picked up our luggage, convinced the authorities that we were not foreigners and began our adventure.

The road to Shigar with its eerie dry brown deserts and sweeping rock formations was going to be the focus of our shoot. Neither of us had ever seen this kind of landscape before anywhere in the world: It was monochromatic, barren and not apparently beautiful. But it was magnificent and strange. And perfect for the shoot.

As Mo and I followed Zoe on the planes of the desert, we kept reimagining what films we could shoot here. A Mad Max type post apocalyptic film perhaps. Maybe scenes from Lord of the Rings. And oh, of course something by sexpoloitative 60’s campy filmmaker Russ Meyers, (‘Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’) who did ‘women in peril’ with such heart and virility.

After shooting that first day, we arrived in Shigar at sunset and the discreet but distinct charms of the Serena began having its way with us. There are 13 rooms within the fort known as ‘FongKhar’ or ‘Palace on the Rock’ and a further 7 rooms in the Garden House. The fort rooms although smaller and cavernous, are really unique in their charm. The fort is built on a rock and the rooms all have undersized doors (so you would be forced to bow when you came in to meet the raja back in the day). It has intricately carved Kashmiri styled woodwork, intelligent mood lighting and locally sourced furniture, fabrics and bedding materials (all curated by Shahnaz Ismail) with contemporary fittings and amenities. This is Pakistan as I like it: sophisticated, understated and proud.

Pakistani architect Masood Khan renovated the palace. It’s an architectural wonder, because his team had to restore, renovate and adapt what was built 400 years ago, and seamlessly incorporate electricity and sewerage connections. There are day beds sprawling through out the tiered floors of the palace and into the landscaped gardens under apricot trees and spectacularly starry nights.

There is a heritage museum on the first floor of Fong-Khar that is beautifully lit, and small heritage, craft pieces placed around the hotel with small notes on their history. So if you want to engage, you can. And if you want to disengage and perhaps have the river nearby rush through your dreams as you soak in the softly piercing sun under the shade of a fruit tree, you can do that as well.

My sister Maha had earlier described it to me as “how we imagine what we want Pakistan to be.” Nowhere else in this country have I encountered such mild mannered and polite people, where security is never an issue (we left our hotel door rooms unlocked with valuables lying around), and where you can drink water directly from the tap and pluck quinces from the orchards and lettuce greens from the vegetable garden and eat them right there.

Even the restaurant served delicious local fare, and the staff was very knowledgeable about the food, its seasonality and where it’s harvested. The menu was abundant with foods, oils, and condiments made with apricot, walnut and buckwheat. I have stayed at a few heritage sites in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka and this certainly compared in its richness of experience and quality of service.

On one of the nights, Zoe took out her guitar and put on a small show for the excitable stuff, who wailed and drummed away as she sang some Urdu and Turkish songs. On another night, we befriended a wonderfully congenial and inspirational lady of Pakistani/Irani heritage who now lives in LA, but spends her summers here managing a ‘literary garden’ at a local school in the neighborhood. We sat outside a grand gazebo, in pitch darkness, drinking a local herb tea in the ‘Merry Cherry’ garden, as she spoke at great length about her life as a landscape artist, an educator and her interactions with the local culture. She then went into the kitchen, where they all know her, and whipped up a smoked vegetable and nut salad that was as much Alice Waters

in its philosophy as it as it was local in its flavours.

We spent a total of 3 days shooting in and around Shigar, which included hectic early mornings and dusty late afternoons by the desert, in isolated windswept landscapes, but every time we returned, we were greeted by warm smiles, genuine interest in our adventures, world class service and deliciously comfortable high cotton thread count beds. Everybody became our friend, but they also knew how to maintain a sense of space so we didn’t feel infringed upon.

I remember reading my friend Ahmed Arif’s facebook status update the day terrorists killed 10 adventure tourists at Nanga Parbat’s Diamir Face base camp, that virtually killed off all tourism to Pakistan. “International mountain tourism in Pakistan died today and our world is the poorer for it.” I couldn’t agree more with the statement, but with the interim absence of international tourism, we must support and frequent local initiatives like this. We are all too quick to leave our country in search of comfort, adventure and solace. Sometimes we just have to look inside.

On leaving, I remember thinking that if even a lingering sense of the generous natural landscape and the kindness of the local people manages to permeate the music video, then it will, hopefully, have resonance far greater than we had anticipated before arriving in Shigar.

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17 - 23 November

horoscope

Our fab astrologer Zahid Haider, styles up your stars.Find out what’s in store for you this week!

For your in-depth weekly forecast call 0322-757-5219 E-mail: happyhaider65@gmail.com

aries

taurus

gemini

cancer

Aries, you are in for a very good week as Jupiter has retrograded into the third house. Things are looking financially strong for you and with the Sun in the eighth house means all your traumatic concerns are now going to positively commence. However, do drive carefully and try to avoid interference in family politics and issues that do not concern you, to keep yourself optimistic. With that being said, a special someone is about to enter your life try to welcome him or her with open arms.

Good news for you is that Jupiter is present in your financial zone and you will receive some great financial news thus keep your expenditures progressive this week. Take care of your nutrition and prevent indulging in unhealthy snacks.

It is in your nature to be a romantic but this week you are feeling slightly out of it. Put on a good outfit, go outdoors and be more social in order to sidetrack your mind as meeting someone special is in the stars for you.

You have been under a lot of anxiety recently but don’t worry because all that tension is fading this week. You may have felt like family and friends have been pulling your leg about a private issue but keep your calm and carefree approach intact as this mannerism is what will very soon charm a special someone towards you this week. Whether you are a boy or girl, another female is about to profit you greatly and make your coming week particularly amusing.

leo

24July/23August

virgo

24August/23September

libra

Make some changes around your household or work place. Investments will prove to be tremendously advantageous. Cancer, you need to keep your eyes open at all times and be very alert of the company you keep as there maybe a woman in your life who does not wish the best for you.

In your busy schedule you may have left your elders feel neglected this is a perfect week to make them feel adored and spend some quality time with them.

Things are looking very bright for you this week. You have been needlessly stressing about many things lately but the fact is all is working out well for you. Love is in the air for you and with this new person entering your life you will feel more at ease. You should finally let out all the heaviness that you have held in your heart for this long. Share your emotions rather than bottling them up. Your well-wishers are around only to help you feel better.

Congrats, all the bad stages you have been facing are now over and are about to earn a great deal of respect from your family members, friends and even your special someone. Business, property, sales and purchases are extremely gainful for you this week.

All those who don’t mean well have automatically been drifted away from you and success is coming straight your way.

You are a romantic, Libra, and to your good fortune it is definitely your week full of love and passion. This week, take a step forward, whether this means to tell you secret crush how you feel about them or to take a step forward in your current relationships, don’t hold back. This week will be a stress free smooth one after a long time. Due to your past stresses your elders may believe your way of life has been rash and aggressive, instead of reacting just try to please them and show them your sweet and loving side.

Good news for Scorpions from every angle of life. Whether it’s love, family or financial status. Your relationships are experiencing extremely strong and passionate feelings this week from both ends therefore don’t be shy of spending all your time with your loved ones this week. Stay as healthy as possible, drink lots of water and include some egg yolk in your diet.

Tip: Wear yellow clothes or add some yellow foods to your diet.

sagittarius capricorn 23November/21December

22December/20January

aquarius

pisces

You are unusually in a very coloruful, romantic and outgoing mood this week. Enjoy this week, dress well in all your new clothes and live in the moment. Take a step forward in your love life, indulge in a romantic date or outing and the outcome will also be positive. Many who are not genuinely happy for you surround you but this is nothing to worry about, as their negativity will not affect the success in your life in anyway.

Spend this week cautiously Capricorn.

Try not to make any business related decisions in this week especially if these involve taking loans. You may think that someone else’s troubles need you to step in but they don’t. Let others solve their own battles even if you think your input will help the problem to solve. It would be ideal to spend this week silently doing some soul searching of your own.

The rough patch in your relationship or marriage is now coming to an end.

If there are old feuds in family do not bother with them at the moment, as it will do you more harm than good. As entertaining indulging in other’s gossip may sound, you should not only avoid it but also completely finish this habit as the opposite sex is very likely to find you attractive at this time but you don’t want to disappoint them with such traits.

With that said, you are about to face a financially positive week ahead of you.

You are in an extremely dreamy mood and still very lost in all your worries but this week will bring about a lot of good changes in your life. You will feel healthier than ever before which will advantage you to make better financial decisions as well. Make most of this dreamy humour, as there is no need to plan for the future just yet because things will inevitably work out in your favour.

21March/20April

21April/21May

22May/21June

24September/23October

21January/19February

22June/23July

scorpio

24October/22November

20February/20March