My as seen by others

Lahore Past and Present was written by M Hanif Raza and published in 1987. The illustrations in the book are also by the author. In a separate chapter, Raza gives us the views of travellers and writers on Lahore. He begins with Milton, the celebrated poet.

He says:

Milton placed Lahore among the cities which met the eyes of a repentant Adam from the hill of Paradise:-

— from the destined walls of Cambala, seat of Cathian can,

And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir’s throne

To Paquin of Sinaean Kings; and thence

To Agra and Lahore of Great Mogul —

To seat of Mightiest Empires.

(Paradise Lost Bk. xi-386-392)

And Moore has built up amid the “palaces, domes, and gilded minarets of Lahore, a city of enchantment sacred to the loves of Lala Rikh and Feramurz”.

Rudyard Kipling adored Lahore. It was here that he passed his childhood, playing and dreaming around (the cannon) Zam-Zama which is now known better in the literary circles as Kim’s Gun. It was here in Lahore that he started his career as a journalist. There was a memorial plaque in one of the old buildings, on The Mall, which was the office of The Civil and Military Gazette saying, “Kipling worked here from 1882-1887.”

Unfortunately this important paper closed down in 1963 after 93 years of publication and the building was razed to the ground to give place to a departmental store.

Amir Khusru, at the end of the thirteenth century, alludes to Lahore and the twin city of Kasoor simply as inhabited spots in the midst of a desolate waste. Ibn-i-Batuta, who travelled from Multan to Delhi in the middle of the fourteenth century, did not think it worth a visit. Timur, at the end of the same century, left it to a subordinate to plunder in the fourteenth century, read about Lahore in the pages of Ibn Alatir as “A great city among the cities of India”. Another Persian writer described Lahore in the sixteenth century; “If Shiraz and Ispahan were united, they would not make one Lahore”. Emperor Babar, who always took care to see what was to be seen, and in his memoirs has left graphic description of Kabul—Samarkand and the environs of Delhi, leaves Lahore unnoticed. Lastly Amin Ahmed Razi, author of a work called Haft Aqlim, dated AD 1624 recorded that until the time of Akbar, Lahore was nothing more than a collection of detached hamlets. Abul Fazal recorded the following description of the city during the reign of Akbar, in the Ain-i-Akbari.

“Lahore is a very large and populous city. The fort and Palace are of brick and lime, and when this city was for some time the seat of government, many other capital buildings were erected and gardens laid out with taste and elegance. It became the grand resort of people of all nations and their manufacturers were brought to the highest pitch of perfection. Through His Majesty’s (Akbar’s) encouragement, gardeners were brought from Iran and Turan, who cultivated the vine and various kinds of melons. The manufacture of silk and woollen carpets was introduced, together with that of brocades. In short, here could be obtained the choicest productions of Iran and Turan.”

The following is an account of the city as recorded by two Englishmen, Richard Still and John Growther. These two came to Lahore in 1626 during the reign of Jehangir.

“Lahore”, they say, “is one of the best cities of India, plentiful of all things or, in Master Coryat’s words such delicate and even tract of ground as I never saw before: A row of trees extends itself on both sides they way from the town’s end of Lahore, twenty days’ journey, to the town’s end of Agra, most of them bearing a kind of mulberry. The way is dangerous by night for thieves; by day secure. Every five or six couse (kos) there are fair sarais of nobles beautifying the way, and useful for entertainment of travellers, where you may have a chamber and a place to get your horse, with a store of horse-meal but in many of them, little provision for men, by reason of the Banian superstition. Merchants resort to this city out of all parts of India, embarking their goods for Thatta, the chief city in Sindh. Twelve or fourteen thousand camels laden yearly pass from hence to Persia by Kandhar.”

A translated extract is reproduced below from the itinerary of a Spanish traveller, Fra Sebastian Manrique who visited Lahore in 1641 AD:

“On the 21st day of our departure from Agra, at sunrise, we came in sight of the city of Lahore, which is large and spacious. It is a handsome and well ordered city, with large gateways and pavilions of various colours. I entered the city — a very difficult undertaking on account of the number of people who filled the streets, some on foot, some on camels, some on elephants and other in small carts, jotting one against the other as they went along.

“Finding it difficult to proceed on account of the concourse of people we decided to change our route and returned about a musket’s short from the crowd and took our stand under some trees outside the city, where were a number of people selling and preparing food for the multitude, who were moving about —- some eating some selling —- and others looking on. I was one among the latter and my curiosity prompted me to proceed still further, until at last I arrived at the principal bazar, where the odour from without prepared you for what you were to see inside —- a great many shops, or more properly speaking, kitchens in which were sold meats of various kinds, animals, domestic and wild.

Some shops contained fowls of all kind; in others might be seen things of all descriptions suited to the taste of all classes, such as butter, oils, scents and mangoes, etc. Neither was there wanting in this bazar the most simple commodities such as rice, herbs and vegetables. Besides what I have already enumerated, there is a great deal more to be seen in these bazars; but I think I have mentioned enough to satisfy the curious reader. But what I most admired was the moderate price at which these things might be had. A man might eat abundantly and royally for two silver reals (five pence) per day.

The abundance of the provisions and cleanliness of the streets surprised me much; also the peace and quietness with which everything was conducted, as well as the justness and rectitude of people towards each other; so that merchant and merchandise remain perfectly secure from thieves.

The city of Lahore is beautifully situated, commanding agreeable view, having on one side a river with crystal waters which descends from the mountains and continues its course moistening and fertilizing the ground, till it arrives at the city of Mooltan, where it pays its tribute to the famous Indus. Lahore, the second city of the Mughal empire, (as well on account of riches as its size) is ornamented with fine palaces and gardens, also tanks and fountains. As to the abundance of provisions, it would be unnecessary here to describe it. The riches of the principal street known as the Bazar del cocha (Bazar-i-Dil-Kusha), if shown to advantage would equal the richest European mart.”

By jawed Naqvi

WHEN Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Hindu revivalist party, the BJP, was trounced in India’s politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh on February 25, 2002, it led to the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat on February 28. The result was a landslide victory for the BJP in the state polls later that year. By contrast there was no communal polarization in the BJP-ruled state of Himachal Pradesh, primarily because there are hardly any Muslims there. The BJP lost the state to the Congress.

Therefore, when Mr Vajpayee claims, as he did during last month’s election campaign for four vital state assemblies, that the BJP would win a two-thirds majority in next year’s general elections, it ought to make everyone sit up and worry. For there are only two ways in which he could conjure such an improbable victory in 2004. Mr Vajpayee was himself party to India’s first parliamentary landslide, when his Jana Sangh group deftly merged with India’s first catch all coalition, the Janata Party, cobbled together to reject Indira Gandhi’s emergency rule in 1977. That situation does not obtain for him this time round.

The second and as yet the only other landslide victory registered in India’s parliamentary polls had gone to Rajiv Gandhi, who rode a giant sympathy wave after his mother and then prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984. We have already taken into account the Gujarat model for winning landslides. Bereft of these two or three approaches to winning the kind of victory that Mr Vajpayee is eying one wonders what strategy he is banking on, given that there is little going in BJP’s favour.

The fact of the matter is that the BJP has always struggled behind the Congress party. Its percentage of total votes polled in parliamentary elections has never once surpassed that of the Congress. Take a look at the statistics, which have been gleaned from the Election Commission’s records. In 1984, when Mrs Gandhi was assassinated, her son got 49.10 per cent of votes polled, which translated into 404 seats of the 491 he had contested. This figure hopefully will never again be repeated in Indian parliament, because it is a consequence of an unacceptable tragedy. The BJP mustered 7.74 per cent votes in 1984, giving the party just two seats out of the 224 it contested.

In 1989, Rajiv Gandhi was defeated but the Congress still managed to get 39.53 per cent of the votes, translating into 197 seats of the 510 it contested. The man who became prime minister instead after that election was Mr Vishwanath Pratap Singh. It must be the biggest irony of Indian democracy that Mr Singh’s Janata Dal party had secured just 17.79 per cent of the votes. The BJP won 85 seats out of the 225 it contested, garnering 11.36 per cent votes.

Similarly, after the mid-term polls in 1991 during which Rajiv Gandhi was killed and Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister, the Congress formed a minority government with just 244 MPs. It had 36.55 per cent of the votes against the BJP’s 20.04 per cent. The BJP got 120 seats, about one-fourth of the total it had contested.

Take any other election since then. In 1996, when Mr Vajpayee virtually gate-crashed the prime minister’s house the BJP was woefully short of a majority. The BJP had secured 161 seats against the Congress party’s 140. But the percentage of votes secured by each told another story. The Congress had 28.80 per cent against the BJP’s 20.29 per cent. It didn’t matter much though, since it was the United Front this time that formed the government, throwing up two prime ministers in two years.

In the 1998 elections, the Congress was still ahead of the BJP in percentage terms, but barely so. The BJP secured 25.59 per cent votes, winning 182 out of the 388 seats it went for. The Congress managed just 141 of the 477 seats it fought. Since then the BJP has been resorting to every electoral trick in the book to increase its vote share but has failed miserably. The BJP’s vote share is now down to 23.75 per cent. Yes, the BJP got 182 seats against the Congress party’s dismal 114, but it was not the most popular party nor was it ever in a majority on its own.

Therefore, when Mr Vajpayee speaks of a two-thirds majority for the BJP in next year’s elections, you wonder what he could be thinking of.

VOTERS in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattishgarh and Delhi will make their choice on December 1 between the Congress party and the BJP. But regardless of who wins or loses, the electorate are having a ball — at the expense of the candidates of course. Some NGOs are asserting their right to information to probe the antecedents of the candidates, a requirement stipulated by the Election Commission. The result is scores of eye-opening confessions in the form of sworn affidavits by candidates to crimes ranging from rape charges, to robbery and extortion.

On the other hand one NGO in Delhi has brought out a compendium of idiotic policies pursued by the state government. Ever wondered why, it asks, the government spends Rs 4,461 on a cow, which is more than what it spends on a school student; why there are only 29 drug inspectors for over 5,000 retailers when the fake drug market is worth more than Rs 4,000 crore? What is the relevance of a directorate of prohibition when the department of tourism and Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation run about 200 liquor outlets?

My as seen by others

Lahore Past and Present was written by M Hanif Raza and published in 1987. The illustrations in the book are also by the author. In a separate chapter, Raza gives us the views of travellers and writers on Lahore. He begins with Milton, the celebrated poet.

He says:

Milton placed Lahore among the cities which met the eyes of a repentant Adam from the hill of Paradise:-

— from the destined walls of Cambala, seat of Cathian can,

And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir’s throne

To Paquin of Sinaean Kings; and thence

To Agra and Lahore of Great Mogul —

To seat of Mightiest Empires.

(Paradise Lost Bk. xi-386-392)

And Moore has built up amid the “palaces, domes, and gilded minarets of Lahore, a city of enchantment sacred to the loves of Lala Rikh and Feramurz”.

Rudyard Kipling adored Lahore. It was here that he passed his childhood, playing and dreaming around (the cannon) Zam-Zama which is now known better in the literary circles as Kim’s Gun. It was here in Lahore that he started his career as a journalist. There was a memorial plaque in one of the old buildings, on The Mall, which was the office of The Civil and Military Gazette saying, “Kipling worked here from 1882-1887.”

Unfortunately this important paper closed down in 1963 after 93 years of publication and the building was razed to the ground to give place to a departmental store.

Amir Khusru, at the end of the thirteenth century, alludes to Lahore and the twin city of Kasoor simply as inhabited spots in the midst of a desolate waste. Ibn-i-Batuta, who travelled from Multan to Delhi in the middle of the fourteenth century, did not think it worth a visit. Timur, at the end of the same century, left it to a subordinate to plunder in the fourteenth century, read about Lahore in the pages of Ibn Alatir as “A great city among the cities of India”. Another Persian writer described Lahore in the sixteenth century; “If Shiraz and Ispahan were united, they would not make one Lahore”. Emperor Babar, who always took care to see what was to be seen, and in his memoirs has left graphic description of Kabul—Samarkand and the environs of Delhi, leaves Lahore unnoticed. Lastly Amin Ahmed Razi, author of a work called Haft Aqlim, dated AD 1624 recorded that until the time of Akbar, Lahore was nothing more than a collection of detached hamlets. Abul Fazal recorded the following description of the city during the reign of Akbar, in the Ain-i-Akbari.

“Lahore is a very large and populous city. The fort and Palace are of brick and lime, and when this city was for some time the seat of government, many other capital buildings were erected and gardens laid out with taste and elegance. It became the grand resort of people of all nations and their manufacturers were brought to the highest pitch of perfection. Through His Majesty’s (Akbar’s) encouragement, gardeners were brought from Iran and Turan, who cultivated the vine and various kinds of melons. The manufacture of silk and woollen carpets was introduced, together with that of brocades. In short, here could be obtained the choicest productions of Iran and Turan.”

The following is an account of the city as recorded by two Englishmen, Richard Still and John Growther. These two came to Lahore in 1626 during the reign of Jehangir.

“Lahore”, they say, “is one of the best cities of India, plentiful of all things or, in Master Coryat’s words such delicate and even tract of ground as I never saw before: A row of trees extends itself on both sides they way from the town’s end of Lahore, twenty days’ journey, to the town’s end of Agra, most of them bearing a kind of mulberry. The way is dangerous by night for thieves; by day secure. Every five or six couse (kos) there are fair sarais of nobles beautifying the way, and useful for entertainment of travellers, where you may have a chamber and a place to get your horse, with a store of horse-meal but in many of them, little provision for men, by reason of the Banian superstition. Merchants resort to this city out of all parts of India, embarking their goods for Thatta, the chief city in Sindh. Twelve or fourteen thousand camels laden yearly pass from hence to Persia by Kandhar.”

A translated extract is reproduced below from the itinerary of a Spanish traveller, Fra Sebastian Manrique who visited Lahore in 1641 AD:

“On the 21st day of our departure from Agra, at sunrise, we came in sight of the city of Lahore, which is large and spacious. It is a handsome and well ordered city, with large gateways and pavilions of various colours. I entered the city — a very difficult undertaking on account of the number of people who filled the streets, some on foot, some on camels, some on elephants and other in small carts, jotting one against the other as they went along.

“Finding it difficult to proceed on account of the concourse of people we decided to change our route and returned about a musket’s short from the crowd and took our stand under some trees outside the city, where were a number of people selling and preparing food for the multitude, who were moving about —- some eating some selling —- and others looking on. I was one among the latter and my curiosity prompted me to proceed still further, until at last I arrived at the principal bazar, where the odour from without prepared you for what you were to see inside —- a great many shops, or more properly speaking, kitchens in which were sold meats of various kinds, animals, domestic and wild.

Some shops contained fowls of all kind; in others might be seen things of all descriptions suited to the taste of all classes, such as butter, oils, scents and mangoes, etc. Neither was there wanting in this bazar the most simple commodities such as rice, herbs and vegetables. Besides what I have already enumerated, there is a great deal more to be seen in these bazars; but I think I have mentioned enough to satisfy the curious reader. But what I most admired was the moderate price at which these things might be had. A man might eat abundantly and royally for two silver reals (five pence) per day.

The abundance of the provisions and cleanliness of the streets surprised me much; also the peace and quietness with which everything was conducted, as well as the justness and rectitude of people towards each other; so that merchant and merchandise remain perfectly secure from thieves.

The city of Lahore is beautifully situated, commanding agreeable view, having on one side a river with crystal waters which descends from the mountains and continues its course moistening and fertilizing the ground, till it arrives at the city of Mooltan, where it pays its tribute to the famous Indus. Lahore, the second city of the Mughal empire, (as well on account of riches as its size) is ornamented with fine palaces and gardens, also tanks and fountains. As to the abundance of provisions, it would be unnecessary here to describe it. The riches of the principal street known as the Bazar del cocha (Bazar-i-Dil-Kusha), if shown to advantage would equal the richest European mart.”

Vajpayee’s electoral pipedream

WHEN Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s Hindu revivalist party, the BJP, was trounced in India’s politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh on February 25, 2002, it led to the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat on February 28. The result was a landslide victory for the BJP in the state polls later that year. By contrast there was no communal polarization in the BJP-ruled state of Himachal Pradesh, primarily because there are hardly any Muslims there. The BJP lost the state to the Congress.

Therefore, when Mr Vajpayee claims, as he did during last month’s election campaign for four vital state assemblies, that the BJP would win a two-thirds majority in next year’s general elections, it ought to make everyone sit up and worry. For there are only two ways in which he could conjure such an improbable victory in 2004. Mr Vajpayee was himself party to India’s first parliamentary landslide, when his Jana Sangh group deftly merged with India’s first catch all coalition, the Janata Party, cobbled together to reject Indira Gandhi’s emergency rule in 1977. That situation does not obtain for him this time round.

The second and as yet the only other landslide victory registered in India’s parliamentary polls had gone to Rajiv Gandhi, who rode a giant sympathy wave after his mother and then prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984. We have already taken into account the Gujarat model for winning landslides. Bereft of these two or three approaches to winning the kind of victory that Mr Vajpayee is eying one wonders what strategy he is banking on, given that there is little going in BJP’s favour.

The fact of the matter is that the BJP has always struggled behind the Congress party. Its percentage of total votes polled in parliamentary elections has never once surpassed that of the Congress. Take a look at the statistics, which have been gleaned from the Election Commission’s records. In 1984, when Mrs Gandhi was assassinated, her son got 49.10 per cent of votes polled, which translated into 404 seats of the 491 he had contested. This figure hopefully will never again be repeated in Indian parliament, because it is a consequence of an unacceptable tragedy. The BJP mustered 7.74 per cent votes in 1984, giving the party just two seats out of the 224 it contested.

In 1989, Rajiv Gandhi was defeated but the Congress still managed to get 39.53 per cent of the votes, translating into 197 seats of the 510 it contested. The man who became prime minister instead after that election was Mr Vishwanath Pratap Singh. It must be the biggest irony of Indian democracy that Mr Singh’s Janata Dal party had secured just 17.79 per cent of the votes. The BJP won 85 seats out of the 225 it contested, garnering 11.36 per cent votes.

Similarly, after the mid-term polls in 1991 during which Rajiv Gandhi was killed and Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao became prime minister, the Congress formed a minority government with just 244 MPs. It had 36.55 per cent of the votes against the BJP’s 20.04 per cent. The BJP got 120 seats, about one-fourth of the total it had contested.

Take any other election since then. In 1996, when Mr Vajpayee virtually gate-crashed the prime minister’s house the BJP was woefully short of a majority. The BJP had secured 161 seats against the Congress party’s 140. But the percentage of votes secured by each told another story. The Congress had 28.80 per cent against the BJP’s 20.29 per cent. It didn’t matter much though, since it was the United Front this time that formed the government, throwing up two prime ministers in two years.

In the 1998 elections, the Congress was still ahead of the BJP in percentage terms, but barely so. The BJP secured 25.59 per cent votes, winning 182 out of the 388 seats it went for. The Congress managed just 141 of the 477 seats it fought. Since then the BJP has been resorting to every electoral trick in the book to increase its vote share but has failed miserably. The BJP’s vote share is now down to 23.75 per cent. Yes, the BJP got 182 seats against the Congress party’s dismal 114, but it was not the most popular party nor was it ever in a majority on its own.

Therefore, when Mr Vajpayee speaks of a two-thirds majority for the BJP in next year’s elections, you wonder what he could be thinking of.

VOTERS in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattishgarh and Delhi will make their choice on December 1 between the Congress party and the BJP. But regardless of who wins or loses, the electorate are having a ball — at the expense of the candidates of course. Some NGOs are asserting their right to information to probe the antecedents of the candidates, a requirement stipulated by the Election Commission. The result is scores of eye-opening confessions in the form of sworn affidavits by candidates to crimes ranging from rape charges, to robbery and extortion.

On the other hand one NGO in Delhi has brought out a compendium of idiotic policies pursued by the state government. Ever wondered why, it asks, the government spends Rs 4,461 on a cow, which is more than what it spends on a school student; why there are only 29 drug inspectors for over 5,000 retailers when the fake drug market is worth more than Rs 4,000 crore? What is the relevance of a directorate of prohibition when the department of tourism and Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation run about 200 liquor outlets?

The case of the missing glasses

A friend buys meat once a week for the family and his Persian cats. Last Sunday, in a charitable mood, he bought some beef for the stray cats that stick around his apartment block in Seaview Township. As he was feeding them, a few crows began to hover overhead. They were quite angry that he had nothing for them. He also heard the squealing of a kite flying overhead. Feeling threatened, our friend decided to beat a hasty retreat. Just as he was about to enter the apartment building he realized that he had left the car door unlocked. So he walked back towards the car. Suddenly he felt something touch his cheekbone and the vision went blurred. It dawned on him that his glasses were no longer perched on his nose. He thought that a crow must have robbed him of his spectacles. All attempts by the members of his family to look for them around yielded no result. He had an extra pair at home, so life wasn’t disrupted. Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt.

The following day he discussed the incident with someone who has a passion for ornithology. “It couldn’t have been a crow. It must have been a kite because this is the work of a predator and not a scavenger, which a crow happens to be. Also the speed and precision with which your specs were removed prove that the job was done by a kite. It swoops at an astonishing speed and takes off with the same swiftness.”

Now the question is: what would a kite do with a pair of glasses? At least two people who have studied the bird say that kites have a habit of keeping odd objects in their nests. The ornithologist who lives on the seventh floor of one of the tallest buildings of Karachi says that around November his airconditioner window becomes a kite’s nest. Last year he saw some marbles in the nest; a year earlier, there were carom pieces. To cap it all, a few years ago, he lost his topi — a kite picked it up from his head. Once bitten, twice shy, now when he goes to mosque he keeps the topi in his pocket.

School with a difference Eid means different things to different people. For 80 or so children from low-income families in the Clifton area, who study in the Garage School, Eid meant the excitement of going shopping for new clothes, shoes and accessories. Last Monday morning they all assembled in their “madam’s” apartment to receive their Eid gifts that had been neatly and colourfully wrapped in cellophane with the name tag attached.

Clean and smart, these children ranging in ages from five to twenty years sat quietly in a row waiting for the ceremony to begin. Here they were getting more than they had ever bargained for. The school which was started by Shabina, a 1971 war widow, in her garage four years ago has grown enormously. Its enrolment was 15 in 1999 and today it is 80. She started the school when her maid’s daughter was refused admission to a sewing class because she couldn’t read or write.

Now the children get informal education — which is better than what many schools provide — so that they can go on to study in regular schools. They are not charged for the tuition and books they get. Even when they move on to a regular school they continue to come to the Garage for extra tuition in the afternoon.

Fourteen of them obtained admission to Nasra School and the DHA School after having studied in the morning shift at the garage. Thanks to Shabina, sponsors have been found for them. They have become an extended family for Shabina, whose own son, a fashion designer, lives in Dubai. Her commitment to these children goes beyond the few hours they are there in the garage (which has been tastefully done up, thanks to assistance from kind donors). She gives them holistic care — they have been inoculated against Hepatitis and typhoid, one child has had surgery for a detached retina, two have had ruptured eardrums repaired, one had a gall bladder operation while another had her tonsils removed.

Their leisure and pleasure needs have also been taken care of by Shabina who arranges excursions to entertainment spots all over the city. One group went to Lahore recently.

All this is possible because of kind donors, though Shabina prefers not to accept cash. She asks those who want to help to sponsor a child’s education or provide for the salary of a teacher and so on. But the driving force behind the project is Shabina who is thrilled with the idea of transforming the lives of these young people who at one time could never have hoped for anything more than a bleak existence.

Thought for food The art of cooking can mean big business in this city. Lots of people, mostly women, take up a cooking course to improve traditional home cooking and/or to learn other styles of cooking. Some women who manage the kitchen are keen to improve their cooking so as to please the family members. It is only a minority which seeks to learn the art of better cooking for a commercial end.

There are community centres that offer courses in regional and international cookery ranging from Hyderabadi to Chinese cuisine. These community centres charge only a modest fee. For as little as Rs 150 one can learn how to prepare a number of dishes such as bagharey baingan, kachay gosht ki biryani, double ka meetha and tamatar kut.

Then there are individuals who hold classes at home but who are known to charge bigger amounts of around Rs300 from each student. So if they have classes four times a week with an average of 15 students (the popular teachers get far more) per class, they would earn around Rs. 4,500 per session. Even if Rs. 1,000 is spent on the ingredients, they are left with a net profit of Rs. 3500. At that rate it would net something like Rs20,000 to Rs30,000 per month. Many cooking class experts hold morning and evening classes and have many more students. Their gross earnings can touch a far higher figure. However, not everyone can manage a schedule that would mean attending late afternoon or early morning cooking classes. For them, the television is a cheaper option. Several gourmet cooks teach on the screen you to prepare delectable dishes in a matter of half an hour. But their daily repertoire is limited and the viewer may dislike certain ingredients and decide not to try out the dish in the end.

Perhaps the best way to go about acquiring quality recipes is to collect food magazines and cookery books. There are several second-hand bookshops in the city where these are available for a fraction of the original price. Leafing through these can be an engrossing experience as one comes across many recipes from all over the world. There are also recipe books that have illustrated step by step guides to teach the uninitiated the difference between basting and broiling. Considering that many expert cooks base their menus on the recipes in these books, it would be worth one’s while to acquire a few and learn cooking by trial and error.

Too many people Crowds of Eid shoppers at various shopping centres in the city unnerved a colleague who had to procure for himself a new dress for the religious festival. One day he rolled up his sleeves, gritted his teeth and ventured into a teeming shopping locality in downtown Karachi.

As the poor fellow navigated the incredibly congested passages of the Zainab market in Saddar, carefully avoiding brushes with the opposite gender for fear of receiving a loaded handbag to the face or the meaty blows of a chivalrous passer-by, the gentleman claimed that he was sure obstacle courses for special services commandos were easier than this.

Tired of getting jostled around, he quickly bought what he needed and beat a hasty retreat. As he returned home and settled down, he resolved that next time round he would head towards the markets a month before any festival.

— By Karachian

Singson’s film depicts Filipino politics

MANILA: His life in politics had read like the script of a silver-screen blockbuster — intrigue, assassination attempts and a scandal that brought down a president.

So it seemed only natural for Luis “Chavit” Singson to make it into one.

The four-hour epic “Chavit” has just hit Manila’s cinemas, telling the story of the real-life hero, a former provincial governor whose allegations that Joseph Estrada creamed profits from gambling syndicates led to the president’s downfall in 2001.

The movie, reportedly the most expensive in Philippine cinema history, romps through the defining moments of Singson’s life in the northern province of Ilocos Sur, including multiple attempts on his life and his whistleblower role in the Estrada scandal.

Manila’s cinemas are not the only place where the lines between politics and entertainment are blurring as the country heads into crucial elections next May.

In the real world, the country’s answer to Arnold Schwarzenegger has just announced his candidacy for president, based on little more than his success against bad guys on film.

Wearing dark glasses and wiping away tears of emotion, 64-year-old action star Fernando Poe Jr told reporters after the announcement of his candidacy on Wednesday he was responding to a clamour from his fans.

“I went around the Philippines and I saw what the people need,” said the actor, whose roles as a Robin Hood-style underdog won him a strong following among the country’s millions of poor. “I saw the clamour, I cannot turn my back.”

He did not detail any policies. As yet, he doesn’t have any.

The early favourite to be Fernando Poe Jr’s running mate is a photogenic woman who won a Senate seat thanks largely to her pulling power as a TV broadcaster.

Administration officials have tut-tutted at Poe’s utter lack of political experience, unless you count his close friendship with Estrada, himself a movie hero of the masses.

But claiming the moral high ground is tricky for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo given her apparent attempts to get Noli de Castro, a TV newsreader with a few years in the Senate behind him, to join her ticket. Independent contender Raul Roco has also been quick to surround himself with showbiz glitz.

BEHIND THE GLITZ: The invasion of politics by celebrities makes for great headlines, and the Philippines is not the only country to let fame go to its head. Italy had La Cicciolina, a buxom porn star who won a seat in parliament, and the United States survived the presidency of former actor Ronald Reagan.

But many believe it is a symptom of deep problems.

They see democracy in the Philippines as deformed by a huge rich-poor divide and a lack of strong grass-roots political parties that would help produce policy-driven debate.

Instead, politics is reduced to harvesting as many votes as possible at election time and celebrity has proven the best tool.

“The rigging of the presidential selection process by both the administration and the opposition leaves the people very little choice except those selected by elite political fixers,” the Philippine Daily Inquirer said in an angry editorial.

“When things go wrong after the polls, voters find themselves holding the bag in this con game called celebrity politics.”

—Reuters