Unsettled

A bullet hits home in Pindi.
A criminal is dead.

Hours later, Karachi burns;
not with the grief of the masses,
but with the rage of the impoverished:
daily frustrations, otherwise unheard
in the concrete corridors of power.

In Karachi the dust does not settle,
but implodes in flames and
midnight cries of laughter
and looting,
colorful buses burnt
to black skeletons,
cycles snatched
and set alight:
an orange offering of anger
reaching up
in the midnight sky.

Even at dawn,
the dust cannot settle, but
must be broken, the dead
must be buried
while the earth is warm,
while mothers and widows can
mourn in open grounds,
before the military marches in,
under screaming sirens that drown out
the sound of their sorrows.

In Defence the streets are silent.
Our breath is held
behind locked doors,
our gates protected
by armed guards,
our ears deaf
with the comfort of distance.

Across the bridge,
tires send up smoke stacks like
rubber sacrifice,
attracting buzzing mobs:
men in cheap sandals
and second-hand sweaters,
men who smell like days without water
and nights in tattered blankets.

Tonight they smell singed.
Tonight they carry the fire inside them,
and blood on their hands.

And so it spreads, the
sickness of the disenchanted,
the song of broken glass and gunfire,
a war waged against concrete and
steel.
Banks are burned down by
men who have been looted of dreams
by birth.
Tomorrow, their brothers
will bury their own.

In Karachi, the dust does not settle
until scores are rudely settled with
an indifferent system, where
"Roti, Kapra, Makaan"
remains a fraudulent promise.

The tragedy...

I don't even know how to begin.Bhutto's assassination has shocked the entire world! : ((
I've been glued to the news channels on tv ever since the news came out and the more it sinks in,the worse it feels.Just wanted to know if you guys are all ok...especially the Karachi people?I'm feeling extremely forlorn right now so i'll leave it at this.Please do pray for Pakistan(as I'm sure you all must already be doing).Take good care..

Book Cover

I agree. Let OUP handle it.

Nothing Prepares You

You may be wearing sexy underwear,
and have exfoliated your skin
to a healthy, vibrant glow.
You may look younger than your age
and have quit cigarettes,
again.

You may have learned to stop thinking too much
after years of feeling too little,
and have written a new manifesto
with new rules for a balanced life
that also includes pleasure,
and friends,
and time for shared moments

to stretch
before passing.

You may quit your job and
find your life again, and
paint your room mango orange,
and call it an early midlife crisis
and promise you would never, ever
live like that again.

But nothing prepares you
for that awkward call,
an apologetic warning
of bad news

and the buzz that fills
the silence in the line.

So you hold your breath
and sit down,
remembering that

you said goodbye too casually,
smoked that joint hesitantly,
refused dinner
politely
because you were too busy
with work.

A Message for Sarah

Dear Sarah,

I only recently read your response to the poem I posted last month. To me, writing has always been my naked space for disclosure, a chance to share a moment, real or imagined, with another person, who can then come away feeling something new, or knowing something...like sharing a secret with a stranger, or confession in a church never visited before. That the impression remains longer than the words are read across the page is more than a writer can ask for...but that my words have been of help to you in trying moments (even if just as a voice of empathy) is a greater purpose than I have ever imagined my writing to serve. Thank you. You give me reason to continue to capture and share.

Love,
Umbreen

What About...

"Voices and Visions" as a title

The Final Book Title Post (we swear!)

Book Title

1. voices of the indus
2. we stand together, we speak together, we write together
3. Once upon a time, from the heart of Pakistan..
4. the voice of the Indus
5. voices from the indus
6. the cry of the indus
7. the cry of the land
8. 20 Short stories by Top Twenty young writers on"Pakistani life: its trials and triumphs"
9. AZAD PAKISTAN
10. land of the monsoons
11. tales from the indus
12. tales of a Woe

people, i've amagamated all of our suggestions and contenders in this one post. I'd appreciate if you'd comment and choose which one you prefer (or if you have another preference). Choose more then one, we can always shortlist and scrounge the process later. Also i dont think we necessarily need a "tag line" for the anthology. anyway, go wild. all three of you.

What if we could....

Let OUP handle the cover? We are wasting quite a bit of time, for our graphic designers because they have to wait until there is a title or whatever.

In their individual standings, Osman and Jibran's work is great, but Jibran's cover, I don't feel that it goes with the theme of the book. I mean, its wonderful, it is catchy and I know I would pick it up, but I would be disappointed when most of the stories inside turn out to be serious. I would buy it expecting maybe a hearty dose of satire or humourous writing. ... I don't see Meditations of a Hari coming across in the blue-eyed ladies from Pakistan. Nor do I expect something like Thomas Merton or serious poems... even Umbreen's story was that of a rather contemporary person, but it was a serious person. As a cover, it stands well, but it does not really synchronize so well with the stories in the book.

So, instead of going around in circles, why don't we bring in professionals? OUP has had a good record for covers, and let them do the job?

Hope everyone had a Happy Eid.

more book title suggestions

hi bol people

just came up with a few titles for our publication

-voices of the indus
-singing with the voices of pakistan (this doesnt really go but anyway)
-we stand together, we speak together, we write together (was going to write 'writers for life' at the end of this one but then it was becomign too much like 'bad boys for life' from that movie :p)
-Once upon a time, from the heart of Pakistan........


and for some weird reason im also coming up with reallly old patriotic songs as suggestions as well......as in : jeevay jeevay Pakistan
ye des hamara hai
dil dil Pakistan


ummm......im realllyyyyyy sorry but i can't come up with proper translations for these except for the second one.....
trying to get something for the cover as well.....taking some help from my brother

The title

i had a title in mind :

20 Short stories
by
Top Twenty young writers
on


"Pakistani life: its trials and triumphs"

The Name of the Book

Ok people, please finalize on the book title.
I asked you people to send me pics (real pics, not existing work!), no one did. I asked for a sketch or something, no one bothered. Osman called me today and was upset at the fact that no one is actually doing anything about the book cover. I even asked you people to set up a meeting so that we can discuss about the book cover, no replies, no responses (listen, eid or exams is not an excuse that you can use for not sending responses and I told you people that this book cover thing cannot be sorted out on the net!). Even though Osman had his thesis put up, he is still calling me regularly as to what the situation is. Do you people even care what should be on the book cover (except for 'oh i like such covers, let's put that!')?
Now, the least you people can do is come up with a title and a book blurb. If you have suggestions, post it and let the whole group decide. By the way, i'm taking the 'bol' logo out, I dont think we're worthy of it. I swear, once this book cover thing is over, I'm not visiting this blog ever again (I think I can miss out on stuff like 'oh, its cold in lahore' or 'oh, so you were her friend in school'). Shees. I hope I've made my point, I've been nice and paitent for long (for God sakes, a month, and you cant even decide what to name this book???).

Lighten up

Sorry for being such a whatever but here i go again. immidiately after i posted my sketch, i realized that it was too dull to really grab a viewers attention, so i did some minor changes.

You all have seen my works and you know what to expect from me. you may also be getting a feeling that me and jibran are working in different directions, diversity of course isnt bad, if there is coordination, different people can complement each other and multiply their strengths. but coordination seems to be elusive since i am here in lahore and the other two designers are in karachi. I think now the bol group has to decide what we want for the cover, and if it requires my expertise, i may have to travel to karachi to work together with the rest of the visual makers,if not, then i definitely do not doubt the competence of the people in karachi and will let them handle it their way.

Good to be free(ish)

MY mini thesis has ended on a not so pleasant note, I didnt top. Any how i am now relatively less busy , so here is my first contribution for the book cover.

I started this one this morning(man i'm quick).

I normally dont describe my images at length but i will make an exception today. just in case you were wondering what this pretty picture has to do with the cover of a book related with women in Pakistan, well first of all the motif on the bottom is that of tie and dye , a tecnique normally used for dupattas. the image becomes more three dimentional and animated as the eye moves up , with the individual forms becoming more expressive than just being uniform shapes on a two dimensional plane and the environment itself also has a sense of direction of light.so in a symbolic way it is related with women , pakistan , tradition , modernity,and the bol group. I hope that i am making enough sense here, and that you like it.
I have also tried to make this image softer and more subtle, unlike my personal works, which are normally more dark and rough edged in terms of the visual language.
since you all havent seen my works, i will also take the liberty of displaying some of the digital works from my ill fated mini thesis. 'an average human male' is an image created by overlapping line drawing portraits of 20 different guys, of different ages and having different facial proportions , facial hair , hair and clothing styles.

concept art and stills from the animation 'memories of a messed up mind' (i know the name needs a bit more working on). You saw some of my recent works. there were four more works, but i foolishly didnt doccument them , dismantling one installation and losing it without much to show now. i didnt like losing.

I will encourage participation from the rest of the group in the form of comments over the image i have come up with (the one that is first from the top)and will hopefully try to come up with more in the days to come. not always sure when that happens.

The asthetics behind a book cover

hmmmm.......please people, dont take this the wrong way but I dont think you people have even the vaguest idea of what kind of book requires which kind of aesthetics. I am not trying to make myself superior or anything (heaven forbid!) but not every book can have a your favourite pic or design on it.

For example, tariq ali's novels required a subtle, aesthetically soothing pic because the text required it. But his non-fiction work (e.g The clashes of fundamentalism) required a photo-collage/ graphic illustration because he tackled a more modernist/traditional issue. So, now that we understand this, it is not logically possible for a graphic designer to put on cover what he finds pleasing.

Since we are just throwing ideas: this is what I had in mind before Gibran's work. I guess I associate most reading with pleasure reading, so I find this image rather soothing...and it doesn't give away too much about what I might find inside...which is something I like.... and if I was in a bookstore, I would pick it up because it doesn't label what the content might be... :) We of course cannot take this image, its a picture of Duluth...and I don't know the photographer...but I was wondering if Osman and Gibran or Sehba could create something like it...

Hello!

Apologies for such a delayed post, there was a mix-up with the email addresses and i only just got the blog invite delivered to my inbox :)

Let me start by updating with lahore, its grown deliciously nostalgic and cold in the past few nights, and i woke up with a extremely cold pillow today. the kids at university huddle together in groups, blow into their hands from time to time, or drift off lazily to scourge the canteens for chai and samosas. it's a great time for nazia and zohaib songs, and a bad time for electricity outages - we get both. the city has been sealed off i read today, to shake off the smugglers who've been sneaking atta (prices at an all-time high, 24-26 rs per kg) outside the city. we have the occasional winter drizzles (khin-khin in urdu), permanently cold hands, and much bigger smiles (ten day holidays right around the corner!!)

now back to this business of our wonderfully rebellious BOL. It's great that we're all coming together to figure out the design and title for the anthology, but we should perhaps embark on the next chapter of our existence?

We are twenty highly creative and strong minds (twenty-two including norman and ms. amra :)) and like someone stated in one of the earlier group discussions; with ability comes responsibility (or was that spiderman? ;)) We need to start somewhere. We have opinions, suggestions, complaints and we need to convey these to a wider audience.

Perhaps we can start by submitting prose, poetry, op-ed pieces in local newspapers? These could be socially responsible pieces? Or political pieces? (everybody seems to want to make a political statement nowadays though)

Perhaps we can pull some connections (a few of us are in the media) and try to have a weekly column in a newspaper where a different member can write each week- on whatever important thing they want to say-

Or maybe we could work on a magazine? something bi-annually? or quart-annually?



What do y'all say? What is it that we must do next?

Jibran's Work for the book cover

I am here.

As I had previously written, I am too busy with my final exams, which will end tomorrow , after that , there is our mini-thesis jury on 17th, after which i will be relatively free and my services will be avalable in whatever way they are needed. I am good at creating images (digital and manual) from scratch, or manipulating photos. I spoke with Sehba and she will also be helping us out with the designing, as soon as her exams are over. But it is more important to first come up with a title. Even if not so, i will start posting in sketches, as soon as i get the time. Believe me guys, i have way too many things going on right now ,so i honestly didnt get time to contribute anything, but i have been viewing the blog regularly and had been in contact with OUP and forwarded the specifications for the book cover to Jibran and Sehba. And as you people havnt really seen my works i will also try to post images of my works from the mini thesis, just to give you an idea of the kind of stuff i do. and what to expect.

The Book cover

Can please someone give me some suggestions as to what kind of book cover you people would prefer:

1) A graphic illustration
2) A Photographic
3) A text-based

or any medium you have in mind. And also, please tell me what should we depict on the cover i.e a potrait of a girl or woman or something more symbolic i.e a mendhi on girl's hand or something? Where are the graphic designers from our group? And where's Usman? Please reply asap.

Title for story

i know its kinda late but...........i just realized....i didn't give a new title for my story .....and i have nooooo idea what to give to it if at all i do decide to change it :S

When Confronted with Pain

When confronted with pain, he
shuts down,
locked up,
a self-combusting island
finding freedom in movement, and
just enough breathing space in freedom
to let go and return with a
satisfying “I’m sorry.”

But I,
I want to speak,
to break through the silence with
words, reasons and explanations that
eventually give way to blame.

I want him to hurt too.

And so I cut him out of my heart,
like my sister
because he shares her carelessness,
or my father’s anger.

Gingerly discarded, he’s placed
where my heart cannot reach him,
next to failed expectations,
weepy talks with God and
elusive dreams.

Broken spectacles.
A child slapped.
Baby teeth that flew across the room
and landed
next to blue plastic ballet slippers.

The ones my father thought were ugly.
The ones my sister stole from me.
The ones that I hoped would make me famous.

Left untended,
ignored and soon forgotten
he becomes another
dirty, discolored memory.

Can you stop colors from fading, or
cotton from fraying?
What is understood in a moment
lives its course, with increasingly
difficult apologies and distant
“I love you’s” until one day,
like every other love undone, he will
disappear into a heavy iron chest
of failed moments
and forgotten passions.

Bol-Group famous in Germany

He Bol-People

this week my text on the workshop appeared in DIE ZEIT.
check it out at http://www.zeit.de/2007/50/Workshop-Pakistan

So the Bol-Group is known now even outside the borders of the land of Pakistan. The Germans are curious: what will Bol do next??

Norman

What is going on with everyone? Sana has left for Hajj... I just got rid of my exams. :) Why aren't the people from Lahore and Islamabad (Iram!) more active on this blog? Not that the people from Karachi are either, but:) anyway.


Read any nice books lately? Any suggestions for movies? And Rayika, my cousin was your classmate at Lyceum. She recognized you in the pictures:) And Tooba, :) another cousin of mine recognized you from St. Pats. You never told me that. Why didn't you? We could have talked about Ryer:))))))))) and I hope he's not on your "People I adore" list.

Hope everyone is doing well. Have fun this winter, and enjoy all the end of the year festivities!:)

The Indus thesis

It was nice of Ambreen to remember the thesis. But anyway, I'll brief you through the details.

On Friday, dec 7, (the thesis day) there are two elements of display:

1) The graduating batch's final thesis's. This was their final project as they will be graduating tommorrow (i.e saturday, convocation day). So their work is on display that is the communication dept, Fine art dept, Textile dept etc. Its worth checking out.

2) My group (i.e the 3rd year communication dept) is also having their thesis’s display which is called a 'mirco-thesis'. It is basically to prepare us for the mini and the final thesis.

Our "micro-thesis" project details:
Our project was to revamp an existing pakistani company or firm (it could also be some imaginary company), and redesign their mode of communication. This could mean anything from changing their logo, manual, signage, press ads, TVC anything. We could also choose our own set of location e.g KU, Bandar road, a local bus stop etc etc. Apart from all this, we could also promote ourself as a graphic designer to the global (or pakistani) market. So, there were three elements to choose from:
1) an existing pakistani company or firm
2) An imaginary pakistani company
3) promoting ourselves through our profession (i.e a graphic designer)

I chose the second option. I created the first ever pakistani comic book publishing house (e.g DC comics, Marvel etc). It is named "batin-e-vojood" which means "the inner existence (of the world of comics)". My aim was not just to represent the company or its comics but to create such an illustrative style which complements not only the western form of illustration but also the eastern (i.e miniatures, textile, fine art etc). These two different styles of illustration led me to create a new and distinctive form of "pakistani illustration". It led me through this whole research of figures, postures, proportions etc to integrate and illustrate my own style of illustration.
I hope this all isnt confusing and it would be really nice if you could visit on friday (tommorrow) at around 2 or 3 pm. For those of you who havent been to indus, it will be nice experience for you as you might want to think twice before visiting it the next time! just kidding, really.

And now what...

I am guilty of moving on.

I am guilty of immersing myself in the madness that is my life, getting caught up in the endless list of things to do, the daily war with traffic and deadlines. I sat yesterday with this blog in front of me, immobile. We are like fish who have lost their home...like water that begs to be contained. Rayika says we blazed with love and longing. I want to know who put out the fire.

A few nights back Sadaf and I went to a gathering of Karachi's old school literatti: an unspoken familiarity sat between those who stayed until the end of the evening. I wondered about us in a few years. Where will be after the book has been written? Will we hold on to monthly meetings like high school reunions, where we recall the past that hangs between us? I thought reminiscing was left for the old...young people should be busy making memories, not sharing them.

I find comfort in knowing that we will never be far from each other. Pakistan is highly incestuous. You are separated from everyone through six degrees of love, hate, partying, sex and work.

And the Bol group? Are we just black words printed on a flat white page? Can we move on? Will we grow? Can we arrange evenings in cafes to gather and read or perform and share and carry the buzz back into everyday life? Or are we just ashes on grass, separated by self imposed distance and time?

Hmmmm......

Jibran's class has a mini-thesis up on Friday the 7th. I will be at Indus until late in the afternoon, working on an article. It would be lovely to meet there.

back in germany

he bol-people

i am back in the land of cold, and miss you all.

very curious about the book-cover!!

and those of you who havent sent in their edited stories: please do so asap. thanks.

all best,

norman

the cover image

Well, we the folks at the nca have final exams starting in less than a week from now so i at least have my hands full right now, i havnt even consulted with sehba about the cover page yet, and havnt gotten any reply from OUP about the queries i sent them regarding the dimensions of the cover page, why dont we first decide the title and what kind of an image we want (good way to buy some more time, haha).

Ponte city

I read "Ponte city" last night (in one sitting!).

Have any of you read it yet? We can share our comments on this particular blog.

His writing style reminds me of Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene and Ingeborg Bachmann put together. I found his irregular (yet experimental) narrative style very interesting but I found his characters to be banal and uninviting. I personally thought that the first half of the book is much more interesting than the other. Lucy almost disappears in the second half of the book and the focus sets on Kraner (pity as I found lucy to be much more three dimensional than Kraner). I loved the way he drove his story and the gritty noir surroundings. As I said earlier, his narrative and surroundings are much more well rehearsed than his characters. I see Meville's films have had an important influence on him as his noir narrative always used to simultaneously focus on two or more protagonists.

But why the title 'City of Gold' (in German) or why 'Ponte city'? I thought the title 'Tower of Babel' suits it better. By the way, the book is very badly translated (some sentences have been literally translated from German!) with grammatical errors (unless they were intentional).

But what kept my interest in the book? The experimental narrative. It kept me on the edge of my seat as to where the author would lead us to now. I wish I could've read his earlier books before so I might have accurately reviewed this book. But I have to admit, Norman can now look back at his three published novels and say 'atleast i've achieved something'. What's he planning next....... another fiction? On Pakistan? And can he get his other two novels translated?