defying 
norms
Gearing up for a bicycle ride
Women cannot cycle on the streets of Lahore. It's considered indecent. But can this mindset be changed?
By Sabahat Zakariya
Picture the scene: A handful of men and women plying the Lahore roads on a leisurely Sunday. Nothing all that unusual about it you would say, until you were told that those men and women are on bicycles. Men of a certain background in society are almost as rare a phenomenon on city streets as are women and Critical Mass, Lahore tries to break these taboos every single lazy Lahori Sunday.

MOOD STREET
Jolly volley
By Aziz Omar
There is a serious dearth of fun-filled activities in Lahore. For a typical Lahori, much of the sporty/fitness action is limited to the initial part of their lives, mostly in their school, college and university years. Yet as soon as one dons those ridiculous convocation robes and headgear and gets hold of the terminal degree, it's bye bye frolicking and hello couch/seat potatoing. Come office life and one starts chugging tea/coffee like their life depends on it and snaking on pizzas, biryani and burgers like it's going out of style.

Town Talk
Exhibition of Paintings by Risham Syed to open on Oct 27 at Rohtas Gallery.
Miniature Art Show at Revivers Galleria till Sat, Oct 31. The gallery remains open from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Address: 84-B 1, Ghalib Road, Gulberg 3
Exhibition titled 'Coding Decoding' at Gallery 39K till
Tue, Oct 27. Works of various artists will be on display.

exams
The pink answer sheet
A-level students who took medical college admission test expose the follies in the system
By Haneya H. Zubairi
'Government Medical Colleges of Punjab' -- this nomenclature seems a little unapproachable to the products of the British system of education, that is the A-level students of Pakistan.

Community spirit
A small community of poor people makes time for a happy musical reunion
By Waqar Gillani
Samson Salamat, an active member of the Christian community based in Kot Kamboh Khurd, an underdeveloped locality of the provincial capital, invited a few friends and some local musicians over to his place last week. The purpose, with which he surprised his guests, was to announce the apprenticeship of his three children with Ustad Arif Ghauri, a musician in his late 40s who had been teaching music to Samson.

 

defying

norms

Gearing up for a bicycle ride

Women cannot cycle on the streets of Lahore. It's considered indecent. But can this mindset be changed?

By Sabahat Zakariya

Picture the scene: A handful of men and women plying the Lahore roads on a leisurely Sunday. Nothing all that unusual about it you would say, until you were told that those men and women are on bicycles. Men of a certain background in society are almost as rare a phenomenon on city streets as are women and Critical Mass, Lahore tries to break these taboos every single lazy Lahori Sunday.

Like many girls my age I had enthusiastically bicycled around my small colony as a young child but as I grew to two digit numbers by way of age, quietly hushed tones and glances made me retreat into non-cycling mode for the rest of my life. It was simply not considered decent for girls to do anything that would detract from single-mindedly following the path to domestic felicity, and since cycling did not in any way seem to contribute to that directly, it had to be chucked away.

Ironically though, women from an older generation faced less social stereotypes in this regard. We have all heard stories of aunts and other older female relatives who cycled down the Mall Road and made their way to Kinnaird College on a bicycle. But somehow, somewhere things changed. Women slowly disappeared from the public space and seeing them out and about on city streets became a rare phenomenon. When asked about this, my mother told me that she used to bicycle every day from her village to main Sialkot city to attend her Bachelors classes at her college during the '60s and never faced harassment or even raised eyebrows.

Critical Mass, therefore, is a God sent in a social environment where defying norms is always best done with a bit of prudence and temperance. So having heard of Critical Mass from a friend, one fine Sunday morning I stashed my borrowed bicycle in the trunk of my car and set off towards Zakir Tikka, the starting point for the Critical Mass rides. It was a relief to see that some other brave women had also showed up with their bicycles and were willing to be a part of the phenomenon. That first ride proved that there was far less cause for apprehension than I had first imagined.

There was surprisingly little harassment on the roads and though people certainly did look up and stare, none of the women felt threatened. It may be because more than the gender-divide it is the class divide that plays out in this case. Upper middle class looking women on bicycles, surrounded by men, seem to inspire enough shock and awe to stun onlookers into silence. Hence unsurprisingly, my most conservative comments have come from men of an upper social strata who have expressed distaste at the idea of women daring to reclaim public space, frowning upon their courage to reveal that having fun and feeling their limbs lose and free is their undeniable right.

In fact bicycling can prove to be a great boon for women of poorer backgrounds. Once the streets are made safe for them by ensuring both male and female police, people do their duty in curbing harassment, these women can save a great deal of money while commuting from one house to another in order to earn their meagre wages. It might also help dissuade the culturally accepted mode of women sitting side-saddle on motorbikes, which is unsafe and dangerous by all standards.

Cycling, for me, has led to all sorts of adventures. From a gruelling six-hour trek to Jallo Park and back to shouting down the PM's motorcade in protest for blocking the main city roads for hours. It has also helped forge many new friendships since cycling helps one interact with one's environment as well as other people in an entirely new way.

Lahore is the ideal city for bicycling, what with its wide, tree-lined boulevards and a history of cultural leadership. Imagine it being flooded with men and women of all types riding on bicycles, lessening the city's smog and giving its roads a refreshing sense of civility and fair play. Women, let's ride the wave and change the cityscape.

 

Bicycle capital

A reader Soban Khan has sent us a web link about a city where bicycle is the most popular vehicle. Text follows:

The bicycle, also named 'Leeze', is the most commonly used means of transport in Münster. A daily total of more than 100,000 people are on the road by bike, and there are twice as many bicycles as residents, namely 500,000. Those who want to experience the true Münster feeling should therefore get on the bike.

Münster is Germany's bicycle capital. Hardly any other city is furnished with such a well developed network of bicycle tracks and so many offers all around the bike. The car-free ring around the city centre is unparalleled in Europe. Here, on the promenade, bicyclists are given the green light.

There are as many as two bicycle stations in Münster that allow for the bikes to be parked securely. With its 3,500 parking places, the bicycle station at the main station is the largest one in Germany, offering a repair service, a bike rental, and even a bicycle washing plant alongside with the parking places! It comes as no surprise that Münster was awarded the title of "most bicycle-friendly city in Germany" several times already.

Whoever wishes to get to know Münster by bicycle is provided important tips and information here from a list of the bike rental stations to detailed sightseeing tours. You can even do a bicycle tour along the bicycle highlights of Münster.

You'll get through Münster comfortably riding on the quiet and safe paths. And from here, dedicated signposts will guide you trips into the region. Be it the Route of 100 Castles, bicycle trips on the trail of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff or all along the new EmsAuenWeg (Path of the Ems Meadows) you'll always be guided well.

 

http://www.muenster.de/stadt/tourismus/en/city-of-bikes.html

 

 

MOOD STREET

Jolly volley

By Aziz Omar

There is a serious dearth of fun-filled activities in Lahore. For a typical Lahori, much of the sporty/fitness action is limited to the initial part of their lives, mostly in their school, college and university years. Yet as soon as one dons those ridiculous convocation robes and headgear and gets hold of the terminal degree, it's bye bye frolicking and hello couch/seat potatoing. Come office life and one starts chugging tea/coffee like their life depends on it and snaking on pizzas, biryani and burgers like it's going out of style.

I have personally tried to sustain a physically demanding routine by regularly lifting weights in the gym and a short jog on the track every now and then. However, the hours of slogging it away take their toll on you and I start feeling like a gerbil running in an exercise wheel. Seriously, what kind of a workout session is it if you start yawning while trying to squeeze out that extra ounce of strength in pushing up that barbell.

Of late I have become part of a motley group of people who get together a couple of times a week solely for the purpose of playing volleyball. Rather than having to procure memberships of clubs by coughing up hefty sums of money, the games are played out in courts created in lawns or courtyard of the houses of some of the players.

As these are all night sessions, the people typically come after having an early dinner around 9.30 pm. And as most of the participants are married couples, they most probably attempt to put their kids to sleep before coming to play, what with the sessions often extending past midnight.

The games are played in a manner so as to give each attendee a chance to play after every one to three games, depending on the flow of people on any given day. Also as the players of each team on either side of the court rotate their positions after every change of serve, each team member is able to experience the game play from various vantage points.

As a number of the players, including myself, are still in their learning phase, the more experienced try to compensate for the gaps in their line of defense by bouncing the ball amongst each other for the customary three times till it goes over the net. Of course this strategy earns a couple of points here and there, it leaves the struggling players with few chances of 'picking' the ball. And so when the ball does come their way naturally, they juggle with hesitation and putting in extra effort in bumping the ball. Nonetheless, the sheer unexpectedness of the game keeps the players, as well as the spectators (which are usually the ones anxiously waiting for their turn to play) considerably involved in lively atmosphere.

Though the volley sessions are currently entirely recreational in nature (during Ramazan there was a tournament with prizes and sponsorships and everything), official rules are still followed with someone or the other acting as the referee. Hence most instances of possibly touching the net whilst spiking or those of 'carrying' the ball draw a lot of arguments from each side. And then in other situations the members of the same team bicker amongst themselves. This is generally over who should have hit the ball depending on who called 'mine' and who didn't and why didn't he or she if they should have...

Volley ball is an inexpensive sport to play, given that you have a 60 feet by 30 feet space (with some extra space on all sides also as you don't want to go crashing into any walls or trees) a net and a couple of balls costing a few hundred rupees. Of course in our case, the hosts having generators also helps with powering the lights during load shedding blackouts. But volley still makes for an ideal activity to bring together strangers to interact with each other whilst expending some un-needed stored energy in the process.

 

Town Talk

Exhibition of Paintings by Risham Syed to open on Oct 27 at Rohtas Gallery.

Miniature Art Show at Revivers Galleria till Sat, Oct 31. The gallery remains open from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. Address: 84-B 1, Ghalib Road, Gulberg 3

 

Exhibition titled 'Coding Decoding' at Gallery 39K till

Tue, Oct 27. Works of various artists will be on display.

 

Music: All Pakistan Music Conference in collaboration with Lahore Arts Council, has organised a classical music programme at Alhamra Hall 3, The Mall on Tue, Oct 27 from 5 pm to 9 pm.

 

Concert: A Folk and Light Classical Music concert will be held at Bagh-e-Jinnah open air theatre on Thu, Oct 29 at 8 pm.

 

The all night programme of Folk Music, Light Classical and Classical Music at Bagh-e-Jinnah Open Air Theatre on Sat, Oct 31 at 8 pm.

 

Lahore Arts Forum has organised a discussion on 'Ustaad Data Ganj Buksh' with Dr. Rasheed Ahmad Jalandhri on Oct 29 at Model Town Library Auditorium at 5:15 pm.

The pink answer sheet

A-level students who took medical college admission test expose the follies in the system

By Haneya H. Zubairi

'Government Medical Colleges of Punjab' -- this nomenclature seems a little unapproachable to the products of the British system of education, that is the A-level students of Pakistan.

In order to enter a government medical college a student not just has to ace his entrance exam but also receive high grades. A student who gets straight A's in his O' and A' level receives F.Sc equivalence of mere 935 marks. Previously he had to cover the entire F.Sc syllabus in three months right after his A-level finals in order to take the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) because it was based entirely on the F.Sc syllabus.

The UHS (University of Health Sciences) took notice of it after receiving many letters from agitated students and parents and decided to take the initiative of having a separate MCAT for the A-level students. It was indeed a milestone achieved in the history of UHS as justice was finally chronicled to the ever-complaining A-level students. They had finally gained recognition.

But sadly that wasn't the happily-ever-after of their fairy tale, seems like their curse from the wicked witch hadn't completely left.

When Syedda Batool Abbass went to take her MCAT she was the only A-level student at her centre. The answer sheets for the question paper were colour coded so as to differentiate between the A-level and F.Sc. The A-level students had the pink answer sheet. The centre wasn't prepared for the A-level answer sheet because of which Batool had to wait for a very long time before she could start her exam on the pink answer sheet. She wasn't given any compensation for the time lost.

At the same time another student sitting at a different centre was being tortured by the fact that the invigilating staff couldn't find the correct colour for her answer sheet and was instead giving her brown and then red instead of pink. They wasted good 30 minutes of the examination time. That was the reason that she couldn't score well on the MCAT and now her only appeal to the UHS is to change the system of equivalence so that others like her don't suffer. She doesn't feel the need of a quota for A-level students but feels that despite the separate MCAT equivalence system should be improved so that A-level students can get admission into a government medical college.

Maria Tanveer had to go through more or less the same experience; she was given 10 minutes of extra time in the end but says, "I couldn't concentrate well on the exam as the invigilators were not maintaining decorum in the hall."

Anum Khan and Sheryar Afzal felt that the questions were more concept based than memory based. These conceptual questions require more time and especially when it comes to physics numerical questions; they require calculators. But these students were not allowed calculators despite them being allowed calculators when attempting A-level exams. "The A-level physics section had more numerical MCQs as compared to the F.Sc physics section and since we were not even allowed calculators, completing the entire physics section on time became an issue for the A-level students," says Sheryar Afzal.

Hamza Saad had to do first 90 questions on a separate answer sheet and was later given the pink answer sheet on which he had to copy those answers and was not given extra time. He suggests that A-level students should have a quota in the government medical colleges.

Mohammad Khubaib demands compensation from the UHS -- "be it in the form of quota or change in equivalence policy. But they have to compensate us in some way".

Abir Arif Syed and Tayyaab Fatima received the exam paper on time but were taken aback at the haphazard management of the invigilators. Hibba Zia said that "I couldn't find any clocks in the hall and it was difficult for many students to keep track of time." Lucky for her she was wearing a watch! Syed Mujtaba Hasnanin Nadir also received the exam paper on time and feels that despite all the odds UHS should also be credited for taking the initiative of having a separate MCAT for A-level in the first place.

Some of the students also felt that around 10-20 questions were out of syllabus. But at the end of the day the A-level students finally managed to win the right of a separate A-level MCAT.

The UHS is also looking into changing the equivalence policy in the future, a UHS official said on condition of anonymity. When the equivalence policy was introduced, F.Sc toppers would get marks around 935 and so A-level straight A students would get equivalence of 935 marks but now the times have changed, F.Sc students receive more than 1000 marks and so the A-level students should also get a higher equivalence as well.

Now that the first step has been taken lets hope that the second step is propounded soon. In a country where two systems of education are running side by side it can be a tough job for the government to provide a level platform to both. It is high time they take an affirmative action as it is the need of the hour and it is imperative to have A-level as well as F.Sc representation in the government medical colleges as they both are a part of the society.

Be it setting a quota or revising the equivalence policy; change in the status quo is essential. Also the vigilance of the invigilators at local examination centres is to be taken notice of as many complaints were not to the UHS but to the invigilating staff.

While everyone waits for the scales to weigh equal for the A-level and F.Sc students lets cross fingers for the future doctors, and wish them luck!

Muahammad Atif, the PRO at UHS said, "justice was our motive and we tried our level best to serve it. The student who topped the MCAT had 94 percent and she belonged to Southern Punjab. This goes on to show the diversity of representation in medical colleges which is only a result of transparent checking."

 

 

Community spirit

A small community of poor people makes time for a happy musical reunion

By Waqar Gillani

Samson Salamat, an active member of the Christian community based in Kot Kamboh Khurd, an underdeveloped locality of the provincial capital, invited a few friends and some local musicians over to his place last week. The purpose, with which he surprised his guests, was to announce the apprenticeship of his three children with Ustad Arif Ghauri, a musician in his late 40s who had been teaching music to Samson.

It was a small room in his house where the music lovers of the Christian community of the area squatted on mattresses with harmoniums and two sets of tablas (percussion) in front of them. Thus began the apprenticeship ceremony, called 'Ustadi Shagirdi' in vernacular.

The Christian community of the area comprises mostly people from the lower middle class and even below the poverty line, even the daily wagers and sanitary workers. Ustad Ghauri is also a worker at the City District Government Lahore (CDGL).

An avid lover of music and a choir singer, Samson told TNS he knew at least 40 such amateur singers and music lovers -- those who have even got music instruments in their homes and sing in private music events in the locality. "Being Christians we know about music from the church; singing hymns and playing harmonium and other musical instruments comes with it," he said. "I have been singing for the past 10 years now, and I hope my children will also learn the art."

Samson pointed towards his seven-and-half-year-old daughter Shannon, a student of grade III, who was trying to play harmonium in one corner of the room.

A sanitary worker, Ghauri learnt music from late Ustad Younas, another worker living in the Christian locality.

"For us music is a passion and an expression of our inner selves," said the very polite and humble, "primary-paas" Ghauri. "You can't be a good student unless you learn from the core of your heart."

Teenager Sunny, another musician in the making, is a tabla master who commutes on a bicycle to teach the instrument to a lady in Firdaus Market.

A student of 9th Grade, Shakeel Masih was also there at Samson's. His father, sitting in the room along with him, spoke about his fondness for music and said that he liked to play harmonium.

"Music is an integral part of church services," said Pola, another singer who also spoke of his association with Ustad Ghauri. "I've accompanied him for the past ten years."

Maqsood Shafi, a keen tabla player, was also present on the occasion. He revealed that his father had served at the Punjab University where Maqsood found employment as a clerk in the Institute of Administrative Sciences.

"The trend of learning music is gradually declining," Ghauri declared. "It has almost vanished at the primary-level schools. We are poor people living in this dwelling with at least 300 families. Most of us love music."

Ghauri drew attention towards Sunny, who had not had a morsel of bread from the plate lying in front of him, for an hour, just because he was in session with his teacher.

Ghauri said love of music was "creating well mannered youngsters who respect their elders and teachers".

"We also use music for social change," said Samson. He recalled how his group of friends had been doing a kind of a street theatre in the locality.

The evening came to a close with a formal ceremony of 'Ustadi Shagirdi' wherein sweets were distributed and three young students of music were introduced to the guests. They were: Solomon, 12, a Grade 7 student; Shaun, 10, a Class 5 student; and Shannon of Grade 3.

vaqargillani@gmail.com

 

 

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