Mind, heart, soul

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Reading may famously be a dying habit but the crowd at the Lahore International Book Fair seemed to be on a collective mission to prove otherwise. Sure the digital age may have drastically changed how we consume everything from news to literature, but based on the turnout at the 2024 LIBF, there is clearly no shortage of people who still love books.

The 37th edition of the yearly exhibition took place at the Expo Centre in Lahore in the first week of February, and while the weather may have been cold and the day overcast, there was still plenty of hustle and bustle at the arena on the cloudy Sunday afternoon when I visited the event. 

Not only was the book fair a chance for bookworms to find just the volume they were looking for and booksellers to reach their customers, but the five-day event gave bibliophiles the opportunity to cherish seeing like-minded people turn up in droves and show their support for printed works.

Books galore

The massive hall was filled with stalls of the various booksellers, offering everything from English content to Urdu literature. Whether you enjoy fantasy, sci-fi, romance, memoirs, real-life adventures, religious books, or anything in between or beyond, you were very likely to find something of interest among the thousands and thousands of volumes on display. 

Much of the exhibit featured new books, some imported, many expensive enough to make you wish you’d win the lottery already and remind you that life is indeed unfair.

A handful of stalls focused on the resale of old book. Among them was Old Books Collection from Karachi. Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, from the aforementioned retailer, seemed pleased with the outcome of the event. “We have a stall at the book fair every year,” he said. “This is our fifth book fair, and the result is good, MashaAllah.” The event, he explained, helped his business reach new readers and customers, and gave him the chance to meet people.

Pre-loved books may not catch everyone’s fancy, but they can be a blessing for those on a budget. Muhammad Abid Siddiqui from Siddiqui Book Centre, another old books business, pointed out their value. “We find and keep second-hand books,” he said. “The price of new books has increased because of the hike in the price of paper, and even slim volumes can cost as much as two to three thousand, so we promote second-hand books.”

Bookworms aplenty

Among the sellers of the pricy new volumes was Liberty Books from Karachi, represented at the LIBF by Rizwan Ahmad, who was more than pleased with the number of people who had turned up at the event. “It’s going really well; the response has been even better than we expected,” Rizwan enthused. He explained that Liberty Books had chosen to step away from the book fair for half a decade because of rampant piracy, and had only just made their return to the event. “We have returned after six years,” he said, “and we re-entered the book fair with limited stock. We left this because of piracy. Now Insha’Allah next years we’ll also come achay taraikay se because MashaAllah the response is very good. It’s going well.”

And while the abovementioned Siddiqui Book Centre’s Abid Siddiqui was, likewise, satisfied with the overall turnout and sees this yearly gathering as a way to help the young generation develop an interest in reading, he did have a few suggestions on how it could be even better. “Our experience here is good, but it is still not at the level that it should be,” he explained. “The reason for this is that a lot of people don’t even know about this [event], and if it was covered by the media and news of the book fair had been spread in Lahore, then even more people would have found out about it.”

Paper power

There is something so heartening about gatherings like the LIBF and how they highlight the value of books. Muhammad Hamza Gaziani, the proprietor of The Book Kingdom, emphasised just how vital this medium is. “I feel like books are very important for everyone as they increase your imagination, your knowledge, your speaking skills – [they have an impact on] each and every thing. 

“Book fairs,” he continued, “are very important so that the people who don’t really know about books can get introduced to them and [can have access to] especially those books which aren’t available online or in physical stores. Some are like mangas – Naruto, comics; these are very rare, and we are the ones who are specially keeping them.”

Azhar, a longtime employee of Readings, also expressed just how important books are for society. “Books are essential for human transformation,” he said. “If I talk about myself, I have been working for Readings for about 16 to 17 years and I feel like I have changed from the person I was back then. I have learned a lot from books. Like everything has an aura, books have their own aura. When a book is in our hands, we don’t get that much time to read but even reading the summaries, even knowing about books briefly, even that brings about a lot of changes in us. If I have changed so much in the company of books, then I feel if everyone stays attached to books, it will not only change them individually, but since individuals come together to develop society, the whole society will change and there will be a positive impact. The nation will develop and perform better.”

Happy with his experience at the LIBF, Azhar was excited to see people showing their love for books. “You can see people are participating in a good way,” he noted. “The impression we were getting that reading habits are declining and people are not drawn towards reading, that impression is being revoked here. There are people here in significant numbers, and from a business perspective, people buy books, that’s how we do business. We import books, and import a lot of books. And this is just the Lahore edition. If this is the situation in one city, then overall the situation is not bad, I feel.

“This is one event,” he continued. “There should be more events like this in a year so that more people are attached and there is even more awareness. I am not mayoos with respect to books.”

It’s such a good thing that the LIBF has given us optimism when it comes to reading, for what better way is there to nourish the mind, heart, and soul than a good book?

- By Sameen Amer

Us Magazine, The News - 16th February, 2024 *

Understanding cancer

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According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, in many countries, cancer will affect one in two men and one in three women during their lifetime. The World Health Organization estimates that the disease is responsible for nearly one in six deaths worldwide.

Those are daunting statistics. Yet most of us known little about this malady that can suddenly affect any of our lives.

To mark World Cancer Day, we spoke to renowned consultant oncologist and haematologist Dr. Muhammad Arif – the owner of the Razia Sultana Memorial Cancer and Blood Associates clinic in Lahore – and asked him about the disease, what triggers it, and how to prevent it.

Us: What is cancer?

Dr. Muhammad Arif: Cancer is a disease which involves the abnormal, uncontrolled growth of cells. It eventually becomes visible with testing or even to the naked eye. Cancer can start anywhere in the body and spread to other organs. It can be fatal if not caught and treated early.

Us: What causes cancer?

Dr. Arif: There are a number of theories regarding what causes cancer to develop.

The most widely accepted one nowadays is that the number one reason for cancer is likely to be lifestyle, which includes factors like diet, nutrition, exercise, weight, and stress. It is believed that about 60 to 70 percent of the cancer cases in the world are because of unhealthy lifestyle.

There are also some cancers that are triggered by a gene you get from your parents, but only about three to five percent of cancers in general are inherited. The rest of the cancers are incidental and sporadic.

Cancer starts when a cell changes its behaviour. Usually it starts with a mutation. But first mutation never causes cancer; the mutations accumulate over time.

These mutations are either acquired or inherited.

For instance, in our Pakistani context, we see a lot of hepatitis in the general population, which leads to a very high risk of liver cancer in those patients. In Western countries, it happens because of lifestyle; a condition known as fatty liver leads to a high risk of liver cancer.

Us: What are the most common types of cancer?

Dr. Arif: In women, breast cancer is considered the most common type of cancer. In men, it’s generally lung cancer.

Overall, the most common cancer is skin cancer – like squamous cell carcinoma or basal cell cancer – but most of the time, these are not deadly cancers; they are very easily treatable, so that’s why we don’t hear too much about them. The other skin cancer, melanoma … that’s rare, especially in Pakistan, but that’s actually a very deadly cancer.

In Pakistan, the most common cancers after breast and lung cancer are lymphomas. Then we have a lot of people with blood cancers, like myeloma. In some areas, we have a lot of cancers of the head and neck area – like tongue or mouth – especially in people who chew tobacco or smoke.

Other cancers aren’t uncommon either. We see a lot of stomach, pancreatic, and colon cancer, and liver cancer is among the most common ones in Pakistan because of hepatitis. 

Us: What are the main risk factors for cancer? You mentioned lifestyle…

Dr. Arif: Yes, the number one factor is lifestyle, which includes diet, exercise, weight, and stress.

Eating healthy and getting proper nutrition is essential. The second most important thing is probably exercise and weight management. Exercise leads to a lot of benefits – 30 to 45 minutes of brisk walk or light exercise every day, four to five days minimum per week, can reduce cancer risk by about 20 to 30 percent. So that’s recommended. Exercise also helps to maintain weight.

Third would be stress. Healthy stress, like exam stress or a little bit of competition stress, is ok. But unnecessary stresses – which have a lot of impact on your overall health – should be avoided.

Sleep is another important thing, especially in teenagers and youngsters. People who get a good night’s sleep are generally overall very healthy.

Other risk factors include – particularly since hepatitis is very common here – needle sharing. We should make sure there is no reuse of syringes and ensure that hygiene is maintained during medical procedures.

Us: What are the signs and symptoms of cancer?

Dr. Arif: Most cancers are initially silent, but when the cancer gets to a point where it starts to show symptoms, the most common symptom is a gradual decline in overall health. People might feel fatigue, tiredness; they might start to lose weight or lose appetite; they might notice a change in the colour of their eyes (which could become yellow if somebody has jaundice) or urine; they may become pale; or they might start to feel shortness of breath when they walk.
In practical terms, any symptom – from pain to a lump – which is new and persistent – more than a week or so – should be evaluated. 

Us: But many of these symptoms could suggest a different disease…
Dr. Arif: Yes, definitely. You shouldn’t be scared if you have some lump. It may be something else, like an infection or something benign. Similarly, if you have weight loss, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have cancer; some people who have thyroid disease start to lose weight. But if the symptom persists, it should be investigated to make sure it doesn’t have a serious underlying cause.

Us: How important is early detection?
Dr. Arif: Early detection is definitely the only way, at present, to cure a cancer. Cancer can be detected early through screening. When the disease has started in the body but you don’t have any symptom and cannot detect it with your eye or by examination, you do these tests, like mammogram, Pap smear, and coloscopy. If the disease is detected early – Stage I and II – and surgery is performed, a majority of the cases are curable.
Take the example of colon cancer. If you diagnose it by screening through colonoscopy that finds a small polyp in the colon and you take it out – that’s all you need, surgery – then you’re cured. About 95 percent people are cured in Stage I colon cancer. In Stage II, it drops by about 20 to 30 points. In Stage III, there’s an about 40 percent cure rate; in the rest of the cases, the disease comes back at some point. Stage IV is not curable. Very, very rarely, if somebody has very limited stage IV and it has not advanced too much, then it might be possible to control with surgery. 

Us: But screening can be expensive…
Dr. Arif: There is cost analysis on that, and if you look at the value of the test, there is a positive correlation – it is very, very cost effective instead of having the disease diagnosed at an advanced, late stage.
Treatments – medicines, surgery – are so expensive. When it’s diagnosed in early stage, most people won’t need very extensive treatments, like chemotherapies and targeted therapies; they might need just a small surgery. Compared to early disease, advanced disease will cost a lot, plus it’s not curable. If you add up these things, it’s very cost effective to do screening tests.
In women, yearly mammograms are recommended after the age of around 40 or 45. Coloscopy is recommended for both men and women who are 50 and above. In men, prostate cancer can be detected early. Similarly, cervical cancer and uterine cancer can be detected by Pap smear which is recommended for women who are married.

Us: Are there any other ways to prevent cancer, like vaccines?
Dr. Arif: Yes. There is, for instance, a hepatitis vaccine which provides almost 80 to 90 percent protection against the disease, so even if someone is exposed to the virus, it won’t cause problems like cancer and liver diseases.
In Western cultures, they recommend cervical and oral cancer prevention with a vaccine that they give to youngsters which has been shown to reduce the risk of cervical cancer.

Us: What are the treatment options available for cancer?
Dr. Arif: The classic three ways of cancer treatment are surgery (if possible), radiation, and medicines called chemotherapy.
Nowadays, there are many new advances, especially immunotherapy and targeted therapies. They are very effective in some people.
For example, five to seven years ago, people with Stage IV lung cancer survived only a year or so; now about 20 to 25 percent people survive over five years. Similarly, the survival rate for myeloma was two years on average a few years ago; now it is about eight to 10 years. 

Us: Why is there no actual cure for this disease?
Dr. Arif: By its very nature, in cancer, there are some cells that mutate all the time. Once that process starts, you treat one type of cell, it changes into a different type of cell and becomes resistant to the treatment you are using. So it continues to progress over time. Although you may be able to control it for a long time, eventually it is not possible [to stop it].
Still, there are, say, on average about 30 percent people who are cured of their cancer. It’s getting better – from zero percent to 30 percent – but there’s obviously still a long way to go.
We are hoping that cancer eventually becomes a chronic disease, like other incurable conditions such as diabetes and heart disease; people get long-term treatment for it, but it is no longer an automatic death sentence. That will be a great success, I think.

Us: Do you have any recommendations for the readers?
Dr. Arif: I would say that prevention is probably the best strategy. Be proactive about your health – think about your well-being, make sure what you put in your body is not harmful, do not abuse your body, exercise, sleeping well, avoid unnecessary stresses. Don’t get exposed to risk factors which you can avoid, like hepatitis, unnecessary radiation exposures, unnecessary medications.
The next best strategy is that when you are in the appropriate age range, get screening done so that even if you develop cancer, it is caught early, treated promptly, and you hopefully get rid of the disease for good.

- By Sameen Amer

Us Magazine, The News - 2nd February 2024 * 

In case you missed it

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If you didn’t get the chance to read these books last year, now might be a good time to catch up!

Fiction

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Inspired by Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Ann Napolitano’s latest novel Hello Beautiful tells the story of family, love, and loyalty through the tale of the tightknit Padavona sisters, who embrace an introverted guy with a negligent family after he becomes involved with one of them. But their close familial bond is tested when a tragedy strikes and threatens to pull them apart.

A sad, emotional drama, Hello Beautiful was a book club favourite last year, and also has Oprah’s seal of approval.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

A white writer takes a recently-deceased Chinese American author’s manuscript and tries to pass it off as her own in Yellowface, a treatise on authenticity, racism, and cultural appropriation in the publishing industry and beyond.

When literary darling Athena dies in a freak accident, her struggling contemporary June steals the former’s just-finished masterpiece and sends it to her agent, rebranding herself as Juniper to release the plagiarized book. Will she manage to keep her secret, or will she be exposed as a fraud?

Yellowface explores weighty themes, its commentary wrapped in dark satire, as it tells the tale of its very flawed protagonist and a fiercely competitive industry.

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Sixty-year-old tea shop owner Vera Wong gets a chance to put her amateur sleuthing skills to the test when one morning she discovers a dead man in the middle of her shop!

Taking charge of the investigation – because of course she will do a better job than the police! – she comes up with a list of suspects and promptly decides to uncover who committed the crime and why.

Filled with quirky charm, Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers makes for a fun, cozy read.

Swamp Story by Dave Barry

If you’re looking for a laugh, then pick up a copy of humourist Dave Barry’s latest novel, Swamp Story, a “caper full of oddballs” that promises to take you on a silly, zany ride.

The characters include the beautiful Jesse, who is stranded in a small cabin in the Everglades with her baby and desperate for a way out; her hunky but hapless ex Slater who dreams of being a reality TV star; business owner Ken Bortle who is trying to bolster his failing enterprise by luring tourists in with a hoax; and several other individuals of varying morality levels and intelligence.

There are mobsters and a hidden treasure, a drug kingpin and a presidential hopeful, and all kinds of mayhem, all in a story that is just as funny as it is ridiculous.

*****

Non-fiction

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

The author of Killers of the Flower Moon – a Martin Scorsese adaptation of which arrived in cinemas last October – turns his attention to the Wager Mutiny, a 1741 incident that took place after a British warship was wrecked on a desolate island.

David Grann recounts the tale of treachery and betrayal that unfolded in the wake of the accident that left a group of sailors marooned in a barren wilderness for months. Well-researched and gripping from start to finish, this non-fiction account offers complex repercussion alongside so many twists it reads like a fiction thriller.

Oh and Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have already acquired the screen rights to this book as well, so an adaptation of this too shall arrive at a cinema near you at some point in the future.

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia

If you want to live a long life for some reason – why though? – then you might want to grab a copy of Peter Attia’s Outlive, an “operating manual for longevity” that investigates aging, long-term health, and living a better life.

The Canadian-American physician dissects the science of longevity and shares personal experiences as he helps us understand how taking care of our emotional and physical health can help us ward off or delay diseases.

It may be a tad too long but the book does drive home the point that taking care of your body – through everything from exercise to proper sleep – can help improve your life so that you can live longer and healthier.

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

Acclaimed music producer Rick Rubin shares inspirational advice in The Creative Way, a study on navigating the creative process and overcoming creative hurdles.

The writer – who has worked with a varied array of artists, from the likes of Metallica to Johnny Cash – shares wisdom from his decades in the music industry and says that “creativity has a place in everyone's life, and everyone can make that place larger”.

Some might feel that it reads a little too much like lessons from Zen 101, but hey, we could all use a little bit of positive inspiration, no matter what form it takes.

The Cat's Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa by Jonathan B. Losos

Cats are awesome – that is a fact and any evidence anyone might present to the contrary is by default invalid. Jonathan B. Losos has decided to celebrate our wonderful feline overlords companions in The Cat’s Meow, a tome that explores the “past, present, and future of the world's most popular and beloved pet”.

The book takes a genial look at the history and science of cats, and details how the contemporary cat evolved from its feral ancestors and became an irreplaceable member of our households.

It may be best suited for the most ardent of animal lovers, but those who are interested in the topic will appreciate all the information that is packed in this volume.

- By S.A.

Us Magazine, The News - 19th January 2024 *

2024: through the crystal ball

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As we start another journey around the Sun, here’s a look at some of the things you can expect to watch, read, and enjoy this year.

*****

Movies

Brace yourself for a very bold prediction: franchises will rule the cinematic world in 2024. Shocking, we know!

Seriously though, most of the highly anticipated films of the year come from established IPs, as usual.

Superheroes may be losing some of their grip on the box office, but they, nonetheless, remain a prominent presence on the big screen. From Marvel’s roster, Deadpool (portrayed by Ryan Reynolds) is returning for his third venture this July, and he will be joined this time by Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. As part of Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU), Kraven the Hunter is getting his first big screen chapter in August, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson starring in the lead role. Also from the SSU, there’s an untitled Venom sequel set for November. And Dakota Johnson is set to star in the SSU’s Madame Web this February. Will it be bad? Probably. Will we watch it? Probably. Not. Probably not.

Over at DC, Joaquin Phoenix returns as the Joker and is accompanied by Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn in Folie à Deux (October).

Elsewhere, there are prequels like Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (May), A Quiet Place: Day One (June), and Mufasa: The Lion King (December), while the very long list of sequels slated for 2024 includes (but is not limited to) Dune: Part Two (March), Kung Fu Panda 4 (March), Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (March), Bad Boys 4 (June), Inside Out 2 (June), Despicable Me 4 (July), Beetlejuice 2 (September), Gladiator 2 (November), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (December), and many, many more.

*****

Music

Several popular names – including Ariana Grande, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Shakira, and Coldplay – are expected to release music in 2024, although whether their albums actually arrive this year or not remains uncertain, for the releases still lie in TBD-land.

What we do know for sure – or as sure as we can be, given how artists can tend to shift album release dates – is that the next few months will give us new records by Radiohead-spinoff The Smile, neo-psychedelic rock band MGMT, English rockers The Libertines, Canadian rock band Sum 41, and singer Sheryl Crow.

Rock band Green Day’s Saviors comes out this month. Jennifer Lopez is giving us This Is Me... Now, the sequel to her 2002 album This Is Me... Then, which will be her first studio release in a decade. And the delayed Vultures, Kanye West’s album with Ty Dolla Sign is finally expected to be unveiled this year.

Also, there will probably be another Taylor’s Version of a past Taylor Swift album. And will Rihanna finally release the follow up to 2016’s Anti? Your guess is as good as ours!

Locally, there will be singles aplenty and albums … probably not quite as aplenty? And if the gods of music really decide to smile upon us, there might be another season of Coke Studio. Until then, we’re just going to have to listen to ‘Pasoori’ about 38462517 more times … whether we want to or not!

*****

Television

Episodic content will continue to flourish in the streaming age, with new and returning series ready to take audiences on all kinds of different adventures.

Mega-series like Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and HBO’s House of the Dragon are expected to return with new seasons this year.

A couple of anthologies are releasing new seasons. These will include HBO’s True Detective: Night Country (starting in January) and FX’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (also January).

We also have Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, the Disney+ series that will be part of the MCU’s Phase Five and will continue the story of Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness as she attempts to regain her powers. And Netflix’s animated Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft will find Hayley Atwell voicing the titular archaeologist as she explores new territory.

Then there’s the Batman-offshoot The Penguin (Max); the sci-fi prequel Dune: Prophecy (Max); the Star Wars series The Acolyte (Disney+); and the animated Marvel show X-Men ’97 (Disney+), among lots and lots of other upcoming televisual content.

On the local front, our dramas will continue revisiting the same old topics, and people will continue to watch them for some reason, giving the industry no incentive to actually make an effort and come up with something creative and inventive, although these dramas will probably have a lot of competition from political content this year, as eyes around the country are likely to be just as glued to news channels in the coming weeks, what with the country’s general elections coming up in February.

*****

Books

2024 will see the publication of books by some of the world’s most well-known novelists, including John Grisham who is giving us Camino Ghosts (May), the third book in his Camino Island series; and the prolific Stephen King who is publishing a collection of short stories, titled You Like It Darker (May).

Other highly anticipated novels come from authors including Kiley Reid (January), Kristin Hannah (February), Kelly Link (February), Emily Henry (April), Kevin Kwan (April), and the recently discovered posthumous Until August by Gabriel García Márquez (March).

On the non-fiction front, Kathleen Hanna, Cameron Russell, RuPaul, and Ghostface Killah, are among the celebrities set to release memoirs this year. Britney Spears is planning to release a second volume of her bestselling autobiography, last year’s The Woman in Me, in 2024. And controversial writer Salman Rushdie’s memoir, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, will convey his reflections on the experience of surviving the 2022 stabbing that left him with profound injuries.

Meanwhile, actor Robert Downey Jr. has worked with author Thomas Kostigen to help us reduce our environmental impact through the upcoming Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time (January). Rebecca Boyle is telling us about Earth’s only satellite in Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are (January). Charles Duhigg explores conversation in Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection (February). And Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Venki Ramakrishnan looks at life and death in Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality (March)

There will be books about love, health, wellness, the world, the multiverse, and everything in between, so no matter where your reading preferences lie, you are sure to find something that interests you and can find a place on your bookshelf this year.

*****

Sports

The world of sports will deliver the usual annual tournaments and leagues for everything from tennis to football. But the big event this year is, of the course, the Olympics.

Returning to the traditional four-year Olympiad cycle (after the one year delay in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad will be held from 26 July to 11 August, in France, with Paris serving as the main host city. This will be the sixth time the Olympics will be hosted by France (three in summer, three in winter), and marks the centenary of the Paris 1924 Olympics.

Scheduled to feature 32 sports encompassing 329 events, the 2024 Summer Games will see the participation of around 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees. Pakistan has Arshad Nadeem vying for a medal in men's javelin throw, and Gulfam Joseph and Ghulam Mustafa Bashir taking part in shooting events.

As for our favourite national waste-of-time pastime, there’s the T20 World Cup that will be held in West Indies and the United States from June to July. And Pakistan also has international tours against Ireland, England, and Bangladesh. So be prepared for a lot of cricket mania to grip the country in 2024. 

*****

- By S.A.

Us Magazine, The News - 12 January 2024 *

MMXXIII: Seriously??!!

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2023 was a wonderful year. 

The last 365 362 days saw the world come together in peace and harmony, shunning war and conflict, working to eradicate poverty and hunger, striving for economic and social equality, and focusing on embracing inner beauty and beautiful actions.

Haha, just kidding. It was a dumpster fire.

The planet was a hot mess, both literally and figuratively, as humankind continued to ruin its own home and its own existence because that’s just how smart we are as a species. Inflation and economic woes plagued some countries, actual plagues threatened to plague others. Cult mentality in celebrity worship was at an all-time high; any semblance of what is actually important in life was at an all-time low. 

The year taught us that money still ruled the world, that having said money didn’t always make people very smart, but that being born rich was still the best decision you could possibly make. 

And, perhaps most importantly, it taught us that if you ever feel a sudden urge to challenge a certain Russian fella, don’t do it. Seriously, don’t. Do some breathing exercises, light an incense, maybe draw a Zentangle or two instead, and just let it go. Leeet it go. 

January

- The rise and rise of AI: The advancing, evolving capabilities of artificial intelligence continued to garner attention, with apps like ChatGPT (which was launched towards the end of the previous year) gaining more and more traction. This inevitably led to fears of AI taking over the world. Then we looked at the state of the world and thought maybe that won’t be such a bad thing after all.

- Peshawar bombing: 84 people lost their lives in a suicide blast on 30 January in Peshawar. This was one of numerous terrorist attacks – like the Khar bombing in July that killed 63 people and the Mastung bombing in September that caused at least 60 deaths – that shook the country throughout the year. 

The world at large continued to grapple with terrorism, mass shootings, gun violence, war, and conflict. So yeah, really can’t wait to welcome our future AI overlords. May they be more benevolent than we are ourselves.

February

- Turkey–Syria earthquakes: 

Humans: Nothing can cause us more damage than we cause ourselves, can it.

Mother nature: Hold my beer.

The deadliest earthquake in over a decade led to over 59,000 fatalities – 50,783 in Turkey and 8,476 in Syria – and caused widespread damage in the region. 

And that’s not the only major seismic calamity of the year, of course. There were several other earthquakes in 2023, including a 6.8 magnitude tremor that struck western Morocco in September (2,960 casualties), and a 6.3 magnitude triplet quake in western Afghanistan the following month (over 1,000 casualties).

- High-altitude object events: Like something out of really lame science fiction, mysterious flying objects appeared in different parts of the world (but mostly the Americas); some of them were shot down by the U.S. Air Force. They were either Chinese spy balloons or confused aliens stunned by the wreck of a planet they had stumbled upon, unable to process how any civilization can be this level of stupid.

- 65th Annual Grammy Awards: Former One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles beat the likes of Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar to win the Album of the Year award for Harry’s House because not everything in life must make sense, then proceeded to proclaim that “this doesn’t happen to people like me very often”, what with British white men famously being such an overlooked, downtrodden class.

March

- The Eras Tour success: From her massively popular concert tour to the release of re-recordings of her albums (not to mention the drama surrounding her relationships with Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy, and Travis Kelce), private-jet-overuser Taylor Swift dominated pop culture in 2023, proving once and for all that there is no limit to what rich white people can achieve if they just put their white privilege mind to it. But hey, at least it was a woman this time? #ThatsOneSmallStepForARichWhiteWoman…

- 95th Academy Awards: The Oscars, meanwhile, weren’t so white for a change. The night belonged to the wonderful Everything Everywhere All at Once, a film that left us with a heart full of absurdist joy and a craving for bagels. The movie took home seven trophies, including the award for Best Picture, Best Director (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Best Actress (Michelle Yeoh), Best Supporting Actor (Ke Huy Quan), Best Supporting Actress (Jamie Lee Curtis), Best Original Screenplay (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), and Best Film Editing (Paul Rogers).

April

- India population record: India took over the World’s Most Populous Country title from China as its number of inhabitants exceeded 1.425 billion this year. This figure is expected to rise in the coming decades (unlike China where the population is expected to continue to decline). India – one of the world’s only two population billionaires – reached the billion mark in 2000 and is set to reach 1.7 billion by 2050.

Still can’t find 11 dudes who’re halfway decent at kicking a ball though, can they. 

May

- Covid emergency end: The World Health Organization ended its declaration of COVID-19 being a global health emergency, leaving us having to look for another excuse to avoid human interaction because dagnabbit, people are still annoying.

- Coronation of Charles III: Britain continued refusing to enter the twenty first twentieth century – because why have equality when you can have nepotism instead – and held a lavish ceremony to crown the eldest son of Imelda Staunton’s character as its new ruler. 

- 9/5 riots: Tensions boiled over as PTI supporters clashed with government forces, resulting in five deaths, over 5,000 arrests, and a tumultuous day for the country. 

June

- Titan submersible implosion: A dingy underwater vessel that is steered using a modified game controller, has no on-board location system or emergency locator beacon, and cannot be opened from the outside once the hatch is closed from the inside?

Yeah, sounds like a solid plan. Can't see any possible issues there at all. 10 out of 10. Would recommend. 

- Twitter renamed X: And in even more news from the “billionaires making stupid decisions” department, everyone’s least favourite rich dude (and boy did he have competition in this category!) Elon Musk decided to rename Twitter to X so that every publication would henceforth have to refer to the social media platform as “X (formerly known as Twitter)”, which our brains would then have to keep overriding to “Twitter (currently known as X for some reason)”.

Thanks to the app turning into conspiracy theory central, advertising went bye bye along with any semblance of sanity.

July

- Barbenheimer phenomenon: From counterprogramming to promotional synergy, two polar opposite mass-marketed commercial products came together to give us a double feature about two things that are the most quintessentially American: capitalism and war. Barbie and Oppenheimer collectively made over US$2 billion and made a handful of people very rich, so clearly a win for all mankind.

Now how soon before someone starts working on the Barbenheimer movie?

August

- Global warming record: The world’s oceans reached a new record high temperature (20.96°C), right after July turned out to be the hottest month on record for globally averaged surface air temperatures (by 0.3°C).

These record temperatures came as a warning for mankind to take care of our planet, phase out fossil fuels, and get rid of plastics. And/or just throw Henry Cavill and his hotness off the planet because that might work too. Barring that, if you want some beach front property, now would be the perfect time to buy a house in Sialkot.

- Pakistan political challenges: The dissolution of the national and provincial assemblies led to the set-up of a caretaker government, which will remain in place till the general elections next year. Arif Alvi retained his position as the president of the country, while Anwar ul Haq Kakar was sworn in as the caretaker prime minister.

- Chandrayaan-3 lunar landing: India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the south pole of Earth’s only natural satellite as part of ongoing attempts to explore the Moon in case there’s ever a dairy shortage on the planet and we need a backup supply of cheese.

September

- Storm Daniel: Stormy Daniels was ordered to pay Donald Trump US$120,000 after losing her appeal to … oh wait, STORM Daniel; never mind then. It killed a whole bunch of people. It was the deadliest Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone in recorded history with as many as 20,000 estimated casualties. It was all kinds of awful. Not nearly as salacious as Stormy Daniels though.

October

- Israel–Hamas war: A series of coordinated attacks by Hamas on southern Israel was followed by the most significant military escalation in the region in decades that has since resulted in 20,000+ deaths in Gaza and an appalling display of all that is wrong with humankind.

- Rugby World Cup: If a tree falls in a forest the Rugby World Cup happened in France, and no one is around to hear it we didn’t watch it, does it make a sound did South Africa really win?

November

- Cricket World Cup: The 2023 ICC World Cup totally didn’t happen at all. Pakistan didn’t get knocked out in the group stage after playing poorly, and Australia didn’t win the tournament for the 9376285th time.

Nope. None of that happened.

Unrelated: we seem to have misplaced our neuralyzer. Has anyone seen it by any chance? Really can’t remember when we last used it…

December

- COP28 climate summit: Ok so it turns out we just might be able to allow Henry Cavill and his hotness to stay on the planet. World governments agreed to transition away from fossil fuels and increase renewable energy generation capacity at the United Nations Climate Change Conference towards the end of the year, suggesting that there still might be some hope for our species after all.

- By Sameen Amer

Us Magazine, The News - 29th December, 2023 *

Music to our ears

cover story 

Albums that struck a chord in 2023 

2023 was quite a year for music fans. From Taylor Swift’s world domination and Beyonce’s very existence to the last Beatles song and Roger Waters’ decision to mangle The Dark Side of the Moon because why not, the year gave us a plethora of new music, record breaking tours, nostalgic releases, and … whatever the heck it was that was going on with Hall & Oats.

As the year draws to a close, here is a quick look at some of the most prominent albums that came our way in 2023.

Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus
As soon as the funky disco twang of ‘Flowers’ reached our collective ears this January, we knew Miley Cyrus was onto something special. It was hardly a surprise then that the mega-hit single’s parent album, Endless Summer Vacation, ended up giving the American singer career-high recognition, including her first Grammy nomination in the coveted Album of the Year (AOTY) category.
Released in March, the dance-pop record – the singer’s eighth studio release – also featured guest appearances by artists like Brandi Carlile (‘Thousand Miles’) and Sia (‘Muddy Feet’), and was among the former Disney star’s most successful offerings since her Hannah Montana days. A companion documentary concert special, titled Endless Summer Vacation (Backyard Sessions), saw her performing songs from the album and sharing insights into its creation.

World Music Radio by Jon Batiste
It may not have paralleled the high of his previous record, 2022’s AOTY Grammy winner We Are (2021), but Jon Batiste’s seventh album still won him much appreciation and gave him the chance to vie for the same title at next year’s ceremony. World Music Radio – a concept album about an interstellar being making genre-blending music and sending it out into the cosmos – found the former The Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader creating more jazz-soul fusion music. Joining him this time were an array of guest singers, from Lana Del Rey (‘Life Lessons’) and Leigh-Anne (‘Running Away’) to Lil Wayne (‘Uneasy’) and Kenny G (‘Clair de Lune’).
Alongside his musical output, the artist also gave us a glimpse at his life and career in the documentary American Symphony that chronicled a year in his life as he won awards and composed his first symphony while his wife, Suleika Jaouad, battled leukaemia.

Guts by Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo made quite a splash with her debut album, Sour, in 2021. This year, her second record earned her just as much appreciation as her first. The set saw her teaming up, once again, with songwriter and producer Dan Nigro to explore the tribulations of life just as she steps into her 20s.
A personal, emotive pop record, Guts delivered more of everything – from power ballad heartache to pop punk attitude – that her fans clearly love and that have made her so popular at such a young age.

- and Autumn Variations by Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran blessed (and/or cursed, depending on your personal leanings) the world with not one but two albums in 2023.
The first was his May release – (Subtract), the final record of his mathematical era. With production handled primarily by the National’s Aaron Dessner – who was also Sheeran’s friend Taylor Swift's collaborator on her recent albums Folklore and Evermore – the singer’s sixth studio release found him sharing his emotions through some gentle folk-pop.
Its follow-up was September’s Autumn Variations which once again saw him working with Dessner.
Both albums did fairly well on the charts, peaking at the top in several countries. And while critics might not exactly be enamoured with his output of late, their opinion clearly has little bearing on the English singer’s massive popularity.

The Record by Boygenius
It’s a good thing that Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers, and Lucy Dacus came together as Boygenius – a tongue-in-cheek reference to overconfident men who think their every thought is genius – by “kind of an accident”, because their debut album has turned out to be one of the musical highlights of the year. The indie supergroup wowed critics and listeners alike with The Record, a sublime indie rock offering that has earned them acclaim and has been deemed an instant classic.

But Here We Are by Foo Fighters
After the tragic untimely passing of drummer Taylor Hawkins, the future of the Foo Fighters seemed up in the air. But the group has decided to soldier on without their beloved bandmate, releasing But Here We Are, their first album since Hawkins’ passing.
Dave Grohl performed all the drums on the album himself, with the band producing the record alongside producer Greg Kurstin. Their grief powered this June release, with singles like ‘Rescued’ and ‘Under You’ topping the charts.
The group also eventually announced that the Vandals and Divo drummer Josh Freese would join the band for the supporting tour.

The Ballad of Darren by Blur
Back in the late ‘90s/early aughts, who would’ve been willing to wager that Blur would still be here some two decades later? But here they are, and we couldn’t be more chuffed about it.
The Britpop titans regrouped after a hiatus and released their ninth album The Ballad of Darren – their first since 2015’s The Magic Whip – this year. And if that wasn’t enough, the group members also delivered various side projects. Damon Albarn’s virtual group Gorillaz unveiled their eighth LP, Cracker Island, to much appreciation, while Graham Coxon gave us the self-titled debut record of his art pop band The Waeve.

Taylor Swift re-recordings
Tayor Swift ruled pop culture in 2023. Not only was her Eras Tour a massive record-breaking success, but the singer also continued to reclaim her past work by releasing the re-recorded versions of not one but two of her earlier albums.
2010’s Speak Now and 2014’s 1989 became her third and fourth re-recordings upon their release in July and October respectively. Each album featured new versions of all the previous songs, plus several previously unreleased ‘From the Vault’ tracks.
Swifties were also treated to the Eras Tour concert film that quickly became the highest grossing concert film of all time.

Barbie the Album by various artists
2023 was very emphatically Barbie’s year. The Mattel doll was the star of the year’s most successful film, and the movie’s soundtrack proved to be just as popular. From Billie Eilish’s dreamy ‘What Was I Made For?’ to Dua Lipa’s funky ‘Dance the Night’ and all the fun pop ditties in between, the album gave us some of the most overplayed ubiquitous songs of the year, with some of the singles as well as the album itself topping the charts in several countries.
The soundtrack and its tracks also have a total of 11 Grammy nominations, and have made this a very successful year in Barbie’s world.

Love in Exile by Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily
A Pakistani singer, an Indian American pianist, and a Pakistani American multi-instrumentalist walk into a recording studio. The result is one of the most well-received global music outputs of the year.
Love in Exile found Arooj Aftab (who continues to be the most internationally-prominent artist that has ever emerged from this country), Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily joining forces to create a mesmerizing 7-track LP full of melodious tunes that have earned the trio critical acclaim.

By S.A.

Us Magazine, The News - 22nd December 2023 *

Call me by my nickname

cover story

A rose by any other name may smell just as sweet, but would you really be inclined to smell it if it were called a skunky-mcdurian instead? 

By A girl named Sameen

Once upon a time – back when people liked sporting hairstyles that were visible from outer space, music was trapped in rectangular plastic contraptions with ribbony tapes that were more likely to get tangled than play your favourite tunes, and slapping your wrists with fabric-covered steel strips was considered cool for some reason – I was born.

My very excited khala, legend has it, called my very excited naani from the hospital and delivered the very exciting news of my arrival. “Beti hui hai. Bohot piyari hai, bilkul guriya jaisi,” she said (or so I’m told; I was too busy screaming and shouting at the injustice of having to exist to pay the slightest attention to other people’s feelings about my existence.)

Doll-making, name-giving ancestors

It took my parents a few days to decide what my legal name would be. After a false start with “Farnaz” (the Persian for elegant, charming), which was discarded quickly because they didn’t want people to end up calling me “Nazi” (because yikes!), they – and by “they” I mean my mom and a copy of the Feroz-ul-Lughat – landed on the name “Sameen”, a Persian word for precious, invaluable.

(The fact that Sameen is a boys’ name clearly did not dampen my parents’ christening spirits. Either that or they intentionally picked a boys’ name because this world is rough and if a woman's gonna make it, she's gotta be tough, and I ought to thank them before I die, for the gravel in my guts and the spit in my ey … never mind.)

By the time the name was finalized though, another moniker had very empathically laid claim to my person – the descriptor from the original proclamation about me joining the land of the living: Guriya.

I was, apparently, a cute baby, so the name applied. And then it stuck, even when it didn’t apply anymore (unless the guriya in question was the Bride of Chucky).

So pretty much from day one, I was Guriya to everyone around me. Or at least everyone close to me.

My parents called me Guriya. Unless they were mad at me. If you heard either of them shouting “SAMEEN!” in my general direction … safe to assure I was in some kind of trouble.

My grandmother, our neighbours, the maids – they all called me Guriya.

But then there were the relatives and acquaintances who knew full well what my nickname was and chose not to use it, calling me by my real name instead. I know not the reasoning behind their choice (my inability to read minds can be so infuriating sometimes), nor do I want to hazard a guess. But how it felt to me was this: odd.

I’d grown so accustomed to being referred to by my nickname that being called by my real name almost felt (and still feels) a little jarring. And it also seemed like the person who was choosing to use my full name was trying to show that they wanted to keep me at arm’s length and didn’t want us to be close.

(It also didn’t help that after I started writing, the more I saw my name in print, the more I dissociated from it. ‘Cause “Sameen Amer” was obviously, like, this cool chick who was mingling with the famouses and getting Tomatometer approved. Meanwhile, I was just silly old me. So I clearly wasn’t her.)

But anyway, my lovely friends more than made up for any wet blankets by making sure they referred to me by any name but Sameen.

My name came with a built-in nickname, lucky for those who didn’t know my childhood moniker. I was Sam to my class fellows. And Sammy to my close friends. And Sammy Wammy Supergirl of the clan McAwesome to my sister.

There have, however, been some holdouts along the way, even in my close circle. Two to be precise.

One is my “childhood” friend Xulfi. He has known me for two decades. He has been calling me Sameen for two decades. Despite the fact that he knows I don’t like it. Which is ironic for a guy who is known to virtually everyone by his nickname. In retaliation, I decided I’d call him what literally no one else calls him: Zulfiqar. Turns out he loves it. So that kinda backfired.

The other is a friend who calls me Sameen because he says "Sameen is hot". Which ... yes I am, but what does that have to do with my name? (Also, he thinks “Guriya” is “uncool”. Le gasp! Like, how dare he?! Off with his head!)

Unlike these two, however, most people close to me have simply chosen their own monikers for me, without any prompting. And this love of nicks, by the way, runs in my family and my friend circle too. Everyone close to my mom called her Nili instead of Nilofar. My sister Anne is my Anny Bananny (sorry girl!). And Xulfi is, you know, Xulfi.

Come to think of it, it’s not just us. Destiny Hope legally changed her name to her childhood nickname, Miley. Chloe Celeste became Dove as a tribute to her late father, who called her that as a nickname. We all know Peter Gene as Bruno, a moniker given to him by his father. And where would Jimmy McGill be if he hadn’t turned into Saul Goodman? Ok, he’d probably be in a better place, but I digress.

It's all good, man

So anyway, short story shorter: have name, don’t like being called by it.

It is a very pretty name though. It’s unique; it’s musical; it has a lovely meaning. But to me – and it might just be based on my very individual experiences – there can sometimes be so much more apniyat in a nickname.

So if you must, call me Sameen. But if you love me, might I suggest Guriya?

- By Sameen Amer

Us Magazine, The News International - 24th November, 2024 *