April 4, 2013 by Afia Aslam - 1 Comment

How DWL got fooled in April

(Posted by Omer Wahaj, Managing Editor of Papercuts)

This year, I decided to play a prank on DWL. The idea had actually come to me last year, in April 2012. Being inspired by Google, YouTube and the various other websites that prank their users on April 1, I thought it would be funny to change the names and descriptions of some of the boards on our forums to parodied versions of the originals. The joke would be meant for our users, who I hoped would enjoy it in keeping with the spirit of the day. I emailed the DWL administrator, Shehla, but the brain spark had come too late and it was already past half the day in Pakistan. We decided that we’d do it next year.

So this year, which is last year’s next year, I emailed Shehla again and we put our evil plan into action. At midnight, Pakistan Standard Time, Shehla made the changes.

Up until 6pm the next day, only two forum members had noticed that anything was different. If anyone else had, they hadn’t pointed it out. That’s when I decided to email Afia, the Editor of our magazine, who was busy vacationing in Sri Lanka completely oblivious to our scheme. I told her that the forums were messed up and we needed to email our webhosting providers to let them know that DWL’s security had been breached. She thought I was April Fooling her and didn’t even bother to log on to the forums. I also tweeted Waqas, another member of our core team. This is how that conversation went:

So far, our prank did not seem to be working well. But then our luck changed. Shehla was busy moving and she did not have a chance to change the text back. So when Waqas and Afia logged into the forums on 2^nd April, the parodied names on the boards were still there. This made the two of them suspicious (and a little panicky). On April 2^nd I received an email from Waqas:

“Subject: I guess the forums were hacked

So the titles of most of the categories on the forums are changed and some of the descriptions are altered, too. It’s not April Fools’ day any more. We need to find out who did this and how to get the titles and descriptions back to normal.”

To which Afia replied:

“Whoever did this should be on our team. They’re bloody clever with words. Evidently not a standard hacking job. So, my guesses: [3 potential parties that she suspected may have had reason to play a prank on DWL, whose names we cannot reproduce here for obvious reasons].

Would it be a dumb idea to acknowledge that this has happened and ask the person responsible to step forward because we’d like them on our team?”

What began as a prank on our users ended up fooling our own admin team, and they wanted to recruit the prankster! This was the icing on the cake. Made the whole thing completely worth it, and made the following email (forged to look like it had come from our webhost provider) all the more fun to send to them:

“Subject: Re: Forums Hacked?

Hello DWL Team aka Afia and Waqas (aka Vics),

I just looked over the DWL forums and everything appears to be normal. If you think that the forums were hacked and the names of the original threads replaced with “bloody clever words” then please contact Omer and Shehla because they just pulled a bloody April Fools joke on you!

Hahahahahhahahahaah. April fools, the both of you!

High five Shehla!

P.S. Whoever did this is already on your team.”

The forums are back to their original state now, but our prank’s been put up on the DWL Milestones thread for all posterity.

January 20, 2013 by Afia Aslam

A star-studded launch for a rising star

Debut author Shazaf Fatima Haider’s humorous novel on arranged marriage – titled How It Happened – had its official Pakistan launch today in Karachi. The event, which was organised by the Lyterati Society at the Lyceum School just off Do Talwar, was a impressive affair as book launches go, with about 300 hundred people in attendance. The launch attracted some big names from the industry, including Pakistan’s most beloved television playwright, Haseena Moin, DSC prize-winning author H.M. Naqvi, and Afzal Ahmed Syed, who is one of the foremost contemporary poets writing in Urdu today.

The event was moderated by our favourite Pakistani author and friend of DWL, the recently Man Asian Prize shortlisted Musharraf Ali Farooqi. Farooqi added a good dose of humour to the conversation, entirely fitting with the mood of the book. Farooqi and Haider touched upon topics as diverse as crazy rishta stories to the impact of the author’s own ancestral history on the book’s characters. Since the novel is a family drama, the moderator asked Haider at one point whether her family saw itself in the book. She quipped that each of her sisters believed themselves to be the character of Zeba, who was supposed to be very beautiful.

Haider reading from her novel

The launch included a reading by the author and a brief but lovely tribute by Haseena Moin, who praised Shazaf Fatima for having written a novel that acknowledges how times change and forges a path forward for women from her generation. Haider’s book is slated to be a hit in a market starved for readable, feel-good fiction and is sure to strike a chord with South Asian women who’ve suffered the classic rishta-trolley parade ad nauseum. Indeed, Liberty Books had set up a table stacked with copies of the novel at the launch, all of which were sold out even before attendees were done with their tea and samosas.

Desi Writers Lounge is proud to be partnering with Shazaf Fatima Haider in a blog contest to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s classic novel on marriages in Regency-era England. The winner will receive a hardcover copy of How It Happened. Details on the contest can be found here.

January 19, 2013 by Afia Aslam - 1 Comment

Celebrate Austen with DWL

January 2013 is the 200th anniversary of one of English literature’s greatest social satires: ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen. To mark the occasion, Desi Writers Lounge is running a blog contest. What’s the funniest true story you’ve got about people getting married? It could be your own story or someone else’s. Botched proposals, unreal rishtas, failed elopements, family feuds, last minute changes of heart – we want to hear it all. Wit and style will be rewarded.

Send your entries of 500 words or less to editor.papercuts@desiwriterslounge.net. The best entries will get published on the DWL blog (that’s what you’re reading right now) and the winning entry will also receive a copy of the funniest new book in town about arranged marriage: How It Happened by Shazaf Fatima Haider (Penguin India). Deadline: 29th January.

Time to get funny, peeps.

January 17, 2013 by Afia Aslam

Theme announcement for Papercuts Vol. 12

These are ruthless times. (Want more proof? Here.) And being a publication that keeps up with the times, we’ve come up with this theme for our next issue: Dog Eat Dog.

Papercuts magazine is soliciting poems, stories and essays about success that comes at any cost: about cutthroat competition, about ambition that knows no bounds. You can write about politics, religion, status or plain old gossip – we don’t care. Just show us how things get ugly.

Questions? See the submission guidelines. Deadline: 15th May.

In case you haven’t gotten it yet, here’s another video of people punching people. Happy writing!

November 15, 2012 by Afia Aslam - 3 Comments

Take us back to where it all started

Ever wondered what the back-story behind something was?

What would Mr. and Mrs. Bennet’s courtship have been like? What was life like in the March household before the Civil War? Who wrote the Vogon report that recommended building a hyperspace bypass through Earth? Papercuts magazine asks you for the story behind the story.

Send us your poems and your fiction on the theme ‘Prequel’ by November 21st, 2012 at editor.papercuts[at]desiwriterslounge[dot]net. If you wish to write an article for us, please contact our Managing Editor at the same address to discuss ideas.

Please read the submission guidelines before contacting us and circulate the below image widely. Let’s see how creative everyone can get!

April 15, 2012 by Afia Aslam

Submission Deadline for Vol. 10 Approaching

Reminder going out that the deadline for submissions for Vol. 10 is May 15th, 2012! The submission guidelines are available on the Papercuts website.

The next issue is a tribute issue for modern fiction. We want to recognise the influence and inspiration that we’ve all drawn as writers from the modern era – be it pulp fiction or the postmodern genre or anything in between. Who or what has been iconic for you? We want to celebrate that.

As usual, the theme is general and wide open to interpretation. Write a story in the style of your favourite author. Write a story ON your favourite author. Write the next Prufrock, or make a passing mention to Prufrock. It doesn’t matter how much you do or how you do it – we just want to see you have fun with this!

Good luck and get going!!!

March 6, 2012 by Afia Aslam - 1 Comment

To Tweet, or What to Tweet, That is the Story

Guest post by Omer Wahaj, DWLer and Articles Editor at Papercuts

It was sometime last year that I introduced a topic about writing 6-word stories on the Breaking the Block thread on DWL forums. The idea was neither mine nor something new with the first 6-word story allegedly attributed to being written by Ernest Hemingway in the 1920s. The exercise was that each story, in its 6 words, must have conflict, action, and resolution; e.g.: “Protagonist hurt. Antagonist killed. The end.” I thought it would be a good exercise and that people might enjoy the challenge. The thread got a good response in the beginning with various members posting some really nice stories. But then it started annoying some people, some writers went off on weird tangents, others lost interest and the thread pretty much died.

A couple of months ago, someone mentioned that it would be a better idea to have stories that could not be more than 140 characters, as in a tweet on Twitter. Afia posted a link to this book (http://www.executiveseverance.blogspot.com/2011/12/chapter-1.html) that someone had written on Twitter composed entirely of tweets. I thought it would be a good idea to start something similar on DWL and have people post tweet-sized stories.

Then came the technical problem of limiting the post size, which was important, as it was much easier to count 6 words than to be able to keep track of 140 characters. I thought it would be a good idea to reduce the box to 140 characters to make it easier for the writers. However, I found out that that couldn’t be done for one particular thread and if we decided to limit the posting size, it would have to be across the forums for all threads, which would not only be kind of stupid but totally foolish as well.

That’s when I thought that I’d be a copycat and write my own Twitter novel. I started thinking about it and the more I thought about it, the more I thought it could be done. Many ideas began brewing in my head and I’d record them as they came to me. I had made a Twitter account a long time ago but had hardly ever used it. By February 1, I had enough ideas to begin, had somehow amassed some 20 odd new followers, and that’s when I officially started The Just-In Case Files of Shandar Misttry, Inventive Generalist. It’s been going steady since then and I just completed the second chapter yesterday.

This series of tweets follows our protagonist, Shandar Misttry, an investigative journalist for Chay TV in Karachi, as he fights vampires, foils a mad scientist’s plans, becomes a zombie lover, and does a lot more cool stuff that I have not quite entirely thought of yet.

So, click those mice and join in the fun and adventure. Follow me on Twitter @omerwahaj (http://twitter.com/omerwahaj) to follow the exploits of Shandar Misttry as they happen!

February 12, 2012 by Afia Aslam - 2 Comments

KLF 2012 – A Conversation with Hanif Kureishi

Although Shobhaa De’s been affectionately announced as the “Superstar Writer” of the KLF in its programme, literary sorts know that the real celebrity in this year’s event is Hanif Kureishi. And when Kureishi made an appearance in conversation with Muneeza Shamsie at the main garden venue of the Carlton yesterday morning, we were there to cover it.

The session had its highs and lows. Kureishi’s reading from The Buddha of Suburbia was definitely the most engaging part, with the author reciting already witty prose with a wonderfully straight-faced humour, visibly enjoying the audience’s appreciation. His Q&A with Muneeza Shamsie was disappointing, mainly because of the unimaginative way in which Shamsie approached the conversation. When an author has as much to share as Kureishi does, it could be so much more rewarding to really talk to them, letting the conversation take its own path to areas that are of interest to the author and the audience. Instead we heard a pre-decided set of questions that got funny but fairly textbook answers from their respondent. There’s no debating Shamsie’s experience and stature in this field, but in this particular case she missed some opportunities for a more stimulating conversation.

Things got more interesting when questions were opened up to the floor, and that was when we got a more intimate glimpse into the author’s personality as well. Kureishi got a bit more than he’d bargained for when an old lady stood up to ask the first question.

Lady: Hanif, I remember when you visited Pakistan years ago, we met you through your aunt who was a friend of ours. We asked you how you liked Pakistan and you were full of praise for Pakistan and for its people. But when you went back to the UK and you were asked how you found Pakistan, you said you hated it and that the people there were strange. Could you explain why you did that?

She then asked him: I got an impression from reading your books that you have a very low opinion of women. Would you comment on that?

Such questions could make any author quake in his boots but Kureishi, true to his past, did what a typical urban youth in Britain with a survivor’s instinct might do: he went on the offensive. He danced around the first question by stating that as a writer he felt compelled to speak the truth and that it would be ridiculous to expect him to say something he didn’t mean just so that others would think well of Pakistan. This didn’t address her point, of course, but as he said to another audience member later, “I’m not sure if that answered your question but that’s the answer I fancy giving!” (This elicited a good laugh from the audience). He seemed to lose his cool on the old lady’s second criticism, however, and replied only with an, “I don’t know what to say other than that’s a stupid question.” One couldn’t help but feel at that point that the answer wasn’t much better than the question.

At many points during the session, Kureishi’s thoughts were solicited on the issue of identity and it’s not difficult to see why that would be, given his personal history and the themes that he’s written about. In response to a question by Muneeza Shamsie about the link between autobiography and fiction, he half-jokingly referred to the process of ‘reverse colonialism’ in Britain as the South Asian community has established itself there. He too used to grapple with issues of where he belonged until he developed a firmer appreciation of the benefits of nationalism. “People would ask me where I was from,” he said. “I’d say, ‘I live in that house up there,’ but they would say, ‘No, where do you come from?” Then he visited Pakistan and an uncle of his told him, “Your father is Pakistani but where you’re going back to, you’ll always be ‘Paki’.”

That was the turning point for him. England had to change to suit him, he realised, not the other way round. “We’re British, not half English, not mongrel,” Kureishi eloquently put it. He praised how hard England had worked on issues of race. “I don’t think of identity anymore,” he said at one point. “Becoming a writer saved me. Identity is your relationship with yourself, your family and the place you live. The idea of developing an identity is simply to gather more of the world into you than you did before.”

Fortunately, Kureishi was honest about the benefits his race brought for him. His first assignment with Channel 4 came his way because “they were looking for an Asian or black writer and I was the only Asian or black writer they knew of!” And so was born My Beautiful Laundrette and with it, one of modern British literature’s biggest stars.

“I’m fascinated by the desire to speak, to write,” Kureishi said, who was full of praise for the new cadre of Pakistani writers in English making waves around the world. “You’re lucky if you’re an artist and you’re driven to do what you do. It’s a passion, a love. There’s no other way to do it, because the process is chaotic. You just sit in a corner writing until you’ve got blood coming out of your ears! That’s what it is to write.”

We agree.

February 10, 2012 by Afia Aslam

Book Your Weekend! KLF 2012 is here.

Tomorrow’s a big day for Karachi’s book lovers! The Karachi Literature Festival kicks off at the Carlton Hotel at 9.30 am on Saturday, 11th February, for the third year in a row.

After the success of last year’s event, there’s an even bigger line-up of drool-inducing writers this time, indicating that the KLF is finally coming into its own. William Dalrymple, acclaimed writer but known best in recent times for founding the enormously successful Jaipur Literature Festival, is flying in for the event – a sure thumbs-up to the KLF organisers’ efforts. Another star to look out for is Hanif Kureishi, British-born but with Pakistani family roots, who was named one of Britain’s top writers since 1945 by The Times in 2008 (a good year for South Asian writing in English in general). Kureishi does not make appearances often in Pakistan, so make sure you attend his session. There are a few Indian writers attending the festival this year, but the one we’re most excited about is the utterly charming Vikram Seth who’s re-entered the writing scene with a bang recently.

A welcome addition to this year’s festival is also Anatol Lieven, a known expert on international conflict and author of the recently released ‘Pakistan: A Hard Country’. His presence ought to help hoist the standard of discussion at current affairs sessions to a higher level. One writer who will be conspicuous in his absence will be late journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad, author of ‘Inside Al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11’, the controversial book that many believe he was murdered for. We’re hoping that Shahzad’s a contender for the KLF’s book prize this year, which is awarded for the best non-fiction title of the last twelve months. A book worth dying for is worthy of a prize, or at least a special mention.

One disappointment in this year’s schedule is that, apart from one session featuring Ayesha Jalal, there seems to be no marking as such of 2012 being Manto’s centennial year. With a special theatre performance for Dickens’s 200th birthday, we feel Manto Sahib deserved a bit more attention.

No peeves apart from that; our usual favourites will be present at the KLF, including M. Hanif (who caused near stampedes of admiring female fans at the Jaipur

One of M. Hanif's many adoring fans at Jaipur

Literature Festival), Kamila Shamsie, Mohsin Hamid and Bilal Tanweer, among others. We’re particularly looking forward to seeing the screening of Meherjaan, the film that has caused an uproar in Bangladesh for showing a love affair between a Pakistani soldier (played by Omar Rahim) and a Bengali woman during the 1971 war.

Cancel your plans, folks, because that sounds like one helluva weekend.

February 1, 2012 by Afia Aslam

2012 challenges

We’ve been in a bit of a funk on the blogging end but guess what? We won the Best Literature Blog category at the Pakistan Blog Awards 2011 and we are NOT going to let this blog slide after that amazing achievement! So here we are, kicking off the new year in the DWL way, i.e. full of plans, a little crazy and ALWAYS late.

Two of our team members have set personal literary challenges for this year. Omer Wahaj, Papercuts Articles Editor, was inspired by this book to write a novel composed entirely of tweets. The paradigm changing feature about tweeting a book, of course, is that it’s written in blocks of no more than 140 characters, and each tweet must be able to stand on its own. There is an enormous discipline involved in this style of writing, so we’re excited about seeing where this goes! The first tweet for The Just In Case Files of Shandar Misttry, Inventive Generalist by Omer Wahaj went up on Twitter today, the 1st of February 2012. Follow the author on Twitter (@omerwahaj) if you want to be a part of this awesome project.

The second literary challenge has been taken up by Afia Aslam, Papercuts Editor, and is a little less challenging and a little more cheesy than the one you’ve read about above. (This is where I start talking about myself in the third person.) Fresh from completing Swapna Krishna’s South Asian Challenge in 2011, which involved finishing more than 10 books by desi authors before year end, Afia decided to read at least one book every month in 2012 that would start with the same letter as the month in which it was being read. Thus the progression of books will be J, F, M, A, M, J, J, A, S, O, N, D. The challenge was put up on DWL’s Facebook page and several suggestions came in for titles, which are listed below. You’re welcome to give your own suggestions as well!

1. Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam

2. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

3. Justice and Remembrance by Reza Shah Kazemi

4. Silas Marner by George Eliot

5. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

6. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

7. Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott

8. Julius Caesar (play) by William Shakespeare

9. Silencing the Past, Michel-Rolph Trouillot

10. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

11. Snow by Orhan Pamuk

12. A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

13. Fools Die by Mario Puzo

14. The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye

15. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides

Here’s to 2012, then! If you’re inspired to start your own reading challenge, share it here!

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