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fanofreading · 6 years

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This is a continuation of last week’s initiative. We were once again approached by budding entrepreneurs of a brand, this time “Zartaar”. We love their work and the emphasis they place on uniqueness of different cultures within Pakistani culture. We respect and admire their goal of promoting cultural enlightenment and as their goals align so closely with ours we wanted to feature them on our site. Check them out, their merchandise is fabulous!

This time the format is a little different; we interviewed them and these are the answers we got, enjoy!

The Interview

Question #1: Where do you see your brand going? Are you going to continue your enterprise after the end of the duration of your project?

Zartaar is more than a project to us. We’ve put our everything in it. It’s actually not any usual Final year project but it’s a team effort to promote the respective cultures of our native regions. We are a team of four people belonging to four diverse cultures; hence we came up with such an artistic idea to promote the years old culture and traditional art of Pakistan.

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So, we are not just doing a project but on an artistic mission to revive the rich cultural heritage of Pakistan and make its connection with youth. We are bringing in an amalgamation of rustic and contemporary art on apparel, in order to revive the exquisiteness of the splendid Pakistani cultural heritage. Moreover, we are also providing a platform to artists to submit their artworks and get public polls i.e. A co-creation platform, creating employment opportunities for art students from all over the country.

We’ve conducted quite a number of art competitions at NUST School of Art design and Architecture (SADA), National College of Arts (NCA) and Hunerkada College of Visual and Performing Arts, Islamabad. Moreover, we also held a successful CSR initiative at the Azaan Khan Shaheed Model School F-8/3 in order to explore the creativity and artistry of budding young artists.

Zartaar expanded its golden roots to inspire the artist within them and creating a visual of how they see their native city, its culture, art and architecture. Some kids drew the magnificent Bab-e-Khyber and made us explore the Takht-i-Bhai of Mardan, to others who drew Hookah, Charpai and the beautiful green fields of Punjab. From Kalash culture of Chiral to splendid beauty of Kashmir, from picnic scenes at Hanna lake to drawing the camels at Karachi beach, these young kids beautifully depicted their native city with a stroke of their art. We aim to hold more of such events in future in order to bring youth closer to the artistry and craft of the culture of Pakistan.

Moreover, we want to make Zartaar something with which everyone can associate and we have been, successful in doing so to quite an extent, in such a short period of time. We have created a “Zartaar community” of artists and customers and our every single customer calls him/her, “A Zartaar Customer”. Moreover, we also launched our brand at NUST Business School with an event titled “The Zartaar Day”, an afternoon of celebration, discovery and expression!

Question #2: What strengths does each of your team members bring to the project?

As I mentioned earlier, Zartaar is a best depiction of Team effort. It’s the practical demonstration of our vision. Zartaar is a Pushto word, where “Zar” means “Golden” and “Taar” is a wire that is used in traditional embroidery in different parts of the country. Hence our tagline, The Golden Stitch i.e. One thread that connects the whole Pakistan. We are four people from different cultures and different academic specialties.

Ayaz is the master mind and handler of all the operations, the intelligent mind of Mateen handing all the finances in the best possible manner. Hoor un Nisa Shaikh is the creative master mind whose ingenious aesthetics make Zartaar what it is today. Izzah ikram has been handling all the marketing with specific focus on our digital presence on Facebook and Instagram. So basically, all four of us have had their own specialties and we divided the tasks amongst us in the same manner. Eventually since we all were doing what we had a passion for, work was no more work for us.

Question #3: How do you plan to finance your enterprise?

We are currently bootstrapping our enterprise i.e. investing ourselves but we might consider investment opportunities in future.

Question #4: What do you think are your greatest challenges in the path to success?

At this point when we are just a start up the only challenge that we are facing is the funding. Because we are investing ourselves, hence it becomes quite difficult to manage at times. However, besides that everything has been spectacular. We’ve received great response from our target audience. People are loving the concept and notion of Zartaar. They are associating themselves with it. They are very much interested to see what we have for them from their particular region.

Question #5: What is the goal/purpose of your business?

From the very first day, the prime goal of Zartaar was to promote the rich exquisite culture of Pakistan. Pakistan is a country with rich culture and heritage. The highly traditional Pakistani culture borrows heavily from the cultures of Persians, Greeks, Moghuls and the British. Within one country there are many ethnic group with each one having its unique art, customs and traditions. In order to preserve the years old culture and traditions of Pakistan, there is a need to connect it to the fast-paced youth of today.

Moreover, there has been a recent trend in the increase of tourist visits by youth to different areas/ artistic locations within the country. Youth themselves are now ready associate with the Kalash culure of Chitral to the ruins of Harappa. Hence, Zartaar cashed upon this opportunity to strengthen the passion amongst youth and bring the art and culture of different areas of Pakistan on T-shirts which would be worn by youth from different age groups.

This is the main purpose of Zartaar i.e. to connect youth to the rich cultural heritage of Pakistan by bringing traditional designs with a fusion of contemporary art. Alongside this, Zartaar also wants to uplift the youth of the country by providing them employment opportunities through the creation of an online community called a Zartaar Community where designs would be created and chosen by an online community.

As a vivid depiction of our purpose, we recently celebrated Zartaar Day – An afternoon of Celebration, Discovery and Expression. A Celebration of the art from different provinces of Pakistan. From the Ajraks of Sindh, to the chunris of Punjab, to the Sheesha work of Balochistan and the Taar Kashi of KhyberPakhtunkhwa. It was a day of the discovery of the years old exquisite culture of Pakistan, when Zartaar tried to create a mini Pakistan within the walls of NUST Business School. It was Zartaar’s first public appearance and we received a very good response from people from within NUST and guests from outside universities.

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There was a small display of different cultural specialties from every single province giving it a feel of a mini Pakistan. Since Zartaar aims to build a connection of the youth of the country to the culture and traditions, hence this event played a major role in achieving this objective. The different items displayed included vases depicting the Blue pottery of Multan, wooden pottery of Hunza, Sindhi Rilli, Waziristani Chabbai made from special date leaves, special gemstones jewelry from Hunza and colourful jhumnkas and parandas of Punjab, Kashmiri Zardozi Handmade rug and much more.

Other than this, sceneries and art works depicting different provinces were also displayed. Special embroideries from different areas alongside chunri from Punjab and Ajrak from Sindh was also on display. It seemed like that the whole Pakistan has been knitted together to celebrate the Zartaar Day. The Zartaar Day display was very attractive to the audience who could connect to the art and crafts from their native land.

Moreover, another thing that was the centre of attention of the audience was the Zartaar logo wall, in front of which professional photographs were being taken with props depicting different cities of Pakistan alongside other cultural wearables likes special Caps from all four provinces, Matha patti from Kashmir, Ajrak from Sindh and Chunri and Bangles from Punjab. The props reading “Karachi meri Jaan” to “Quetta walay? Dilwalay…” and “Jine Lahore Nai Vekhaya O Jamya-e-Nai” to “Pekhawar kho pekhawar de kana” gathered much allure of the audience.

It was a lovely sight watching the youth searching for the props of their beloved city and feeling a moment of association with the soil of their native city. This enthusiastic youth, wearing the traditional wearables of their native cities, standing in front of the logo wall of Zartaar depicted how successful Zartaar has been in inculcating the spirit of art and love of culture in the youth.

Question #6: What inspired you to come up with this idea?

We are a team of four people, with me Izzah Ikram belonging to Peshawar, Hoor un Nisa Shaikh belonging to the city of Lahore and our two other members, Ayaz Khan belongs to Karachi and Mateen belongs to Quetta. With such a diverse team, we decided to promote the art of the particular region to which we belong. So, we are not just doing a project but on a mission to revive the rich cultural heritage of Pakistan and make its connection with youth. We are bringing in an amalgamation of rustic and contemporary art on apparel, in order to revive the exquisiteness of the splendid Pakistani cultural heritage. So Zartaar is more than just a project. We’ve given our heart and soul to it. The black and gold colors of Zartaar have now become our identity.

The Zartaar Team

Social Media

If you would like to connect with the brand you can find them online and on Social Media:

Website: http://www.zartaarpakistan.com

Featured: Zartaar – Supporting Young Pakistani Entrepreneurs This is a continuation of last week's initiative. We were once again approached by budding entrepreneurs of a brand, this time "Zartaar".

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hirakdesherrani · 6 years

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Last few episodes of Diyar-e-Dil

I had made a few posts earlier when I was three, ten, fifteen, and twenty five episodes into the show. I meant to post this last bit much earlier, but internet ne saath nahi diya.

Well, the last few episodes were predictable mostly, except for Muizz going total nuts. Like I was still coming around to the idea that he was the master schemer behind swindling Farah and Ruhi, but the writers just shocked me with the whole kidnap, molestation and attempt to murder angle. Like this is what I don’t like about desi serials. They always turn the ‘other guy’ into a total maniac just to emphasize on the heroism of the male lead, and make the audience root for him. In this case too, Wali is nothing short of a hero ‘cos he saved Farah from Muizz (never mind the fact that Wali himself manhandled and kidnapped Farah in the first place). I...why can’t we have some normal third angles? I would have liked it had Muizz remained the good guy he was initially shown to be and he would have backed off on his own accord when he realized that Farah loves Wali. Why the need to villainize a character to prop up the hero?

Which brings me to the next point which is Wali and Farah’s love story. While I appreciated OsMaya chemistry, esp. in the last two-three episodes, the WaFa story didn’t impress me much. I mean, er, why does Farah fall in love with him? Yes, he might have a dozen good qualities but is that enough to fall in love with someone? Well, no point applying my brain so much, most probably its because she loved her father and respected his wishes. Also, I just don’t like love stories which have an element of abuse in their foundation. I don’t think I’ll ever warm up to this love story because of the manner in which Wali took Farah to that resort by force, it just left a bitter aftertaste.

I was much more satisfied with the rest of the equations in the show. My favorite relationship in this show has to be the Agha Jaan and Farah. It has been given the most deep, meaningful, and heart-touching story, with steady progress. Also, the whole manner in which the issue of consent was handled, and Agha Jaan reassured Farah that he will not insist on her staying with Wali in the Nikkah, I just loved it, the progress this man has made. It just warms my heart. While his sons regressed to emotionally forcing their wishes upon their kids, Agha jaan progressed to understanding that the best way to shower your love, is to set your loved ones free. I’m now officially an Agha Jaan fan <3

Coming to my most favorite characters, Ruhi and Arjumand. These two are the most realistic characters on the show, who always behaved as I expected them too. The bitterness in Arjumand about what she perceived as Behroze’s rejection, and seeing Ruhi as the root of it, was expressed beautifully in the few scenes that she got. Ruhi ultimately snapping out of her depression to actually, clearly seeing the situation was a relief. Also, the part where Ruhi says that she is so ashamed that she cannot face Agha jaan, and Arjumand, that is so typical of Ruhi. This escapist trait was shown before also, when Ruhi would take sleeping tablets on Behroze’s death anniversary every year, because she could not bear to feel, and just wanted to escape from facing the truth. The best Ruhi scene is when she tells Farah that “Sukoon toh ab mujhe mar kar hi milega.” The fact that she could not be with Behroze on his last night, is something that will always haunt her, and on top of that her attitude towards Agha Jaan and his family for the next 5 years, weighted her down considerably.

I really liked the scene where Ruhi tore the papers where Agha Jaan willed and divided his property. The fact that Agha jaan reassured her that he always knew that Ruhi is not greedy, because the girl who left her everything to start a new life with Behroze without a penny to his name, can never be greedy; was a scene that I found particularly heartwarming.

Of course, the last two episodes were light and romantic, but oh my gosh, how conceited is Wali to think that he knew exactly when Farah fell in love with him, and he even went on to tell her that, I mean the gall of the man. Maybe conceited lovers work with some audience, for me I’d rather prefer the shy, insecure ones who don’t take the girl for granted.

Khair, DeD has to be one of the most emotionally satisfying family dramas that I’ve seen in a long time. The writers, directors, actors, everybody has done a marvelous job, and the show is totally worth all the praise that it gets.

#Diyar-e-Dil #my stuff

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hirakdesherrani · 6 years

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Twenty-five episodes into Diyar-e-Dil

I had made three posts earlier when I was three, ten and fifteen episodes into the show. I think post the 17th episode I started watching the serial on the usual speed that I finish Pak dramas.

The more I watch serials, Indian or Pak, the more I get disappointed in men. Tajamul is swindling money off his own sister and niece, Muizz is a schemer, Behroze did a 180 degree character flip and emotionally blackmailed Farah into marrying Wali, and Wali is the Pak version of Shivaay Singh Oberoi. Can anyone blame me for my mistrust of men in general, and always supporting female characters on screen? Desi serials really don’t give us any reason fangirl over men. All of them suck. And in real life men aren’t any better. I can count on my fingers the number of males I genuinely like (and my own brother and quite a few cousins don’t make it to this list). No wonder girls are mad over a character like Omkara (not that he has much to recommend himself); at least he did not force Gauri to do something against her will or without her consent, i.e. if we ignore Omkara 2.0 in DBO :/

Anyways, I really did not expect Tajamul and Muizz to have masterminded an elaborate plan to swindle money from Farah’s rightful inheritance. In fact, Muizzs’ whole scheme to marry her for her inheritance, really threw me off. I stunned into silence when I saw his true colors.

Can’t say I’m too surprised by Wali. Finally I started feeling Osman’s acting. The first fifteen episodes did not impress me ‘cos I found him stiff. But he really grew on me from the seventeenth episode. I kinda had an inkling that Wali might be like Suhaib on the surface, but intrisically he’s like his uncle, Behroze. Behroze love Ruhi, but there was latent dominance and patriarchal attitude woven into him. As long as Ruhi agreed with him, he was the most romantic, goals husband. But the first time she disagreed, disobeyed him, he lost his temper and literally ordered her like his mulazzim, servant. Wali is no different. He tried to be nice to Farah, but when she threatened to divorce him, he lost it and treated her like his jagir, his property. The whole abduction and holding her hostage sequence was disturbing to watch, ‘cos he literally threw her around and the manhandling was ugh! Its really sad; when I started liking Osman’s acting, I could not like Wali as a character anymore. I know they are endgame but I don’t think I’ll warm up to WaFa (the same happened with Shivika, I really liked them until Shivaay molested Anika and threatened to blow up her brother).

Like with almost every other serial, I’m here for the female characters. Ruhi, Arjumand, Farah, I love all three of them (Zarminey is kinda annoying, mostly ‘cos I don’t like her face :/). Ruhi allowed her depression and insecurity to cloud her mind, on top of that, her brother and nephew fully took advantage of her vulnerability. Knowing very well, that Ruhi has a volatile temper and sense of self-respect, they repeatedly prodded on her motherly instincts to coerce her into demanding Agha Jaan for Farah’s share in the inheritance. A woman’s greatest weakness is her child (thats why I don’t wanna have kids ever, also the thought of blood and pain makes me shudder), and her natal family fully used this weakness to their advantage.

I have always like Arjumand but will she stop calling Behroze selfish? Falling in love is not selfish and Behroze did try to patch up with Agha jaan before the latter threw him out. If Behroze had married Arjumand, when his heart was already given to Ruhi, would Arjumand have been happy? It would have been a worse fate. I don’t think Arjumand is jealous of Ruhi, but she does hate Ruhi the most, because she blames Ruhi for her rejection and presumed insult, which hurt her pride and made her feel unwanted. So, in a way Ruhi was right, that Arjumand does hate her because she took Behroze’s rejection hard. But in all this poor Behroze is not at fault. Why don’t these two women understand that his love for Ruhi does not mean his rejection of Arjumand?

The two characters I like the most right now are Agha jaan and Farah. The best scene of this whole series till now has been Agha jaan and Farah reconciling over Behroze. The scene where they both cry their hearts out while remembering Behroze and Agha jaan finally convinces Farah that his love for her is not fake, but he really does want to be give his granddaughter all the love that she has missed and deserves; that scene just messed me up. My grandmother says that grandparents always love their grandchildren even more than their children, because there is this unique feeling of holding your son’s/daughter’s child close to you. Since I share a strong bond with my grandmother, any healthy portrayal of grandparent-grandchild relationship on-screen just chokes me up.

I feel bad for Farah, who she has been emotionally abused by both her parents and how they convinced themselves that what they were doing was for her benefit, but they actually had their own interests in mind. Its not like Behroze and Ruhi didn’t love Farah, but for Behroze his guilt and wish to fulfill his late brother’s desire trumped his love, while for Ruhi her mistrust and insecurity over Agha jaan did the job. I wish both of them had thought to ask Farah what she wants rather than what they think is best for her. Parents often make this mistake. My own parents have, though on a much much smaller scale, plus I’m not immature like Farah by hoodwinked like that. Khair I relate and understand Farah’s emotional turmoil and dilemma the most. No wonder she didn’t stop Ruhi from leaving, and feels betrayed by Ruhi. Ruhi in turn has been betrayed by her own relatives, and moreover has barricaded her heart in grieving for Behoze alone, to notice that Farah also needs her.

The drama is at an interesting point with Farah upset that no one asked her consent for marriage while Zarminey was afforded that privilege, and rightly so. I’m just glad that Zarminey is getting married. Please uski rukhsati bhi karaado, can’t tolerate her annoyingly childish attitude, with those monkey-like expressions.

#Diyar-e-Dil #my stuff

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