Women Empower Wednesday: The Ju-Jitsu Champs Isra Waseem and Kainat Arif!
Sports in Pakistan for women has always been a brow-raising situation. We think we live in 2021! But still in some places we see women getting pushed behind and due to the lack of support, they are not able to come to their full potential. We also see women like Noorena Shams and Samar Khan, who actually broke the stereotypes and became stronger for other women. Today we have someone from the Ju-Jitsu category, yes… MARTIAL ARTS COMBAT SPORTS! Isra Waseem and Kainat Arif made Pakistan proud as the duo won Gold in E-tournament for Ju-Jitsu.
Ju-Jitsu
Jujutsu, also called jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a group of Japanese hand to hand martial arts fighting. It is an arrangement of close battle/combat (unarmed or with a minor weapon). This is utilized in a cautious and offensive manner to kill or at least subdue your weaponless rivals. A subset of methods from specific styles of jujutsu was utilized to create numerous cutting edge martial arts fighting and combat battle sports, like judo, sambo, ARB, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and blended combative techniques.
Isra Waseem and Kainat Arif getting the Gold!
The two Pakistani youngsters have gotten back the gold award in the Junior division of the World Ju-Jitsu E Tournament. What made this outcome significantly more striking was that the medalists, Isra Waseem and Kainat Arif, were contending in the World Ju-Jitsu E Tournament 2021 without precedent for the Duo Classic Junior classification.
All through the competition’s 373 groups and 373 parts in different classes, the Gold medal winning pair put on a reliably splendid act. They had been preparing in Karachi preceding the competition, and clearly their arranging had paid off.
The organization’s authorities trust that Isra and Kainat, just as other skilled Ju-Jitsu competitors in Pakistan, will keep on addressing Pakistan at a worldwide level. Also, the Ministry of IPC/PSB, drove by Dr. Fahmida Mirza, a visionary Women Leader, will offer sufficient help for every single future occasion. Furthermore, proceeding with Pakistan’s account of achievement and banner raising.
Ju-Jitsu champions Isra Waseem and Kainat proving their mettle!
Given that Isra and Kainat’s support at the occasion is considered in the world. Representation is not enough, support is. Something that could end up being more significant at the World Ju-Jitsu E Tournament. Because of the continuous COVID 19 pandemic and closers of all instructional hubs, Pakistan’s First-place in women Junior category is genuinely wonderful.
Last but not the least, Isra waseem and Kainat Arif achievement proves that Pakistan has stunning wearing ability accessible, in any event. Especially with regards to non-customary games. And women can make it happen! Furthermore, this also demonstrates that if enough speculations are made in the nation’s games foundation, Pakistan’s appearing at significant global occasions could improve.
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Tech Tuesday: Startup of the week SadaPay!
A large portion of the banks in Pakistan neglect to offer a good advanced experience to their clients and customer, with many, requiring branch visits for things as small as inquiring about an ATM card. SadaPay is a startup that is introducing itself as an option in contrast to these banks with an emphasis on client experience and that is evidently why it has gotten an excellent reaction.
Let us introduce SadaPay, a startup for your free debit card & digital wallet to shop online. A platform from where you can send money to anyone, pay your bills on time and get free cash withdrawals at any ATM in Pakistan.
SadaPay
SadaPay is a startup by US entrepreneur Brandon Timinsky who aims to bring modern financial services to Pakistan. It also aims to eliminate the complexity of banking and simplify money through modern tech. The word ‘Sada’ itself represents simplicity so your money is going through a safe and easy procedure.
Low cost option
SadaPay doesn’t have any expensive physical branches than a traditional bank. Which is the first step to your savings as a customer. Furthermore, you can get a free Mastercard debit card, with no annual fees or minimum deposit. It also offers you instant and free transfers to any bank or wallet in Pakistan (under just Rs. 10k) Moreover, you can get free cash withdrawals at any ATM in Pakistan (3x per month)
Well secured and safe
SadaPay protects your funds and digital wallets with its advanced systems. Imagine getting your salaries online and your wallet becomes an automatic salary calculator for you, securing all your other credits into check.
Strict Protection
It protects your funds and sensitive personal data with encryption in-flight and at rest.
Biometric recognized access
It offers customers biometric fingerprints and face ID for quick access to their accounts.
Fraud detection
SadaPay also offers you high-tech fraud detection so you can keep your money safe and protected.
Easy Registration
With no rushing to the banks, you can simply sign up with just a selfie, a picture of your CNIC, and basic information. Ditch your extensive bank paperwork to its 2 minutes registration process.
Effortless Payments
You can also send and receive payments easily within seconds.
Transparency
Above all, with promising customer service SadaPay offers you no hidden fees or charges.
Shop Globally
Your free SadaPay Mastercard is accepted at 30 million merchants globally so you can shop till you drop by your favorite brands and outlets.
SadaPay Milestone
SadaPay fintech headquarters had raised $7.2 million in a seed round led by New York-based Recharge Capital. The financing is the largest-ever seed closed by a Pakistani startup. It incorporates support of returning financial investor Kingsway Capital, Raptor Group, and prominent fintech angels, including the founder of Ualá Pierpaolo Barbieri, Ribbit Capital’s Brian McGrath, previous General Catalyst accomplice Ilan Stern, and Andrew Wang the founder of Valon Technologies.
With new ideas and efforts, start-ups like SadaPay are making sure to create hassle-free banking possible in Pakistan without absolutely no paperwork. Finally, with transparency and open communication, customer value and care is the main priority and ambition for SadaPay.
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Women Empower Wednesday: Dreaming in outer space Yumna Majeed
Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova is the first woman to reach to the outer space in 1963. And since 1963 plenty of women reached the outer space and working for space and NASA. But being a part of a Pakistani society where women are disregarded on many ground and every related field. Wanting a career other than doctor and an engineer is brow-raising. Imagine a girl wants to be an astronaut in Pakistan, or wants to make a career out of it. Sounds bizarre right? But a young girl in her 20s, Yumna Majeed is one of those women.
Yumna Majeed
Majeed is a space instructor and an enthusiast, the National point of contact in Pakistan for the Space Generation Advisory Council, and the originator of Exploration by Yumna – an instructive educational venture where she goes to instructive establishments to empower and mentor youngsters about space and being space travelers.
Yumna is likewise the public effort organizer for various space associations, including Space Generation Advisory Council and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Majeed likewise collaborates with Space for Art Foundation, where compositions made by pediatric patients and school kids are shown all throughout the planet and surprisingly shipped off space.
Yumna Majeed – The space dreamer
Having a dream of making astronomy viral in Pakistan, Yumna started as young. While everyone was making their own goals and ambitions she was dreaming high. Yumna was discouraged as a kid when she shared her ambition. Children sneered and teachers thought of her dream as a kid-joke. But she never backed out. She in fact stood up against all odds and now owns her own telescope and immense space knowledge alongside her.
Exploration by Yumna Majeed
While she was formally studying Medical Laboratory Technology from Allama Iqbal Medical University, she started her space awareness campaign in 2016. With time she became a student ambassador and freelance volunteer for different space education organizations. It was not a proper job but as an ambassador Yumna reported her outreach sessions to them. That’s where ‘Exploration’ came into being and it’s the Pakistani satellite of all those international organizations that she is coordinating on national level for. One of her partners is ‘Space for Art Foundation’ which is US based [organization]. They exhibit paint with pediatric patients and school kids around the world and sometimes send it to International Space Station as well.
The challenges
The journey for Yumna Majeed was not easy. It wasn’t easy for her to be able to go out at night for her explorations. She laments that everyday media highlights sad incidents which make every family extremely worried. Due to permission issues, she stayed in the city.
Yumna has never given up on her dreams and her policy states that her professional attitude and improvisation are the key to her success!
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Pakistani-American Painter Salman Toor featured on Time100 next list
In today’s world, an artist is considered to a someone with a talent and the skill set to conceptualize and make creative works. Such individuals are singled out and prized for their ideas and originality. Their artworks can take many forms and fit into numerous categories. These categories include ceramics, sculptors, paintings, architecture, drawings, mixed media, photographs, digital art etc.
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Secret Super Star from the streets of Lyari Eva B
Lyari, notorious for deadly gang wars, drugs and violence has one more thing that it has produced in abundance: talented artists.
Gully Girls
A singer from Lyari has taken the hip hop scene in the city by a storm and is a female recording artist, singing under the alias of Eva B. Eva has been pursuing her passion of rapping for the past five years with cousin Meer. However, her debut song came out at the start of this year titled ‘Gully Girls’, a female remake of the acclaimed ‘Apna Time Ayega’ from the movie ‘Gully Boy’, starring Ranveer Singh. The song quickly became a chart topper because of its easy to understand lyrics that reflect with a particular girl’s day-to-day life.
Secret Super star of Karachi
Just like her alias, Eva chose to conceal her identity as well. She dons a veil, and has been nicknamed as the ‘Secret Super star of Karachi’ by BBC’s reporter, Fifi Haroon.
For Eva, the voyage into this line of work was tough as compared to other rappers from the city. She remarks that her gender is the culprit behind the struggle. When Eva was discovered, she was downright shunned by her family.
Eva got her first song on ‘Patari’. Making a track alone is a monumental task for Eva due to the dearth of resources at hand in her locality. Lyari also does not have a studio; all Eva has at her disposal music making apps on her smartphone such as FL Studio and Ableton that provides her with a preset beat to rap on.
Identity of Eva B
“As far as my real name is concerned, I know for a fact that I can’t hide it for a long period of time. However, my veil is something I would never give up. No matter wherever I go or whatever I do. My veil is something I like to keep close to me.” concluded Eva.
Since she started rapping professionally, Eva has gathered quite a following consisting of both males and females. Socially present, Eva makes sure to keep in touch with her fans through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
ACCA student Zara Naeem scores highest marks in the world
Pakistanis everywhere are striving to make the nation proud by continuously displaying their skills nationally and globally with their excellent acumen in the field of accounting by topping the global professional accountancy exams conducted by the ACCA, a girl made it through and that girl is Zara Naeem.
Zara Naeem Making Pakistan Proud
Zara Naeem, a student of ACCA from Lahore, has been deemed as the global award winner for achieving the highest score in the Financial Reporting examinations conducted by the institution in December 2020.
The ACCA certification is considered a premier qualification in the field of accountancy with acknowledgment and existence in more than 170 nations across the globe, opening new gates to highly revered and enriching accounting career opportunities across the world.
Zara dedicates this success to her parents who always motivated all girls in their family to chase their dreams and break all of the glass ceilings. Retired from serving in the armed forces of Pakistan, Zara’s father holds a master’s degree and is extremely proud and happy to see his daughter achieving big things for the nation.
Despite the drastic effects from the Covid Pandemic globally, ACCA was fully able to conduct more than 153,000 exams across the world. For its students’ health and safety, additional measures were ensured to follow SOP’s in lieu of relevant governmental policies.
Zara has quite a dream for herself and is dedicated to starting her own financial/management consultancy business after graduating and attaining her ACCA fellowship. She’s convinced that her potential business will be able to acquire international clients in its portfolio due to her widely accepted qualifications and worldwide references that ACCA certification offer.
The ACCA certification thoroughly tests the aptitudes and skills that a competitive accountant needs in today’s times along with a firm fundamental in principles and professionalism. It preps the students for a rewarding and satisfying career as a qualified and ethical financial accountant resource.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz has also congratulated Zara Naeem Dar
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Rang De Karachi painting the City of Lights with positivity and love!
A city makes you feel alive, well wherever you live, whatever your life be throughout the day, week, month or year; when you get tired of the same old routine you get out. Take a break from it and explore. The city is your identity, but during our busy lives, we tend to forget this identity. We forget how much it gives us, a sense of identity, safety, comfort, love, and more.
Living in a particular place is one thing, but taking ownership as a citizen is another. When you love where you live, you take charge! You make that place right. You start to love everything about it. There is a group of people in Karachi who has taken the charge to make this city more beautiful and more colorful! This group’s campaign name is “Rang De Karachi.”
Rang De Karachi
The idea generated from a young citizen Zohaib Ahmed Khan, the organizer of Rang De Karachi. The campaign is not just about painting the town; this campaign also includes various cleaning drives, plantation, and footpath, and streetlights renewal. Around two and half months ago, Zohaib along with his little team decided to take charge of the beautification of Karachi with this group.
Even during this week, the campaign is in full swing. You will find various chalking and graffiti around Mazar-e-Quaid enhancing the walls and footpaths that were ignored around the landmark. This campaign is giving a lively feel around an important place in Karachi. Adding beautification will attract tourists and localities more for more exposure.
Zohaib, during an interview, said, “We want to clean the roads of Karachi, install street lights and uplift the footpaths.” This also gives exposure to many artists with a passion to make a difference with their art, while people appreciate it on a huge scale. This will add a positive point for the local artists to project their art around the streets of Karachi.
Zohaib Ahmed Khan further said that they have cleaned the walls and footpaths from ‘Peoples Chowrangi to Numaish and Shahrah-e-Quaideen,’ while the remaining will be cleaned in the days ahead. “We will then draw portraits of the Quaid-e-Azam on big walls,” he added. Their mission is to bring colors to the streets of Karachi with art that is free of cost!
He welcomed individuals from different backgrounds to collaborate with them to help clean the city. Khan, who considers himself a social worker, is also a businessman by profession. He announced the campaign driver on social media and youngsters and women from various colleges and universities came along joining his cause as volunteers through social media. At first, he had moved toward a couple of street artists through Facebook and planned out his idea to them, and now he has 1,000 or more individuals having a place with all age gatherings. ‘Rang De Karachi’ began their work in Clifton’s Boat Basin zone, where they cleaned the dividers and pathways as well as changed them with show-stoppers. At that point they proceeded onward to Nazimabad, Gulberg and the Garden area.
Zohaib said, that they mainly paint the walls and footpaths, but they involve different governmental departments and authorities for the installation of street lights where they engage them. Regarding the funds, he shared that different multinational corporations fund them for their campaigns and sponsor them, for the extra funding he said that he bears it himself. He also shared that they have taken the city commissioner and deputy commissioners of different districts of Sindh on board regarding their beautification work. “We don’t have any problem with the authorities. Even the traffic police facilitate us during our work.” Khan said.
It has been almost five years since Zohaib Khan moved to Karachi from Peshawar. He said that his motive is to eliminate the issues of the city, not raise them. He also said that he is against racism in Karachi. He pointed out that they had painted Karachi’s well-known Teen Talwar area on the traditional Sindhi theme on Sindh Culture Day.
People have been joining them, as volunteers for their campaign, a resident from North Karachi saw their campaign on Facebook and joined it as a volunteer while sharing his experience he said, “I liked their work, filled out their membership form, and after a week I became their member.” He added, “As my first activity, I sketched and painted angel wings on one of the walls of the city.” Another 20-year old volunteer shared that she saw their work on one of the streets on Boat Basin and not even she joined it, but also became the main street artist.
This shows that Karachi, despite its problems, still manages to live in people’s hearts and stays in! Love the city, love its vibe, and keep supporting local artists!
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Hasan Raheem kicking a new soul in Pakistani RnB and Indie genre!
Stumbling over Hasan Raheem, Still do…
I stumbled upon Hasan Raheem one day at work when my colleague sent me a link to his song “Aisay Kaisay” and since then I cannot stop listening to him. It’s true some artists have the potential to make you feel the melody and lyrics through their vocals and I have always been a staunch supporter of new musicians who have a knack for the Indie genre. I came across another band similarly years ago and the people now know me by that band! Similarly in Hasan’s case, being a solo artist with no band and creating music that can touch your heart and make you smile is a treat for your ears, and that’s not all, his music videos are a treat for the eyes as well!
Aisay Kaisay Hasan Raheem ft Abdullah Kasumbi
I researched and listened to all of his songs and I knew this is going to be in my permanent collection, Aisay Kaisay became my instant favorite since I started my Love for Hasan Raheem journey from that song, he collaborated with Abdullah Kasumbi (another solo artist – director, video, and music producer and a photographer) The song Aisay Kaisay has lyrics that instantly made me smile and [not gonna lie] I was moved by how talented the guy is and how pretty his voice is. The lyrics somehow translates as,
Aisay Kaisay Lyrics
“Ankhon me meri tuje saadgi na dikhay,
Aisay kaisay meri jaana,
Ye saaari batein jo adhoori si rakheen theen,
Sun raha hai ab zamana,
Subha ko ankh khultay yaad tera aana,
ye kaisa maajra hai jaana,
Adayen teri wo jo dil ko choo gayeen theen,
Kabhi na kuch bhi main kaha na”
The Hasan Raheem pink vibe!
Well, I can go on and on with the lyrics but there you go, they are beautiful and simple to hear, let’s just talk about the very aesthetic music video. Hasan is featured in his own song and it is a piece of art! Raheem is out in a pink sweatshirt grooving and vibing on the streets of Karachi at dawn is something we wouldn’t mind. This is the very first time someone has introduced the kind of music people want to listen to and the kind of music video which didn’t require much glamour, just a cute boy his pink sweatshirt and the vibe! At first when I looked at it, Jeremy Zucker came into my mind with his “’Come Thru” song, it had the same vibe. But Urdu language made it quite different and mesmerizing in Hasan’s case!
A medical student who can sing!
This “Aisay Kaisay” love happened in December 2020, and on the new-year, Hasan popped with another song “Joona.” And of course my YouTube recommended it to me and without any further delay, I listened to it. It was as beautiful as the previous one, but this time it was more upbeat, Hasan’s pretty heavy and burger-esque accent made it quite catchy. His style is pretty low-key and very subtle. Joona means (Dove) in love language sounded refreshing. The lyrics had a kick and beauty into it. I tapped my feet throughout. And I am sure you won’t be able to ignore it as well.
It dawned upon me recently during the song there was a hint of Shina [language from the Dardic sub-group of the Indo-Aryan family spoken by the Shina people, a plurality of the people in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral of Pakistan] Initially from Gilgit, Hasan Raheem has moved to Karachi to become a Doctor. It was a surprising element to be found out that a Chitrali doctor-to-be CAN sing!
Joona’s lyrics
“Spotlight saari lejaye,
Sab daikhay dayen bayen,
Itna kyun agai tum saj kay,
Nazrein ye rukna payen,
Dhoondna tume hi chahen,
Mein ziddi khara hun khara ab datt kay”
The video is still something that was not expecting, Hasan was dancing around the aisles of a supermarket and singing the song over his headphones and casually dancing on “Joona.” The music and video have been produced by Abdullah Kasumbi, with whom Hasan has teamed up on a few of his different tracks. The guitars on the track are by Mustafa Hasan.
The fire cinematography and artwork
Being low-key and subtle is not the only quality Hasan has, his song “Saada” says otherwise, the lyrics, composition and vocals were all done by him in collaboration with cinematography that managed to stay on top with the Vocals, despite everything!
Saada Lyrics
“Kaisay me aisay yun,
Is jang me hun phasa,
Jo hona tha hogaya main,
Phir say phisal gaya,
Me to saada sa tha ye kia hai ab ho raha
Me to saada sa tha ye kia hai ab ho raha Me to kho raha”
Mustafa Khan’s artwork is gorgeous; his song “Since Eid” can definitely be your long drive partner! One admirable fact about his songs is the ‘minglish’ approach and a blend of other languages into his lyrics.
Music, notwithstanding, is by all means where Hasan’s heart truly lies. In light of their different releases, Hasan Raheem and Abdullah Kasumbi are certainly a couple to look out for in the future.
Pakistan has been blessed when it comes to new artists who are coming forward with their music and giving quality songs with aesthetic music videos, the kind of work we have been longing for. Lockdown and quarantine have made us realized that giving ears to newer and fresher artists especially in Pakistan can be a good and entertaining aspect and also a ray of hope for struggling, underground local artists.
Story by Zainab Naseem Sheikh
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Depression – IT’S NOT IN YOUR HEAD!
Have you ever had a depressive phase that it consumed you? So big that it made you crawl into bed with heartache, rejection, disappointment, and frustration. When you’d been disregarded and dismissed on many occasions. When you needed assistance the most and you heard people say, “hey relax, it’s all in your head.” The trajectory of your life sure gets changed with these words and goes back to square one.
The Numb Feeling
We often hear people say, “Depression houta kya hai akhir, aese thori har baat per depression houjata hai!” (“What is depression really, how can people even get depressed on every minor inconvenience!”) Depressed people don’t all shuffle around with long faces, or cry at any provocation. It really defines as losing interest in important parts of life. When you feel numb and empty all the time. And these aren’t just all in your head.
With the thought lingering in my mind along with my robotic 9 to 5 routine, as a breather I got the chance to sit down with Wajeeha Ghani. A Professional Psychologist and Addiction Therapist with an intention to find out more about Depression.
Depression with Judgment!
I broke the silence with a thought-provoking question about depression being a condition which is in your head. To which she said, “It is definitely a judgemental statement. Depression is a disease, a disorder. People are suffering from it on an everyday basis now. Saying it a thing which is in your head is completely wrong.”
A chronological fact about depression is how one can detect and reject the thought of having it over and over again. I became sad to know that people in general don’t understand that depression is one of the deadliest forms of any illness. Wajiha further added that, “Mental health is also a part of your whole health, this needs to be spread around.”
The Physical Affects of Depression
When I asked her about the physical changes a human body gets with depression. She focused her shift on how past traumas affect the brain and deteriorate physical wellbeing. “A mentally ill mind can’t be physically fit. No one can move on from their past traumas without help. Physical changes are evident if someone is dealing with them. Imagine a simple headache or an upset stomach can be an undetected symptom of depression.”
Her method of therapy is what intrigued me the most throughout my conversation with her. She said, “Both past and present are on the table when I start my therapy session with a patient.” She sighed and continued, “And it is not easy. It is very hard for people to open up in general. And people are made of their past experiences and it can’t be eliminated during therapy.”
She navigated me through how a depressive person comes to me with two extremes.”Either they feel super hungry or they don’t have any appetite at all. Either they would be underweight or be overweight. And in most cases, they would be lethargic or over-energetic. These two extremes can be difficult for them to diagnose because for them this is normal.”
She reiterated, “And these symptoms are not in someone’s head. I see these signs of depression affecting their physical wellbeing, they mask them.”
I wondered as she spoke that even I see a lot of people who mask their feelings under the impression that they are happy but still struggling.
The Declination of Self Care
Wajiha let me in on another concern, “Self-care hits the lowest in depression and anxiety, and it’s not just related to chronically depressed patients, but people with borderline depression as well.”
Are any funds provided by the government ever sufficient? Including any patronages from International Organizations I asked.”Here comes the good part. Some of the local and international organizations do aid the people financially who are in need of clinical support. And this is not only limited to people dealing with depression or anxiety, drug addicts and street kids are also getting rehabilitated by many governmental organizations.”
She concluded with. “It is important to detect early signs for your depression, if you feel the symptoms, always reach out to the people who are close to you. It can be anyone, either friends or family. Mental health professionals help in a very professional way, the early signs can be detected when you agree to help yourself.”
She also stressed lifestyle changes. “Challenging negative thoughts and changing your lifestyle on an initial level can be a life-changing aspect.”
The concept of depression, anxiety and mental health should be formally introduced in our higher level academics, since this will facilitate a whole generation of youngsters to detect and understand their own symptoms at early stages or discuss with a friend or a family member.
Wajeeha Ghani currently works at Aas Trust’s Executive and Recovery Centre, Karachi. Her method of treatment specializes in drug addicts and street children.