Lounge issue no 99

8 I August 26 - September 01, 2012

I 21August 26 - September 01, 2012


Health

Do you s u f f e r f r o m n a s a l

congest ion? An i tchy nose? Or uncontrol lable bouts of sneez ing, water y i tchy eyes , or runny nose? These are among the most common symptoms

in someone suf fer ing f rom al lerg ic rhini t i s . Al though not t aken as a ser ious heal th problem, there tends to be l i t t le awareness in family phys ic ians in terms of dist inguishing i t f rom, say, the common f lu or even Asthma. As regards to the publ ic in genera l , hardly anyone seems to know that a l lerg ic rhini t i s

even exist s . The symptoms being rather common, people tend to confuse i t wi th regular a l lerg ies , and rather few rea l i ze that a l lerg ic rhini t i s can have unpleasant consequences such as s inusi t i s , migra ine and asthma. Also known as Hay fever, Al lerg ic Rhinit i s occurs when the

Watch out for Rhinitis!

By Ahsan Raza FirdousiRhinitis!

By Ahsan Raza Firdousi

immune system overreacts to par t ic les in the a ir that one breathes in , and i s a l lerg ic to them. Such par t ic les are ca l led a l lergens and are responsible for t r igger ing the a l lergy. Some of the most common al lergens are pol len from trees , grass and other

plants (outdoor a l lergens) . Some people have a l lerg ies to dust mites which are a ver y common symptom in our context as there i s so much a ir pol lut ion and dust in Karachi . Other a l lergens inc lude animal dander, cockroaches , ‘minor ’ things at one’s workplace such as wood dust and chemicals etc ( indoor a l lergens) . People a l lerg ic to pol len are somewhat luckier than those a l lerg ic to indoor a l lergens such as dust mites as the la t ter may have symptoms near ly a l l the t ime (perennia l or year- long a l lerg ic rhini t i s ) , u l t imate ly resul t ing in s leepless nights and rest less days and negat ive ly impact ing one’s per formance at work . One’s qual i ty of l i fe would suf fer in any case i f this par t icular condit ion i s le f t untreated: lost school days , lost work days , lost ‘ fun’ days with family and fr iends , not to speak of the addit ional burden on mothers especia l ly when a chi ld i s la id low with heal th i s sues . There are a few ver y e f fect ive medicat ions avai lable for t reat ing a l lerg ic rhini t i s : the f i r st s tep in this direct ion i s to consul t a doctor. The treatment a doctor prescr ibes usual ly depends on factors such as the pat ient ’ s age . For e f fect ive t reatment one should provide an accurate histor y of one’s symptoms; not ing a l l a l lergens one reacts to i s cer t a inly not a di f f icul t t ask ! Another ‘must do’ for pat ients i s to t r y and avoid the a l lergens that cause Al lerg ic Rhinit i s ; i t i s

imposs ible to genera l i ze as ever y indiv idual may have his or her own set of such a l lergens . Keeping windows open for vent i la t ion, ensuring carpets and cur ta ins are c leaned frequent ly, are a l l s teps that can be t aken to ensure a c lean environment . Being as i t i s a commonly occurr ing disease in Karachi , i t ’ s t ime people count Al lerg ic Rhinit i s as a potent ia l ly ser ious heal th problem that can be eas i ly avoided by learning which a l lergens af fect an indiv idual and then t aking the appropriate act ion. However, for some of the af fected people , medicat ion in the form of an ant ihist amine or in combinat ion with a decongest ant might st i l l not provide re l ie f f rom symptoms of nasa l a l lergy and have the i ssues of causing drowsiness , lethargy, etc . For such pat ients , intranasa l cor t icosteroids could be the ef fect ive medicat ion. Cor t icosteroids work by blocking inf lammation and i rr i t a t ion of the nasa l membranes and reducing the ocular symptoms which accompany i t . Intranasa l cor t icosteroids are highly e f fect ive in prevent ing and re l iev ing nasa l symptoms associated with both ear ly - and late -phase a l lerg ic responses . Once ident i f ied, therefore , t reat ing Al lerg ic Rhinit i s and i t s symptoms i s qui te s imple , but i t ’ s best to consul t a doctor so as to have the condit ion diagnosed profess ional ly and to get the most appropriate t reatment prescr ibed.

Being as it is a commonly occurring disease in Karachi, it’s time people count Allergic Rhinitis as a potentially serious health problem that can be easily avoided by learning which allergens affect an individual and then taking the appropriate action



Roasted Lemon Herb Chicken

Recipe

Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).Combine the seasoning, salt, mustard powder, garlic powder and black pepper; set aside. Rinse the chicken thoroughly, and remove the giblets. Place chicken in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons of the spice mixture inside the chicken. Rub the remaining mixture on the outside of the chicken.Squeeze the juice of the 2 lemons into a small bowl or cup, and mix with the olive oil. Drizzle this oil/juice mixture over the chicken.Bake in the preheated oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until juices run clear, basting several times with the remaining oil mixture.

Ingredients:2 teaspoons Italian seasoning1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt1/2 teaspoon mustard powder1 teaspoon garlic powder1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper1 (3 pound) whole chicken2 lemons2 tablespoons olive oil

Two different books form the subject of this review. The first Bayad-e-Safwat Ghayur is a versified tribute to a valiant national hero, Safwat Ghayur who

was a highly dedicated police officer and a martyr to a supreme national cause. The second Hijr Na Chithya Jaaway is a collection of poet A.H. Atif’s Punjabi verse.

Bayad-e-Safwat Ghayur

Safwat Ghayur (1959-2010) was the scion of Peshawar’s Nishtar family – Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, the stalwart of the Pakistan movement, being his real paternal uncle. His father Sardar Abdul Ghayur was a career diplomat and served as Pakistan’s envoy to various states. Safwat joined the Police Service of Pakistan in the year 1981 and rose to Commandant Frontier Constabulary. As an intrepid but conscientious police officer, he always led from the front in the ongoing war on terrorism and was martyred in a tragic suicide blast in Peshawar on August 4, 2010.

No better homage could have been paid to the departed soul than the celebrated English poet Ejaz Rahim’s, who studied him closely in ranks while serving as chief secretary in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: “In a period of diminishing idealism and waning morale in the domain of public service, he remained a shining example of character, commitment and courage. In his lifetime he loomed larger than life. His martyrdom turned him into a legend.”

The book in hand carries the Hindko,

Pashto, Urdu (verse translations) and English (original) versions of some thirty-one c o m m e m o r a t i v e poems on the late hero composed by Ejaz Rahim.

Sultan Fareedi, a popular Hindko/Pashto poet and educationist from Swabi district, is the author of the Urdu and Pashto versions of the poems while the Hindko translation has been rendered by Muhammad Zia ud Din, a noted Hindko researcher and general secretary of the Gandhara Hindko Board Pakistan, Peshawar.

M u h a m m a d Zia ud Din, Ejaz Rahim and Dr. M. Hafizullah, VC, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar have written the i n t r o d u c t o r y remarks appended to the book.

In the words of Dr. M. Hafizullah, Ejaz Rahim has handled the tragedy of Safwat’s

A poetic tribute and a Punjabi collection

Review

By Syed Afsar Sajid

Bayad-e-Safwat GhayurBy Ejaz Rahim, M. Zia ud Din, and Sultan Fareedi

Publisher: Gandhara Hindko Board Pakistan,Rampura Gate, Peshawar

Pages:178; Rs. 400/-


martyrdom ‘in an entirely different way’. He goes on to say: “This book is a result of his soliloquy – his musings, presumed discussions with ‘Safi’, extrapolations from the ordinary and extraordinary flight of fancy. The book has many facets – whereas the poet seems to be mourning at times but in fact it is more of igniting new candles of hope and optimism for the coming generations.”

The translations into Urdu, Hindko and Pashto seek to transmit the message to a broader circle of multi-lingual audiences to enable them to apprehend and appreciate the ‘universal truth’ and seek inspiration from it. The original theme and essence of the poems seems to have been duly preserved in them.

Hijr Na Chithya Jaaway

Altaf Hussain Atif aka A.H. Atif is a noted poet of Punjabi from Faisalabad. He also chairs a literary organization namely PunjabiSevak in town. The book in view is a maiden verse collection comprising a few of his nazm and mostly ghazal and carries introductory notes by popular Punjabi writers and poets Dr. Yunus Ahqar, Prof. Riaz Ahmad Shad and Anjum Salimi. They have appreciated the poet’s approach and style in verse besides his grasp of the craft of versification.

The genre of Punjabi ghazal is relatively younger in origin as compared to its sister genres. Its evolution could be traced to the middle of the past century. It does bear a discernible impress of the verse of the classical Punjabi poets like Baba Farid, Shah Hussain, Sultan Bahu, Bulleh Shah, Waris Shah, Khwaja Ghulam Farid, Mian Muhammad Bakhsh, and Peelu side by side with that of the romanticists and moderns namely Diwan Singh, Ustad Daman, Prof. Mohan Singh, Amrita Pritam, Sufi Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, Sadhu Singh Hamdard, Tufail Hoshiarpuri, Munir Niazi, Ahmad Rahi, Sharif Kunjahi, Hazeen Qadri, Shiv Kumar

Batalvi, Fakhar Zaman, Afzal Ahsan Randhawa, Najam Hussain Syed, Shaista Nuzhat, Sughra Sadaf, Anjum Salimi, and others.

Technically the ghazal is a collection of couplets embodying a single theme or thought. The first two lines rhyme with each other which in turn rhyme with the fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth and so on. Atif faithfully follows this prescribed pattern in his ghazal; nonetheless his themes are quite unconventional. He does not merely sing of the pleasures or pangs of love, his object is life in its abundant variety, and perplexity too. The grief in his tone is plainly ascribable to the adverse socio-economic situation he as a commoner (along-with a myriad of his ilk) is placed in: Aalhnay vich vi panchi nu hun khair nahi disdi / Hun tay raakha aap shikari hunda janda. It reflects a quasi-modern sensibility pivoted on an emotive perception of the widening chasm between dream and reality, desire and fulfilment: Sadhraan nay us shaakh day waangon / Jis ton pat bhrohay hunday.

The nazm (kavita) of Atif seems to concord with the tone and tenor of his ghazal. The poem bearing the title of the book

metaphorically reiterates the vacuity of

human desires, ‘hijr’ being a symbol of

this daunting alienation.

To sum up, Atif’s verse is a viable

combination of poetic verve and artistic

skill --- nostalgia, introspection, and

an impalpable streak of melancholy

being its constitutive ingredients. Thus

hopefully the book in hand will attract

Punjabi readership for the pristine

quality of its form and content.

Hijr Na Chithya JaawayBy A.H. Atif

Publisher: Punjabi Markaz, Koocha Muhammadi, Sultanpura, Lahore

Pages:128; Price: Rs.150/-


Two different books form the subject of this review. The first Bayad-e-Safwat Ghayur is a versified tribute to a valiant national hero, Safwat Ghayur who

was a highly dedicated police officer and a martyr to a supreme national cause. The second Hijr Na Chithya Jaaway is a collection of poet A.H. Atif’s Punjabi verse.

Bayad-e-Safwat Ghayur

Safwat Ghayur (1959-2010) was the scion of Peshawar’s Nishtar family – Sardar Abdur Rab Nishtar, the stalwart of the Pakistan movement, being his real paternal uncle. His father Sardar Abdul Ghayur was a career diplomat and served as Pakistan’s envoy to various states. Safwat joined the Police Service of Pakistan in the year 1981 and rose to Commandant Frontier Constabulary. As an intrepid but conscientious police officer, he always led from the front in the ongoing war on terrorism and was martyred in a tragic suicide blast in Peshawar on August 4, 2010.

No better homage could have been paid to the departed soul than the celebrated English poet Ejaz Rahim’s, who studied him closely in ranks while serving as chief secretary in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: “In a period of diminishing idealism and waning morale in the domain of public service, he remained a shining example of character, commitment and courage. In his lifetime he loomed larger than life. His martyrdom turned him into a legend.”

The book in hand carries the Hindko,

Pashto, Urdu (verse translations) and English (original) versions of some thirty-one c o m m e m o r a t i v e poems on the late hero composed by Ejaz Rahim.

Sultan Fareedi, a popular Hindko/Pashto poet and educationist from Swabi district, is the author of the Urdu and Pashto versions of the poems while the Hindko translation has been rendered by Muhammad Zia ud Din, a noted Hindko researcher and general secretary of the Gandhara Hindko Board Pakistan, Peshawar.

M u h a m m a d Zia ud Din, Ejaz Rahim and Dr. M. Hafizullah, VC, Khyber Medical University, Peshawar have written the i n t r o d u c t o r y remarks appended to the book.

In the words of Dr. M. Hafizullah, Ejaz Rahim has handled the tragedy of Safwat’s

A poetic tribute and a Punjabi collection

Review

By Syed Afsar Sajid

Bayad-e-Safwat GhayurBy Ejaz Rahim, M. Zia ud Din, and Sultan Fareedi

Publisher: Gandhara Hindko Board Pakistan,Rampura Gate, Peshawar

Pages:178; Rs. 400/-


28.What is your motto? If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more; youre a LEADER!

Arsalan and YAhseer

1.What is your idea of perfect happiness?A day spent with family, lots of food and no cell phones!

2.What is your greatest fear?Success changing me.

3.Which historical figure do you most identify with?It’s a bit hard to say, never imagined this question coming my way! Haha. I once played Liaquat Ali khan in a school play.

4.What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I am an extremist! If I work, I am so lost in it that I am not able to give time to my family. I’d love to learn how to balance work and family better.

5.What is the trait you most deplore in others?They lie and are very fake!

6.What is your greatest extravagance?A night in Paris.

7.What is your favorite journey?Work to Home :)

8.What is your greatest regret?No regrets!

9.What or who is the greatest love of your life?My Family, my wife and a celebrity I won’t name

10.When and where were you happiest?I’m always happy Mashallah. After our debut show at KFW’11 when my mom kissed my forehead and my younger sister said she’s proud of me - I felt like the king of the world!

11.What do you dislike most about your appearance?My eyes whenever I see lots of food

12.Which words or phrases do you most overuse?Several actually. First one is: Are you getting my point? Second one: Wow, what a hideous outfit!

13.Which talent would you most like to have? Selective amnesia - forget as soon as something bad happens.

14.What do you consider your greatest achievement?I set my goals and never lose focus before I achieve it.

15.If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?I’ll want to be Arsalan and want the same life back! 16.What is your most treasured possession?My family. 17.What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?When I run out of ideas. 18.Where would you like to live?A bed and a roof anywhere in the world would do! 19.What is your favorite occupation?Really depends on the situation! But I have always given doctors most regard because they are the only people besides God who can make your health right! 20.What is your most marked characteristic?I dream big and give in my 100% to achieve it! 21.What do you most value in your friends?Trust, Sense of style and honest criticism. 22.Who are your favorite writers?I love reading fashion blogs and other fashion writers in the world. For eg: Jessica Quillin, Erin Weinger and Rebbeca Lay are my favourites these days! I love reading romance too though. My favourite definitely has to be Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen and Honor’s Splendour by Julie Garwood. 23.Who is your favorite hero of fiction?Indiana Jones and Clark Kent! 24.Who are your heroes in real life?My father and my eldest brother!

25. What are your favorite names?Sarah, Hina, Minahil, Mohd Ali and Tanya.

26. What is it that you most dislike?Lies! 27.How would you like to die?A quick pain free death!


Lounge issue no 99

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