the raw journalism

Okay first off, yes the third panel pic really does say "lunched"! "Raw Life lunched"!!
I imagine myself sitting a a table, knife and fork in hand, eating the cactus that is on my cover page! lol
Can't believe that newspaper forgot to spell check!!!


And now my post:
I think anyone who has ever followed my blog closely knows how hard i have tried to remain "anonymous". i know i have not succeeded and a lot of you have emailed me or messaged me on facebook, so yes i realise i have not been that successful but on my blog you guys still called me "kAy" and kept things personally impersonal ( yes i made that term up) and for that i am truly grateful.
I have only been anal about staying unnamed for one reason; so that i can continue to be very candid and very honest in my opinions without unnecessarily worrying about being wrongly judged/quoted in moments when i rant or rave about how i feel about certain things.
Kher, post-book launch, two articles published in the newspapers have given out my blog address in their reviews and i feel a little...(for the lack of a better word)...naked.

I have been told...or actually 'consoled' by blogger friends who say "this had to happen one day kAy"- "your blog could not have remained anonymous forever-not with journalists pouring over your book." I suppose what they say is true. I suppose that is also the reason why my blog followers list has significantly doubled since the articles were published. I suppose i can be glad that more people will get to read what i have to say. I suppose....

i shall still however remain "kAy"... i shall still cover my face with text and i shall still be vague about my identity- for that is all what i know how to do- and i shall appreciate if you guys continue to be the same on your part. :)

Now lets come to post-launch events in life!

You know i have highly misjudged myself as a person! Remember the post i made pre-launch fearing one critical word my destroy me? Oh My God- how wrong was i? i completely underestimated myself. For here i stand having faced criticism and not having felt even a PINCH! (bring out the bubbly! :))

Lets be fair though, perhaps i would have been shattered had something utterly negative and uncalled for had been said about the book. There was not. Everyone, Allah Ka Shukar hai, has so far *loved* it. Loved the effort. Loved the content. Loved the Design. Loved the photography. Loved the book. The stuff that was my personal effort. I have 5 terrific reviews from 5 of the highly regarded personalities in the creative/media industry.

Criticism has been about:
1. Who was there at the launch. (omg this person came! heavens!)
2. Who was NOT there at the launch. (omg he DID NOT? he must haattte her!)
3. Who wore what to the launch. (is that a LAST SEASON Sonya Batla outfit! sacrilege!)

One journalist in DAWN IMAGES section criticized a supplement that went with the book. It was a 7 minute docu to show what the Creatives in the book were like so that you could put a voice to the words once you started reading the book (since the book is in first person). The docu was roughly made, yes, but that was deliberate. It was the whole point. Catching the people in a completely non set up environment. Keeping it utterly casual. Imagine having to set up 50 tungsten lights, shining it in their faces and then asking the creatives to please be natural and act like they do this everyday. If you look at the calm relaxed way they are behaving and talking in the docu you would realise they really were just kicking it in and enjoying me asking them "strange questions". In the journalists defense though, she does claim the video "grows on people". I suppose if people think about what i have said above, they wont be too quick to judge the some what erratic frames, the jerks in the camera and the some what fluctuating tones of lighting. That is a compromise i would make over and over again if it meant getting honest comments from my Creatives where they are not at all conscious about being filmed or photographed. Most of the time, because i maintained constant eye contact with them when they spoke to me WHILE filming, they barely noticed i was capturing them on tape.

Secondly, in the same article the journalist mentions that i, kAy, say "it is very difficult to be inspired in a city like Karachi."
This is either a vast misinterpretation or a misquote because i certainly would never have even THOUGHT such a thing, moreover SAY it out loud.
I think my blog, my book and my existence are proof enough of the fact that i find Karachi MOST inspiring. Why else would i make a book about people from Karachi? or have this blog which if you have followed speaks continuously about Karachi?
No no no NO.
Wrong and utterly wrong.
Karachi is a wonderfully inspirational place and anyone who does NOT think so needs to go through my book or just have a little conversation with me. I sometimes wish i had a little camera built in my eye and i could through infra red rays or sth pass those images to my computer to take printouts of the images. Everywhere i turn in the city, i see an image that speaks volumes to me.
Again, in the journalist's defense, i suppose she got confused because i said "it is CHALLENGING BEING creative in Karachi because of all its TRAPPINGS." And in my book i celebrate people who have managed to do just that.
But Karachi is inspiring and so SO so much more and i would never say otherwise.
:)


THE NEWS, INSTEP had a fantastic review about the book. That journalist really got the point of the book. She understood my reasons for doing this project and put it all down very well. SUNDAY TIMES (DAILY TIMES) also did a great job!

Thank you all all three journalists, though, for reviewing the book! And i hope i have cleared all the confusions with this post! :)


Ive been going for Tv interviews too, oh boy, that is a whole different post but lets my leave you with a lil teaser;
host: Why do all you "affluent artists" always talk about "creativity"?
me: Why are you such a presumptuous fool?


Okay lets be honest.. i did not ACTUALLY say fool. I will write about that in my next post though but feel free to leave a reply telling me what you THINK i should have said to that and i will tell what i DID say :)

Stay safe people.
Cheers!
:)