Unilever Pakistan launches “Cornetto Music Icons”

Unilever Pakistan launches “Cornetto Music Icons”
Platform to discover new talent and celebrate the bond between the present and future of Pakistan music

In collaboration with some of the most renowned artists of the Pakistan music industry, Cornetto, the most popular frozen dessert brand amongst the Pakistani youth, is bringing a fresh music platform, the Cornetto Music Icons. Cornetto Music Icons will begin airing on 28^th April 2013, with one episode every week. The show aims to pick the best of the wellspring of the new vocal talent from the Pakistani youth and mould them into future icons through a 10 episode TV show on the ARY Network and PTV starting end April 2013. With the selection phase about to come to a close, Cornetto Music Icons is now poised to bring to you the platform to spot the next great voices of this generation.

A whole slew of artists will be involved in the project comprising of big names such as Ali Azmat, Strings, emerging stars such as Meesha Shafi and Zoey Viccaji, and a legend of Pakistani pop, Alamgir. These artists will be the primary mentors, with mentoring musicians such as Salman Ahmed, Aamir Zaki, Omran Shafique, Shallum and Faisal Baig lending their talent to bring further diversity to the music. The shepherd for the show is of course Shahi, as the music maestro and talent selector, accompanied by Ahmed Ali Butt and Cybil Chowdry as the hosts of the star-studded extravaganza that is Cornetto Music Icons.
Shahzad Hasan (Shahi), an original member of the legendary and iconic band Vital Signs; one of the earliest acts responsible for introducing and establishing the Pakistani Pop music industry, will lend his rich experience and partner with Cornetto on this project as the music producer and talent selector.Shahi has produced hundreds of hits and created innumerable stars, and is now for the first time pairing up with a Brand to bring together a show that showcases the journey of music production, accompanied by a stellar group of the biggest names the Pakistani Music Industry has to offer. Shahi commented “It’s been a dream of mine to work on a project that’s not only about creating music, but also about creating new talent. Cornetto Music Icons has given me and Pakistan a platform to revive the Pakistani music industry.”
Umar Farrukh, Marketing Manager for Wall’s Pakistan commented “Cornetto Music Icons is a unique and unprecedented music project to take Cornetto’s association with music to the next level. It is an effort to celebrate the undiscovered yet profoundly rich talent of Pakistani youth and to give them a platform to make it big while strengthening the bond with the music industry.”
Cornetto, has maintained a longstanding relationship with the music industry, partnering with some of the country’s most well-renowned bands such as Jal, Call & Noori in the past. Globally, it has been linked with music as a mainstay platform for the brand, partnering with MTV and linking with local youth icons in most countries where the brand is present.
The launch was organized by Catwalk Productions and the PR handled by Catalyst PR & Marketing.

My Journey to Pakistan: Women empowering

I must say that during this visit to Karachi I was very surprised with one thing: more and more women get behind the wheel and drive! In a city like Karachi that is not a small thing! I strongly believe that not everybody can drive in this city where the rules are unwritten or made to be broken. When you get on the streets it's like the jungle: cars coming from the opposite direction on one way streets, red light is more for go than for stop, changing direction without signal, driving in night with no lights, making a u turn in the middle of the road without changing lanes and the list of Karachi driving wonders can go on and on.

Two years ago when I was visiting Karachi for the first time, my husband was the one taking me everywhere. One time however, when my hubby was not at home, one of my sisters in law came to take me shopping. We got into her Jeep and she drove very bravely in that men jungle. I thing during that visit I've not seen more than 5 women behind the wheel and she was one of them.

This time every 10th car we cross by was had a lady driver. Some frowning, some concentrating, some talking on the phone or keeping an eye on the children, women of Karachi proved to be patient and brave. 

They no longer depend solely on the husbands or drivers to go from here to there. They are now taking matters into their own hands and they are doing it admirably!

My Journey to Pakistan: Experiencing the hotter side of life in Karachi

Every now and then the local electrical company (KESC) is making sure that I experience the true life of Karachi and shuts down the electricity for so many various, hilarious reasons which seem extracted from some dark humor screenplay. As I am writing this post the electricity was shut down because of rain and storm. Now my definition of rain and storm must be much different from theirs as rain has fallen for merely 2 blessed minutes and by now the ground is already dry. The announced storm moved some leaves from the trees more like a cool breeze than like a real wind. And yet we have no electricity.

All those Karachites who have experience similar situations probably wonder why our UPS is not working. Well I can’t tell you because I don’t know. There are many things here which are uncommon for me and I did not take the stress of finding out how everything works. My bad. (later edit: my husband fixed that! Yeeeey!)

Thanks to the same aforementioned company, few nights back I had the opportunity of admiring the starry sky from the terrace for few good hours as the electricity was cut off and the air in our room was becoming unbreathable at 30+ degrees.

Earth hour does not come only once a year in Karachi, it comes every other day and it lasts for good time. I wish it was the company’s way of encouraging a greener planet, but it is just irresponsible behavior. To top all that, last week KESC had shut down electricity in the middle of the day for maintenance. That is pure bad management!

Apart from electricity shortage, we also had water shortage in Clifton, Karachi. For some reasons the water supplier opens the pipes only for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night and that’s it! Houses have water tanks of thousands liters of water. But what happens when the water is finished? That can’t be a pretty scene in 40+ degrees. So you call a private water supplier. Yes, thank God there are such companies. Only that time is not important for these companies. For them it seems as if time has special dimensions and if they say they will send the water tank in 1 hour, don’t be foolish and expect them that quick…2-3 hours later call the company and remind them.

So no electricity, no water…welcome to Karachi’s hot and humid summers :)

My Journey to Pakistan Part 10: The One Rupee Project

On Sunday, March 24^th, I had the privilege of meeting some great people and find out more about their commitment in making Pakistan a better place through a new project called The One Rupee Project.

It was presented as a project of the community for the community. Anyone can join in and lend a helping hand and through the power of the many, offer education to the people who can’t afford it and reach the goal of making everyone in Pakistan self-sustainable.

What I love most about this project is that anyone who wants to help can actually do it by joining the One Rupee Project. You don’t have to be rich, you only need to care. You can contribute with as little as you can afford (1 rupee is the equivalent of USD 1 cent), but for a country with over 170 million people, 1+1 could make millions. If one quarter of the population contributed with 1 rupee per day, that would make 42 million rupees per day and would pay for one full year of studies for thousands of Pakistanis. It may seem difficult, but it is not impossible. With the support from media and few corporations, this project can shape a new future for a country who needs it so desperately and who is struggling to make a change.

I will keep my eyes on the people behind the One Rupee Project (Abdul Hameed  Kath, Sarfaraz M Khan and Sarosh Waiz) as they have many other ideas worth fighting for and they have the energy and determination to see them come to life. 

Conclusions of the day

• There are people in this country who studied at the most prestigious universities from UK, US and elsewhere and who came back to help their homeland make a turn for a better future 
• People with normal jobs, businesses, families take time to think about the country’s welfare instead of sitting back and enjoying their own success

My journey to Pakistan Part 2: A drive through Karachi

Karachi is one of the biggest cities in the world with over 11 million people (some sources talk about 18 million people). It is about 15 times the size of Bucharest, the capital of Romania. I still can’t imagine how big that is, but just for the sake of comparison , it is bigger than Paris, Istanbul or Bangkok.

Getting out of the house was a bit of a hassle. I love to walk. Love, love, love. But in Karachi, you don’t walk. You get out of the house, get into the car and go where you need to get. By car. This was my biggest problem, but I had to comply.

The streets were large and the noise was big. Small cars are the way to go around on the busy streets and people seemed a little careless to what happens to the vehicle (scratches are no issue) as long as they can get through. Rickshaws are everywhere and also lots of people on motors. And yes, buses are just like in the movies or in the pictures from the internet: colorful and overcrowded. 

I was advised not to take pictures so that people don’t get suspicious. At every light stop there were beggars coming to the car and knocking at my window. Again, being a foreigner is a big attraction for many curious people. Just like in Romania :)

Driving seems to be a gentlemen’s agreement. Sure there are rules…I guess. But the main rule is that the car honking first has priority. First few drives (on the passenger’s seat) were like a roller-coaster ride for me. First of all we were driving on the wrong side of the street. Everybody was driving on the wrong side of the street. There was a lot of honking and sometimes the priority was decided by the one who had more guts. But I was the only one surprised by the whole thing. For the rest of the people this was the normal day-to-day driving.

I didn’t get to see much of the city first time I was there. We stayed mainly around the neighborhood, which is the same with late Benazir  Bhutto’s former residence and park, a rather posh area with nice houses, embassies and parks, shopping malls and food streets.

What stroke me the most was the security: I’ve not seen a real rifle in my life before landing in Karachi. And in Karachi I’ve seen so many, that I got used to them in few days. Almost every store has a security guard with a big rifle, while at banks or jewelry stores there are several guards. Some people have heavy armed bodyguards following them around, but we were in an area with several embassies and extra security seemed appropriate. Entering a shopping mall meant having the handbag scanned and us going through a metal detector. First I felt so strange. Then I felt a little more secure. After few days I didn’t even notice.

My conclusions:

• driving around can be an extreme sport for a newbie 
• buses, rickshaws, 4 people on a small motorcycle is not uncommon
• if you are uncomfortable around guns and rifles, a visit to Pakistan will cure that in few days  (but will not get you hurt ;) )

My journey to Pakistan Part 1: Getting there – airport and first impressions

Few years back Pakistan was an abstract name for me, a name that I would hear in the news, but never pay attention to. I never took time to read about the country’s history, about its traditions and people as never in my wildest dreams I thought of getting there.

And then it happened. Cupid stoked and my life turned 180 degrees and I started to read about this far away land. If there’s anything that working in the media has taught me, it is that the least relevant information about the actual life in a country can be obtained from TV or newspapers news.

Sure reading and understanding historical, economic and political facts helped to get an idea about where this country is and what is going on in there, but to be honest nothing really prepared me for what I was about to experience on my own.

The visa procedure went surprisingly well and quick. The counselor and the ambassador of Pakistan in Romania were extremely kind and helpful.

It was interesting to observe people’s reactions to the news that I am going to Pakistan for a vacation. I guess it is not a country on the top of traveling destinations or must see places. My dad asked me to be extra careful there as he doesn’t have enough money for ransom :)

For a girl who had traveled only in Europe, the information about what to expect in Pakistan was so complex that I decided to neglect it completely. The other option was to freak out and I couldn’t let that happen.

I have to say that it was the biggest thing I have ever done: going willingly to a country listed by the ministry of foreign affairs as a war zone.

The flight was comfortable and it took less than going by train from Bucharest to Cluj (my fav city in Romania).

My first surprise was that although alcohol is forbidden in Pakistan, there were a lot of intoxicated people coming out of the plane. Sure, I can’t assume that they were locals. They could have been of other nationalities and just enjoying the last contact with Bacchus’ nectar before they reach the forbidden land. But still it was a little strange.

I reached Karachi in the night and went through passport control quite fast. They have special queues for unaccompanied ladies and people were very polite. Sure, there were questions, but nothing unexpected.

I have to admit that it was strange to see all around me people that looked different, dressed different and spoke a language that I couldn’t understand a word of.

I was advised to pick my luggage quickly and walk without talking to anyone. Before landing that seemed absurd. After landing I understood that in a foreign land you have to rely first of all on what you know and what is familiar to you and there is no reason to be brave. I picked my stuff and walked as fast as I could with a 25 kg luggage :)

And there it was: my first contact with the real thing. No spooky monster like the news were announcing all the time. Just people. Different people, but nonetheless people. Sure, for a minute or two I was the center of attention. I guess there is not every day you see a young, blonde, unaccompanied lady walking around.

The first real shock was the weather. It was the end of June and I was told that monsoon season started or was about to start (don’t really remember). But for me monsoon season and high humidity were as abstract notions as moon atmosphere. Getting out of the airport, which, by the way, was nicely air conditioned, was like walking directly into a hot air blow dryer. Although it was around 1 AM, it seemed like there were 50 degrees there. I sweated instantly in what I thought were my comfortable jeans and I have to admit I looked with high envy at the local’s shalwar kameez which seemed like a much more appropriate option.

Driving from airport to home didn’t offer me the time to see much in the 40 minutes ride because it was late in night, but I enjoyed seeing palm trees everywhere and many outdoor billboards with smiling faces and slogans I couldn’t read.

First conclusions:

• hot weather means sauna hot and humid weather means steam bath humid – like it would make your nicely straightened hair curl back to mother nature :)

• jeans are not the best option for summer in Pakistan

• people look different, talk different, dress different, but they are welcoming and polite