Promoting Lahore on the web
Ever tried googling Lahore and found nothing but the standard wikipedia entry and perhaps some news item related to British Asian terrorists? Sad but true.
To be honest, I gave up hope long ago when I initially attempted to look up Lahore on youtube during my initial enthusiasm for the video sharing site. Little did I know that it would bring up an array of bizarre clips of school girls in a street fight; tacky sing along versions of Lahore Lahore aye; and a somewhat fazed swede-Pakistani girl videoblogging about her recent visit to the city. And not to mention a string of so called lewd dances featured in Lahore Defence Party videos … dare I say it is pure class A trash.
Anyway, the point being that our beloved city is no where portrayed on the internet in a positive and candid light. On my last visit to Lahore, I was set to create a series of video blogs where my aim was to visit old and new Lahore and post/share my creations with friends and family in London. Unfortunately, the events of Dec. 2007 simply ruined all my plans of walking freely around the city. Anyway, I am sure someone will take it up as a task to perhaps create a regular weekly/monthly video link on LMB with tours of old and new Lahore. For instance, we could have a tour of Wazir Khan Mosque one week and a videoblog focussed on a walk through the bustling Liberty Market. For people who don’t exactly possess a Sean Connery voice, then I suggest adding text via subtitles along the video. I am sure there is clever video editing software out there to achieve the desired effect.
Hope this has inspired a few people to put on their creative hats and go and direct/act in a video about Lahore. I enourage you to do so, so that overseas Lahoris like myself don’t have to go through the agony of watching the dancing girls of Defence and that annoying Swede-Paki.
G’luck!
I’ve thought of writing a blog for her for a looonng long time. Its good that you’ve come up with something. She has done a pretty good work making vblogs for many pakistanis who want to understand (some of) the culture, family values that makes us different from others around the world.
She’s actually from Spain. I think a doctor (or I guess in process of becoming one). Her father is a Pakistani born who has spent most of his life abroad but still teaches his children how much he still loves Pakistan from deep inside. And her mother is from abroad, but has been shown enjoying her trip learning about Pakistan.
In one of the clips, when she visited Islamabad, you’ll get to see (the famous anchor) Tauseeq Haider as well. I think she’s somehow related to him (definately, may be). :)
Anyhow, thought to share! :)
actually i dont think her videos are that bad, compared to the rest of what is on there, her stuff is actually fairly enjoyable. i have thought about doing something similar, and obviously there are more poeple that have, but since she is the only one to really do one, we really shouldnt make fun of… or atleast until we have done something better ourselves.
Fair do’s. Seems like you both like her videos and everyone is entitled to their opinions.
I’m afraid I am going to stick my guns here and insist this girls videos are of mediocre quality and not very inspiring. Oh and she is definitely not Spanish (one look at her mother and you know she can’t be Spanish). Besides her and thew mother’s accent is Scandinavian. My money is on Sweden but perhaps someone here can confirm that.
I think it’s hard for men not to like a half decent looking girl spilling her emotions in public :) However, if you scratch the surface the content and the thoughts shared are very naive bordering on ignorance. It is clear that the father has never had the chance to bring the children over to Pakistan until that trip and they seem to be in awe of the differences between their western world and Pakistan. Anyway, as I pointed out each to their own on this forum but I refuse to have these videos be the sole representations of my Lahore.
On a similar note, Mohsin Hamid is a respected author of two award winning novels and has also portrayed Lahore on TIME magazine. He also happens to reside in London. I would be delighted if Mohsin would talk about one of his Lahore visits via a vblog.
But I am sure all of you are budding Mohsin Hamids!
azface!
If you or anybody else has/wants to do, a video series or video blog on lahore, I can feature it on my website http://www.vidpk.com. We have a lot of pages indexed and it will definitely help a bit in bringing a good lahore up in the search results.
Just my two cents.
tehseenbaweja:
Thanks for offering to host the videos – much appreciated. Hopefully some of the audience will get inspired to capture Lahore via vblogs and I’ll be sure to direct them to your portal.
Thanks again.
azface
I think her videos are more for the people that are living outside of the country and want to see it with a semi-unbaised view. Any other video of Lahore or Pakistan would involve terrorism or some random non-coherent stuff.
I think a Mohsin Hamid V-Blog about Lahore would be great, I just hope it shows more of Lahore than his book Moth Smoke did, as much as the partying and drugs are a part of Lahore so it the history and architecture, and the paan wala and all the other common daily doing.
I will probably be in Pakistan sometime this year, either in August or in December and if I can get a halfway decent camera before then I might try to V-Blog it up. If I do, I will keep you guys posted. :)
I’ve seen a lot of pretentious-self regarding blogs on this site, but azface (or whatever she’s called) definitely takes the cake. How dare you call someone a ‘Paki-Swede’ as if you were anything better.
First things first, I think everyone is entitled to their opinions much like how you expressed yours about me.
Am I right in thinking that you are British/ European or simply lack an intimate understanding of Pakistan? I say this because your aggressive reaction to ‘Paki’ indicates to the fact that you clearly perceive that as a racial slur. Now let me confirm that millions of Pakistanis refer to themselves by that exact term every day. The reason is that there are no BNP or Hoodies in the streets of Lahore to shout out racial slurs like that. So please refrain from instantly attacking people without a complete context of what has been stated.
And to conclude on that point, the girl is half Pakistani-half swedish. So I see my description as nothing more than a fact. Simple as…
Finally, I am not a girl and just the mere presumption that such ‘self-regarding’ behaviour can simply be the work of someone of the fairer sex speaks volumes about you.