Community Community As you shop, The keep your Kindergarten P6eyes open for P16 Section of ColourMax, the Birla Public most exciting School marks new viola its Annual Day series in years. ‘Natureza’19’.

Wednesday, December 25, 2019 Rabia II 28, 1441 AH

Doha today: 180 - 230

DRAWDOWN: Mud flows coming off the top layers of a melting permafrost from the hillside above Nome, Alaska.

COVER Unleashed STORY As climate change melts Alaska’s permafrost, roads sink, bridges tilt and greenhouse gases release. P4-5

BOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD

Meghna Gulzar: Stop treating Ed Sheeran to take acid-attack survivor as ‘bechari’. another break from music. Page 14 Page 15 2 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY ROUND & ABOUT

PRAYER TIME Fajr 4.54am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.18am Zuhr (noon) 11.35am Asr (afternoon) 2.32pm Maghreb (sunset) 4.52pm Isha (night) 6.22pm

USEFUL NUMBERS Into The Ashes money he stole, and when they take what Nick now values DIRECTION: Aaron Harvey the most – his wife – he has nothing left to lose. Confronted CAST: Marguerite Moreau, Frank Grillo, James Badge Dale by the town sheriff , who is also his father-in-law, Nick must SYNOPSIS: With an honest job and a loving wife, Nick decide if he will stay on his new path or indulge in his need for Brenner believed he had safely escaped his violent, criminal revenge and force his enemies to pay for what they have done. history. But his old crew hasn’t forgotten about him or the THEATRES: The Mall Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444

Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Qatar Airways 40253374 Mamangam the banks of Bharathapuzha in Tirunavaya, warriors from DIRECTION: M Padmakumar diff erent parts of India display their skills. CAST: Mammootty, Neeraj Madhav, Anu Sithara SYNOPSIS: During the Mamankam festival held at THEATRES: Landmark te Unqu uo ot Q “If e opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle

Community Editor For movie timings and Kamran Rehmat further details please scan e-mail: [email protected] the QR code above with your Telephone: 44466405 mobile phone camera or visit qatarcinemas.com Fax: 44350474 Wednesday, December 25, 2019 GULF TIMES 3 ROUND & ABOUT COMMUNITY

WHEN: January 15 – July 1 TIME: 6:30pm – 9pm Get trained by experts to be a good speaker. Smedley Toastmasters is conducting a six-month speech-craft programme that teaches new members to speak confi dently and develop leadership skills. For more information, 66053485, 33232490 or visit www.SmedleyToastmasters.org

The Colour Run 2020 water sports, Winter Dragon Boat Festival WHERE: QNCC is back to show us their fast rowing skills. Ballet Lessons WHEN: January 25 Dragon boating is a canoe-sport and was WHERE: Music and Arts Atelier TIME: 7am – 10pm originally a traditional festival game dating WHEN: Ongoing Your Health First is a fi ve-kilometre, back 2,000 years throughout Southern TIME: 4pm – 8pm untimed event. At each kilometre mark, China. It has now become a popular sport For more info e-mail at registration@ Colour Runners are doused from head to toe with competitions held around the world. atelierqatar.com or call on 33003839. in a diff erent coloured powder. Participants wear white at the starting line and fi nish the race plastered in colour. Once the 5k is over, the fun continues at the Finish Festival, a larger-than-life party equipped with music, dancing, photo ops, activity booths, vendors, and more massive colour throws, which create millions of vivid colour combinations.

Gems and Jewels Exhibition WHERE: Museum of Islamic Art WHEN: Ongoing till January 18 TIME: 9am onwards The exhibition comes in celebration of the Qatar-India 2019 Year of Culture and presents a look at magnifi cent gems and jewellery from India. Set in Stone: Gems and Jewels from Royal Indian Courts showcases more than 100 pieces from across Qatar Al Wakalat Car Market 2019 After School Activities Museums’ (QM) collections, including many WHERE: Parking opposite to Khalifa WHERE: Atelier masterpieces that have never been displayed International Stadium WHEN: Ongoing before. WHEN: Ongoing till December 28 Music and arts activities for students TIME: 4pm – 11:59pm taking place after they fi nish their day in Al Wakalat Car Market aims to congregate school includes Group Music lessons, Hip- car enthusiasts, prospective buyers, and hop, Ballet, Drawing and Painting, Drama automotive retailers with the best deals of Theatre & Taekwondo. Ages between 5 and 10 the year in a single location. Al Wakalat Car years old after school hours. Market will enable visitors to have access to cars at their best off ers of the year, which Winter School gor Grade IX-XII Hobby Classes ensure to clear out stocks of approved cars. Students WHERE: Mamangam Performing Art WHERE: Inspire Training Academy, Centre Najma St. WHEN: Saturday – Friday WHEN: Ongoing till December 29 Mamangam is an art and performance TIME: 8:30am – 1:30pm centre started with a vision of spreading Developing the leader within every teen our knowledge, interests and experience in today — for a better world tomorrow. various disciplines in arts across diff erent Each student deserves to discover their countries for children and adults. potential and acquire the skills, confi dence Mamangam has become the favourite and motivation to make things happen centre for learning. We off er regular classes and bring about change. The fi ve-day in the following disciplines like traditional leadership and innovation programme is classical and folk dance forms, art and an exciting series of interactive workshops, craft, drawing and painting, personality energetic activities and fun-fi lled challenges development and public speaking, Bollywood specifi cally designed to inspire and enable dance, contemporary, hip hop styles, music each and every student to uncover their both vocals and instrumentals. To develop unique abilities, develop greater confi dence health consciousness, we train them karate, and master strategies for success in the yoga with special sessions for kids and adults. classroom and beyond. Programme leader, Mamangam has also come up with chess and Dr Ram B. Ramchandran is Vice Dean and robotics in regular batches in an attempt to Winter Dragon Boat Festival 2020 Professor of Strategy and Planning at the give a better learning experience, as they WHERE: Museum of Islamic Art O.P. Jindal Global School, India. The event is sharpen their minds and brains too. WHEN: January 24 Public Speaking Classes for Adults organised by Right Track Consultants. For those who wish to register for more Row, paddle, hurry up! Qatar’s largest WHERE: Sharq Capital, C Ring Road For registration details, contact 55448835. details, visit www.mamangamqatar.in

Compiled by Nausheen Shaikh. E-mail: [email protected], Events and timings subject to change 4 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Disruption ahead Alaska’s permafrost is under assault from a warming climate, and it’s happening a lot faster than anticipated. Hillside slopes have liquefied, unleashing slides that end up as muddy deltas in salmon streams, writes Hal Bernton

n unpaved highway runs north out of Nome, carving through more than 70 lonely miles of tundra before Adead-ending at this Inupiaq village. Maintenance crews keep the route open during the summer months. The work has become increasingly costly as a layer of ice and frozen dirt under the road softens into soggy muck, and stretches of road bed crack and collapse. “There is so much melting. We just keep having to haul in gravel,” said Calvin Schaeff er, of the Alaska state Department of Transportation. Alaska’s permafrost is under assault from a warming climate, and it’s happening a lot faster than anticipated. Hillside slopes have liquefi ed, unleashing slides that end up as muddy deltas in salmon streams. The ground under the Nome airport runway — key to linking the community to the outside world — has thawed, requiring costly patches. And during the hottest July on record, a sinkhole 14 feet deep opened along a main roadway in the city. For a region where climate change also is bringing profound PERMAFROST: A view of very icy permafrost known as yedoma along the Itkillik River in northern Alaska. changes off shore, these are disruptive developments. As the northern Bering Sea warms, bird NOAA report noted that northern and marine mammal die-off s are This has been a regions are now a net contributor on the rise and winter ice is on to greenhouse gas emissions as the the decline, enabling storms to wake-up call to the permafrost thaw quickens. gain strength over open water and climate-science In Alaska, the permafrost retreat slam into coastal communities like requires a fundamental rethinking Teller. community. What has of the fate of things built on top of The accelerating melt is a global it. concern: Permafrost, which mostly been happening at Oil pipelines, drilling pads and lies in the northern reaches of the other structures will need to be planet, is a vast carbon storehouse some of our field sites shored up as ice-rich permafrost of frozen plants and animals that is a whole different melts and the ground sags. In release greenhouse gases as they towns such as Nome, the changes warm and decompose. ballgame in permafrost already pose a Fossil fuel combustion still is headache for homeowners, who the main source of greenhouse must level house foundations that gas emissions driving climate tilt as the climate warms. change. But the world’s permafrost — Merritt Turetsky, And how much will it cost to now releases 1.2 to 2.2 million Canadian scientist maintain Alaska’s roads, bridges metric tonnes each year — at and airports — and how long the upper end, nearly equal to will they last? Some, if built on Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions, changes in Alaska’s landscape. This has been a wake-up call to the ground is expected to thaw 65 permafrost that is mostly ice, according to a report this month Canadian scientist Merritt the climate-science community,” feet down, according to University could suff er catastrophic failures. by the National Oceanic and Turetsky monitors tracts of interior Turetsky said. “What has been of Alaska Fairbanks research. “The big thing to me is the life Atmospheric Administration ‘Alaska permafrost that a decade happening at some of our fi eld sites This refl ects what scientists say span of these projects,” said Jeff (NOAA). Later this century, these ago were covered by spruce forest. is a whole diff erent ballgame.” is a critical shift in the planet’s Currey, a state transportation emissions are expected to exceed That land is now covered with Permafrost’s footprint on Alaska northern realms. In the past, department materials engineer. those of the United States. lakes. is forecast to shrink substantially in permafrost regions, on balance, “The permafrost reality, in some Scientists who study permafrost “It can happen super quickly, the decades ahead. By the century’s absorbed carbon dioxide through places where you have massive ice, already are noticing some striking even in a matter of months. … end, even on Alaska’s’ North Slope, summer plant growth. But the the roads … disappear. And that’s Wednesday, December 25, 2019 GULF TIMES 5 COVER STORY COMMUNITY something that we have a hard But he does not think it is “feasible time grasping.” or practical” to end oil and gas Some permafrost is largely production and, in September gravel, so there’s not much remarks reported by the Juneau movement when it melts. Some Empire, he talked of the benefi ts of is a mix of ice and soil, a kind of climate change, such as increased landscape glue that, once warmed, maritime trade through northern can cause hillsides to come apart. waters once clogged with ice. Some permafrost consists of nearly Nome has seen a surge of pure ice wedges that leave behind maritime traffi c. Since 2007, the big depressions when they turn into annual number of vessels docking water. at the port has more than tripled. Charlie Lean, a retired fi shery This year, a record 13 cruise ships biologist raised in Nome, says the dropped anchor, disgorging changes can be startling. hundreds of passengers for brief On a moose hunt, he found a tours of Nome’s fabled main street, river that once fl owed clear was the end point for the Iditarod Trail running cloudy because of glacial Sled Dog Race. silt picked up by meltwater from Nome also is a port of call for the permafrost. In places once sailors pulled north in hopes of dominated by shrubs, cottonwoods navigating the Northeast Passage — which die if their roots freeze that runs through Arctic waters off — have found enough continually Russia to Europe, or the Northwest thawed soil to sometimes grow into Passage that runs through 6-foot trees. Canadian waters to the Atlantic. Just walking across some In August, a berth inside the stretches of ground can be a breakwater was claimed by the diff erent experience from his youth. Pangaea, a slender 105-foot “It’s getting lots of hummocks sailboat with a hull fortifi ed to push and little rivulets, and it’s much through ice. rougher,” Lean said. AFTER-EFFECTS: The melting permafrost is undermining and ruining roads throughout the once year-round frozen The boat is owned by Mike Horn, Vladimir Romanovsky, areas of Alaska. This is on Nome-Teller road near the village of Teller. a South African-born explorer who geophysicist at the University of has made marathon expeditions all Alaska Fairbanks, says the pace of ground, and more families would Mike Dunleavy, a former school climate-change costs mounting, over the globe, including a 2006 ski the thawing in Northwest Alaska like to relocate there. administrator from Northwest there is plenty of support for such journey from Russia to the North appears to have quickened during Teller is one of 31 Alaska Alaska, has slashed state budgets an industry expansion in a state Pole in the company of Norwegian the past half-decade, which has villages listed in a Government and declined to dip into a more that has long been a Republican Børge Ousland. included intense summer rains that Accountability Offi ce report than $64 billion oil-wealth savings stronghold. But more Alaskans now This year, Horn and Ousland can soften the ground, as well as as “imminently threatened by account — known as the Permanent acknowledge the impacts of fossil reunited in Nome, taking on a dry spell this past summer that fl ooding and erosion.” Fund — that kicks out dividends to fuel development. supplies and some fresh young crew included tundra fi res. Some of these villages are in every Alaska resident. “Maybe Al Gore was right about and making repairs as they prepared In some places, shallow layers of more dire straits. There is keen The scope of Dunleavy’s cuts has climate change,” said Darrin Otton, to attempt a bold new trek. permafrost have disappeared. In competition for federal funds, stirred a fi erce political backlash, manager of the Nome Airport. They planned for the Pangaea to others, the ground could continue and Alaska is having new money including a recall petition now the “And we’ve got to get Donald push hundreds of miles north on a to sink for decades, continually troubles. State government focal point of a court battle. Trump to make a trip up here,” route made possible by diminished destabilising whatever is built up is largely funded by taxes and Over the long term, Dunleavy, a responded Schaeff er, the road- Arctic ice. The two men would exit top. royalties on oil production, which staunch ally of President Donald maintenance supervisor. the boat to ski to the North Pole, “It’s a long process, and a painful has been in long-term decline. Oil Trump, is hoping for major new oil Dunleavy believes “there is no then head toward to the Norwegian process,” Romanovsky said. production in 2018 was down 75% fi nds in North Slope areas such as question” Alaska is warming, and island of Spitsbergen, where the Over the summer, the Alaska from a 1988 peak. the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that “carbon dioxide emissions Pangaea — after a voyage through state Department of Transportation To cope with fi nancial that Congress in 2017 opened may hold a key,” according to a waters off Russia would be waiting. spent $4.5 million repairing the shortfalls, Republican Governor for oil exploration. Even with statement to The Seattle Times. Horn estimated the trip would Nome runway, which was built span nearly 1,000 miles. in a hurry during World War II “The conditions are favourable on permafrost terrain that is now for us,” Horne said in an August 22 settling in a process aggravated by Nome interview in the Pangaea’s groundwater seeping from a nearby cabin. “We’ve got a very good river. The fi x is expected to last chance.” three to fi ve years as the ground In late September, the Pangaea continues to settle. reached 85 degrees North, and the Coastal villages face a triple two men began their odyssey. They threat: rising sea levels, a loss of skied to the North Pole, and then winter ice that once helped protect slogged toward Norway. They fell them from storms, and thawing short of skiing to the Pangaea, but permafrost. on December 8 — the day of their “The tundra where we have been last food ration — they reached the picking (berries) for the past 20 safety of the Lance, a Norwegian years — the ground just caved and polar research vessel, where they my leg sank in,” said Denise Topkok, enjoyed a meal of spinach soup, a council member in Teller. The steak and chocolate. village, born more than a century Along the way they battled ago as a gold-rush boom town, is frostbite and unstable, thin and now a Native community of about It is a hostile rapidly drifting ice, a big change 235 people. from the thicker, more stable ice The sea is eroding a protective world up here. they encountered through much of coastal bluff of softening soil, their 2006 trek. They often had to threatening a cemetery where the One thing strip off their skis and climb into grave markers already lean at sharp small infl atable rafts to cross open angles due to the warming ground. is certain, leads of water. Several times, they In the low-lying area, the sea something is broke through thin ice, partially is held at bay by a makeshift wall submerging their bodies in frigid of gravel-fi lled oil drums and obviously water in what Horn in his Instagram an assortment of rusting engine posts described as a disturbing look blocks, truck axles and other not quite right at a changing Arctic climate. “It is equipment. But it’s not suffi cient. a hostile world up here,” Horn wrote Teller has suff ered repeated in a November 25 passage posted on fl ooding. — Mike Horn, Instagram. “One thing is certain, Through the years, more than 30 SUPPORT: Pilings supporting the road sink into the melting permafrost make something is obviously not quite houses have been built on higher a bridge across Anvil Creek on the Nome-Teller Road to tilt. explorer right.” — The Seattle Times/TNS 6 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY GARDENING

COMBINATION: ColourMax Icy Blue and Clear Yellow combine in a dreamy complementary partnership. COLOUR PUNCH: ColourMax Lemonberry Pie Mix off ers dazzling colours. ColourMax violas off er months of dazzling cool season colour As you shop, keep your eyes open for ColourMax, the most exciting new viola series in years, writes Norman Winter

he November Polar giving landscape colour to the are easier to compact, keeping out Express put a lot of max. By long into the spring I’m not only water but also air. So, we good gardening folks in talking April and even late May. have choices, such as going with a a funk. Consider, many Now, your dilemma is choosing landscape mix like the commercial of us had virtually had when to switch to warm-season landscaper does or simply working noT frost, then the front swooped colour. This is a great problem to in organic matter. down dropping temperatures to a have, but the fact is, if you plant Your fl ower success starts at bone-chilling 22 degrees in West now in the south you’ll enjoy 4- to ground level. By incorporating Georgia. So, if you are in a funk or -5 months of sensational colour. organic matter like humus, simply found yourself behind in I am the ultimate pansy and compost or peat into the native cool-season colour then reach for viola lover, almost to the point soil, good things start to happen. a fl at or two of ColourMax violas. of saying that I have never seen Organic matter helps to loosen the I promise this will be a pick me up one I didn’t like. I love clear soil for better water penetration that no doctor could prescribe. ones, those with blotches, those and aeration, leading to good I had a Facebook message the with whiskers, and I relish their root development. Know also other day asking if we could still fragrance. To me, there is nothing that pansies and violas are heavy plant pansies and violas now not to love about pansies and feeders so even though it might be and the answer is, ‘absolutely.’ If violas. While ColourMax fl owers cold don’t mistake this as a sign you typically plant in the fall in are larger than many other they aren’t hungry. your region then do it this week. viola selections, the quantity of The Garden Guy is growing One of my favourite growers in blossoms is also amazing. As you ColourMax Clear Yellow and Savannah posted a video recently, might expect, the plants reach 6 ColourMax Icy Blue in partnership that showed a greenhouse full of to 8 inches tall with a spread of with Goldilocks lysimachia dazzling one-gallon ColourMax about 10 inches. They are very and Rockin’ Red dianthus and I violas just perfect for planting. cold-tolerant and transplant to the couldn’t be happier. They are all There is a good probability the garden with ease. so appealing, ColourMax Berry Pie growers and retailers in your area To grow yours, select a site and the new mix, so aptly named, still have plenty of cool-season in full sun or partial shade with Lemonberry Pie will dazzle for colours too. organically-rich soil. If organic, months in the landscape. ColourMax is still so new, many rich and fertile doesn’t sound like No matter where you live, there of you may be unaware of this your soil, don’t fret. Over the last is a season for planting pansies series coming to us from Sakata 20 years, most gardeners I have and violas. In the South, we can Seed. They come in 10 colours and talked to are plagued with a tight still plant with great success. As 4 mixes and are perfectly named. clay or heavy soil. Clay particles you shop, keep your eyes open for They are large-fl owered violas APPEALING: ColourMax Berry Pie off ers a rare burgundy flower with a are the smallest of all soils. ColourMax, the most exciting new that perform long into the spring yellow blotch. Because of their small size, they viola series in years. – TNS Wednesday, December 25, 2019 GULF TIMES 7 OFF-BEAT COMMUNITY Behind Jim Allison’s quest to cure cancer

new documentary profi les the diagnosis was seven months. Sharon Belvin, Nobel-winning, harmonica- featured in the fi lm as fi rst-person testimony slinging scientist behind to Allison’s achievements, was diagnosed one of the biggest modern with metastatic melanoma at 23; her wedding breakthroughs in cancer was held days after her fi rst chemo treatment. Atreatment Faced with a terminal diagnosis and failed Jim Allison doesn’t quite fi t the archetype chemo rounds, Belvin was put on the fi rst of the studious, buttoned-up scientist: with clinical trial of ipilimumab; over a decade a full beard and long hair, the most gravelly later, now mom to two kids, she’s still cancer of Texas drawls and a history of ripping a free. Her gratitude to Allison is ineff able, she harmonica on stage with Willie Nelson, says in the fi lm. “There’s no thank you for Allison seems more like a longstanding that.” Grateful Dead fan than game-changer in the Haney interweaves Belvin’s survival story, quest to cure cancer. one of extreme time sensitivity, with the The music-loving, 71-year-old scientist, much longer arc of Allison’s dedication to long a renegade in the fi eld of cancer research, developing ipi, personal costs and all. In one is perhaps an unlikely prism through which to particularly moving sequence, home video view the world of cutting-edge medicine. But shows Allison’s son growing from a toddler to the internationally renowned researcher has a precocious child with the passage of years; fundamentally shifted the trajectory of cancer during that same time, almost no progress treatment – an achievement covered in the was made on building a specifi c antibody new documentary Jim Allison: Breakthrough, critical to the idea underlying ipi in Allison’s by fi lm-maker Bill Haney, which traces the lab. There are “things that came across in arc of Allison’s iconoclastic career from a the fi lm as personal sacrifi ces,” Allison said, childhood marred by loss from cancer in rural “but to me at the time, it was what I thought Texas to a Nobel prize in medicine, along with needed to be done. But looking back on it I do Tasuku Honjo of Japan in 2018. realise that there was a cost.” ‘We need more light’: the fi ght to change The timeline of medical research can feel how police deal with mental illness PERSONAL: Jim Allison in Breakthrough. glacial; as one commentator remarks in the Breakthrough is a double-sided fi lm: fi lm, we’re still just in the fi rst few chapters part novice explainer on the signifi cance of Washington, out of the science laboratories doesn’t work, you’re wasting your time.” of immuno-oncology treatments. Still, the Allison’s advancements in the promising around the country and around the world, Haney’s fi lm depicts how, luckily, Allison fi lm argues, if the entry revolved around the world of cancer research, part personal story some extraordinarily beautiful things are and his team at labs in Berkeley, California, questions: is this possible, could this work? of a renegade Texan overcoming entrenched happening,” he said. at Sloan Kettering in New York and now Then we have resolved the introduction: establishment thinking (and, in high school, a Haney’s fi lm, narrated by Texas native MD Anderson in Houston were not wasting ipilimumab and its successor immuno- creationist curriculum) to invest decades into Woody Harrelson (who, according to Haney, their time. Treading against the weights oncology drugs have, according to the fi lm, what was once considered wishful thinking: “couldn’t have been more generous or of established treatment pathways and treated millions of cancer patients worldwide igniting the body’s immune system to fi ght supportive or fun”), retreads Allison’s journey the heavy investment of time and money – including Allison himself, who has faced cancer cells. from his childhood in Alice, Texas, where his required for ground-breaking research, cancer three times (his older brother died Cancer has, of course, been around for mother died of cancer when he was 11, to years Allison and his team, from researchers to of cancer, another family trauma which the millennia – ancient Egyptian papyri record of research on the immune system that tested altruistic pharmaceutical executives, devote fi lm posits as motivation behind Allison’s techniques for removing breast tumours. the boundaries of medical knowledge. His nearly 20 years to mainstreaming their fi rst relentless research drive). At this point, “ipi” Traditionally, surgery was the only method determination to look into the immune system’s immunotherapy drug, ipilimumab (“ipi”), for is no longer an experimental drug, meaning for treating cancer; it wasn’t until the turn potential to fi ght cancer – an idea, according to late-stage melanoma patients. it can be prescribed by doctors around the of the 20th century that scientists began the fi lm, often dismissed as fanciful or failed – Before ipilimumab, late-stage melanoma world and is covered by insurance. The next experimenting with radiation therapy. The often drew scepticism. was basically a death sentence; at the time chapter, then, asks how can we make this modern standard for cancer treatment “For years, people said, this will never Allison started developing the drug in the work better, with higher rates of eff ectiveness – chemotherapy, a combination of toxic work,” Allison told the Guardian. “And if it mid-90s, the median survival time after for diff erent types of cancer. chemicals that kill off cancer cells along with Haney attributes the success of the fi rst plenty of healthy ones, too – was developed chapter, and the subject of Breakthrough, in the 1950s. All three conventional methods to Allison’s “iconoclastically creative point rely on outside agents to destroy cancer cells; of view”, as well as his “relentless, resilient Allison’s breakthrough was to see potential in spirit”. But the larger import of Allison’s the body’s own immune system, which cancer story, he said is “how you solve big problems. has adapted to avoid, to fi ght cancer cells. It’s a reminder in a world that is negative Perhaps the holy grail of medicine, “curing about solving climate change or income cancer” is a misnomer – there’s too many inequality or immigration problems that man diff erent types, too many mutations, for a has always had diffi cult challenges and we’ve blanket solution. But Allison’s harnessing of solved them the same ways – we’ve pulled the immune system to fi ght cancer represents together to our common purpose with good a paradigm shift, to a future of less gruelling, leadership. more eff ective cancer therapies. The progress “I ultimately hope people are inspired already captured Haney’s attention for a by Jim and by his personal example, by the fi lm even before the Nobel prize win (fi lming notion that we can solve the most challenging wrapped, coincidentally, the day before the possible problems if we just go about it prize was announced). “The country is so together in the right way and by the life of divided right now that I was trying to fi nd joy and creativity that living in the world of a storyline that was more uniting and that sciences can be,” Haney said. could serve as a prism to think about how we Allison is, characteristically, a bit more could solve big problems together rather than prosaic: “I hope people see it and say, yeah how we demonised the opposition,” Haney that’s something that I’d like to do,” he said on told the Guardian. There’s no pro-cancer his science career balanced with a healthy dose lobby, he added. “We’re all against cancer.” of fun. “You can enjoy doing science and help “While society’s attention has been make the world a better place at the same time.” particularly focused on the darkness in Jim Allison and Woody Harrelson. —The Guardian 8 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY ROUN Actors of substance who ruled

By Muhammad Asad Ullah serials in three months – Ehd- e-Wafa and Yeh Dil Mera. Ahad is wonderfully terrifying in Yeh n the plethora of drama Pakistan entertainment industry Dil Mera – a boy-next-door with serials on air every year, it’s is well on its way and there’s quite quite nothing to lose attitude, his quite strenuous to get your a reason to expect progress in the unrelenting pursuit of the leading work noticed. Sometimes years to come: Hira Mani, one of lady as the actor is slowly but the anger roars. Other fi ve women to make our top 8, was surely is unravelling his character’s Itimes it seethes. It can be silent relatively less known just last year. motivations. Ahad plays it close or eloquent, mighty or impotent, It’s time to show some love for to the vest throughout, making righteous or nasty. Or almost the scads of performances that his reveal and scenes all the more invisible. Whatever goes into a you’ll be sorry to have had missed, powerful one after another. performance — talent, grit, wit, if you have. Here’s a selection of strength, inspiration, exhaustion, the very best. Sajal Aly in Alif and Yeh Dil luck — was part of actors’ Mera performance that was seen and Imran Ashraf in Ranjha The truth of the matter is that appreciated by masses this year. Ranjha Kardi Sajal Aly could make the list of Much great acting takes place in Imran Ashraf really is great performers in just about drama serials that actually aren’t defi ning acting prowess with any year, for just about any role. all that good, in terms of budget unconventional roles in the real She is always interesting, never I mean. Over the period of time sense of the world. His character not surprising and consistently Pakistan entertainment industry Bhola in Ranjha Ranjha Kardi unnerving, even if the serial falls has realised that it’s not the star hit home for many, and created short – and that’s a big ‘if’ because power that brings the good rating awareness about mental health. that’s a rarity. For the previous at and fame to any serial but the Imran has raised awareness around least half a decade, except a movie substantial content and characters. disorders like ASD, ADHD and she did in 2016, Zindagi Kitni Where unconventional Asperger’s Syndrome via Bhola. Haseen Hai, there’s no project of characters and storylines are Normally, when Imran’s hers that have gone unnoticed by gaining popularity for their character loses it, it’s because he’s the viewers and masses at large. In relativeness with the audiences, right in a world that’s wrong, and 2018, her most-heralded work on there is so much feeling that needs the anger is meant to identify and television was O Rangreza where a story right now, when all kinds then destroy the injustice. Imran she played a blithe girl full of life. of people are mad — in real life and is at his critical best when the The zone where normalcy collides in the movies — for all kinds of serial needs his face to do what a with extremity — where high reasons. Some of those people are screenplay can’t. His expression comedy and psychological terror played by the 8 actors selected for — a rictus of embarrassment, keep company — is her sweet spot. this year’s Ruling the Television confusion and guilt — belongs What makes her work this year Screens piece, especially by the in a gallery. It’s a masterpiece of in Alif and Yeh Dil Mera, both women. When we fi nished with confusion, comedy and a social on-air simultaneously, even more Imran Ashraf our list, we noticed that women satire. astonishing is that she brought that out numbered men. We thought sweet spot with her, infusing those about adjusting the balance but Ahad Raza Mir in Ehd-e-Wafa drama serials with an element of decided not to. Female anger is a and Yeh Dil Mera vitality they would otherwise have potent political, social and creative Ahad is a very fi ne addition to lacked. Both of them are hothouse force nowadays. The portrayal the entertainment fraternity. We’ve blossoms, exercises in sensibility of a strong lead female character seen him put his acting skills well for directors with very particular rather than any damsel in distress to use and make audiences sway agendas. Both characters are driven is carving out a frame for actors to with him. If you feel like you’ve by the element of innocence at showcase more of their versatility, been seeing a lot of Ahad Raza some point, and that’s how Sajal and perhaps our critical antennas Mir lately, you’re not wrong: The takes the wheel with her big shot picked up on that. pro actor released his two drama eyes.

Ahad Raza Mir Sajal Aly Ayeza Khan Wednesday, December 25, 2019 GULF TIMES 9 ND UP COMMUNITY d the television screens in 2019

Ayeza Khan in Meray Paas in the serial happens sooner than Affan Waheed in Do Bol Tum Ho. you want it to. The minute you see It has been apparent for more What to do with an actor in a the episode of her being dragged than half a decade — let’s say type of role you dislike that’s the down by a group of thugs from her since Daastan which you may centrepiece of a drama you really father’s hand, you start wondering have forgotten had anyone else care for. Well, if the acting works, about what’s going to happen to in it — that Affan Waheed can do you just ignore everything else. And her, obviously. I worried about what anything. Even as a supporting Ayeza Khan’s acting in Meray Paas would happen to Sana’s acting. She actor, he clearly possessed lead- Tum Ho really works. You dislike the works here with remarkable restraint. level discipline and versatility character so much that you want The character struggles with pain and also the kind of relentless, other characters in the serial to do and unceasing pity. The actor doesn’t fearless, unshowy honesty most well in terms of storyline. Ayeza appear to struggle with anything. often associated with great actors Khan not only deserves an applause She plays the shock of attention, like Waheed Murad. In Do Bol, and appreciation but some awards the suff ocating embarrassment of Waheed proves he can do anything as well for signing on to a role like pity, and rage at how the harassment by doing something that may Mehwish in Meray Paas Tum Ho. The forces Sameera to take greater sound easy: playing an ordinary actress who is usually seen either as responsibility for her choices. Pakistani middle-class man. a damsel in distress in dramas or the ‘Ordinary’ is hardly fair, though. manipulative kind have shattered Hira Mani in Do Bol Badar in Do Bol is typical only by all our pre-conceived notions by The shot from Do Bol that virtue of the circumstances over playing this character. Ayeza paid probably pops into your head which he has no control. Affan meticulous attention to detail by fi rst — it was in the trailers and is in no way exceptional and in nailing each and every expression and will no doubt feature in every every way unique — a marvellous dialogue, making us hate Mehwish award reel — is of Hira Mani in impossibility that has rarely been for her ruthlessness. If that’s not close-up, shrugging off Aff an captured with such a romance. extraordinary then what is? Waheed at a train station, her eyes squinted with disappointment and Sanam Baloch in Khaas Sana Javed in Ruswai overfl owing with tears. It’s a pivotal Part of the force in her In Ruswai, Sana plays a girl who moment, for sure, both in the plot performance in Khaas has to despite being helpless does not and in Hira’s performance: the big do with our long relationship submit to her family’s pressure reveal and the fi rst big emotional with this star. We don’t know and stands her ground. She is a payoff . But it’s also a confi rmation Sanam Baloch, but we do know victim of harassment who is fi rst of the importance of those eyes ‘Sanam Baloch.’ And here she betrayed by her father and then her to the structure and meaning of is in a new mode: a victim of fi ancé but she goes on to stand her the fi lm. They are perhaps its only emotional abuse but she is not ground. It’s the sort of bound- reliable barometers of emotion, the damsel in distress the masses for-tragedy part that barely needs instruments of empathy and adore. She is a strong, educated an actor. It practically performs windows on the truth. Hira Mani woman with resources, who is itself. And yet, many actors have practices a kind of naturalistic, willing to compromise but has given it and had many a statuette Karachi mode of performance in enough self-esteem to resist her Sanam Baloch thrown at them for doing so. But Do Bol. It’s acting that’s more like narcissist husband’s attempts at as the story becomes about a being: She makes her way through manipulating and belittling her. woman’s dignity, Javed inhabits the drama serial as she might go Baloch uses her stardom some — the horror of unsought valour. about her actual day. But rising that smile of hers is forced into She makes the physical challenges above it is her performance, the a rictus of iffy optimism — but secondary to the psychological garrulous, whirring, sweet-and- it’s more restrained. She has ones. Sana has found a way to play sour energy steals all her scenes. discovered new ways of doing a part that can only be described Hira has never seemed so relaxed fear and nervous confrontations, as charismatically unremarkable; and radiant on-screen — she takes not for acting’s sake, but to serve except she doesn’t just play it, she a nothing role and gives it fl esh and the mounting desperation of her disappears within it. The bombing blood. character.

Sana Javed Hira Mani Aff an Waheed 10 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY INFOGRAPHIC Kwanzaa Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community and culture. Celebrated from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, its origins are in the first harvest celebrations of Africa from which it takes its name. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach, an author and scholar-activist who stressed the indispensable need to preserve, continually revitalize and promote African The seven core principles of Kwanzaa Umoja: Unity. - To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race. Kujichagulia: Self-Determination - To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility - To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and solve them together. Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics - To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together. Nia: Purpose - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness. Kuumba: Creativity - To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Imani: Faith - To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle. Source: officialkwanzaawebsite.org, interexchange.org Graphic: Staff, TNS Wednesday, December 25, 2019 GULF TIMES 11 LIFESTYLE/HOROSCOPE COMMUNITY People with restricted diets more likely to feel lonely

oliday celebrations often revolve inclusion in the group meal,” she said. around eating, but people with Yet, within their own similarly restricted restricted diets are more likely group, they felt a stronger bond. But when to feel lonely when they can’t restricted from sharing in the meal, people share in what others are eating, suff er “food worries,” said the researcher. Hresearchers have found. They fret about what they can eat and how Across seven studies and controlled others might judge them for not fi tting in. experiments, the fi ndings, published in the Those worries generated a degree of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, loneliness comparable to that reported found that food restrictions predicted by unmarried or low-income adults, and loneliness among both children and adults. stronger than that experienced by school “Despite being physically present with children who were not native English others, having a food restriction leaves speakers, according to the research. people feeling left out because they are not Compared with non-restricted individuals, able to take part in bonding over the meal,” having a restriction increased reported said study lead author Kaitlin Woolley,” loneliness by 19 per cent. People felt lonelier Assistant Professor at Cornell University in regardless of how severe their restriction was, the US. or whether their restriction was imposed or For example, in one experiment, voluntary. assigning unrestricted individuals to To date, Woolley said, children have been experience a food restriction increased the primary focus of research on the eff ects of reported feelings of loneliness. That food restrictions. suggests such feelings are not driven by A nationally representative survey she non-food issues or limited to picky eaters. analysed from the Centers for Disease Control “We can strip that away and show that did not track the issue among adults. or adults are choosing restricted diets such as “Up to 30 per cent of all participants in the assigning someone to a restriction or not But increasingly, Woolley said, food gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan for health research deal with restrictions, Woolley said. can have implications for their feeling of restrictions are being carried into adulthood, or ethical reasons. – IANS

ARIES TAURUS GEMINI March 21 — April 19 April 20 — May 20 May 21 — June 20

e careful about letting your imagination run away with your You may experience some raw emotions today, which you should The annoying restlessness that you experience today is simply emotions. Grand scenarios you work up in your head may send use as your ally instead of your enemy. Your heart may feel rather a reminder that it’s important to start engaging in art projects or your heart crashing when they end unfulfilled or crushed. There’s abused, so do what you can to gently care for it. Be careful of letting musical endeavours that make you happy. Learn from people who a realistic tone to the day asking you to be serious and practical, others get too close if they simply don’t know how to act around aren’t afraid to follow their dreams. Don’t be so concerned with what especially when it comes to your feelings. something so fragile and pure. Protect yourself. other people think of your work. Now it’s important to do these things for yourself. CANCER LEO VIRGO June 21 — July 22 July 23 — August 22 August 23 — September 22

Here’s a day when some long-awaited attention or recognition You may experience some push and pull today. One minute you You should feel emotionally stable today, but you may feel a bit comes your way. You’re finished with the hassles you experienced feel like you should sit back and wait for things to go your way, and unsure of yourself when it comes to data. Someone is challenging during the past month and have entered a calmer period. Those the next you feel a stick poking you to get moving. Life is a delicate your way of thinking and demanding that you take a step farther who could recently only criticize can’t find enough words to praise balance of incorporating these two modes of operation. Neither way out on the fragile limb. You’re happy on the part of the branch that’s you. Take the compliments at face value. There’s nothing wrong with is more correct, so recognise and honour both. much thicker and more stable. Feel free to stay there if you don’t feel being happy with yourself. comfortable taking a chance now. LIBRA SCORPIO SAGITTARIUS September 23 — October 22 October 23 — November 21 November 22 — December 21

Go out and see a movie that you’ve wanted to see for weeks. You’ll You may be faced with a choice between two diff erent realities. Be careful about letting your imagination run away with your be happiest in a reality that isn’t necessarily yours. Fantasy and Friends and family are choosing sides while you remain on the fence. emotions. Grand scenarios you work up in your head may send imaginative scenarios are what tickle your fancy now. Be careful You’re able to understand both sides of the issue, making it diff icult your heart crashing when they end unfulfilled or crushed. There’s of being weighed down by heavy emotional issues that don’t have to put your energy in only one camp. Perhaps you wish to serve as a a realistic tone to the day asking you to be serious and practical, anything to do with you. bridge between the two camps. Things don’t have to be as black and especially when it comes to your feelings. white as others see them. CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES December 22 — January 19 January 20 — February 18 February 19 — March 20

Your heart’s in the right place today, but somehow you find it If you experience resistance or frustration in a certain area, you Sometimes friends become your real family. Your friendships are hard to execute the things you want to do. Art and music projects should take this as a sign that you should follow a new route. Things deeper and more enduring than you realize. Many people are eager are especially diff icult for you now. They require a more cerebral should flow smoothly and easily. This is one of those days in which to give their help, so why are you reluctant to receive it? Haven’t you approach than you’d like to admit. Perhaps you’re drawn to the reality is going to conflict harshly with fantasy, especially if you don’t been the one promoting the benefits of warm, sincere friendships? spiritual nature of things more than you’re opposed to the rational have them well separated in your mind. Enjoy your imaginary world, Today makes you aware of your talents and reinforces how nature of things. but deal with the practical world, too. important friendships are. 12 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY CARTOONS/PUZZLES

Wordsearch Adam

Pooch Cafe

ANGLING SHINTY HOCKEY CROQUET BASEBALL SWIMMING POLO GOLF BOXING ARCHERY SOCCER JUDO FENCING BOULES TENNIS RUGBY GYMNASTICS CRICKET ATHLETICS SQUASH LACROSSE FOOTBALL BOWLING WRESTLING

Codeword Every letter of the alphabet is used at least once. Squares with the same number in have the same letter in. Work out which number represents which letter.

Garfield Puzzles courtesy: Puzzlechoice.com courtesy: Puzzles

Sudoku

Bound And Gagged

Sudoku is a puzzle based on a 9x9 grid. The grid is also divided into nine (3x3) boxes. You are given a selection of values and to complete the puzzle, you must fill the grid so that every column, every anone is repeated. Wednesday, December 25, 2019 GULF TIMES 13 PUZZLES COMMUNITY

Super Cryptic Clues Colouring

Across Down 1 Drug for a fool (4) 1 Action by head required to 3 Soldier, perhaps, that carries change a name (4,4) sailors? (3-2-3) 2 Spot Italian bird (5) 9 Quickly put into words (7) 4 Take in sailor’s sphere (6) 10 Fed up with being drilled (5) 5 The way of the world? (5) 11 This foreign bread is mine, 6 Most circumspect, using ears thank you (5) and wit (7) 12 Cad making rude retort? (6) 7 Theme park attraction - for 14 Setting for a cello some, a horrid experience! (4) composition (6) 8 Happen to exist before 16 Ale and wine put before the autumn (6) queen (6) 13 Wild deer and rats may be 19 Material from West Coast stopped (8) state taken by one company (6) 15 One who makes you pay for 21 Plant some privet, perhaps, a horse (7) or some wretched geraniums 17 Where palm is available (2,4) (5) 18 Sounds made by hooters 24 Some real gold star (5) about one (6) 25 One sort of shirt or vest (7) 20 I had been at the front - and 26 Heaven is in March (8) took it easy! (5) 27 Exploited American editor 22 Playthings for Guy’s (4) companions (5) 23 Keep on and on at an instrument? (4) Answers Solution Wordsearch Codeword 14 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY BOLLYWOOD Meghna Gulzar: Stop treating acid-attack survivor as ‘bechari’

discussing it is only humane about casting. I saw a picture of By Arundhuti Banerjee for someone to get aff ected Lakshmi when she was 15, before emotionally and psychologically the attack, and I saw the picture of the way she does, without stopping Deepika when she was a teenager. ilmmaker Meghna herself from the commitment that The similarity is uncanny. They Gulzar’s upcoming fi lm she has for the country.” have long necks, the way they use Chhapaak is based on the “That is why Sehmat went their hands while talking and the true story of acid attack through the dilemma she did while way they smile in between talking survivor Laxmi Agarwal, in Pakistan, doing her duty as a — Deepika was the only one I could andF features Deepika Padukone in spy,” she added. think of.” the protagonist’s role. Meghna says “Similarly, after meeting so many The director said that the we should stop looking at an acid acid attack survivors, and meeting strategy and star power to reach out attack victim as a ‘bechari’ and Laxmi, I realised that they have to a wider audience with Deepika celebrate her spirit and positive gone past from their refl ection in came much later. attitude towards life despite the the mirror and have recovered. “After that interesting horrifi c experience. Their spirit has not been distorted, resemblance, and her acting talent, “Contrary to the popular belief just their face. That is why you see rest of the factors were secondary. and perception that the story of an Malti (Deepika’s character in the Of course, Deepika is a star. Her acid-attack survivor would be very fi lm) says that they changed my beauty is adulated by the mass depressing, heavy and graphical, face, not my spirit. That is why all audience, and here I am with a story Malti is a character who smiles into those acid-attack survivors say that that requires us to distort it, which camera and says, ‘ab khush hoon to ‘we are happy’ the way we are, we also amplifi es the brutality of the kya karun’. We should stop treating are not ‘bechari’. Of course, that crime (of acid attack. Bringing an them as ‘bechari’, because they are does not diminish the trauma they actress on board who is in sync with not!” Meghna told IANS. have gone through, but it is about my vision was quite an interesting Asked if that is her way of overcoming and living a spirited process,” shared Meghna who was breaking the stereotype of life!” said Meghna. initially not sure if Deepika would characters, just as she did with Apart from Deepika, the fi lm agree to do the fi lm. COMPASSIONATE: Meghna Gulzar says that after meeting many acid Alia Bhatt’s character Sehmat in features Vikrant Massey and Rohit However, she mentioned how attack survivors, and meeting Laxmi, she realised that they have gone past Raazi, Meghna explained: “I think Sukhwani. “gratifying” it was for her as a from their reflection in the mirror and have recovered. I am blessed to come across some Asked about her thought behind fi lmmaker to collaborate with the characters as Sehmat and Malti casting an actress whose beauty is actress. actress, a superstar who is on the completely submitted herself to my who are real, who are spirited and celebrated, Meghna said: “Deepika “It (her decision to do the fi lm) top of her game, is telling the story vision. She is a sign of a true artiste. their stories are compelling. When and Lakshmi shares uncanny shows how Deepika goes by her of an acid-attack survivor where It is precious,” she smiled. we were writing the screenplay similarities and that was my fi rst guts and how instinctive she is. It her beauty is not being fl aunted as Chhapaak releases on January of Raazi, Bhavani Iyer and I were consideration when I was thinking is very encouraging to see how an part of the character, and she has 10. – IANS

commenting and me reading that and I was getting too caught up. But, then I think the past 7-8 months, touchwood, the work has been so back-to-back, I have realised that it doesn’t matter,” she said. Janhvi was speaking for a podcast of JioSaavn’s “#NoFilterNeha Season 4”. She continued: “Like, if people are going to cry about me wearing shorts to the gym; I don’t care anymore. Because if I wear pants I slip on the reformer so I am going to wear shorts. I mean, there are COMFORT ZONE: Jhanvi Kapoor says she is getting used to the attention days when I still get bothered by by media and photographers now. the comments, I have actually reached a place where I am amused FUN LOVING: Deepika has a funny conversation with the paparazzi. Janhvi Kapoor: Getting by some of the not-so-cute ones.” papped is weird Dr Agarwals. So, it’s kind of weird Asked if she is single, she said: but I think the weirdest part of it is “Yes”. When Deepika wanted a paparazzo’s phone cover that I have kind of gotta used to it Opening up about her Actress Janhvi Kapoor says it now,” Janhvi said. relationship status with her Not only on-screen, actress Deepika Padukone is quite an entertainer is weird being followed by the “As much as people might crib “crush” Vijay Deverakonda, Janhvi in real life too. Her recent encounter with photographers in Mumbai at a paparazzi and the weirdest part of about it, at the end of the day, said: “The status is non-existent, promotion event of her upcoming show Chhapaak is a proof of that. it all is that she is getting used to you are getting attention and how unfortunately. I feel like I have put A video is doing the rounds on the Internet in which Deepika is seen the attention now. phony does it sound to be like out a lot of feelers but there is no having a fun conversation with a paparazzi member, taking his phone “It’s weird. It really is. I was just ‘Oh my god, I am getting so much response. No, but I am kidding. It’s and asking him if she can use the cover of his mobile phone. thinking about it today while I had attention’,” she added. just admiration. I am comfortable “Main use kar sakti hoon kya ?” Deepika joked. egg on my hair and honey on my The Dhadak star says she with the admiration which I guess On listening to Deepika’s response, the bystanders started laughing. face at a pilates studios. I was like struggled with being papped. is one-side. It’s only on interviews The shutterbug immediately allowed Deepika to take the phone cover. if they’ve seen me enter the gym “Honestly, I have my days and and public platforms and on To that, Deepika said: “arey nahi nahin”. today, they are going to see me I’ve had a long phase where I really NoFilterNeha shows. You know my A few days ago, Deepika was seen addressing a shutterbug as Panduji leave with wet hair, they are going struggled with it, when I was very phases are actually very seasonal. after the latter called her Deepuji. to photograph me entering your bothered by I don’t know I felt like He’s been quite consistent though. On the work front, Deepika is awaiting the release of Chhapaak, studio, your show and they are it was taking away my credibility. Like my fondness has been quite which is based on the life of acid attack victim Laxmi Agarwal. The fi lm going to photograph me leaving, It was like a weird deviation and consistent. No, but there have been is scheduled to 83”. – IANS they are going to photograph me at just an interference and people a couple of phases after.” – IANS Wednesday, December 25, 2019 GULF TIMES 15 HOLLYWOOD COMMUNITY

Joker director: I understand Scorsese Mariah Carey sued by former nanny criticism of comicbook films Pop superstar Mariah Carey was sued recently by Joker fi lmmaker Todd Phillips a former nanny Maria Burgues. has given legendary Hollywood Maria Burgues fi led a suit in the Los Angeles fi lmmaker Martin Scorsese a pass Superior Court, claiming that she was fi red in April on what he said about comic book 2018 after complaining about her pay and working movie blockbusters, saying he conditions, reports variety.com. understood what he was trying to Burgues says she was paid $25 an hour to babysit say. Scorsese recently took a jibe at Carey’s children. She was obliged to travel with Marvel movies, saying these eff orts Carey and the children when Carey went on tour, were “not cinema”. but says she was not paid for her travel time. Phillips accepts his fellow According to the suit, Carey’s children had a fi lmmaker was making a fair point, bodyguard Marcio Moto, who routinely screamed at reports aceshowbiz.com. Burgues and made her feel threatened. In December Joining Scorsese for The 2017, Burgues says that they were all driving to Las SUED: The suit against Mariah Carey seeks Hollywood Reporter’s directors Vegas together, and Moto started yelling at Burgues compensation for severe emotional distress. roundtable chat, Phillips said: and threatened to kick her out of the car and leave “Marty got a lot of heat for that her by the road. Carey’s attorney said he could not comment (what he said), but I understand it She complained about the incident, but says because he had not seen the suit. fully. We were struggling to get Joker nothing was done. He is also fi ghting a lawsuit by Lianna made, which sounds funny because PASSIONATE: Todd Phillips talks In another incident, Moto was driving Burgues Shakhnazaryan, a former assistant who claims it exists in the superhero world, but about the struggles of making Joker. and Carey’s children to dance class in California, Carey’s ex-manager, Stella Bulochnikov, treated it’s really not one of those movies.” while using his phone to video chat with his her abusively. Carey has accused Shakhnazaryan of “We spent a year at Warner Bros., and I saw e-mails back and forth, literally, girlfriend. The suit claims that Moto was distracted secretly recording her and trying to extort her out where they said, ‘Does he realise we sell Joker pyjamas at Target?’ I go, ‘Didn’t and nearly had an accident. of $8 million. movies come fi rst and pyjamas come second? Are the pyjamas dictating the Later, at the dance studio, one of Carey’s children In a ruling on Monday, Judge Richard J. Burdge, movies?’ Theme park rides. Pyjamas. Slurpee cups. Whatever it is that you are walked out of the class unnoticed. Jr., barred Shakhnazaryan from obtaining Carey’s selling off the back of movies, you can’t make your decisions based on that.” The suit alleges that Moto was again distracted medical records in the dispute. Shakhnazaryan’s Scorsese added: “I remember when Disneyland was built... and one of by his phone, but blamed Burgues for the incident, attorneys had claimed the records would be the aspirations of the studios was to become as important to American yelling at her in front of the children, parents, relevant in assessing Carey’s emotional distress culture as Disneyland. And the fi rst studio to really do that was Universal dance instructors and other nannies. or ability to consent to being recorded. Burdge with the (studio) tour. And then you add the blockbuster on top of that – After that, Burgues was fi red. rejected both arguments, fi nding the records to be and why not? People go to the movie. Enjoy it. That sort of thing.” The suit seeks compensation for severe irrelevant. “So the sense of a theme park has always been there. It’s not bad. We emotional distress. Burgues also claimed that she In November, Maria Salazar, a former used to love to go to amusement parks. But now in an amusement park, you was not given proper wage statements, and was not housekeeper of Carey, also fi led a lawsuit claiming have the fi lm.” – IANS given her total wages due when she was fi red. she was not adequately paid. – IANS Ed Sheeran to take another break from music rammy-winning people pointed them out – your singer Ed Sheeran has brain starts thinking about them. announced that he is It all stems from other people’s taking a break from insecurities. So many people have music after working things they’re insecure about so it “nonG stop” since 2017. makes them feel better to point out The 28-year-old took to someone else’s. Because half the Instagram to share the news. This is people that would point out that the second break he has taken from I’m fat are probably fat themselves,” music as he went silent on social he said. media and stopped performing for He was supported by his wife most of 2016, reports mirror.co.uk. Cherry, and soon he started a He wrote: “Hello all. Gonna go on rigorous diet and exercise regime to another break again. The Divide era try to get fi t while on his last world and tour changed my life in so many tour, which ended in August. ways, but now it’s all over it’s time He explained: “My problem was to go out and see some more of the I’d go to the pub, have bangers and world.” mash, a pie, maybe a pudding and Sheeran said he wanted to travel then loads of pints. And then not so he could fi nd some more things exercise. My friends used to call me to write about in his lyrics. Two Dinners Teddy. On tour, it’s He continued: “I’ve been a bit very easy to drink every single day non-stop since 2017 so I’m just because there’s always someone gonna take a breather to travel, visiting. I had to make a real eff ort write and read. I’ll be off all social on the tour. I’m 12st (stones) now. media until it’s time to come I started running. I’ve got into back. To my family and friends, cycling as well.” see ya when I see ya – and to my The singer admitted that his fans, thank you for always being weight was the reason he didn’t amazing. feature in his early music videos. “I promise to be back with LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION: Ed Sheeran said he wants to travel so he could find some more things to write about He added: “I wasn’t in my fi rst some new music when the time is in his lyrics. three or four videos. I was the same right and I’ve lived a little more to sort of age as the One Direction actually have something to write He began his Divide tour in says being branded as ‘fat’ by online was called “chunky” and “fat” by boys and Justin Bieber and all these about.” March 2017 and played his last trolls made him lose weight. trolls, and that left him wanting to people who had six-packs and I was He signed off the message: “Lots performance in August this year. In Behind The Medal podcast, the lose weight, thesun.co.uk. kind of like, ‘Oh should I look like of love x.” Earlier in an interview, Sheeran Shape of you singer added that he “I never had insecurities and this?’” – IANS 16 GULF TIMES Wednesday, December 25, 2019 COMMUNITY

Kindergarten Section of BPS marks Annual Day

The Kindergarten Section of Birla Section. Addressing the gathering, Public School (BPS) recently marked C V Rappai said that eff ective its Annual Day ‘Natureza’19’. The verbal communication nurtures event featured various cultural the process of socialisation by performances. The event was facilitating new friendships and in attended by notable personalities, turn aiding the learning process. including Lukose K Chacko, Dr Mohan Thomas emphasised on Chairman of BPS; Gope Shahani, teachers playing a very significant, Vice Chairman; Dr Mohan Thomas lifelong impact on the students. and C V Rappai, Directors; and A P “This impact involves not only the Sharma, Principal of BPS. Principal teaching of particular academic of BPS welcomed the gathering. skills, but also the fostering of Speaking on the occasion, the student’s personal, social and principal detailed on how to prepare emotional skills,” he said. Marziya the students for a competitive and Fazal, Academic Supervisor self-sustainable future, which was of Kindergarten I, and Vincy followed by an annual report of John, Academic Supervisors of Kindergarten Section by Josephine Kindergarten II, proposed a vote of Carlos, Co-ordinator at Kindergarten thanks.

PISQ organises third edition of Quaid-e-Azam U-12 Inter-School Football Tournament

Pakistan International School Qatar (PISQ) recently organised defeated TNG School by 3-1.The fourth match was played between its third edition of Quaid-e-Azam U-12 Inter-School Football Gulf English School and PISQ Blue. Gulf English School won the Tournament. Eight teams from various schools across Doha match 5-3 at penalty kicks. Gulf English School qualified for the divided into two categories, including Doha Turkish School, finals. The fifth match was played between PISQ Green and Doha German School, TNG School and PISQ (Green), Pool A; and Turkish School. PISQ Green defeated its opponent with a margin of Staff ord Sri Lankan School, Gulf English School, PISQ (Blue), Pool B, 5-0 and also qualified for the finals. participated in the tournament. PISQ Green bagged the Quaid-e-Azam U-12 Inter-School Football Raja Nasir Mehmood, Vice Principal of Boys Wing at PISQ; along Tournament title by winning the final match of the tournament. with Muhammet Kilicsallayan, Vice Principal Turkish School; and The referees of the tournament included M Mulaff er Samulebbe, Mubaraka, HM of KG Wing; and Jameel, Administration Off icer at from Staff ord Sri Lankan School, and Noor Hussain. Tariq Hameed, PISQ, attended the opening ceremony of the tournament. Hassan PISQ Junior Wing, was the off iciating field jury. The coaches of Elahi took the oath from the players, which was followed by the PISQ team, included Majid Khan and Adnan Ashraf. Shahzado national anthem of Qatar and Pakistan. Bhutto and Javaid Hussain were the commentators of the The opening match was played between PISQ Green and German tournament. International School. PISQ Green won the match. The second The ‘Player of the Tournament’ was Muneeb Ahmed, from match between Gulf English School and Staff ord Srilankan School PISQ Green Team; and Abdulla Al-Motawaa from Gulf English was won by Gulf English School. Third match was played between School, the Best Goal Keeper. Nargis Raza Otho, Principal of PISQ, Doha Turkish School and TNG School Wakra. Doha Turkish School felicitated the players and coaches on the occasion.