Soviet Housing Was Famously Drab. This Ukraine Complex Is All About Colour
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YOUR PAGE, YOUR STAGE! There’s probably a photographer hidden in each of us, looking out for a platform. Community invites you to grab your chance and send your contributions with contact details and complete description of the images to [email protected] — PHOTO ESSAY, Page 10 Wednesday, May 22, 2019 Ramadan 17, 1440 AH Doha today 290 - 380 ColoursColours ofof KyivKyiv COVER STORY Soviet housing was famously drab. This Ukraine complex is all about colour. P4-5 POP SPOT BACK PAGE Lucy Spraggan’s debut EP Fasts and protein shakes: fl ies high at UK Charts. How Muslim athletes compete Page 11 during Ramadan. Page 16 2 GULF TIMES Wednesday, May 22, 2019 COMMUNITY ROUND & ABOUT PRAYER TIME Fajr 3.19am Shorooq (sunrise) 4.47am Zuhr (noon) 11.32am Asr (afternoon) 2.58pm Maghreb (sunset) 6.17pm Isha (night) 7.47pm USEFUL NUMBERS De De Pyaar De from his family and his ex-wife when he falls in love with a DIRECTION: Akiv Ali 26-year-old woman. Emergency 999 CAST: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Rakul Preet Singh Worldwide Emergency Number 112 SYNOPSIS: A 50-year-old single father faces disapproval THEATRES: The Mall, Landmark, Royal Plaza 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 Aladdin to make their deepest wishes come true. Young Aladdin DIRECTION: Guy Ritchie embarks on a magical adventure after fi nding a lamp that CAST: Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott releases a wisecracking genie. SYNOPSIS: A kindhearted street urchin and a power- hungry Grand Vizier vie for a magic lamp that has the power THEATRES: The Mall, Landmark, Royal Plaza ote Unquo u te Q “Success The Mall Cinema (1): Royal Plaza Cinema depends upon previous De De Pyaar De (Hindi) Palace (1): Mr. Local (Tamil) preparation, and without such 2:30pm; Aladdin (2D) 2:30pm; Aladdin (3D) 9pm; preparation there is sure to be 8:15pm; Aladdin (2D) Monster (Tamil) 2:30pm; Aladdin (2D) 11:15pm. failure.” 10:30pm. Aladdin (2D) 8:15pm; Royal Plaza Cinema Palace (2): — Confucius The Mall Cinema (2): Aladdin (2D) 10:30pm. Uyare Uyare (Malayalam) 2:30pm; Landmark Cinema (2): (Malayalam) 2:30pm; Aladdin (2D) 8:45pm; De De Pyaar De (Hindi) Aladdin (2D) 8:15pm; Aladdin (2D) 11pm. 2:30pm; Aladdin (2D) 9pm; Aladdin (2D) 10:30pm. The Mall Cinema (3): Aladdin (2D) 11:15pm. Royal Plaza Cinema Monster (Tamil) 2:30pm; Palace (3): De De Pyaar Community Editor Landmark Cinema (3): Kamran Rehmat Avengers: Endgame (2D) Uyare (Malayalam) 3pm; De (Hindi) 2:30pm; De De e-mail: [email protected] 8:30pm; Aladdin (2D) Mr. Local (Tamil) 8:15pm; Pyaar De (Hindi) 8:30pm; Telephone: 44466405 11:30pm. Avengers: Endgame (2D) Avengers: Endgame (2D) Fax: 44350474 Landmark Cinema (1): 11pm. 11pm. Wednesday, May 22, 2019 GULF TIMES 3 ROUND & ABOUT COMMUNITY the rich and diverse Indian cultures, the long Enjoy a day out in the relaxing singing sand historic links between Qatar and India, and dunes of Mesaieed along with a thrilling dune cultural similarities between Qatar and India. bashing experience. This 8-hour getaway takes you all the way to the breath-taking Ballet Lessons inland sea beach aka Khor Al Adaid to watch WHERE: Music and Arts Atelier the Sunset. Break your fast with lavish Iftar at WHEN: Ongoing the resort. Only for QR280 per person. TIME: 4pm – 8pm For more info e-mail at registration@ Artistic Gymnastic Classes atelierqatar.com or call on 33003839. WHERE: Qatar Academy Msheireb WHEN: Ongoing TIME: 3:15pm – 4:15pm The olympic sport using horizontal bar, rings and fl oor exercises on mats for the children from age 4 till 16. Hobby Classes WHERE: Mamangam Performing Art Centre WHEN:Wednesday – Monday Mamangam Performing Art Centre, is EVENTS WHEN: Ongoing till June 10 a holistic performing arts institution and TIME: 6pm – 4am a one stop solution for adults as well as Join us at Katara Village and enjoy the children looking to explore their talents MF Hussain: The Horses Of The Sun diverse cuisines at your car step! From fi rst in various art forms. We off er classes in WHERE: Mataf: Arab Museum of Modern day of Ramadan until Eid holidays starting contemporary, Bollywood, hip hop, indian Art from 5pm till 2am. classical dance, music (Hindustani and WHEN: Ongoing till July 31 Carnatic), arts and craft, karate, yoga, TIME: 9am – 7pm India to Qatar – Symbiosis of Cultures percussion( Chenda, Thimila, Elathalam The exhibition presents Hussain’s pluralist WHERE: FBQ Museum and Madhalam), violin, harmonium, public approach to the divine and cosmic aspects of WHEN: Ongoing till July 31 speaking. being, articulated through the myths, symbols Under the context of cultural exchange, Additional services include dance and narratives of the world’s religions and FBQ Museum brings together the treasures education, choreograph music videos and philosophies. M. F. Husain: Horses of the Sun of the museum owned collection in order to dance cover albums, choreograph dance bears witness to a recurrent motif in his art, a promote mutual understanding, recognition musical projects, corporate workshops and personal symbol of self-renewal and vitality. and appreciation between Qatar and India. Sunset Desert Safari with Iftar events, choreograph events for schools, Composed of fi ve main topics, including WHERE: Sealine Beach colleges, alumni meets and corporate Katara Drive Thru Festival community, trade, arts, food and incense, the WHEN: Ongoing and choreography events. For details, call WHERE: Katara Cultural Village exhibition takes one on a journey to explore TIME: 2pm – 10pm 33897609. Compiled by Nausheen Shaikh. E-mail: [email protected], Events and timings subject to change 4 GULF TIMES Wednesday, May 22, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Comfort Town The colours would stand out anywhere, but in Kyiv, they explode on the senses like fireworks in a gloomy sky, practically mocking the gray cityscape around it, writes Mitchell Landsberg The only instrument here’s that moment near the covers some 115 acres, about 11/2 times the size beginning of The Wizard of Oz when of Disneyland. we had to work with Dorothy’s house is swept away The colours would stand out anywhere, but in from the black-and-white world of Kyiv, they explode on the senses like fi reworks was colour. We used the Kansas and lands with a thud in Oz, a in a gloomy sky, practically mocking the gray simplest materials, the Twonderland of blinding Technicolor. cityscape around it. You get a similar sense of amazement when That was the whole idea. simplest techniques. you walk into Comfort Town, a massive housing We’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s talk development that has taken shape in recent about Soviet mass housing, because there would We really just had the years in a drab, Soviet-era residential district of be no Comfort Town without it. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. On December 7, 1954, Nikita Khrushchev colour and the lines of Comfort Town looms over the landscape like delivered a speech to a national builders’ the skyline some giant Lego set in the brightest imaginable conference, calling for an overhaul of Soviet hues: screaming yellows, bright lime greens, architecture. Khrushchev was the Soviet blues and oranges and deep brick reds — all Communist Party leader at the time, and he rising into the sky in the form of dozens of proposed that architects focus entirely on — Dmitro Vasyliev, architect blocky, high-rise buildings. Even the grays seem unadorned, standardised buildings made of ‘ rich with pigmentation. The whole development prefabricated, reinforced concrete. ’ Wednesday, May 22, 2019 GULF TIMES 5 COVER STORY COMMUNITY It’s a remarkable speech. Khrushchev at times sounds less like the leader of the international communist movement than he does a construction contractor trying to land a large industrial account. No detail is too small to capture his attention. “Production of linoleum must be expanded,” he insists. “Floors covered in linoleum are no worse than parquet fl oors; they’re more hygienic and smarter. It is easier to look after such fl oors than after parquet ones. Everyone knows that parquet fl oors have to be waxed — which is a complicated business and requires extra expenditure.” Soon, construction crews all over Russia, Ukraine and the rest of the Soviet Union were erecting tens of thousands of identical fi ve- story apartment houses, largely unadorned, that began to ease a massive housing crisis. They were called khrushchevkas in honour of the man who ordered them built. To understand their signifi cance, it’s important to recall what they replaced: communal apartments in which multiple families were crammed together, one family to a room, and forced to share bathrooms and kitchens. From 1955 to 1970, roughly half of all urban residents of the Soviet Union moved into new BREAKING FREE: Comfort Town, a massive housing development that has taken shape in recent years in a drab, Soviet-era residential district of Kyiv, the housing, according to Jane Zavisca, capital of Ukraine. a sociology professor at the University of Arizona and author of Housing the New Russia. city of Moscow, have undertaken Later, under Khrushchev’s programs to tear them down. successors, the fi ve-story buildings In Kyiv, among many other Scholars say housing is one realm where the Soviet gave way to much taller apartment places, masses of gray 1960s Union did what the United States could not: provide blocks.