Kiya Kahe Ga Kazi

Zain is the lead guitarist for Takatak, a Lahore based metal band that has come to prominence recently with hit singles such as 'phantom' and 'flash your bones.' Zain is also the driving force behind the band's unique video profile. We spoke about the scope and scale of metal music in Pakistan, about the exodus of musicians due to unfavorable financial conditions in the local markets, about the age-old practice of patronage and Patreon as a viable option to maintain the authenticity of art, and about the grit that he has learned to embody through his years of attempting to perfect his craft.

Preh Memon is a writer, blogger, independent researcher and employed in the corporate sector in Karachi. We speak about the lack of literacy on women's issues in Pakistan, about the prevalence of incorrect arguments in the general discourse, about her writings, and wont to educate people, and about the vitriol surrounding woman empowerment narratives. 

Basalat Ali is a renaissance man in the literal sense, former under 16 national level football player, breakdancer and choreographer, event planner, model, interior designer, sports manager, and an integral part of the brilliant team at 'find my doctor,' which is a startup aimed at the provision of quality healthcare across Pakistan. Basalat is also someone who has won a drawn-out battle with epilepsy. We speak about the lack of idols in the Pakistan context, about our proclivity for hero-worship, about the lack of mentorship for the youth, about the restrictive, reductive, and inaccurate language that surrounds mental health problems, about the problematic nature of conventional medicine in the context of epilepsy as it is practiced in Pakistan, and about the need for better infrastructure for the dormant potential that we have so often heard exists in Pakistan. 

Maya is in her own words a 'conversationalist' who employs various mediums to tell her story. We speak about productivising art, about how an artist might sustain themselves, about the recent happenings in the 'me too' movement in Pakistan, about the deficit in our vernacular when it comes to speaking about sexual harassment, and about the need to discover oneself in the midst of the mental health crises that we find ourselves in. 

Sir Roque is a longstanding member of the A'level teaching fraternity in Karachi and has been a member of the Pakistani Air Force in the past. We speak about the lack of proper education plaguing Pakistan presently, the commodification of teachers, the future of education and vocational training in the age of artificial intelligence technology, the deficit of grit that the current generations of students and young professionals display, and the unprecedented power of belief.

Fabiha Hashmi is an emerging singer. We speak about the Pakistani music industry and it's proclivity to drive away talent, about the troubles and the struggles of an artist in the landscape of the Pakistani media industry, about working for exposure, and about the importance of a firm, rooted support system. 

Aswah and Zain are the founders of the Facebook group 'Ziyada Aasani Se.' The group revolves around the spirit of giving, minimalism, and being mindful of the means with which one lives. We speak about the corporate culture in Pakistan, about education and why we need to move away from the grade sheet model, about our foreign saviour complexes and why blaming the prime minister for everything is counter-intuitive, about the general proclivity of the Pakistani society to pull each other down instead of holding each other up and about the latent potential present in our native industries. 

Gul Zaib leads the team at Teeli, one of Pakistan's foremost digital content creation entities. She is also a teacher at the Karachi Grammer School for A'level Media Studies. We speak about dissent, about local content creation, and the wont for homogeneous content, about productivising oneself and believing in the transformative power of the journey, about norms and developing the ability to deviate from them, and about unhappiness and the cure for it. 

Aamir Bhagat is the founder and owner of 'I Teach Stuff,' a website that offers a myriad of courses online. We speak about the lack of preparedness in the Pakistani context for a jump to online operations as far as businesses are concerned, about the inability of business owners to adapt to change, about the beauty of an artist finally getting their due, and about the possibilities that exist as a consequence of the proliferation of the digital medias. 

Maha is a poet. We speak about the liberating power of the arts, about the nature of the English language as a central tenet of the colonizing process, about the inheritance that we take for granted, and about the erratic nature of the social media.