A bigger leap for Mankind...

It was part of a challenge and the culmination of a space race. Man’s journey and landing on the moon marked a colossal achievement in the history of mankind — unmatched to this date

On July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on another world. His small step became mankind’s giant leap and for that one moment while man was on the moon, the entire world — which was locked in many bitter self-conflicts — looked up towards the heavens as one in complete awe.

It seemed like a simple thing to do for Armstrong to step off the ledge of the lunar module called Eagle. On the contrary, that step was the result of a decade-long effort put in by Nasa and even cost the lives of potential astronauts. It started with a simple speech and a challenge put forth by President John F Kennedy in 1961, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."

Although the Apollo missions had already begun, it took 30 missions and five human spaceflights and three lunar space flights, to get man on the moon. From rocket tests, to aborted mission tests, to preparing the astronauts themselves, the effort put in by Nasa and the American government has yet to be matched in recent years of space travel.

Almost 35 years have passed since the last mission to moon, Apollo 17. It was the December 14, 1972, when the last man on the moon, Eugene Cernan last set foot on the lunar surface and no one has ever graced the surface of our only satellite since then. Budget reductions, faltering economies and mishaps brushed Nasa aside from being the once favorite of American governments, as the nation stopped looking to the heavens for bold adventures and looked around for materialistic opportunities, such as wars and other conflicts. But man’s return to the moon has always been inevitable.

Foundations for man’s return to the moon have been laid since 2004, when President George W Bush called for a plan to return manned missions to the Moon by 2020. Mimicking the space race of the 50s and 60s, the US once again faces competition, and this time not just from one nation.

China has developed ambitious plans for exploring the moon and has started the Chang'e programme for lunar exploration. The first successful launch of the Chang'e-1 took place on October 24, 2007. India too has joined the leagues of the lunar challenge, and several unmanned missions begin with Chandrayaan I originally scheduled to launch in February 2008, but now delayed to September 2008. India hopes to expand from robots to humans and have the first Indian on the moon by 2030. Nasa is taking steps further from just manned missions and is already working on deploying a permanent settlement on the moon in the form of an outpost around the lunar poles.

We all know the first words ever spoken when man landed on the moon, but very few of us remember the last words, as spoken by Cernan on that fateful day in December, "As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I'd just like to record that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. Godspeed the crew of Apollo Seventeen."

Indeed, the challenge of yesterday, that of the first step that made man leap a giant leap for mankind, has poised man once again towards an even bigger leap — to the future and beyond.

Ganda banda, two girls and a guitar.

With their album and video being talk of the town, musicians Zeb and Haniya are hardly staying quiet. Teaming up with director / musician Babar Shaikh they’re already working on a follow up video to Aitebaar.

“The girls approached me because they had seen what I had done with Paheliyan (by Mauj). It was something different, very vibrant and colourful.”

The director has a knack of envisioning unique and stylistic videos, while his last offering was taking Mauj for a haircut; he has a very interesting idea up his sleeve for the dynamic girl duo. “I’m going to be directing the video to Chup. It’s going to be quirky, funny and different. A sort of sarcastic look on the materialistic views society has these days.”

Babar went on to say that they’re hoping to shoot first week of August — with Muneeb Nawaz doing the details on styling and wardrobe — and then roll out the video soon after

Lost in Khayal

The boundary between fashion and music has been blurred once again, and this time round it’s fashion designer Saadia Mirza who has caused the phenomenon.

Khayal is not a music video per se, and it doesn’t try to be one. If one happens to stumble upon the video midway, it would seem as if they’ve stumbled on to a commercial. The music itself is quite refreshing with Beenish Mehmood at the vocals and music by Ali Sher. But this isn’t about music. It’s the showcase of Saadia’s collection is what’s that matters. Both designer and director emphatically state that this is just a music video to promote Saadia’s line — which Beenish’s vocals and Ali’s composition does quite nicely.

Like a small jigsaw piece, this music video was part of a larger project called Kashf: The Lifting of the Veil. Kashf is a motion picture recently made by New York-based Pakistani writer and director, Ayesha Khan. At the same time, Saadia Mirza was keen to break out from the fashion norm but to also to celebrate the life of a departed loved one, “I wanted to make a music video about my five lines and accessories … but I wanted it to be special so I chose the poetry from my sister who has passed away.”

Khan (a friend of Mirza’s) then recommended director Nasir Khan to the designer for the project. Nasir had taken part in many award-nominated productions, including Kashf, which was previewed at the Berlin and Cannes film festivals.

The director speaks of his involvement, “It’s not what people usually hear or see in Pakistan, it’s different. We had a discussion with Saadia and she wanted to display her line, plus we had poetry from her late sister — which was quite special to her. So we divided her line into four pieces, chose four different models and four different locations.”

The models are Tooba, Gia Ali, Neha and Aleena, and were handpicked by Saadia. The video was shot at three majestic and grand locations the Punjab, including the historic Katas Ruins and the century-old Church of St. Andrews. The locations add to the sheer scale of the shoot, which also stars four different models in Saadia’s collection.

But the focus, of course, is still the designer, “We grasped the essence of the line, the essence of Saadia’s work, but at the same time since this would portray not just the designer but also the country, which is why we chose these locations.”

And what does the designer think of all this? “It’s interesting because in the video you see all of my collection and my sister’s poetry.” With such diverse input it is pretty clear that the project holds a special place in her heart. “The shoot itself was very tiring but great fun. Coming from a print medium to a video-based medium was tricky, because we have to be very careful with what we do. Once it’s done it’s done, there’s no going back.”

She speaks of course about getting things right the first time and then being able to get noticed. And people have taken notice, “Well, Ayesha then used the video. It was bought by her for her film and because of that we’ve been approached by an established Indian jeweller and they’d like to do something with us and an Indian superstar.”

Its pretty clear that that what was once a music video about Khayal is becoming more than just that.