Does anything worry you, do you have bad days? This question is from Marshall. First of all, I don't have days because the days are only in your memory, in your reality. There's only now, isn't it? Yes or no? The problem right now is human intellect. See, of all the gadgets that you have, I know he's looking into the… his favorite gadget, what are you, Apple or Samsung? Okay. No, because it's a religion, so I'm asking. It's almost like asking, are you Hindu, Muslim, Christian, what are you? Are you Apple, Samsung or Blackberry? We're almost getting there, isn't it?  Do you agree with me? Every other gadget has come out of this. But we are busy looking into the iPhone, completely missing the eye. Right now, for most human beings, let me not use the word most, for too many human beings, this mind is not a miracle that it actually is. For so many human beings, this mind has become a misery manufactured in machine. All the misery, human misery on this planet, where is it manufactured, Madras? No, in your mind, isn't it? What should have been the greatest miracle, unfortunately has become a source of misery for human beings? Why is this so? There are two dimensions to your intelligence. One is perception, one is the penetration of your intelligence, another is the memory aspect of it. Because of the kind of education systems that you're suffering right now, which is one hundred percent memory-based, all you have to do is memorize something, vomit it somewhere.  Tonight, today evening at the tea party, you don't have to know anything. You just have to surf the internet, pick up some facts about that sixty-four, you know, T-64 galaxy that nobody knows about. You get some information and throw it around. People think you're smart because our whole idea of intelligence has become memory, unfortunately. Once you're dipping your hand into memory, your intelligence becomes very cyclical because it's recycling the past in so many different ways. It looks smart for somebody who doesn't know that, otherwise it's just nonsense. Today we know a goddamn chip can record more than your brain can record. It is not intelligence. Memory is just a resource. It is not an intelligence. The nature of the intelligence and the purpose of human intellect is that it should be able to penetrate. But it has got such a huge backlog, it's identified with the memory in such a bad way, it has lost its penetration. It is like you have a knife. Intellect is like a knife, it can cut through anything. But now you have a knife where the apple is sticking. Now whatever you try to cut, it's not going to cut anything because there's a big apple sticking here. This is what has happened. A huge bank of memory is sticking to it and it's lost its penetration. This is a tremendous loss that's happened to humanity because of the nature of education systems that we have crafted. So the fundamental process of spiritual process is to sharpen this intellect in such a way that if you sit here, your memory does not influence you. Your intelligence is simply here. It sees everything just the way it is.  You will see educated people are definitely suffering more than the uneducated on this planet, isn't it so? They're also causing much more suffering. The planet is suffering mainly because of educated people, not because of uneducated people. Yes or no? The very life of the planet is being threatened by the educated, not by the uneducated. Because it is a completely memory-based education. It is not intelligence-based education. We need to shift this. If the education systems are not going to shift it, as individual people, you must shift, especially if you want to be an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur means you must create an opportunity where there isn't one. That is enterprise, isn't it?


Welcome back, it is Thursday and that means Akina has his 20 meters and today I'm going to talk about Stranger Things Season 3 and this is part 2. That's right, part 2 out of 3. Why waste time? Let's go straight to the shots. All right, first one is this where Harrington tells him that he is going to sneak. So good. Sneak into the place. Now, why am I showing you this? Usually you want to avoid acting out words. It's a bit too on the nose, but if you do something like this, he might as well do something like that. It's gonna be really fun to animate with the fingers there, but it's one of those moments where he's exaggerating on purpose. He's trying to convince the people I love their reactions, but also like his little tiny head shake there. It was sneak. So good. Great little pause. Great overall pose. That means nothing. I just like this moment. So if you do want to act out words, think about a moment where, well, what could I do to give this that an extra little funny moment? It's not just me. You know, if I say wait, I look at the watch, something like that. It's not overused. I think this is a very creative way of adding the sneaking aspect to the shot. Next up, within the same set, you have this character. And why am I showing you this? I'm a big fan of using space in a scene. So usually you have a camera, usually locked off camera. And your character is either here or waist up. And a lot of animation shots from students, you have arms gesturing and the character is completely locked. There's no real contrast in the usage of space. So I would highly recommend that you use at least left and right. But if you can, and why not go back and forth in and out of the scene, use depth. Now, I know this is more complicated to do, but you can also use that as an emphasis in terms of the character's lip sync and the character's emotion and whatever she wants to say in this case. So for her, she needs to go. She goes back, but she wants to make a point. So now she stops and goes back forward. Again, it adds emphasis. It's also more interesting visually. And then when she's done, fast forward here, she turns away and leaves. Now again, I know this is very complex, but so you have a backwards walk with a stop, change of direction, walking forward. And then at the end, walk backwards with a turn beginning into a run. It's all very, very complex. Overall, to me, much more interesting than just a character that just stands and doesn't really move. And then, you know, with IK legs bolted down and it just adds more contrast, more visual interest. And I would at least consider something like that if you have a set that has room. Now within that whole sequence, I love this here. And you know, I love props. I love this and what he does with it, right? He goes, Hey, not to this. It's gross. I love this moment. That's great. Just seeing this tells me he's very confident. He's very arrogant about his job and his abilities. But he also shows that he is a master of using this. He's done this before. He just adds a general attitude. I love that he does this without looking. It's all very casual. It's just an added cool factor to the character. And again, using the prop in an interesting way. If you already have a prop. Now, speaking of prop, here's this where this character who does not like this character at all comes in and does this. So it doesn't have to be a prop that you're holding. This could be something that's part of the environment. But this adds one more layer of I don't like this place. I don't respect you. I'm going to do whatever we can to annoy you. Just an added extra moment that it's just animation wise. It's not huge as you arm up and down, but it gives you an extra attitude. And this continues here where he's about to grab this. Now look what he does to this place here.    Just that added attitude is great. And even at the end, when he has the rubber band here, you might argue, well, the scene is done. She exits, the lip sync is done. You could end the shot now. Or you could add this. Now I know this adds an extra shot. You might extend or overextend the shot. It might be okay to just end the shot right there. But again, if you have a prop and it's something that maybe he picked up off an office area, this could be a funny added extra moment again to add character to this to really emphasize I don't like you. And it's a very, you know, big visual cue. Boom.  And I'm not done with props because this time it's this moment here. So your character might not have a gun. I mean, the character might be holding, you know, a laundry basket and like something else detergent. Well, I don't know. And maybe they need to do laundry in a room that's dark. But what I like about this is that because the flashlight is in its mouth, because he has to hold it like this. A, it nixes your lip sync because it becomes more pantominy. And imagine maybe a character has to look at two specific spots in terms of light. They need to put light everywhere. That to me gives you an opportunity to do some more exaggerated looking around and more exaggerated pantomiming and gesturing because of the prop and in this case, a flashlight in his mouth. And to me, it's a bit more interesting than having a flashlight in his hands. And it's doing something that's a bit more generic and something that's a bit more expected. Now, going back to environments, if you watch my previous FNAs, you know that I'm a big fan of putting people into environments in different sets. A surface that's uneven like this will change your pose. It will give you a symmetry. It will give them something to do in terms of changing the path and not making it too even and too normal or just too, again, like I said before, too expected. And the same thing with stuff like here, right? So because this is in his way, he has to bring up the arm, puts it out of the way, get past it. This already changes your pose. It changes the, you know, it takes away from the twinning. It adds more contrast to the pose and asymmetry. And it's not something huge, but again, it adds more interest. And it puts the character also in a scene where the character interacts. Like the character is part of the scene. They live in there. It's not something where I just added props, but it might as well be an empty room because the characters don't acknowledge the set, the heat, the light or the environment. To me, this brings them all together. It just makes it a bit more, it feels more like they live in that environment. This one to me is all about gestures where you want to add one more thing to a scene. So this is where it says, wait, you can see how your mouse says, wait, and you might argue while he's acting out. Or it's sure, but every now and then, especially live action, it's a bit more common. But you can have, wait, and this is your scene. You know, maybe this is your lip sync. It's a very short assignment or exercise you want to do. The character says, wait, but what I like about this is that is how he ends it. So this could be a bit more generic, but you can add one more thing to give your character a bit more quirkiness or something a bit more special. What is she doing? I love that she has always some great expressions and faces there, but I love just this. I love that this becomes, we add this kind of generic into something that's a bit more specific with this character. And speaking of hands, here's this moment where Harrington stops the door and boop and coming in. So I'm showing you this because even if you shot, it would just be here, right? You start not this, but here. The door would come close and bam, you got that moment of surprise, but also the contrast of timing is cool. You got quick pause, right? There's nothing going on here and then a slow entrance. So it's not quick, quick, quick. It all has different sense of timing there. So watch this kind of slow, quick stop, pause and slow coming in. Also from a shot point of view, it's kind of interesting. You come in here, you can show a bit broader mechanics and you can imagine maybe the character is standing to show a bit more of a character and then cut to this or it's a bit more close up when you can show off some facial, lip sync or pantomime. And this is all pretty short. So this to me would also be interesting in terms of cutting up the shot and showing different things, different skill sets in terms of the animation. But anyway, going back to this, I just love the timing. It's very animated pause and coming through. It's great contrast. And boom, that is it. Part two. There's part three coming. But for now, that is it. And if you like this, you know the spiel, like and subscribe. If you want to, I upload almost every day. So hit that bell button for all notifications in case you want to get notified. And as always say, if you feel like this is interesting, I would like to apply this to my own shots. I have a workshop link in the description. You can sign up at any time you can start whenever you want. We can work together on your shots. I mean, I can look at your shots, your critique shots, we have a discussion about your shots, all that good stuff.  Other than that, that's it. I will see you next week for part three.


We are all guilty of it. Me, you, everybody else has done this at one point or another and that is oversharing. Whether it's on a first date, whether it's on social media or someone you just met or maybe your co-worker, we overshare and it becomes a problem. But Dr. Brene Brown in her book Daring Greatly has some great tips and in this video we're going to talk about five tips from Brene Brown about how to stop oversharing and why you need to do it. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewire Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution and if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health and I like to pull different topics to hopefully give you some tools to help you improve your mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell and disclaimer, I am not a licensed therapist, all right? I am just another guy on a journey just like you trying to improve my mental health and I try to take things that I've learned and use my experience to share them with all of you. But you know who does have some experience is Dr. Brene Brown, okay? And for those of you who don't know who she is, she's famous for her TED talk that went viral. She basically studies vulnerability and shame. She's been on Oprah Winfrey's network, the own network and stuff like that. But anyway, she does some amazing work. I did a video the other day on a part of her book, Daring Greatly and I just hit this new part of the book. I'm like, oh my god, I gotta make a video about this, all right? So in this video, I'm gonna talk about this section where Brene Brown talks about oversharing and she has some tips and these are some tips that I find very useful. So I'm gonna share some of my experience but I really want you to sit back and ask yourself, do you overshare? Why are you oversharing? What can you do to kind of prevent it? Because she calls this flood lighting, all right? And I was like, why is it called flood lighting? And basically she talks about like, when you overshare, like a person's like natural physical reaction is like, ah, right? It's almost like they got hit with the flood lights. And this is something that happens, all right? So the first thing that Brene Brown talks about is why we overshare, all right? And there's three main reasons and I have experience with this as well when I used to overshare all the time. So one, to verify that we're not good, right? So sometimes we overshare and we say something terrible that we've done or something from our past or whatever it is because we don't have a lot of self-compassion for our self-love and we see ourselves as a negative light. So we toss that out there, right? The next one is to prove that the relationship that we're in is not good, okay? This can be self-sabotage from my experience, right? Like ask yourself if you've ever been in this situation where you just start talking with somebody, you just start dating them, maybe it's the first date or whatever, and you self-sabotage by oversharing. Maybe you say the worst thing that's ever happened to you or a traumatic experience, way too much information, way too soon, right? The next one is to hotwire the relationship. So this is something that I know I used to do as well, like if I tell them something very deep and intimate and personal about my life, that'll boost us to the next level. Like if I tell them this information, then they'll have to stay with me. How can I open up and be so vulnerable with them and then not stick around, right? So I want you to ask yourself, can you relate to these things? Because if you can, don't worry, because Brene Brown has some five tips to help you through it. So one of the things that she says, which is one of my favorite quotes, I actually just tweeted it out and she says, using vulnerability is not the same as being vulnerable. All right, let me repeat that. Using vulnerability is not the same as being vulnerable, okay? So Brene Brown promotes being vulnerable. Like it's something that we need to do and we need to build up what she calls shame resilience, all right? We need to be able to be vulnerable. But the problem with oversharing is that it's using vulnerability for different motives that don't necessarily help us or even the other person involved. Now one thing that Brene Brown does recommend is self-compassion all around. So if you're somebody who overshares like, chill out, baby. Like recognize when you do it and learn from it. Like that's all we can do. That's all we can do. Like I'm gonna screw up.   I was actually speaking at a high school this morning and I let him know that. Like all of us, like perfection is something that none of us are ever going to achieve.  But the best thing that we can do is learn from our mistakes. So show yourself a little self-compassion. Talk to yourself, a good practice that I've learned that works for me and might work for you, is to talk to yourself the same way you would a friend or if you have a child, right? Talk to them and talk to yourself in that same way. Now self-compassion on the other end. Like when somebody overshares with us and we have a reaction to it, you know, and then they get offended or they get upset, like we have to show ourselves some self-compassion. Like Brene Brown talks about how like, you know, we might beat ourselves up like, oh man, I should have handled it this way. I should have handled it that way. Like some of us just are not prepared. Like for example, for those of you who don't know me, I was working in a drug and alcohol treatment center for three years, but I've been working with other people with addictions and mental health issues for over six years now, since I first got clean and sober. Like I am in a space where that's just normal for me. You know what I mean? Like I hope I can hold space for other people and let them feel comfortable talking to me because I'll be honest with you, there's nothing I haven't heard. I've met so many people who have come to talk to me and they're like, you know, I don't know, you know, I don't know if I can open up about this and things like that. I'm like, trust me, I've heard it all before. They think I haven't. They say it, I'm like, yeah, you know, I've heard it. Like not to minimize their experience, but yeah. So if you are getting all this information, like you might not be the right person to hear it. Like this is one of the reasons why I promote therapy. You know what I'm saying, but we're going to get to that in a second. So anyways, she starts to talk about how to share and what to share. So Brene Brown, she speaks on a very public platform and what I love about Brene Brown, a lot of people have recommended her to me is that she is growing through this process too. She's not just a scientist that studies this stuff. Like she embraces like what she learns from the data and from the research. So Brene Brown, in order to connect with her audience, she shares about her personal experiences, but being a public speaker, she has to know when and what to share. So I have to do the same thing as a YouTuber. You, maybe it's in your work or when you're meeting new people, maybe you just go to a party and you're meeting new people. We all need to know when and what to share, like what is and isn't appropriate. So she talks about how she shares her vulnerabilities to connect with people, but there's two things. There's two things that she's always thinking about her own personal boundaries and her intentions. Like that's something that I have to do, right? Like I share a lot on this channel about my personal life and experience and things like that. I'm going to explain why in a minute, but I also have boundaries. There's certain things about myself that everybody on YouTube does not need to know or they don't deserve to know. Like here's what you need to understand or what I had to learn and you could take this, you know, with a grain of salt, if you would like, but I don't owe anybody any information that crosses a boundary of mine. You know what I mean? So I want you to kind of think about that. So here are her five tips. Okay. So the first one is only share stories that you've worked through. Okay. So like she's there's another tip that's coming up that's going to talk about this a little bit more, but like for me personally, like it was a lot easier for me to share my experiences of what I've worked through, but one of the reasons why that's a benefit is because it helps with my intentions of why I share those things because if, if I share things that I haven't worked through, then I'm only talking about the problem and no solution, right? And you know how we get down at the rewired soul, talk about the problem, focus on that solution, baby. So tip number two, don't share what she defines as intimate stories. Now here's the thing, intimate stories is going to vary from person to person. What I consider to be an intimate story might not be what you consider an intimate story. So this requires, in my opinion, it requires self-awareness, right? What are you comfortable with? But there's also this empathy, you know what I mean? Like I am an open book. I will share literally anything, but like I have to gauge who I'm talking to and is it too much on them? You know what I mean? So like, although like me, I'm just like, I'll share anything, right? Like I have to wonder like how is it going to be received? So a lot of this is like, you know, how we learn to read people. For example, I used to have wicked social anxiety and I always felt like I said too much or, you know, whatever it was like oversharing and making people uncomfortable and all that. So one of the things is like I've read books about, you know, body language and things like that, which I think is pretty important. Even though it's not an exact science, there are tales that some people give you that they're not comfortable in that conversation. Like let me ask you this, have you ever been stuck in a conversation where it's really uncomfortable and you're doing all sorts of things? Like the biggest tell is somebody's feet. So somebody's talking to and their feet start angling the other way or towards an exit. That is a sign that they're trying to get out of there, right? But sometimes people don't read that about us. So we need to be able to read that about other people. That is a great indicator in my opinion of when we are oversharing. All right. So tip number three, no stories that are fresh wounds. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Like I'm the type of person where like back when I was like using Facebook all the time and when I was in my active addiction and even an early recovery when I was still a hot mess, I would just share all of my emotions and things I was going through to the entire world, right? Like what? Like these fresh wounds, you know, those are reserved in my opinion. And Brené Brown even says this too for the people closest in my life. That's why I have a support group, people who are there for me unwilling to listen. Okay. Now tip number four, she says she follows this rule. Share yourself to teach that is being healthy, but don't do it to heal. Okay. So for example, I have to check my intentions. Why am I sharing this? Why am I sharing this or Brené Brown? Why is she sharing this? And what she's saying there is she shares her personal experiences and vulnerabilities to teach others. That's what I do too. Typically when I share one of my personal stories is to teach you. Maybe it's to let you know that it is possible to get through something, to come out on the other side, you know, hope. It's possible to have hope. Like don't lose hope. If I can do this, you can do this, right? So I share my stories to teach, but I don't hop on YouTube or I try not to even, I try not to use YouTube as therapy. YouTube is not therapy for me. You know what's therapy for me? My freaking therapist is therapy for me. You know what I mean? So I don't use this platform in order to get a feeling from you guys. And like that is something that, you know, we're going to talk about in a second, but you know, check in, like my advice would be again, take it or leave it. It's to check in with this, like on your social media usage. Like why are you sharing this? Why are you sharing an experience to show people that they can get through it too? Are you sharing an experience to inspire people? Or are you doing what Brené Brown says? Are you sharing the heel? Tip number five, don't share on to meet unmet needs. All right. Trying to fill this thing. And the way she recommends checking in with this is like, is it tied into an expectation of a particular response? So some of us share or overshare, especially on social media or even on a first date or when you're meeting new people, because we're trying to get people to, you know, validate those three things that we talked about in the beginning, like why we, why we overshare, right? Do I want people to coddle me and tell me it's going to be okay? And all of that, right? Again, there is nothing wrong with that. There was nothing wrong with being vulnerable, but it's with who we're being vulnerable with. You know, like I have my beautiful girlfriend Tristan. I have my support group. I have all these people in, you know, in, in my life today. So like, it's, it's not always necessary for me to share something to get that validation. And I'll be honest, it's something that I struggle with, like, because all of us want validation in some way, shape or form. And like, as a YouTuber, it's, it's easy for me to just like send out a tweet, like, and saying like, Hey, I'm struggling. This is what I'm going through and that, like, for example, like, I'm not going to, you know, dance around this, like all the stuff I was, I was just going through, who am I kidding? Not even stuff I was going through stuff. I'm still going through, right? And I try to be very mindful about what I'm sharing and what is my motive? What is my intention behind it? Do I want a pity party? Do I want people to agree with me? What do I want from this? Right? Or do I want to use this as a way to teach people? Like, I'll tell you this at the end of the day, like at the end of the day, when all of this is over, when all the dust is settled, like, I want, I want people in my audience to look back, like, maybe in November, maybe December, maybe in 2020, people look back and say, dang, remember, remember all that stuff Chris went through. He's still here. Maybe I can get through this, you know, like that, that's my hope. It's not my expectation, but I hope people can see, like, you know, just when things start feeling like they're crashing down doesn't mean we necessarily have to give up. All right. So those are the five tips. Now, she has a few more tips for us to ask ourselves questions before we start to potentially overshare. One, why am I sharing this? Two, what outcome am I hoping for? Three, what emotions am I experiencing? Experiencing. Four, do my intentions around sharing align with my values? Five, is there an outcome, a response, or a lack of response that will hurt my feelings? Six, is this sharing in service of connection? Right? So this is for me, pausing, pausing, pausing. And sometimes I'm better at it than other times, but I try to personally bounce things off other people first and say, hey, do you think it's a good idea for me to, like, you know, share this or do that or, you know, whatever? Like, because I can't always trust this thing up here, like dealing with, you know, my own mental health. I can't always trust this. This thing has steered me wrong plenty of times. And if you're like me, my suggestion is to start bouncing things off of other people like, huh, right? Because sometimes we don't even know if our motives are pure, because, like, part of our own ego, at least in my experience, can be justifying my actions, right? It starts encouraging me to do things. So I try my best to bounce things off other people. I don't do it all the time, but I, I'd say if I had to put a percentage behind it, I personally try to do it like 80 to 90% of the time. Sometimes I just do my own thing. And sometimes it blows up in my face. And I look back, I'm like, dang, I really should have gotten an opinion on that first. You know what I mean? But with this pause button, like working with other people and seeing them just start to pause, strengthening that prefrontal cortex, that impulse control, they start to see benefits when they start to be more mindful and just pausing and asking themselves some questions. I've actually taken notes on this whole thing. Like if you've seen me checking my phone, I'll copy and paste like my script, if you will, down in the description where it has like the reasons why we overshare the five tips from Brene Brown, as well as the questions she recommends you ask herself, right? But I want you guys to think about this and like, let me know down in the comments, do you overshare? What do you think your motives or intentions are behind it? Like let's circle it back to the beginning of this video. Let's have a conversation down in the comments below. Why we overshare? Can any of you relate to this? One, to verify that we're not good. Two, to verify that the relationship is not good, like self sabotage, or three, to hotwire the relationship to push the relationship to the next level. Let's have a conversation down in the comments below. Let's all get vulnerable with each other. It feels nice. All right. But anyways, that's all I got with this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You are all amazing. And if you are a patron, make sure you go check out the page. There is a Patreon Q&A up for March. Go submit your questions. I will be filming that next week. All right. Thanks again so, so much for watching. Thank you for your support. And I'll see you next time.


Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the book launch of Coloury Tales from Balochistan. This is a book by Nilofar Afridikazi, whom I have known for a few years now, back from Pakistan. Everybody in Islamabad knows her. Somebody, you know, there are several ways of knowing Nilofar. What brings us here together is our different relationship with her, but most importantly that she's been mapping Pakistan's food in 100 districts throughout the country. And this is actually her effort put together on Balochistan, which we're going to talk to her about. She's from Balochistan, from the famous Kazi family, Kazis of Pashin. And for many of us who live in Islamabad, she's the daughter of a very renowned Pakistani diplomat, Ashraf Jahangir Kazi. Very senior, very knowledgeable, you know, and one is proud of him and his achievements. But this is a time for us to be proud of his daughter's achievements too. The last time we were together in Islamabad, I'm reminded of, you know, when I was reading going through this book, I was reminded of in F11 sector in Islamabad, there's somebody opened a shop, it was Sindhi restaurant, Sindh food from Sindh. And she harassed, Nilofar harassed the poor man, the restaurant owner.  Why aren't you serving us food from Sindh? So, and that is what she has set out to do in this book, bring out the food, what people eat in Pakistan.  And what she's been trying to say is that, yes, there are commonalities, but there is much more else to explore in Pakistani food. And so there is, this is a first effort. So, I'll shut up and welcome her to the size event, South Asia Institute at SOAS, which have been very kind in allowing us to host this event. So I'll start, Nilofar, asking you in five minutes to explain to the audience, why was it important for you to write about food from Balochistan? Thank you, Ayesha, Dr. Ayesha Sethika, the friend. And thank you so much, SOAS for hosting my first physical book launch of culinary details from Balochistan. I've been food mapping Pakistan because no one has. That's pretty much the reason why I started this endeavor. I mean, as a diplomats daughter, I've been privileged and lived in many countries and as a result, I have tried and enjoy and love many cuisines from all over the world. And when I had a chance to move back to Pakistan in 2005, I was looking forward to learning, experiencing the full spectrum of what is Pakistani food. And then over time through work and, you know, sort of observations, it sort of dawned on me that a lot of our culinary culture was hidden, invisible, and especially from the smaller provinces, smaller in terms of population, not in terms of land. So this bothered me. And then when I had the opportunity, God was very kind. I decided that let me chuck my job and do what I really am curious about. So given my background in research, public policy, I sort of had the tools. So I just shifted it into preserving researching and documenting our invisible culinary heritage. I start with Balochistan, because it is the largest province of the country, the most invisible, and also happens to be my paternal province. So that's the short answer. There's there's a recipe from the Murray family, you have you've recorded your interaction with different big families, right. What about food of the poor. I mean, I didn't get the sense from the book that we, you know, I could understand what the ordinary folk, the underprivileged in Balochistan were eating. It's interesting you say that because the entire book actually focuses on food for of the ordinary. They're actually only one recipe from the Khan of collards kitchen, and that also he was very kind enough to use his chefs to demonstrate a very common and a very ancient recipe which is for the lack of better word commonly loved in play beyond. So actually, even the Murray recipe, Uncle KB Murray's favorite food, what was interesting is that it is the common man's food, which was popular and his favorite. So actually, I would say, Uncle KB is a chapter dedicated to him. So actually, I would, I'm surprised you said that the book had any elite recipes because actually I would say there isn't a single elite recipe. It's completely an utterly recipes of the common person from across Balochistan, not South and Costa. See, but okay, let me let me kind of probe you a bit more. Balochistan is also a province which is underdeveloped has experienced a lot of, you know, a lot of violence, pressure from the state, definitely deprived of its resources. And in fact, you talk about it. You know, why, for example, this mention of sweet. I mean, we in the rest of Pakistan have been so used to natural gas, lighting up our kitchens and warming is up. We rarely talk about how sweet from where it's produced as was the last one to get it. My question to you is that with that kind of underdevelopment, I am sure there are many things that would be shortages that be droughts, which would affect people's eating habits. Did you talk to them about it? Yes, the, the, in fact, the food print of Balochistan reflects the socio economic conditions that's that theme is explored throughout the book. The reason why fundamentals of Balochistan economy food is cured meat, dehydrated milk and bread. And these three make the foundations of the culinary culture of Balochistan because of no electricity, no gas, extreme weather conditions and the nomadic and the type of lifestyle of the people in north, central, south and coastal, the fisherman folk. So, absolutely, the kind of food, the kind of ingredients, and as a result of the ingredients, the kind of recipes that I capture completely in utterly reflects the socio economic and the agriculture or the lack of agricultural patterns of the province absolutely it's fundamental. No, but, you know, when it comes to meat, I mean, meat is via meat lovers and meat eaters. So you would find meat in, in Khebar Pakhtunkhwa Punjab, in fact, does more vegetables in some ways. So what's, can you explain to an audience here, what makes Baloch cuisine different from rest of the country. First, it's not Baloch cuisine because that's an ethnic, so Balochistan, yeah, we have many ethnic groups in Balochistan. And so the, as I said, the fundamental three ingredients which feed into the base of food from the province is Dode, Kroot and Landi, so cured meat, dehydrated milk and bread, and they are vast varieties of these three. And there are many recipes of that in the book. Of course, there are many other recipes, dried fish, for example, dried goat, and many, many others.  So, but these are the three fundamentals reflecting the social economic and the agricultural patterns and the animal husbandry, nomadic patterns of the province. So yes, actually, when you talk about vegetarianism, vast majority of Pakistanis period, not only Balochistan are vegetarian, because meat is expensive. So, we love meat, and we have it in many forms, but the vast majority enjoy it on special occasions. And to preserve it, they also dehydrated or cure it as Landi or Tabaik in the coastal areas. Right. So, but to explain, and that is very different from, from elsewhere, from, from whatever. The cuisine, the Balochistan cuisine is more akin to Central Asian. So we have less spice. We usually use a salt primarily, you know, and so it's, it's very basic bread, very few seasonings, and lots of salads actually, you know, there's a lot of raw salads. And where some of those salads are considered elite, like kale and jump, which is called jumbo, we have many greens which are considered European and Western which are like very common, you know, in Balochistan and quetta. So, similarly with hubs, many of the spices, what are they called basil and rosemary, you know, which are dill chives, Gandana, you know, which we use in our dumplings, yoghurt. So, you know, it has a lighter, you know, fresher Central Asian very low on spice palette. So yes, it's different to the plains where we sort of inundate our food with oil and spices and they're heavy, you know, and I won't say like they take more time to cook because the reasons why it takes a quite a considerable amount of time to cook or rehydrate and in general, agrarian societies pre modern societies, cooking takes a long time and preparing food takes a long time. So that takes and that's another debate and you know we go into a different line of conversation on that which I do explore in the book as well. So that is similar across for our four provinces. But yes, Balochistan food is very different to what is familiar as Pakistani food which is Mughalai and Kashmiri, which is associated with Punjab or you know, maybe very the urban centers of Pakistan. So yes, it's Central Asian, ancient Central Asian food. So you talk about the team.  Okay, so what was your team number one and how did people react to talking to you were they did they open up. What about your interaction with women. Tell us more about let's step a bit step outside the book and talk about your journey. Mapping, you know, the fallery tales of Balochistan. How did how did it go I mean how did you find the people. It's a really long question but it's easier as a woman to enter the private spaces. I mean this is a country and country and provincially as well, which is conservative, it's tribal feudal. And so entering a private spaces, it's much easier for women to negotiate that and that's where food is cooked and I was interested in invisible food so I wasn't interested in food which were in restaurants or in Dhabas a small, you know, sort of public eateries so accessing those areas, I was privileged because I was female. But other than that, you're absolutely right. I traveled alone. And occasionally I had my editor, who was the editor of Pakistan on a plate the video series that I have produced which is online at the first corner. He would be on the other side of the camera when we were filming, but when it came to talking to the communities. I had in many instances interlocutors so I use for example Balochistan rule support program. Family friends, three degrees of separation, the Khan of Kalat is a family friend of four generations. I don't know him from Adam, but because I'm a Kazi, and so I could pick up the phone and he would extend his hospitality and you know drove down from Karachi and hosted me in Killa Saifullah, the Jogazeis. Again, the last time I met them was when I was maybe a teenager, but again, you know, like the fathers and grandfathers, they're all family friends so when I requested that I'm curious to explore Killa Saifullah, I had a guide, because the families go back to that generation so in traditional societies, the linkages you know that you have through family matter, and you do have access, you know. So, and I was looking and for food and heritage, which haven't been documented. And to do that I had to enter private spaces and to do that, I had to use a series of networks that I was lucky in not only having but you know having the interest in finding those linkages through 234 degrees of separation or even for one degree of separation. So now in terms of their reaction. In the household, I would say 99.9% maybe 100% are women who cook. So, I'm just giving that 0.1% just in case you know so in the private domain. The household is preserved and memory of how it was brought into the family under what circumstances is it associated with particular cultures or rituals or festivals. It's all in the purview of women. So, yes, you know like the, I'm honoring a lot of women, you know named and unnamed. Many of them and in the book, didn't want to be photographed.  I am actually honored to very distinguished male chefs associated with food and recipes in Balochistan, who I believe have not been honored in the national landscape and narrative of our culinary heritage. So, I have two chapters on them as well and I explained to you why they are important and why I'm acknowledging them as important chefs. So, yes, men of course have played a significant role in, you know, like enhancing and honoring food and culinary culture in Balochistan. Now, anecdotally, when I went out to food map and talk to families and individuals who were reservoirs of traditional food, I would say initially they actually thought I was looking for something else. This was like a conversation, you know, like sort of icebreaker and yes, yes, yes, they've been told that she's interested in food and traditional recipes but she actually must be wanting something else because seriously, like food, like, it's not really important like how can somebody from outside was educated who isn't from the province. I mean, other than a family come all this way spend so much time with us, and she's interested in food, like our recipes. So this was something I saw everywhere that they was very little recognition and honoring and respect of their own tradition, which kind of broke my heart and kind of reaffirmed the need to document these recipes because they value for this. So when through modernity through, you know, like, whether it's seed change to agricultural patterns or climate change or short cutting or changing of taste buds, they're gone. You know, in fact, one of the chefs in Guadal, you know, who shared seven recipes with me, he died while I was writing the book. So I have seven of his recipes. And if I hadn't written them down, gone. So fish halwa recipe is preserved because I wrote it down. How did it taste? Fish halwa? Never, never, never imagined. Hi, Tarek, another cousin who I'm not seeing in. The question is, yeah, could you also explain, I mean, I was very used by this green halwa and never thought of, never thought of halwa as being green. They've always been either yellow or green halwa. How does it, does it taste different? Well, you know, the Quadri Halwa is green. And I actually asked the question, why green? And they, you know, like the chefs, macaroni chefs looked at me and said, why not?  So it's gluten free. And natural sugars. Again, why? Because this is an area which doesn't grow sugar. So now, of course, they can get sugar, but they invented a recipe where they took wheat and it sprouted, you know, over a few days. And that releases natural sugar than the ground that wheat, which has, you know, sort of natural sweeteners and then that they converted into a halwa. And then they colored it. So, and the market for this Quadri Halwa is in the Gulf, right across in Oman, primarily, and Bahrain, so where, you know, the economic relationship is very strong. I would say perhaps stronger than Quetta and the rest of the country, as I explain in the chapters, you know, you also partly tell the story of Oman and Gwadar. The whole story of how Pakistan bought Gwadar back from Oman. One version. One version. So, A, what is the popular version? What ordinary people believe in? That's one. And what are the, I mean, your father being from the Foreign Service and a very senior person at that. I'm sure you must have found the story from him as well. What did he, or did you share the story that you heard in when you got back? You must have discussed it. I don't know. I don't think I discussed this with Baba, but the book is written in a very specific way. My opinion doesn't quite matter when it comes to what I hear from various quarters. And on the issue of Gwadar, which is for those of you who don't know, it's the coastal belt of Balochistan, which is where the CPEC is very large, you know, like investment from China and, you know, like a very important deep sea port. So it's the coastal belt of Balochistan. It's also the largest coastal part of Pakistan 970 kilometers long links Karachi to basically the Iranian border with the entire coast. So we have been told, and it's not told, it actually did happen in the 1950s. To be exact, I'm not sure it was I think 1958. I think the state of Pakistan bought Gwadar from the state of Oman. This is a fact. Now, the Khan of Kalat disputes that in that, why did you buy something which we already owned? Because it was very, which is also a fact that it was part of the Khan of Kalat state, part of the Khanate. So you have these two contradictory histories of a very interesting, large part of Pakistan. And depending on who is telling the story, they have different versions. And then of course the Gwadarys have a third version, because here you have these two competing states, you know, like the modern state of Pakistan and the pre-modern state where you had kings, the Khan of Kalat. But you also have a local story as well, who have a very different relationship with both the state and the pre-state Khan of Kalat, who himself actually was an invader to the area. So you have three stories of Gwadar. And so I'm not interested in privileging and which is right and which is wrong. The book shares all three.  It's about just giving voice to difference of opinions. And I think especially when it comes to Balochistan, that is the most important thing, that listen to local voices.  But you also have the coastal bed, which is not tribal, which is not dominated by the Sildarys. So I'd be curious. I mean, do you see differences in the eating patterns, in the food patterns, the two regions? And let me ask you an even cruder question. Who is better fed in your mind? I mean, who eat better, you know, compared to the other? I mean, I would assume that, I mean, one is about what is available.  So how do you compare the two regions? Subsistence living is the norm in Balochistan. Quetta, of course, being the capital is, you know, sort of the hub and center and, you know, all those who have money either live there or have a home there if they come from, you know, different parts of the province, the 26, you know, districts within Balochistan. I can't privilege one or the other.  And Balochistan is, after Sint, we have very high malnutrition numbers, you know. So I was focusing on recording and preserving food.  They didn't have electricity, gas cylinders where they could afford it. They were used, you know, sort of portable gas cylinders so they could cook in the open spaces because in the coastal areas the weather gets very hot. In fact, it's hot most of the time. So even in December, it's well-trained, you know, so they would prefer to cook in sort of open air environment, you know. Drought is very common. So when I went, I went to Guadar a couple of times. The one time I went, they had got rain after seven years. So rain-fed agriculture. That means what do you do when you don't have water? They already have a problem with water. They don't have rain. So everything is preserved or it comes from Karachi or Iran, very close ties with Iran.  And or kitchen, garden, you know, sort of subsistence, growing of vegetables, etc. Or as I said, bread, dried, growth and meat. You do talk about a difference between the Iranian cook and the Balochistani cook. That's right. I spent a bit of time describing the various varieties of growth because it's a fundamental ingredient in many of the recipes. And you have Iranian growth, you have Turkish growth, you have Quetta-based growth, Afghan growth. And I sort of explained to you what I observed. And I can also tell you because I brought some with me, she nearly fainted.  When you were traveling around, did you come across more signs of CPEC and how has CPEC affected the region? What do people say? You know, you say, culinary tales from Balochistan, but I'm sure you're also telling other tales there.  So, how was, you know, what kind of impression did you get about CPEC and what did people tell you? Now we're totally moving away from the book, but I mean, those of you who follow me on Twitter, I mean, I've been talking about the non-existent of CPEC in Guadar and in Balochistan from the moment people have been talking about CPEC in Balochistan. There is no CPEC in Balochistan. We have a deep seaport, which is not used. No one has been employed. I mean, there is no industry. There's no cottage industry. There's no water. There's no CPEC in Balochistan. So, CPEC may and does exist, but it has no relationship with Balochistan. And this is what the locals will tell you and this is my observed view as well. No, but this has affected the lives of fishermen. I mean, very recently there was, there were protests in Guadar, right? So, I mean, I thought you meant in terms of impact positively. Well, impact is both. Yes, of course. The fisherfolk have been deeply affected with the large trawlers from China, you know, and which go directly from the sea straight to China or wherever. And within Guadar city, you have half of Guadar city cordoned off for the Chinese harbor area, which basically displaced the fisherfolk on the east bank. And this is also discussed a little bit in the book. So yes, so they have disrupted traditional patterns of fisherfolk life and not disruption in terms of bringing modernization and upgrade, etc. So we have this a little bit of this conversation. So we have seen no benefit of CPEC in Guadar. You know, I was equally amused by what you'd written. No cafes and no restaurants through the entire coastal belt from Guadar to Karachi. So, where is the footprint of the state. And I'm really stepping away from the book. Yeah. It's, it's an interesting conversation also round your book. You know, what I want to get me in trouble. I mean, here I want the book, but people focusing on heritage and culture and, but you see, the problem is with Balochistan. The process of writing this book was political, whether I liked it or not, because no one writes on Balochistan. I choose to pick a lens, which is unusual, which is food. And what does food and the recipes tell you about a people who are invisible, a part and corner of Pakistan, which is undiscussed, you know, it does not factor in our imagination. So I want Pakistanis. My audience is Pakistan and Pakistanis, even though we are so as but my audience is Pakistan and Pakistanis. I want you to be curious about the largest province in our country, our country. So that's the lens I choose food. But we all know what are the lenses that Balochistan is looked at. And that is very heavy. It is very unpleasant. It is very sad. And so I want to broaden that lensing. I want to broaden the emotion. I want Pakistanis to connect with the people at an individual level, through what we love and celebrate, which is food. And that makes us Pakistani, all of it makes us Pakistani. So, yes, Ayesha is referring to what we all think when we think of Balochistan. And that is also true. But I am broadening and pushing the boundaries of forcing you to look at one of the most beautiful parts of Pakistan 42% no less of Pakistan from a different lens. But Nino again, let me let me again push a bit. See, if you don't have restaurants, if you don't have cafes, if you don't have accessibility what makes a land accessible to ordinary people.  I'm a very ordinary Pakistani and any ordinary Pakistani who travels from Balochistan if they don't have connections to access the place. So actually you'd be looking to, you know, to facilities that are there. And if you don't have facilities, how do you then make that part 42% of that land accessible to the rest of Pakistan. Yes. Yes. I mean, my job is to record and research the recipes before they die out. And what you're talking about is the state and the provincial state managers and the state state managers, the permanent and the unpermanent state managers to make a very large part of Pakistan accessible and safer for everyone inside the province and outside of the province. And why that's the case we all know that hasn't changed since 1948. It's just progressively got worse. And technically a lot of Karachiites do drive down the coastal highway and it's become become more and more popular, you know, like people go to Las Pela, they go to Gwadar their flights from Karachi. They say no flights to Gwadar from Quetta. So there is this internal contradiction, you know where the state wants Pakistan to have you know tourism and in fact I think it's doubting and you know like saying lots of tourism this and tourism this but there's very little access to ordinary folks like if I want to go to Balochistan and even when you go to Balochistan, you probably won't be able to you know like find too many hotels or motels and as I noted from Gwadar all the way to Karachi, there's not a single cafe on 970 kilometers of highway. So the most beautiful virgin beaches you will ever ever see but they are not you know like tourist friendly. They are adventure travel friendly. But they are not you know sort of let's you know like with our families and you know like young kids or whatever you know like friendly. Perhaps this neglect of the region that has also contributed tremendously to you know the dissatisfaction amongst people the desire to separate and it's so interesting I mean what you also document in your book that a region which started off with the Khan of Qalad along with the Nawab of Bahawalpur giving money to the new state of Pakistan. I mean nobody talks about the Khan of Qalad giving money to Qaid-e-Azam and the new state of Pakistan. You know it's not in our textbooks anywhere which I mentioned. Yeah, you have mentioned it. And there is this lot of pent up resentment amongst the people and it's so interesting that you document bits of your interaction with Nawab Khair Bakhshmari who struggled with who tried in many ways to negotiate with the state of Pakistan. And then probably realize that there was no negotiating with this with the state of Pakistan. So could you tell us a bit more or the audience a bit more about Nawab Khair Bakhshmari what you have about him in this in this chapter here and why did you pick him in particular and use him to you know use him you know he there's a chapter about him. Nawab Khair Bakhshmari was my uncle. He was a matter to my mother's sister. So he was my papa in Urdu. So it's the book is full of my relatives and prominent members of the family who had a role in Balochistan in many forms. Culinary also but politically, socially, culturally, legally, etc. In fact, Tarek's grandfather, Qazi Isa, you know was the youngest member of the Muslim League and very close ally of the Qaidaism who created Pakistan, you know he his grandfather ensured Balochistan would be part of Pakistan. So we are very proud of our family's contribution to ensure the state of Pakistan had Balochistan. So I take that, you know, seriously. So Uncle KB who is a member of our family had a different view. You know, and I honor that view as well. As I said, we have many parts which make us beautiful. So the issue was, and is that we want all members and all citizens of Pakistan and those in Balochistan to be honored and as equal citizens in a progressive, safe Pakistan. That was a reason that of Pakistan as a Qazi. You know, and that's how we grew up understanding the purpose of Pakistan. So, when they are different points of view for legitimate human rights violations and etc. They have different, you know, like movements. And Kherbakh Shmari represented one of those movements, and very legitimately, I mean, he, you know, is considered to be the father of the Baloch tribes Baloch, you know, of a particular ethnic group deeply respected as a citizen of Balochistan. He's included in Balochistan in the culinary tales of Balochistan, because you cannot write a pan book on Balochistan and make reference to you if you're honoring, you know, people, individuals and not include him. And he also happens to have a personal connection with me. So there was a double reason to mention him. What did I... Yeah, it was, you know, he ate simply what kind of... Oh, yeah. Uncle KB was a very, very stoic, kind, gentle, soft man. And to the outside world, man of very few words. But I've known him all my life. We had very spirited conversations. He came and stayed with me at Oxford, you know, he was, you know, was even happy to sleep on the floor and Uncle KB had to sleep on the bed.  We disagreed almost on everything politically. But he was very generous of heart and mind.    That's how I see Uncle KB. You know, I'm glad you talk about it because, you know, for the ordinary Pakistanis and for the youth in the rest of Pakistan. The way Khair Bahshmari Nawab Khair Bahshmari has presented it's important to know that is about his generosity about his ability to engage with people. And perhaps, you know, it's also for us to learn that where he arrived with his politics was also after a lot of discussion and thinking and, you know, thinking about how to engage. I mean, he did engage. A couple of last things, and then we open up the floor for Q&A. You do talk about women. I mean, it's a close society, yet you do it several occasions in the book. You do talk about different women, very known women in Balochistan.  Were they, why were they known? Why they mentioned the book? Well, I started off with my grandmother. I call her Auntie Mummy and others would know her as Jennifer Musa Qazi. She married my grandmother, a grandfather in England when both of them was studying at Oxford, and they married in London and had my father here. And then when Qazi Isa Tarek's grandfather, my grandfather's younger brother, politics in the Muslim League started getting, you know, at a stage where the country was going to be formed in 1947. My grandfather, who was known as Agha, and my grandmother returned back to Pakistan. And so my grandfather died very young and so my grandmother, in the tradition of the family, remained in politics. And so she joined what was then known as the National Awami Party, the precursor of the E&P today. The secular liberal progressive party, underlined secular. So, and she represented the province of Balochistan in the constitutional committee, which created the 73 Constitution, which is our constitution today. So the signatory to the 73 Constitution is my grandmother. So she's, I mentioned her and you know, in the book, several places, you know, because she was known as Mummy of Balochistan and you know her home was Beijing and Balochistan was everything to her and she lived there she died there and focus was the welfare of Balochistan. I'm Shirin Bibi, which is another relative of mine from my mother's side actually, but settled in Balochistan, Shirin Afridi, I have a chapter on her. And here she sort of embodies the more traditional, as you would understand a puhtun woman, you know, and her life story through the 1935 earthquake, which destroyed Balochistan. It flattened Balochistan. In fact, it is recorded as the worst national natural disaster in the subcontinent in living memory. So that of course had a deep impact on the province. And so this chapter is through the eyes of a survivor of the 1935 earthquake, and she was an incredible cook. So I honor her and her recipes. And at the same time, I share a part of the history, which had to be talked about because how many Pakistanis actually even talk about the 1935 earthquake. I don't even know if people know there was an earthquake in 1935 that affected this part of what is today Pakistan.  And then actually also, which was a funny one, the Khan of collapse. I will not reveal you have to read that chapter. Okay, so Khan of collapse has his ancestry, Shajra, all the way to prophet Noah. Let's leave it at that. So, in that when I saw that I was like, Well, where are the women.  And so you know I got these silence and you know. And so they came up with, I will not tell you her name, but they have one woman in the Khan of collapse. Shajra, because she was very prominent. So I tell a little bit about her story as well. And of course, Kalimata, you know who's a goddess of in the Hindu pantheon. She was born in Kalat. It is named after Kalima. So it's a very, in fact, Balochistan is replete with very holy Hindu sites but Kalima's birthplace is in Kalat. And so a very, very revered temple is in Kalat. So I mentioned that as well in its history, etc. So women visible and invisible have been an integral part of Balochistan's history. Modern history and they continue to carry and preserve our culinary heritage, which represents our multiple diverse heritages of the region. So I give you flavors and nuggets and you know snippets of that. It's the effort to get you in trouble. While traveling and while researching, I'm sure you came across and you do kind of slightly mentioned here and there footprints of the military in Balochistan. How did that go? I can't not ask you this question. I'm okay. I invoke privilege. I mean, in the sense that yes, that front print is very heavy and is very prevalent. But I am a Kazi.  So as this is a book, which I was going to research. So come what may. And so when you are adamant, you will find ways and means. So yes, you did have challenges and you will continue to have challenges. That's part of the fun. Wonderful. So now I open up for Q&A. Any questions and certainly since the author is here, we encourage you to buy the book as well and have it signed by her. But before that, let's see if people have questions. Yes, sir. If you look at the book, the chapters are actually by location. So I'm from Pishin. So Pishin, Killa Sehfulla, Quetta, Mastung, Kalat, Las Bela, Guadar, you know, sort of like, sort of the whole area I mentioned, the Mari areas. No, DG Khan doesn't fall under Balochistan. Yes, I mean, I only went to these areas. Yeah, I didn't cover 26 districts. I covered north, central, south and the coastal. We will get into the discussion later. This is Landi. This is Landi cured lamb. And it's described how it's made in the book in the first chapter. And it hangs for about six to eight weeks in bitter, bitter winter cold. So you have to have very specific kind of conditions, not only cold like a fridge, but it has to be very dry, very, very dry. Otherwise the meat will rot. So this is a kind of curing methodology which happens in Killa Sehfulla, Pishin, in particular. So it doesn't happen in Quetta. So even in Balochistan, even in the north, it's in a very specific kind of area where the weather conditions allow. And hence, that's where Landi is considered to be very good. Do you have any vegetarian recipes here? Yes, yes, yes. Do we have photos? I'm not sure what they're. Well, this is Aubergine.  And so all the notables and, you know, from outside of the province and inside the province would come and Piru Saab, who was the big chef over there.  And so I have two of his recipes here, never before written down. And I sat and then, you know, sort of recreated because he also, by memory, knew his father's recipe. So I saw him cook and we recorded his recipe. So this is one vegetarian and one non-veg. Sorry. Go ahead. Well, Jamil Saab, my publisher is right behind and we in the contract we have discussed publication in Urdu, you know, which is one of the national languages of the country. I'm not sure. I think the reaction would be that it would sell more. That's for sure. Because there is English language books in Pakistan sell so many. I think the vast majority of books would be in colloquial languages, you know, in the vernacular languages. So I hope so. I wish so. I tried them all darling. Oh, favorite. Well, favorite is, you know, ash, which I know how to make, and sort of self kids. Every family has a different ash recipes like one of those recipes. One of us who have a Kandahari, you know, sort of Balochistan link or heritage with Afghanistan. Those households have an ash recipe. So the hazard. The ash recipe was very different. You know, so it held a lot of emotion for me, because I make an ash as well and this was a different ash. And so I really enjoyed that one.  They have a different memory we were sharing and exchanging, you know, like memory.   I mean, Nushul Gai didn't make the cut, hopefully in the next version edition we will have, which is an interesting fruits and dry fruits and nuts kind of a samosa but not quite, you know, so it was kind of reflective of you know, like the fruit basket that is Balochistan or Pakistan. You know, we may not be, you know, we have water deficit issues and we are not a big agro-garian society but we are the fruit basket of the country. So that recipe kind of reflected that element. So hopefully in the second edition Nushul Gai will make the cut. Then, you know, what I found Osman that, you know, every time I traveled back and went back to Pashin and then I found there was more I could have written. And I think I drove Jamil Sab and Bikan, I was insane because I wanted more and more and more and at some point, you know, like they is like, okay, fine, you know, this is the deadline and now we need to edit it and, you know, edit it down, etc. So I have a very strong sense that edition two, if we ever get into edition three, there will be more because they just is so much more, you know, grape and manifestations and varieties of grape related stuff, which is absent, you know, when we have an incredible amount of grape related stuff in Balochistan.  Like, I wanted to go to the interiors, you know, this really heart of Balochistan.   And then also, you have to spend time, you know, so one is distance but then also the explorer because what I'm doing is for the first time I can't Google it. So the only way this research comes into being is where I just I have to actually spend time. And it's sort of kind of, you know, reveals itself over time and through conversations through degrees of separation and exploring different avenues and that takes time, which again, you know, is precious and sometimes you don't have both the financial resources and just the time and the logistical infrastructure for it to be viable. So, as I say in the beginning and in the end, I mean, this hopefully is like a platform for deeper, wider inquiry. And a more methodological and more intense interest in Balochistan, you know, people wise, location wise, food wise, food mapping wise, but this is a start. So it kind of hopefully tickles the senses of whoever from whatever angle to do more by the book, and you will see the recipes. So that answers the first question. Okay. On the second question, I think we've gone through this like multiple ways and the answer is yes, I have never seen so many check posts in my life. And we live in check post central in Pakistan. So that goes without saying. And I did not ask them about what their food was and what they were interested in because they want local. Which actually reminds me that you have a chapter on Baloch Baloch Asthani settlers in Islam. Don't you think you should have had something on the others settled in Balochistan. I know you talk about hazardous, but when you see the settler the chapter on the settlers of Baloch Asthan are displaced people. You know, so they had to leave whether for socio economic reasons or otherwise, and the numbers are growing so large. So hence I had a chapter on them.    So, and the poctins, you know, like coming from Central Asia down as well. So, everyone is actually a settler Baloch Asthan, you know, so at different stages of history and I discussed that they're various groups and ethnic groups and they're mythology. Related to where they come from and who's ancestry. They link themselves. It's a very Pakistani thing. I'm not from here. I'm from somewhere else, you know, so it's also interesting but we are Central Asian, you know, like vast majority of people who come from Baloch Asthan have linkages to Central Asia. But of course, in the last 70, 100 years you have people coming from the east as well. You know, like so you have many communities, you know, who are not personal speaking Ravi speaking or Baloch speaking or Farsi speaking, who whose home is Baloch Asthan and believe you me, they are from Baloch Asthan. My father grew up with them, and they very much a part of the fabric of what is Baloch Asthan. Question I mean it's the reason why I food map Pakistan, you know, like, then I pontificate over why so much of our culinary culture is invisible, you know, and ironically the subject that you talk about what is outside of Baloch Asthan is usually chicken So, you know, like, there's a different, you know, like, take on which is fusion and modern and you do want it of course you know like, who decides you know what is and what isn't I'm actually fundamentally concerned that what is our traditional food and it's recorded what people do after with it. It's not my concern. In fact, welcome to and it sort of brings in modernity and you know fusion and you know is influences other food patterns and recipes, etc.  So we have such diversity and such breadth in our culinary culture. So, step one, record it. Step two, understand it and then step 34. I'll leave it to someone else. Thank you, Neetu. I think identity politics is is very integral. I mean, I'm very secure in my identity as a Pakistani. I'm a Pukhtum. I'm a Pakistani. I come from two provinces. But I find that having come back to Pakistan, you know, this question of what is Pakistani, you know, like somehow is, you know, like, constantly being revisited and manufactured to some extent and, you know, like, I'm very uncomfortable with some of the stuff that I see I don't recognize and, you know, like, it's not how I see and, you know, envision the country and people, etc. Food also has started to reflect that. And I saw that connection as a political scientist, you know, the invisibility of our diversity, the, you know, the lack of acknowledgement of the larger Pakistan and Pakistanis. So, instead of going in the repetitive cycle that is Pakistani politics and Pakistani identity politics or the conversation about Pakistan by Pakistanis about Pakistan for Pakistan, I decided we just change the lens. And since no one's done it, it really needed to be done anyway, you know, and which country has not food mapped its, you know, its culinary heritage. I mean, in the 21st century. I mean, it's shocking that we haven't done it already. So, you know, it's kind of a combination, you know, of an interest and training and a complete absence of anyone having done it. So, you know, it's sort of the two sort of gelled. The next thing that I'm going to do is, inshallah, do the KP book, which will not be called KP. Please. Those of you who know, know me, Pakistan on a plate is a series on YouTube, Nilo first corner, 53 episodes, which cover all of Pakistan. And as I said, I thought mapped 100 districts. So I've really done all of Pakistan, the books. This is the first of four books. So the next book is my maternal province, which is currently called KPK, but the book will not be called KPK. So then hopefully, you know, send in Punjab and others and what, what I want, what I want. I don't know what I want. I want people to enjoy the book, buy the book, buy lots of the book. So if you think about, you know, like my country, my people, my food, you know, with love and interest and curiosity. That's what I want. Wide, deep question. If they was or at March in Quetta organized, they had difficulty, but they still continued and I think they started with the Balochistan University sort of platform. Rather, we recently had massive, you know, protests and rights and women were involved in it as much women are involved at every level of every activity in Balochistan, whether you acknowledge it or you don't acknowledge it. I mean, they are fundamental to everything from cooking to culture to human rights to everything. And by the way, this is, this happens within the traditional boundaries. This happens in a modern boundary. This happens within the feudal structures. This is reality. So how you see it and how you acknowledge it or don't acknowledge it, that just depends on the narrator or the recorder. So I think, I hope my book does capture that sense, because that is the truth. You know, yeah. Which is the name of the province, the third largest province before Punjab is the largest in terms of population. And then you have Sint, then you have KPK, the reason why and then you have Balochistan Balochistan is the largest in terms of population, which is 42% of the country, area wise, your land wise. And so the reason why I was like just being facetious on KPK is that the name of KPK used to be called the frontier province. And so, you know, it's had many names and before that there was also another name. So I haven't decided what I'm going to call it because this is an area which again, you know, how you define this area is interesting. Like it recently, the FATA districts, which were the federally administered territories have now been included into KPK. So as the book suggests, and I will repeat myself, we are an ancient people in a young country. So everything that we capture and write in whatever form and whatever lens reflects that. So borders currently we are in Pakistan. So I talk about Pakistan and the land that we have today that constitutes Pakistan.  So it's kind of all combined. Ask Jamil Saab that question, you know, on the availability for Pakistan, I hope soon. Pakistan on a plate has been swimming in my mind and I touch upon this whole process in the book. So I will not answer it here by the book and you will read it. And the recipes chose me. I didn't choose the recipes. I didn't do any filtering where I came across a recipe, which was the criteria was that it's not in a restaurant. It's not in a DABA and it hasn't been published. That was my criteria. I'm making invisible visible and I'm documenting the undocumented. That's the criteria. Actually, Gwadri Halwa, anything that takes a lot of strength, you know, like are made in very large quantities and requires an incredible amount of manpower, you know, the main of men. So large scale food, you know, or baking, the very large stuff that men do. Yes, I mean, and this is something I share with you that in the book, traditional food obviously don't have recipe cards and, you know, measuring ingredients to an exact science, but I do that for you. Hence, Colony Materials of Balochistan is a recipe book. It's a cookbook. So if you have the ingredients, you can replicate it. I would say 95% of the stuff that you're going to read, I would say that you probably have never heard of it. So, I mean, you know, Gwan soup, for example, which is wild pistachio bean soup, you know, which is very rare for most Pakistanis. I would actually safely say outside, probably no one knows about it, you know. Fish Halwa, I mean, outside of maybe one state in Sindh, I don't think anyone's really tried it, knew about it. But it makes perfect sense because it's, you know, a product of fisherfolk. I mean, everything is fish.  Why wouldn't they make a sweet meat out of it? Well, amazon.co.uk has it and beaconbooks.net, my publisher's website also has it. And if you happen to be here, you can also purchase it over here. And there is one other PockDepository.com, which is also a global distributor. I hope to write the next book and get focused on that, you know. Hopefully I'll begin in late summer and because I have four to write, so I need to get going. You have so many positive comments. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Very kind. I hope I'll get a chance to see every one of the comments and also respond to them where I can. Thank you so much for listening and participating by the book. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. The book is here for you to buy, get signed by the author. And my one last comment for Jamil Saab is, Jamil Saab, next version of it, you have to make this book more accessible. Thank you. Thank you for either. Thank you.


Hi everyone, Joe for Jasper's case breaks.com with a quick 2020 Penini Donner's Optic Choice baseball box one box around team break Can do the break itself and then at the end we're gonna give away seven dynasty baseball spots That's coming up in a separate video next But first the break big thanks to this group here and Thanks to the teams right there. Let's roll it. Let's randomize names and teams four and a five nine times one We're gonna do the break first two three four five six seven eight and Ninth and final time and a different dice roll of course for the giveaway apart. It's a pretty good box for a filler break, too I think three autos inside four and a three nine times for the teams one two three four and Ninth and final time no trades in these little filler breaks. We just want to get on with it All right, there's the first half of the list right there And there's the second half of the list right over here. Good luck. It's worked by column B by team Let's just print and rip final right there I Bregman to 45 for the Astros Daniel with Willie Calhoun to 45 is I but out select would you break today? I don't know how to respond to that 74 out of 84 I Mean I did mention earlier that it's like bait it's like basketball filled up. I would do it Is that what you're talking about out of 84 brand now and show go Akiyama At a 88. All right, there's Trey Turner new Dodger behind him is Aaron Saval graded rookie No baseball. I already said that multiple times before that. Unfortunately. We have run out of time for that one 96 out of 99 Alex Kierlov twins Josh with the twins 96 out of 99 for Minnesota That will be for Joshua Logan Allen 44 out of 99 Cleveland that'll be for Jackson Cleveland this is for you and behind hollow Trey Turner is a nice Joey Bart rated prospect autograph That'll be for TJ Poyer and the Giants All right, nice choice box Now let's see who's gonna win those spots So let's grab everyone's names from TJ down to Sean and everyone in between. There's some new dice There's a new list and it's gonna be the top seven after Seven good luck lucky seven one two three four five Six and seven and final time after seven So from eight on down, it's gonna be sad times But I appreciate you giving this a shot everybody top five Happy times That's gonna be David Sean Jonathan Sean Joshua Mark and Sean Congrats the top seven. You're in that dynasty. We'll see you for that. Jasper's case breaks calm


Hi everyone. Thanks for attending my webinar on using data storytelling to build products. I wanna thank you for attending this webinar. I wanna thank Product School for having me. A little bit about myself is that I've been in the tech industry for a while. I work at Facebook Spotify Pinterest. Fun fact is that at the end of last year I found out that I listened way too much Justin Bieber. I'm in the top half percent of listeners and I'm sharing this because my friends found it funny but also we're gonna be touching on Spotify later in this presentation. So what are we going over today? I'll be talking about what is data storytelling. I'll go over why it's important. I'll give you an example of how to create a data-powered story. Once that story is created we wanna know how to make it effective at the company settings so that you can drive impact with it. I'll talk about useful resources to develop data skills so you can create data-powered stories. And I also wanna share a presentation checklist that's very useful. And then I wanna summarize at the end and thank you again for attending this presentation. Cool, so what is data storytelling? I got this definition off of the Harvard Business School. I really recommend reading this article that covers what is data, what is a narrative but it also covers what is storytelling. And storytelling is really important because it's one of the most useful ways to communicate a point to an audience. So why are we here? I wanna cover a practical way to tell a data story and really in the tech industry if you can get insights from data, a lot of people view that as a superpower. So why do PMs need to know the superpower? And I wanna just point out that PMs are all about understanding a people problem, getting a group together and then getting that group to build a solution to solve that people problem. So to really emphasize this, building product is about solving problems for people. With data storytelling skills you have the power to understand a problem and get a group of people together, help solve it together. So I think of it like in the tech industry or in your tech company, everyone's super talented. There's just such an enormous amount of impressive people. But when you assemble together, like the vendors, you're able to take on much bigger high impact problems. So here's my framework for how to create a data powered story. You really wanna just answer three questions. What people problem are we trying to solve? How do we know if it's a real problem? How would the world be different if we solve this problem? The first question is really about setting the problem up. And then to make it more of a narrative, more of a story that's relatable, I like to share my personal experience, my friends experience, someone that I know. And or you can just, if it's a live session, you can pull in the audience and ask them if they've had this problem before or have them share a relevant situation. And then that goes into, how do you know if this problem is real? And that really comes down to data. So you can use qualitative data or quantitative data. The format I like to use once you have the data is that you show the data, you reason about it, you wanna explain it to the audience, make some assumptions potentially, then you make a recommendation on how to improve it. You wanna reiterate your points and then you make a full recommendation. In that full recommendation, you wanna make sure you're answering question three. How would the world be different if we solve this problem? And that really comes down to defining what the success criteria is. Because what happens in the tech industry is a lot of times people build things. After the fact, they look at the data and they look at what moved up and then they say, oh, we actually had impact because this thing moved. But in reality, if you really understand the user problem, you can actually define success well before building anything. And that comes down to, if someone gives you the result, you should be able to know if, oh, I actually helped solve this problem or it's a learning opportunity because you did not solve that problem. So let's go move on to the example. So first thing is you wanna answer what people problem are we trying to solve? And the problem I chose is, people like to discover and share music. However, it's both hard to listen to music that was shared and to share music to people. And my story is, so my name's John, I really like listening to music, sharing music and discovering music. I often use Spotify to share to Instagram, Messenger and Facebook. But I also discover music through Instagram, Messenger and Facebook. And overall, it's not that great at certain times because there's lots of steps to share music. When a friend tells me that they heard a good song or they found a really good playlist, I ask them to share it to me, but sometimes they don't even know how to share it. So I have to give them instructions, go to the option menu, look for the share button. And that's not really great. It also tells me that not too many people know about the share feature. And then on top of that, when I discover music, a lot of times when I tap on content and that deep links me over to Spotify, I get an error message. And it feels like half the time, but I think the real number is probably a quarter of a time or something around there. And it's just not a great experience, right? Because I don't get a list of my music, I end up giving up and I'm just frustrated. So here's the problem, right? People really love to discover and share music, including me. However, it's both hard to listen to music that was shared, but it's also hard to share music. And then you go into, well, how do you know if this problem is just not huge on? Like, is it actually impacting other people? Well, you can take a look at the data. And when you take a look at the data and you're presenting this to the audience, you really want to guide them through this story. So first of all, like step one, I want to tell people that it's important.  And I want to point out that Spotify has 400 million MAU, 25 million users share music every month, 100 million users come to Spotify every month from shared links. And then I want to talk about, well, let's reverse it to make sure people understand it's important, really reinforce that. What if we remove the share feature? What happens to these key company metrics? And I can point out that our estimates show that registrations will go down. Retention would go down. Active users would go down. Consumption would go down. And then, well, now that you showed them some numbers on metrics going down, you want to explain to the audience, well, why would they go down? So let's take the case of registrations. I share music to my friends. Some of my friends potentially don't have Spotify, but they want to listen to that song, right? Because I shared the link. And then they might click on that link, download Spotify, register, and then consume this music or playlist. And that creates a new registration. So how about the case of retention, MAU and consumption? Well, a lot of times I share out this music or someone shares it to me. I press on it, then I go over to Spotify and I consume the music. So overall, I have more consumption. But how about my friend who potentially for that day wasn't going to use Spotify? But they ended up clicking on the link I shared to them. They go over Spotify, listen to something, and then automatically they become an active user. And overall, a lot of these people who weren't going to go on Spotify for a day, that really involves higher active user numbers, higher retention, if you have a sharing funnel, right? Because people are like, oh, I want to listen to this. My friend shared it to me. My favorite artist just shared something on Twitter or Facebook. And then here's an example of a slide I would create. Overall, I highly recommend making very simple slides, if you can. And you want to just put in a point where someone can just have a very simple takeaway. So on this slide, I put in, well, this happens 100 million times every month, but 22% of the time, when people come over Spotify from a shared link, nothing happens, right? You don't get to listen to music. It's pretty poor experience and these are numbers for it. And that's a lot of upset people. So we move on to making a recommendation, right? And I point out, well, this is happening 22% of the time. I think we should fix this because it'll overall improve our metrics, but also it'll improve the user experience. And then we can move on to the other side of the sharing experience. So it takes four to six steps to share something to your friends or share something to your fans or to your artist. And then you can look at the data. What are some proxies for understanding if this is a problem for friction because it's high friction or education problem. So maybe you can take a look at comparing users with big phones and small phones. People users who have bigger phones potentially have the, well, they do have the share button on the option menu visible. People with the smaller phones, they don't have the share button visible in the option menu. And you compare the two groups and you see, well, it looks like people who have a visible share much more than people who don't have a visible. So potentially it's that people just don't see it when they hit the option menus. So they just don't share it because they don't know that it exists. So what can you do to fix this or get learning from it? You can make it more readily available on a popular surface, such as the mouth playing view and AB test it. Or you could even just make sure that on the option menu, the share feature option is actually visible across users. And then you want to close it out. You want to summarize your takeaways. You want to summarize your recommendations. And you want to make sure you're defining your success criteria. And that really comes down to question three. So how would the world be different if we solve this problem? So I think that people will be consuming more music because people want to actually, people are pressing these links to go listen to music on Spotify, but 22% of the time they're not getting anything, right? So team can make a goal such as this, the goal could be this happens less than 5% of time for users. Then you can also track metrics such as consumption, active users. And then how about the other side of that? We're about sharing music. So we want people to share more music because we're assuming that people like to share more music. So you can track, you can make a goal on number of users repeatingly, repetitively sharing music over a certain time span. You can track that there's more users sharing. And you can also take a look at higher restoration and consumptions. Let's go to the next slide. Cool. And I just want to make sure I reiterate the framework here. So to create a data-powered story, you want to answer three questions. You want to say, you want to answer what people problem are we trying to solve? How do we know if it's a real problem? And you wanted to find a success criteria, which is, how would the world look different if we solve these problems? Well, this problem. So, and then once you have the data story done, what are the things you want to do to drive impact with it? Well, first up, you want to make sure that your slides are very readable without you presenting them. Because what happens is in a lot of meetings where I present something, people find it really interesting so they share it across the company. And you want to make sure that, well, if you're not there and narrate it, they're taking the same points off of those slides and you're getting, they're recognizing the problem, they're getting the same recommendations, how to fix it. And then once your slides are really good, you want to start sharing it to a smaller group of trusted people to get feedback. So I like to make sure I get like questions from them, stress test the idea, really clean up the slide so that it's prepared for a wider audience. And to see if they're really aligned on the problem when excited about it, when they go through it with me. So once it's ready, you want to share it to a wider audience. And I usually like to set up meetings with stakeholders or decision makers that I think are relevant. But I also like to share it on Slack, share it to teams through email and really peripherate the idea that this is a problem that we should fix. And once there's alignment across these, the relevant parties or stakeholders, then you're ready to really build a solution to solve that problem and start doing real product work. Cool. And then I just want to share how to really develop these data skills so that you can create data power of stories. You can learn SQL. I highly recommend learning SQL. So you can go on Udemy Coursera SQL School for it. SQL Zoo. Learn data visualizations because visuals are very good communication meetings for people. I tend to use bar charts and line charts mostly but Coursera has a lot of good courses for it. And third, I really recommend reading a lot of good articles. So these are three articles that I really like making good decisions as a product manager by Brendan too. Julie, who's a former VP at meta slash Facebook writes a lot of good product content. And these are my two favorites, metrics versus experiences and agony and ecstasy of building with data. And they're talk about how to define metrics, talks about how to use data to build good products. And here's the presentation checklist.  Go through this checklist. So the deck should tell a story. Each slide should be very simple, one point if possible. And then when you create your charts, you shouldn't assume that people actually know how to read charts. So you want to call it out for people. So in summary, if you create a really good data story or you can assemble a huge group of people or even a small group of people to tackle a really high impact problem. My example is a lot of times I create these presentations I share across the company and over several months people recognize that as a problem. And sometimes I could have up to five engineering teams working on a really high impact, very challenging problem for the company. So to reiterate what I said earlier, building products is about solving problems for people. With data storytelling skills, you have the power to understand a problem and get a group of people to help solve it. And that really comes down to answering three questions. What problem are we trying to solve for people? How do we know if it's a real problem? How would the world be different if we solve this problem? And then if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. And I also want to just give credit to a few people real quick. So the presentation checklist is from Alex who's currently a data scientist in Meta. These questions are actually from Julie who's the former VP at Meta and she uses them in this talk called How a Facebook Designer Thinks. I want to call up Saurabh who's a product manager that I worked with and he's currently a product lead at YouTube. He's one of the best product managers in the world is my belief and he's really great. So I just want to thank these people for helping me with this presentation or inspire me in what content put into this presentation. And then I'll end with thank you for attending this webinar again. I'm hoping that you got a lot out of it and I want to thank Prague School for having me. Cool, good luck.