In his book, Unimagined, Imran Ahmad charts his course through school, university and into his first job, exploring with poignant humour and painful insight the dilemmas of a Muslim boy growing up in Britain. How different is a Muslim boy from a ‘normal’ boy? Are Muslims allowed to pursue happiness, or is that only for the Afterlife? What do Muslims really believe? What is truly Islamic and what is merely cultural?

Imran stumbles though life encountering colourful characters, philosophical dilemmas and theological threats. Is there a correlation between studying and passing exams, or is it entirely the will of God? Will he really burn in Hell for all eternity if he doesn’t accept that Islam was created by Satan to keep people away from the salvation of Christianity – as the Christian Union keep telling him as they doggedly pursue him to convert. Is it okay to be British and Muslim, or are the two irreconcilable? Wouldn’t life be perfect if he just had a Jaguar XJS?

City Circle is hosting a thoughtful yet humorous evening with bestselling author, Imran Ahmad, on “Unimagined: A Muslim boy Meets the West” on Friday 20 April at 6.45pm at 45 Crawford Place, London, W1H 4LP.
Entrance is free, please see website

Writing for the Media Guardian last week, journalist Sara Wajid uncovers goings-on in East London, illustrating not only a fight for ethnic minority readers but also a glimpse into their media habits:

A council-owned local paper aimed at ethnic-minority readers in east London has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money and jeopardising independent local journalism. Award-winning East End Life (EEL), published by Tower Hamlets Council , costs £1.3m a year to produce and has a circulation of 90,000.

It looks like a conventional local paper with unusually high production values, attracts more Bangladeshi readers than the Bangladeshi papers produced in the area, and promotes positive representations of black and Asian youth.
…
He ascribes the paper’s popularity among ethnic-minority readers to the rounded and positive representations in the paper, the Somali and Bangladeshi language pages, and the fact that young Bangladeshis are not necessarily attracted to Sylheti language papers.

Read the full article to find out more.

Pakistan-born British journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s debut book, Greetings from Bury Park, about growing up in a working-class Luton neighborhood, has been sold to the United States for publication. It is already being published in Britain in June by Vintage.

In the book Sarfraz describes how the discovery of Bruce Springsteen’s music and a determination to live a non-traditional Muslim life galvanized him to seek out possibilities other than those acceptable to his family and by his culture. It will be published in the US by Vintage and in the UK by Bloomsbury.

He told AIM magazine: “I was really pleased and surprised to see my book – which is quite British in its tone and content – being picked up by Vintage but they really loved it and think it could do really well in the States which is both great for me but also in terms of projecting a very different image of British Muslims to the US.”

sarfrazmanzoor.co.uk

Last week the famous Madame Tussauds unveiled its latest Bollywood wax figure – Shah Rukh Khan. Unsurprising really, considering his popularity. Surely he should have been added ages ago?

These are some of the pictures taken for AIM magazine by journalist Jaspreet Pandohar. She will be writing later this week for us on the growing economic power of Bollywood in the UK. Will it be another Indian Summer in the UK? Look out for that and more pictures.

Racial hatred between rival gang members spills over to four young kids on a treasure hunt for an ancient mystical sword stolen thousands of years ago from India.

That is the basic storyline for ‘A Really Big Adventure’, a unique stage and film hybrid play that looks at issues of prejudice within communities. Along with tackling hate crime, the characters also have to contend with not falling foul of the booby traps and dangerous puzzles along their way to retrieving an ancient artifact of great power.

Produced by The Filim Company and Tower Hamlets Crime Reduction Service, this production will play at the Brady Arts Centre in East London on April 25th – 29th. More information: filim.co.uk

More than 50 top BBC executives, nine Channel 4 programme commissioners and some of the biggest independent production companies will be available for one-to-one meetings with black and minority ethnic film and television professionals at Move on Up, taking place at the TUC in central London on 18th June.

But the deadline to attend this event is nearly over! Whether you are a writer, crew member, producer, director or runner, whether you are relatively new in the industry or a seasoned professional, as this is all about making contacts it is an unmissable event for you.

For more on this event see this story. Bectu has extended the deadline to 13th April.

Tiata Delights, a week-long festival of new work from emerging and established African writers, launches later this month at the Soho Theatre in London. Six plays will be showcased as rehearsed readings with live musical accompaniment from James Lascelles/Juwon Ogungbe.

The writers include Nayesh Radia, by Lizzy Dijeh, Lucian G W Msamati, Levi David Addai and Beminabu Kebede. It will take place from 23rd – 28th April 2007. More on sohotheatre.com

The talented pianist Zoe Rahman has unveiled a series of performance dates around the country. Firmly establishing herself as one of the brightest stars on contemporary jazz scene, her most recent album, ‘Melting Pot’, was short-listed for the Mercury Prize and was voted ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ at the 2006 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

Born in Chichester, UK, Zoe studied music at Oxford University. She has since built up an interesting CV, playing punky worldbeat with Terry Hall and Mushtaq (Fun Da Mental), trancey Arabic folk with singer Reem Kelani, and superior hard bop with drummer Clark Tracey, as well as writing for the theatre.

13th and 14th April; Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, London.
Saturday 28th April; The Drum, Birmingham

More dates on her website

Yorkshire county is planning an IIFA Fringe Festival this year alongside the main Bollywood awards weekend. It will include a ‘Bollywood Bazaar’ in Bradford, a mela in Leeds, a ‘Bollywood in the basin’ dance and arts event in Sheffield and another mini-mela in York. More on the Yorkshire Tourist Board website.

Last week Amitabh Bachchan (pictured) visited Leeds Civic Hall to raise curtains on the IIFA awards 2007.
More pictures at DesiMalai

Channel 4′s editor for religion, Aaqil Ahmed, has re-commissioned a series on suicide bombers. The third series of Cult of the Suicide Bomber, featuring former CIA agent Robert Baer, will look at how the authorities hunt down suspects. The hour-long programme follows the critical success of the first two instalments, in which Baer analysed how westerners became suicide bombers and the growth in female bombers.

Aaqil Ahmed said: “If we don’t understand the complexity of this subject, we won’t know how to come to terms with it. It has been important to understand the subject area. To just demonise these as acts of evil is just not good enough.”

Mira Nair’s highly anticipated film The Namesake, based on an award-winning book by Jhumpa Lahiri, will be released on UK screens later this week. You can watch the trailer from below.

Akademi director, Mira Kaushik, was presented with an honorary Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on 8 March, for her contribution to dance in the UK.

Mira Kaushik has been the director of Akademi since 1988 and has overseen the transformation of the company into one of global importance. It currently serves an audience of millions through its dance and education programmes. Among Mira Kaushik’s key achievements with Akademi are the production of shows Coming of Age (2000) and Escapade (2003) at the South Bank Centre and Waterscapes (2004) at Somerset House.
Footage of Akademi’s work can be viewed at: youtube.com/profile?user=AkademiSouthAsianDan

The film festival Tongues on Fire will close its annual month-long event and celebrate the achievements of the legendary Bollywood dancer, Helen, who sizzled her way through many cabaret numbers from the 1950s – 1970s with a dance competition this weekend.

Helen, who is of English and Burmese parentage entered Hindi cinema as a chorus girl, but her first major hit was dancing to the number, Mera Nam Chin Chin Chu for the film, Howrah Bridge, 1958, by O.P. Nayyar. Other memorable songs include Mehbooba from Sholay, Yeh Mera Dil from Don and the classic, Piya Tu Ab To Aa Jaa from Caravan. According to author Jerry Pinto, Helen is reputed to have performed in over 500 films, and was nick-named “H-Bomb” at the height of her career.

Tongues on Fire & Sare-gama, plc, will launch a souvenir CD of songs from the hit films of Helen, who will be the special guest at the Closing Gala. There will also be a dance competition at the event.
Saturday 31 March, 7pm, New Players Theatre
www.tonguesonfire.com

City University has teamed up with acclaimed music venue the Roundhouse so students on a two-year Foundation Degree in Creative industries can use their fantastic facilities to train and prepare for careers or self-employment in the media and music biz. People who are already working in the industry can study part time over four years to get the qualification and improve their prospects.

The course will be taught by industry professionals and they are holding an open day on Wednesday 28th March 2007 where you could meet some of them. The next open day is scheduled for April 24th and the course starts in September 2007
More details: www.city.ac.uk/ell/foundation

Gautam Malkani, author of the book Londonstani, has been nominated for the Decibel Writer of the Year Award at this year’s British Book Awards. This is a new award for a writer of fiction, narrative non-fiction or poetry who is of African, Caribbean or Asian descent and has made the greatest contribution towards or impact on the literary year.

Set in Hounslow, it’s the story of the lives of a gang of four young Asian men trying to work out a place for themselves in the shadow of the divergent cultures of their parents’ generation.
Also see: Gautam interviewed for AIM magazine.
www.gautammalkani.com

Applications are now open for trainees to the Film London Company Placement Scheme for new entrants into the Film and TV industries, with a range of production companies offering six-month paid work placements. Now in its second year, the training scheme aims to attract applicants from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) and other under-represented groups.

Returning to the scheme are Diverse Productions, Number 9 Films and Tigerlily Films; whilst new companies to participate include F&ME (Film & Music Entertainment), Headline Pictures, Ipso Facto and Warp X.

Set up in response to industry demand, the scheme seeks to support, assist and improve recruitment across the sector and attract new entrants to the workforce. Film London will work with companies to look at their recruitment practices and co-ordinate bespoke training plans for each trainee and their mentor.
More details on Film London website

At AIM magazine we were tempted to see the new British-Asian flick, Don’t Stop Dreaming, just because the trailer itself was so bad that reviewing the film would have been an absolute joy. Alas, we have been denied.

On the BBC Online site Poonam Joshi trashes the film and takes out all the fun of us doing so. She says:

But try as you might, there is nothing to recommend Don’t Stop Dreaming. Singer Taz stars alongside Sunil Shetty and Michelle Collins in this embarrassingly hackneyed story of wannabe singers going for their dream. An unrivalled contender for the worst Brit-Asian film ever made.
…
Technically it’s flawed on every level, with poor camera work, inept editing and suspect lighting. The characterization, which veers firmly towards caricature, is further marred by gut-wrenchingly bad dialogue, a narrative that lacks any depth and stilted acting. Taz’s soundtrack is possibly the only redeeming feature. Shame the same cannot be said for his acting, which is utterly cringe-worthy. But then, he’s in good company.

The cast of Don’t Stop Dreaming will want to head for the hills, adopt a new identity and deny ever having any involvement in this film. Cheap, incompetent, unfunny and crude, the film’s greatest achievement is that it ever got a cinema release.

We like our reviews brutal and to the point so thanks for that Poonam, even if you took the wind out of our own sails.

The delightful comedy ‘Zohra’ easily won the Tongues on Fire short film competition at the ICA in London, on Tuesday 20th March. The 15 minute film is directed by Kemal Akhtar and based on real life events. It is set in 1960s Karachi and London and follows the sudden departure of of an eighteen year old girl, Zohra, from the Pakistani city to a new country. It shows her excitedly trying to negotiate a new world with some surprises and interesting encounters.

Flower Girl by Rajan Khosa took second place while Those Were The Days by Mandeep Singh Jutla was judged third. The Tongues on Fire film festival continues until the end of the month.

Featuring an impressive cast of Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Miranda Richardson, Rebecca Pidgeon, Nandita Das and Robbie Coltrane, the repeatedly postponed date for the film Provoked’s release has now been set – to Friday 6th April.

Provoked is the true life depiction of Kiranjit Ahluwalia (played by Aishwarya Rai), the Asian woman who overturned the British judicial system’s interpretation of “provocation” in the case of physically abused women. It was a landmark victory for women subjected to domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse.

The film, based on Ahluwalia’s autobiography Circle of Light, by Rahila Gupta, follows her lonely struggle in an abusive 10-year marriage, her retaliation through the murder of her violent husband and the efforts of activists Southall Black Sisters to bring her justice.

Racism: A History (Part 1 of 3)
Series looking at how racism impacts on people’s lives. This edition examines how ideas of racial difference have evolved in response to historical events.
9pm – 10pm / Wednesday 21st March on BBC 4

Question Time: Iraq
To mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, David Dimbleby chairs a special debate from London with a panel including senior figures from Britain, the United States and the Arab World.
10:40pm to 11:40pm / Thursday 22nd March on BBC 1

Hardeep Does Race
Funny-man Hardeep Singh Kohli is proud to be British, but he is only too aware that not everybody in this country wants him to be. As a Glaswegian Sikh is he any less British than a white person? He doesn’t think so, but some people disagree. Hardeep undertakes a personal mission to ask the awkward race questions.
10pm to 10:30pm / Monday 26th March on Channel 4

Child Slavery
Documentary report by Rageh Omaar exploring the global story of child slavery today, in which 8.5 million children are estimated to be caught up.
9pm – 10:30pm / Monday 26th March on BBC 2

Desi DNA
Asian arts and lifestyle magazine. Has multiculturalism brought us closer together or has it turned Britain into an apartheid state? Writer Benjamin Zephaniah and academic Kenan Malik go head to head to air their views for and against the debate. Also featured are the Muslim artists who are using traditional Islamic influences to help them create avant-garde art.
11:20pm – 11:50pm / Thursday 29th March on BBC 2

A Village in Bangladesh
Series of educational programmes for seven-to-11-year-olds. A thematic look at village life in Bangladesh. The series starts with a journey from Dhaka to the village of Gangkul and gives a vivid insight into village life, farming and Ramadan.
10:30pm – 10:40pm / Friday 30th March on BBC 2

Birmingham based Raj TV, known for its willingness to broadcast full-on wedding videos from years ago, and profiled in the hilarious documentary – No Time for Tea at RajTV – relaunched its services last week.

From 6am until 9pm every day you can find them on Sky Channel 187 with a new range of general entertainment programmes. They say: “There is sure to be something for every member of the family, ranging from the ever-popular Shaadi Show in its new primetime evening slot, to hard-hitting politics with controversial public figures including the outspoken MP George Galloway hosting a regular 6pm show from Monday to Thursday.”

Shiva Soundsystem has launched it second series of podcasts to entertain its fans in new ways. The theme for this series is ‘Influences’, DJ Nerm tells us. Guest presenters for the show will include Anita Rani, Asian Dub Foundation, Audio Dakoos, Aziz, D-Code, Fundamental, Rock ID, State Of Bengal and Swami.

You can listen to the first episode mp3 by clicking here. You can also subscribe through iTunes or directly use the xml file.

Granada Television is currently working on a documentary about young brides. They are looking for girls aged 16 to 18 who plan to marry before the end of May 2007. If this applies to you please email Melanie Tompkins – Melanie.Tompkins@ITVplc.com

To celebrate 35 Years of Bangladeshi Independence, Human Rights Organisation Drishtipat are hosting an evening of festivities including a reading by acclaimed new author Tahmima Anam from her book A Golden Age and musical performance by the exciting folk and blues band Parapar next week.

A Golden Age, a novel by Tahmima Anam, tells the story of Rehana Haque, who awakes one March morning, preparing to throw a party, but none of the guests at Rehana’s party can foresee what will happen in the days and months that follow in East Pakistan in 1971, a country on the brink of war.

Tahmima Anam was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 1975 and grew up in Paris, Bangkok, and New York City and comes from a family of writers. Her grandfather was a famous political satirist whose books are part of the national school curriculum in Bangladesh; her father, Mahfuz Anam, edits Bangladesh’s largest English-language daily newspaper.

Parapar is a band with members in Kolkata and London. Their music is built around the voice of singer-songwriter Moushumi Bhowmik and draws its repertoire both from Moushumi’s own compositions and the rich folk heritage of Bengal.
23rd of March at 5.45pm at the Brady Centre, Hanbury Street, London, E1.

Only last week AIM magazine revealed that Sacha Dhawan had been nominated for a Royal Television Society (RTS) award. Guess what?

Our congratulations to him for winning the ‘Breakthrough award – on screen’. The full list of winners are here.