She reads, and he also reads!

One of Lahore’s leading stylists, Natasha Saigol is a household name when it comes to cuts and colours. With almost a decade of experience in hair styling belying her age, Natasha is young, bubbly and energetic and, at the same time, a thorough professional with an aura of confidence around her which tells you she knows exactly what she’s talking about! Natasha has a busy schedule and when she’s not flying to Karachi, Thailand and Dubai or taking advanced flying lessons, she indulges in whatever is on the bestseller’s list, as she says that those make for good reading more often than not. She says she also likes reading short stories and recently started reading biographies. The first biography she read was Daughter of the East and found it to be remarkable, and goes on to say, “I also picked up a work of fiction based on fact, which was A Case of Exploding Mangoes. It’s a great book, its witty, its funny and the only thing is you don’t know how much of it is true and you want to believe that all of it is true. It shows Zia in a whole other way; not like a ruthless military dictator, but someone who was a dictator and quite cowardly in his ways. He used to hide behind his chief of army staff and his first rank of generals just because he was scared and he didn’t want to make all these decisions, and when he had to make a decision, he used to call up religious leaders around the world and take their advice!”

She says she prefers the South Asian, post-colonial style of writing, and says, “The only one I didn’t like was Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, which I thought, ‘my god, this is a tough read!’ It took me a year to finish it! A year! I just didn’t get the whole elitist part of it.”

The book she’s just finished reading is Three Cups of Tea, and tells me about the inspirational story of an American coming to work in Pakistan’s northern areas after he was nursed back to health by the warm and welcoming people of the area, when he got injured during a failed expedition to climb K-2. — MS

 He also reads

Mubasher Lucman is a media personality who stands out from the rest. Having had a vast and diverse experience with a career spanning over three decades, Mubasher has literally ‘been there, done that’ in the field of media. Presently, Mubasher Lucman hosts his own television show in which he puts politicians and other people in authority in the hot seat.

When asked about what kind of books he reads, he says, “I read a lot. Normally, I love to read fiction; I hate to admit it, but I love fiction. I hate to admit it because you don’t come across as a very intellectual person when you admit you read fiction! I love Sydney Sheldon and I love Frederick Forsythe, Arthur Hailey, etc.” About what books he’s been reading these days, he says, “I’ve just finished it, but I was reading a very serious book called Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It’s about the improbable happening and because I can relate to Benazir’s murder with it and so many other incidents in my own personal life, I think it provides one with a lot of food for thought. It’s an eye opener. It’s about the events that shape your life.”

“Last night, after many years, I started re-reading The Godfather. I love that book and I think The Godfather has to go down as one of my favourites. I think that’s probably the only movie that’s as good as the book, otherwise, I’ve never seen a movie which has come out to be better than the book, and it’s the only movie that has good sequels to it. Otherwise, movies don’t have good sequels.” — MS