Fashion | DesPardes.com

Iman Ali: Hectic! Imagine travelling 30 hours via Dubai to get to New Delhi, a flight that would have ordinarily taken 45 minutes. Delhi is even closer to Lahore than Karachi is. It's such a pity.

Were there any apprehensions vis a vis your trip to India?

Iman Ali: Not in the slightest. I was looking forward to it.

Not even a slight fear of how you might be received here, keeping in mind the conditions?

Iman Ali: No. I realised that people across the two borders are quite similar. The Pakistani youth are so similar to you guys. So I can identify with the kind of people I've been meeting. I don't even feel like I'm in another country.

Why modelling as a choice of profession? Is that kind of thing accepted there?

Iman Ali: Why not? Why can't a Pakistani be a model?

Aren't the laws there quite stringent? We've heard even your visual media is prone to censorship. It must be difficult having such a liberal profession in such circumstances?

Iman Ali: We get MTV, HBO... all the stuff people get this side of the border. The process of growing into this age has been much the same on both sides. Like westernisation and liberalisation have ushered your youth towards new ventures and interests, the same has happened in Pakistan.

A lot of young people want to be in glamour. It's quite a successful profession to be in.

What made you want to be a model?

Iman Ali: I always thought of myself as being ugly. But with exposure to the kind of fashion images that characterise the age, I realised I wasn't all that bad. Quite the contrary. So at 19, I gave the line a shot.

Any hurdles in so doing?

Iman Ali: My parents, for one. Like all Asian parents they were apprehensive at first. I think especially so because glamour has a way of getting to girls in their teens.

(The Pioneer)

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