“The plays we do are for the ‘burger crowd’ and not a wider audience”

Sanwal Tariq, an NCA under-grad, gave a sterling performance as Oscar in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple run in Alhamra Lahore last month. Together with Felix, he dominated the stage and kept the audience engaged in a way even actors from established theatre groups can’t. This was Sanwal’s umpteenth time on stage and he seems better each time. An aspiring filmmaker and actor, he candidly discusses his interest in acting, future plans and challenges.

A bond of blood

Dengue patients in Lahore have had a high mortality rate and usually it is the fallen platelet count in the blood that costs life. The dengue virus hampers and sometimes destroys the body’s capacity to produce new platelets. The normal body’s platelet count is 150,000-250,000 per ?l of blood. A dengue patients platelet count may have a steep fall and become lower than 100,000 per ?l (mm3). This is alarming because it can impede clotting, cause hemorrhages and result in internal and external bleeding. Once the bleeding starts, it is often irrecoverable.