Leaving my homeland always makes me homesick. And when you are 6772 kilometers away, travelling for eight hours in an aircraft,  in a country that doesn’t speak your language. Phew…you see trouble welcoming you.

When I boarded the flight from India to Germany (Bonn, to be precise) in September 2010 a gamut of mixed emotions overcame me. I felt like I was entering alien territory. The silver lining amid the mental chaos was “hey, they too are humans…at least sign language is the same everywhere“. That consoled me a little.

Pakistani liberals insist their country is not just about bearded extremists and suicide bombers. The recent fashion week in Karachi, they say, is a good example of Pakistan’s progressive outlook.

Of late, fashion weeks have become a regular feature in Pakistan. The most recent one was the Fashion Pakistan Week, which showcased works of Pakistan’s most celebrated fashion designers from April 7-10. The event took place in Karachi, a city which normally gets negative publicity for its ethnic and sectarian violence.

Documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has become the first Pakistani to win an Oscar ever. Her short film ‘Saving Face’ looks at the issue of acid attacks on women in Pakistan.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy became the first Pakistani to ever win an Oscar on Sunday. She and her American co-director Daniel Junge won the coveted prize for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for “Saving Face.”

The documentary chronicles the lives of two acid attack survivors, Zakia and Rukhsana, and the arduous task to bring their assailants to justice. It also focuses on the work of British-Pakistani plastic surgeon Mohammad Jawad, who moved to Pakistan to help restore the faces and lives of acid attack survivors.

From fragile to commanding, Meryl Streep has played roles in films that have set off scandals and wide-ranging cultural debates. Particularly in Germany, where she will receive an Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlinale.

In its annual search for glamour, the German press regularly complains that the Berlin International Film Festival doesn’t attract enough top movie stars. But this year’s whining has been kept to a minimum thanks to an Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement being awarded to Meryl Streep on Tuesday.

Streep, 62, has continued her string of success recently, having earned an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe for her role as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 2011 film “The Iron Lady.”

Indonesian film “Postcards from the Zoo” has been selected for the final competition at the Berlin film festival. The film narrates the story of a girl who is abandoned by her father and grows up in a zoo.

The title of the film is “Kebun Binatang”, in Bhasa Indonesia, the Indonesian language. It means “Postcards from the Zoo.” In an interview for the Berlinale, Edwin, the director of the film, explains why he chose to use the word “postcards” in the title. He says, “I suppose the word ‘postcards’ comes from the way I perceive cinema. I enjoy fragmentary films that are able to break free from their own structures, films that allow the viewer to exit the narrative, invoking or triggering memories of personal experience.”

Benish Ali Bhat, a young journalist from India-administered Kashmir, is passionate about making documentary films and writing about her homeland, one of the world’s most sensitive conflict zones.Bhat is being sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation for an internship at the Deutsche Welle in Bonn. She speaks to DW’s Martina Bertram about her future goals.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, am I the fairest of them all? This is a question that seems to bother many people in South Asia. Advertisements for skin lightening products are not helping: “Want a better job? Want to find a decent husband? Want to make your parents happy and proud? Then use a fairness cream”, is what they profess. Whereas many white women go out of their way to get a tan, many South Asian women think they would appear more attractive and confident if they were two shades lighter.

When Simi Singh was growing up, her mother would forbid her from going outdoors.