Qissa, Daastan’s self-publishing platform which was treasured like a baby by the team and for which most of us worked day and night, took off so swiftly upon its launch as if it was a bird . Each day brought with itself significant happenings that overjoyed those working for its betterment, and made them even more invested in the platform.
Daastan’s Tree Branching Out:
The year of 2017 was a very fruitful one for Daastan, and by the end of it the team itself had grown so strong that quite a few started ventures of their own. The projects included but were not limited to Words and Metaphors, which was founded by Daastan’s Co-founder Sidra Amin, and was KPK’s first spoken word platform. Along with this, many of the Literary Fellows of Batch Two founded magazines, and service companies of their own. Daastan was now the likeness of a strong tree, with branches shooting off in every direction.
Details of Qissa’s Astounding Year:
In between all this, we were also chosen by extremely talented writers from all across Pakistan to publish their books. Qissa became home to the writing portfolio of an award-winning journalist with over 12 years of experience under his belt, Mr. Omar Iftikhar. This was followed by Daastan’s first ever international publication, by the name of “The Ancient Souls”, in which we finally got the chance to showcase Pakistan’s talent on a global level. We brought all 22 of the finalists of The Stories Untold Season Two to print, launching what was to be the start of professional writing career for most, and turned carefully preserved dreams into reality for all. Numerous crowd funding campaigns were launched for authors who chose us and trusted us to publish their work, which included Daastan’s first Urdu book in print, by Farheen Naz – a renowed digest writer, and an extremely bold publication titled “Why I Stopped Wearing Abaya” to highlight the social issue of imposed pardah on the women of Pakistan.
Daastan’s first Urdu book in Print by Farheen Naz
We at Daastan challenge norms and rebuild ideas
We preserved the work of a local Urdu literary gem, Hazrat Zaka, by securing the rights to digitize and republish his legendary work “Guldast-E-Zaka”, to make it available for the public on Qissa. An author whose book was a best seller on Amazon, chose Qissa to publish her second book “Before Time”, and brought her work to print. After getting more than a hundred writers on board, Daastan also published its first ever research work, written by Tayyab Khalil, Shahrukh Rashid and co., both engineers, which was carefully screened by PhD professors to ensure no erroneous content was present. The research, titled “Interview Guidelines for Mechanical Engineers”, aimed to help ease the process of job hunting for fresh graduates and drill them on the technical questions asked during interviews. If you are an freshly graduated engineer and are require tips to up your interview game, order your copy here.
The year of 2017 was ripe with opportunities
and avenues leading our company to the forefront, and we caught the eyes of all
those who at any point had undermined or rejected us. Right in the middle of
the year, our company Daastan’s
legal status was updated to Private Limited, and it was followed by the
highlight of winning
an investment of 25,00 USD on the show ‘Idea Croron Ka’, which aired
internationally on Neo Tv. From openings in the industry popping up and being
grabbed by our team, to setting trends and defining newer and wider boundaries
for ourselves, it was a year that brought to us all that we had imagined in our
wildest dreams and more.
Daastan on the news:
From the very beginning of the year, we were
featured in multiple news websites, such as ProPakistani,
and Upstart
and StartupRadar
for having bagged a spot in the accelerator program of Telenor Velocity. This
was followed by a very special news feature in TechJuice
which covered the book launch of our very first crowdfunded author and the
details on how team is striving day in and day out to reshape the literary
industry. This was followed by an onslaught of features, from EduGrid, PakPositivie,
to JournalPost
and ParhLo
– the word about Daastan was out and there was no stopping it. A very pleasant
surprise came after the mid-year mark when we started receiving the attention
of the higher end internationally viewed news sites such as Tribune
and Dunia News as well. Not only
this, but a section of print
newspaper was also dedicated to Daastan helping emerging authors get themselves
published, all the way in India.
A whole delegation from Daastan, consisting of
Mr. Nauman Shahid, Ms. Tehreem Hassan, Ms Aroosa Mushtaq and the Ommer, was invited
as guests in ‘World This Morning’ show by Shahzad Khan, aired on PTV World.
Each shared their own unique perspective on the workings of Daastan to help
spread the word and encourage more writers to join us.
In between the flurry of activity that was 2017 for the team of Daastan, the Founder Syed Ommer Amer must have found a momentary lull in activity, and that was enough for him to set Daastan on a course previously uncharted on but one it had full potential to tread. This road taken was the application to pitch in Pakistan’s first ever business reality show, in front of a panel of most distinguished, recognized, and successful businessmen of our industry, for an amount of 1 crore (10 Million) Rupees.
Daastan’s Delegation:
For most just the introduction of the TV show, with its intimidating numbers and seemingly very hard to impress investors, would be enough to faze them and make them reconsider trying their luck. For our team, it was that very thing which lit the fire that was to guide us through all that was to come. And so, after successfully clearing the ‘audition’ for the final pitch, team Daastan made its way to Lahore for the final showdown. The delegation that was to pitch on TV consisted of Waneeza Zaheer – a senior designer at Daastan passionate about literature and fully dedicated to helping Daastan scale newer and higher heights – and Syed Ommer Amer, the founder of the company, who requires no introduction except one: he is a force to be reckoned with, especially where his dreams and the future of literary industry are concerned.
Mr. Naeem Zamindar (middle), with Mr. Syed Ommer Amer (left) and Ms. Waneeza Zaheer (right)
The Pitch that Lead to the Win:
The wait for the final presentation lasted all day, with the pitch itself lasting more than half an hour. The team received commendation and applause from most of the investors present, which included Salim Ghauri, CEO Netsol, who especially praised Ommer’s speaking abilities, and Rabeel Warraich who mentioned how the team’s ready responses to all the questions posed were a pleasant surprise. Three out of four businessmen present did not step up to invest, however their space was filled in by Mr. Naeem Zamindar, CEO Acumen Pakistan and Chairman, Pakistan Board of Investment, when he offered 25,000 USD in return for 20% equity, and an unlimited amount of support to help breakthrough any ceiling Daastan might encounter. The team was able to negotiate it down to 15%, and the deal was celebrated.
Daastan scores an investment of 25,000 USD on Idea Croron Ka
In the wake of the success of the first two seasons of Daastan’s signature story writing competition “The Stories Untold”, one of which landed the team a fund of significant enough amount to bring the shortlisted authors of the competition to print, Daastan launched the third magical (pun intended) season of The Stories Untold sponsored by Aurochs, in collaboration with Words and Metaphors, during the summer of 2017. It was the team’s plan to continue fueling the fire of literature and encourage the creative ones among the public to squeeze out all they had and a bit more, and spin it into a tale. By continuing to hold the contest biannually, Daastan had uncovered a whole trove of creative writers and word magicians, who kept coming back to participate in the subsequent seasons and dazzled us with their unbounded potential.
Magical Pursuits:
Having addressed the serious and thought-provoking side of literature in the theme of the previous two seasons, the founders of Daastan decided to lighten the mood with a bit of fairy dust and themed the third season of the recurring competition, “Magical Pursuits”. This theme was picked to challenge the wildly imaginative among us, who have the creativity to step out from the door of reality into a world of magic, driven by the author’s self-made laws of the creation present there-in. Daastan made the perfect choice in the selection of the theme, as the literature of Pakistan was severely lacking in this genre, and so the entries poured in.
The Competition:
As proven by the previous competitions, hundreds of authors toiled to be a part of our family. Stories of 4000-6000 words were submitted to us in both English as well as Urdu, and all of them were screened very carefully to filter out the top few. The stories were judged mostly on the basis on the impact they created on the reader, on the writer’s ability to whip up whole plot lines and characters without loopholes, and how closely they stuck to the theme of fantasy. It was a battle of mythical levels, and the results were finally posted a couple weeks after the deadline closed.
Season 3 of Stories Untold, themed “Magical Pursuits”
In Pursuit of the Ultimate Winner:
The top 25 of English stories, and top 10 of Urdu, were thereon assigned to a team lead who acted as mentor and guided their writers to better their stories by having one-on-one sessions with them over 15 days, giving the writers a chance to strengthen their story and improve any mistake they may have made. The result was announced as top 15, followed by top 5 best stories, which trickled down to the undisputed singular winner in each language. The winning stories, True Justice by Naveed Sheharyar Khan and Kahani Jibraeel ki by Sonia Mukhtar were published in print, while the finalists were all published digitally.
Urdu Winner of Stories Untold Season 3
English Winner of Stories Untold Season 3
Want to be a part of the next Stories Untold Competition? Keep an eye out for the updates on our Facebook page!
In the summer of 2017, with the rush of incoming Stories Untold entries in the air and Daastan’s social media teeming with writers, poets, thinkers and dreamers, the team decided to dish out a series of writing prompts to encourage the flow of ideas. What started as an all too simple social media post to get conversations going, caught the eye of Daastan’s Founder, and he decided to turn it into a competition and put a reward at the end to motivate the writers even further. Thus, began the campaign of Mukhtasir Daastan, which lasted months and earned almost all those who participated goodies and discounts from various sponsors.
Magic:
A total of seven such prompt based competitions were initiated, each with a unique theme, requirements and prizes. What ensued was a flurry of creativity crushed into six-word stories. The first sponsored prompt was put up in collaboration with Jadugar and Co., a freelance graphic design company, and the theme was aptly titled “Magic”. The winners were given prizes which included discounts and a personalized typographic design.
Smiles:
The second in the series that followed was sponsored by Smiles.pk. They asked the audience to help them write their tagline, in return of a gift prize of 2500 PKR. Smiles.pk ended up choosing not one, but two winners. They liked two of the entries so much that they just couldn’t narrow it down to one.
Travel:
The third in the series of Mukhtasir Daastan was sponsored by Aurochs, a premium leather products manufacturing company which designed highly functional pieces with ease of use in mind. The theme of the six-word story competition was “Travel”. The top five finalists received a 50% off coupon on their products, while all those who participated also received a small discount as well.
Youth:
The fourth, and final one which was sponsored by another company, was held in collaboration with Forever21 magazine, a bi-monthly magazine seeking to empower youth. The magazine requested the authors to let their creativity flow, and no word limit was imposed. The winner received a gift bag in reward for her eloquently written piece on the theme “I want to be 17 again because…”
By Qissa Authors:
The last three prompts of the series were
sponsored by the authors published with Qissa. They fished out one lettered
theme of their books, such as “Adapt” for Unveiling the Unknown by Tooba
Arshad, and asked the writers to come up with a heart touching six-word-story
on it. The winners and participants were awarded multiple levels of discounts on
the books from which the themes were taken.
The final gift though, came from Daastan. It was promised from the very start of the series of Mukhtasir Daastan, that the team would hand pick the best ones out of all those who participated, compile, and publish it into a book, eternalizing the bird-like thoughts of each of the writers featured in it. If you are a writer and want to see your work published, drop us a message on Daastan!
In the beginning of the year, Daastan hosted its first story writing competition that set the precedent for other seasons of the program that would follow. The first season was an unimaginable hit, with almost 100 entries from all over Pakistan. Daastan got to uncover some major talent and later on also published a book as a tribute to the top 5 position holders, titled “A Journey to Stardom”, which documented their struggles as a writer in a community which tends to overlook the artisans present in it. October of 2016 saw Daastan pitching for a micro fund of 2500 USD which it went on to win for season 2 of “The Stories Untold”. The fund was offered by the PeaceTech Lab under the banner of PeaceTech Exchange (PTX). PTX is a workshop-based competition which enables peace sustaining enterprises to contest and win the offered amount by pitching their idea and establishing how it will help underdeveloped regions utilize technology for the advent of peace, social inclusion and conflict resolution.
A War Within:
With funding under its belt from Peacetech Lab, PTX, Technology for Peace Initiative (TPI) and United States Institute of Peace, Daastan launched season 2 of “The Stories Untold” with the theme “A War Within”. This time around, we encouraged writers and participants to look deep into the conflicts and pressures faced by individuals on a daily basis, and chart out whole territories on how to deal with them, both as an observer as well as the victim. It was the perfect opportunity for every person who had felt caged at any time in their life to put that feeling to words and come out stronger and accomplished. The competition was split into two modules, which allowed Urdu writers to send in entries as well, helping us reach a part of the community we hadn’t been able to touch before. We also partnered with “The Ancient Souls” from across the border to expand our entry base, as well as the “Young Women Writer’s Forum Pakistan”.
Results of the competition:
As expected, the participants blew us away. We received more than 150 entries from all over the world of such high quality that it was a great difficulty to shortlist them. The qualifying rounds consisted of top 30, followed by top 15 and then the final winners. Each shortlisted candidate’s work was published digitally on Qissa, and the top ones also lived the dream of seeing their work go into print. The certificates and prizes distributed, along with publications, amounted to a grand total of 100,000 PKR.
Certificate for the winners of The Stories Untold Season Two
Are you a writer who has a story caged in their chests? Sign up on Qissa and publish your work, or keep up with our updates on Daastan to participate in our next story writing competition.
