The couple sitting before me are like any other couple doting on their newly born baby. The only difference is that this is Mathira and her singer husband Flint F.J., both celebrities in their own right, cooing and cuddling baby Aahil.

Flint, a song writer, singer and composer, entered the realm of music professionally at the age of 21 as a song writer, completing 15 tracks in three years. Without any music background and backing he wasn’t doing well in the music industry and thus decided to compose and sing as well.

“I would like to thank the people who put me down and pushed me into doing everything myself, and today, because of them, I am standing on my own feet. I do R&B/soul music which I feel is doing well as people can recognise my voice now. My first three songs were released in England, and the fourth one in Pakistan in Sahir Lodhi’s show at the insistence of Mathira.”

Based in Dubai, Flint was invited to Karachi in 2013 year to perform in a concert with the band Noori at a private university. Later in the evening, at a party, he met Mathira who was also invited there and it was love at first sight for both of them — he falling for her dark, statuesque sultry looks (she is part Zimbabwean having lived most her life there) and she for his beautiful eyes and good looks.

He went back to Dubai and she to India to do a film, but they kept in touch. After her return, Flint would visit Karachi regularly to meet her, and they decided to tie the knot in November 2013.

“My parents happily accepted Mathira as their daughter-in-law just as her mother and sister accepted me. Her father wasn’t too happy but came round to it after a while,” Flint explained.

They weren’t initially interested in revealing his identity as it was something personal. “But now everyone knows about us.”

Flint gets his green eyes and fair complexion from his father who is Kashmiri, and though he was born there he rues the fact that he hasn’t been there again. His parents migrated to England when he was an infant. After having lived there for some years, they then moved to Dubai where he did his schooling.

But there are those who consider Mathira to be a ‘controversial’ person. Did that ever bother him?

“Being a TV actress, VJ, model and singer and also doing an Indian film, Mathira’s ‘controversy’ is with the media and not with me. The media kept harping that I had gotten married to a controversial figure. It didn’t matter because my family accepted her without hesitation as well.”

Being separated for periods doesn’t matter to them as they are focused and are regularly in touch through Skype, and Flint does come every month to Karachi. “We decided that we would follow our careers but we would be committed to each other and we have a bridge, Aahil, our three-month-old son to bind us to each other.”

He has no problem that she is more popular in Pakistan, but then he says that he is more popular in England, with three song hits there and one in Dubai. Flint points out that he is a hardcore singer, while Mathira is multi-talented and very much into acting.

Though a solo performer, he has recently collaborated with a musician from the US whose name he is not ready to reveal just yet. The video song will be released in January 2015 in Pakistan. His song Ranjha was launched recently in Pakistan while Ashikendey was his first hit and first song, followed by second Lutya Tu and later Backseat an Urdu-Punjabi song.

Flint’s elder brother who is very close to him discouraged him from choosing a music career as he didn’t have a background in music. But when he finished his second song his brother wanted to be the first to hear it as he was so proud that Flint had done well earlier. His mother supported him from the beginning, unlike his father who had his misgivings too.

Totally immersed in music, Flint’s parents are happy now with the decision he took. He is self-made having struggled hard in life in the past but with added responsibilities now he feels has taken a risk because he has a family to support.

Flint’s life has totally turned around after the birth of his son whom he is very attached to, “My macho ways have changed. I am now a domesticated man,” he grins.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 25th, 2015

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