NgofeenLoc went back to his home outside of Paris. He did a bit of research. At the time, with all his part-time jobs, he was earning minimum wage, roughly 1,200 euros a month. But he found out that a beginner croupier could earn as much as 3,000 euros a month. Loc decided he would give it a try, so he called the director of the poker tournament.
Ngofeen: Loic was told that in order to start working as a croupier, he had to do a special training, une formation, and then pass an aptitude test on calculation, dexterity, and general casino knowledge.
Ngofeen: Loc did not have the money to pay for croupier school. And without the training, he could not get the job. He had finally found something that he was good at, and that offered him a chance to see the world. But now, he was stuck again. For four months he tried to save enough money, but it seemed impossible. So in November 2007, he decided to take a gamble.
Ngofeen: Within four months, Loc had become one of the best croupiers at the club de jeux where he was working. But after two years, he felt he was outgrowing Paris, and wanted to see more of the world. Loc began eyeing the Mecca of casinos, where only the best croupiers in the world were invited: the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco.
Ngofeen: In 2010, Loc was recruited to deal at the European Poker Tour organized in Deauville, a fancy seaside town on the Atlantic Ocean. This was a big deal. Deauville has one of the most renowned casinos in France. Loc would be traveling there to deal cards for people who paid 5,000 euros just to get a seat at the table.
Ngofeen: The tournament lasted ten days. Every day in Deauville, Loc wore a pristine white shirt, with a black vest and a black tie, and he put on his best smile while dealing cards and entertaining the patrons. But he also scanned the room for people watching him. He tried to see if he could spot, reprer, the talent scout.
Ngofeen: The nights wore on at the EPT Poker tournament in Deauville. First, there were 100 tables, with about 120 croupiers and 1,000 players. By day nine, only three tables were left, and on the last day, one table remained. Only the best players would sit at the last table. And only the best croupiers would deal. Loc checked the list of names to find out which croupiers had been chosen.
Ngofeen: Monaco is on the French Riviera, between Nice and the Italian Border. It is most famous for its Casino, its formula 1 Grand Prix car races, and its Royalty. But Monaco is not a kingdom. It is a principality, a state run by a prince.
Ngofeen: La principaut de Monaco is 2.1 square kilometers, roughly 20 blocks by 20. The official language is French, but English is widely spoken as there are tourists from all over. Within that tiny place, Loc found more wealth than he ever imagined.
Ngofeen: Loc practiced his English every chance he got. He knew he was not good yet, but he spoke to people anyways. By the end of the ten-day tournament, he felt that his hard work with the words and the cards finally paid off.
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The series received critical acclaim with praise towards the storyline and Akbar's performance, who later won Best Actor and Best Actor Popular awards at 8th Hum Awards and Best TV Actor-Critics' choice at 21st Lux Style Awards. It also won Best TV Play and Best TV Writer award at the latter.
The story revolves around a dark-skinned college student, Parizaad who has grown up with self-esteem problems and confidence issues. Despite society's judgement of him, he is very hardworking, extremely respectful and well-mannered, and creates a lasting impression on anyone he meets. This drama takes us along his journey of the friends and enemies he meets in his life as he tackles with his inner fight of choosing his true passion of poetry or choosing a realistic job that can provide income for his family. Parizaad is an innocent boy living in Rawalpindi with his brothers. Due to his dark skin, he is often ridiculed. His brothers and sisters-in-law are greedy and consider him to be a liability. Only his sister Saeeda loves him. But she is to be married to an aged man due to family pressure. Parizaad loves Naheed and Saeeda likes Majid but both Naheed and Majid are already in love with each other.
One day Parizaad is falsely accused of giving a love letter to Naheed at her house. Naheed's father slaps Parizaad in front of everyone. After learning that Naheed loves Majid and it was Majid who was at her terrace that night, Parizaad wants to kill himself, but is saved by Ahmad. On the other hand, Naheed marries Majid.
After this Parizaad meets Bubly, who considers herself a 'tomboy'. As Parizaad is desperately in need of money for his sister, he agrees to marry Bubly to obtain dowry. But before all this an happen, Bubly runs away from her house.
Then Parizaad meets Lubna, a rich girl, and starts developing a liking for her, but her mother fixes her marriage with a rich businessman. The mother also rebukes Parizaad regarding his poetry and asks him to focus on becoming a rich man. Then Parizaad moves to Karachi where he starts working for a big businessman, Behroze Karim who unbeknownst to Parizaad at that time, is a don who owns a mafia empire. Parizaad initially works as a shift supervisor in the factory of Don Behroze. Don Behroze inspired by Parizaad's truthfulness and bravery, appoints him as the bodyguard of his wife Layla Saba. Parizaad was also ordered to give all the information about Layla to Behroze. Layla is disloyal to Behroze and uses Parizaad's innocence so as to meet her lover. Behroze learns about this and he kills both Layla and her lover, but spares Parizaad. As Layla's lover was from a powerful background, Behroze gets trapped in his murder case. Behroze sends Parizaad to Guru so that Parizaad remains safe. There Parizaad meets Bubly who was adopted by Guru, Parizaad reconciles Bubly with her parents. After returning to Karachi, Parizaad takes all the blame and is sent to jail. Finally, it is known that Behroze was the one who killed both Layla and her lover. Before being caught, Behroze kills himself and gives all his wealth to Parizaad as a reward for his loyalty.
After becoming rich and coming out of jail, Parizaad sees that everybody respects him as he is a wealthy man now. Even people have no problem with his dark skin. His brothers and sisters-in-law due to their greed show affection and love for Parizaad. Parizaad again meets Lubna who is now a divorcee and a flop actress, Parizaad decides to finance her films. During this he also meets Ahmad. Parizaad now again meets Naheed who is now in a poor condition as her husband is now a good-for-nothing man. Naheed's father apologises to Parizaad as he is now aware that Parizaad was innocent at the time. Parizaad arranges a job for Nahaeed's sister and for Majid. Naheed too now has a change of heart for Parizaad due to his wealth and tries to reconnect with him, which Parizaad declines.
At the end he meets Annie, a radio host, who is a blind girl and a die-hard fan of Parizaad not because of his wealth but truly because of his poetry. Parizaad also develops a feeling for her, but is afraid that he might again get rejected due to his dark skin, once Annie gets back her eyesight. Annie's cousin, a new character, Sharjeel, also interferes with Parizaad's love, by confessing his plans to propose once Annie gets back her eyesight, not knowing Parizaad is in love with Annie. Parizaad in a moment of weakness decides to have Sharjeel killed by his bodyguard, Akbar, however his inner conscious stops him. Heartbroken once again realizing that even with money and power he is unable to capture true love, Parizaad leaves Karachi, leaving all his wealth behind. He goes to the mountains away from the pain of the world to ease his broken heart. There he becomes a teacher in the mountain village school and finds satisfaction helping children learn and prepare for the world ahead. No one knows about Parizaad's whereabouts as he discreetly leaves behind everything. Annie meets Parizaad while working as a news anchor, but fails to recognize him as he has changed his name. After hearing his voice and touching his face, she recognizes him and both of them confess their love for each other and the story ends with Parizaad finally getting his love. Annie and Parizaad plan on opening an Urdu academy in the Village. Annie plans on working as an assistant for the Urdu academy while starting her radio broadcast from the village.
Television actor Faysal Quraishi first decided to produce the series based on Hashim Nadeem's award-winning Parizaad, for which he approached a channel but was rejected.[8] According to Quraishi, he wanted to cast Gohar Rasheed in the titular character at that time.[9]
In May 2021, it was revealed that Parizaad will get a television adaptation, produced by MD Productions and directed by Shahzad Kashmiri. The writer revealed that the show was actually written as an experiment, much like his previous show, Ishq Zahe Naseeb.[10][11][12]
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