Thursday, April 4, 2013

An Open Letter to Waqar Zaka

Dear Mr. Zaka,

This letter is in response to an email you have sent me that I found lying in my spam mail today. Since you and a lot of my others might be wondering why the famous Waqar Zaka would write me an email on my personal email address, let me give a bit of the background.

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Mr. Zaka, Why You No Stick To Television?


On April 1 2013, I logged on to the Express Tribune online page as a routine and was taken by surprise by this little headline in the right corner that read: ‘Waqar Zaka hopes to go from cobra to constituency.' Though I am not one of Mr. Zaka’s fans, god knows why my intuition made me click that story and I went on to give it a read. I already knew about the cobra part, but the constituency bit smelled fishy considering the Elections 2013 are just round the corner – And there I had it – Waqar Zaka plans to contest the Elections 2013. 

Monday, March 11, 2013

An Apology

Hello readers,

How have you all been? I am sorry I have not been able to post anything significant for quite sometime. While I have missed writing I became a bit of a lazy couch potato ever since I got married in June. Finally when I got over my laziness syndrome I realized I have way too much on my plate. In all this while I came across loads of interesting juicy stuff to write about but sadly I am way too late now. But never mind. We live in a land that always has something interesting to offer everyday. I already have a lot going on at my top processor but i need to get myself organized first. I promise I will hit back with a bang very soon. Until then enjoy my existing posts.
i will see you guys soon.

Happy reading :-)

Friday, December 21, 2012

The White Garment


Thursday 11th August 2011,  6:30 P.M.
Saddar was too crowded today. It was already getting late. I took the Rs. 100 change from the cashier, which was all the money I was left with, picked the shopping bag and rushed out of the store. The unusually humid August and the hassle I have been into since morning had turned me into a sweating shower by now. Despite of that I was excited. Very excited. My Ali was going to be happy today. He will not be disappointed with me anymore. He will not have to face any insult now. He was upset with me since quite long. I picked a small sized 10 rupee national flag for the upcoming independence day only to give him an additional surprise.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

I Do Not Drive A Convertible... So What???


A few weeks ago, Pakistan, and the metropolis in particular was busy protesting against the infamous ‘moral stunt’ pulled off by Maya Khan. The protest predominantly came from a relatively privileged class of the country with their primary contention being the intrusion of privacy and harassment of people, especially those who could not afford the luxuries of up-market restaurants and cafes. Besides that, many also pointed out the media bubble going directionless and the need to hold the media accountable in the larger interest of the public.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Our Poisoned Education System


 I still remember that day when a healthy discussion over some issue was going on in my economics class at university, when my professor, a PhD, uttered the words ‘Alhamdulillah, I am a sunni, I am a muslim.’ These words took me and many other likeminded students in my class by surprise. I could not get the bizarre logic of uttering these unnecessary words in the midst of a socio economic discussion, especially when the class, although in minority, comprised of students from diverse religious backgrounds. Even if she considered it essential to make a reference to the Islamic economic system, she could have easily done that in a mild tone without boasting about her own religious and sectarian affiliations wrapped in an ‘Alhamdulillah’. Moreover, the way this sentence was uttered, and the order in which her sectarian view followed by her religious affiliation was mentioned, it gave an impression as if her views are divinely superior to others. At that point of time, none of the students present, including me, dared to cut her off in the middle and question, protest or confront her on the statement that she made.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

10 Things I hate about Indian Soaps



10 Things I Hate About Indian Soaps
            I have always been impressed by how Bollywood has emerged as an internationally renowned entertainment industry by keeping up with the technological advancement, production quality, talent grooming, and creativity and packaging the ingredients in an intelligent marketing strategy. Lately, what has impressed me more about Bollywood is their inclination towards experimentation. When Bollywood became my benchmark to assess the Indian entertainment industry, I obviously expected something close to that standard, if not equal, from the Indian television industry as well.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Maula Jutt and the 2012 Apocalypse: Kachee Goliyan - The Fallen Warrior


The early 90s will always hold a special place in my heart for filling my life with treats that included 'Slims', Music Channel Charts, Ainak Wala Jinn, and Archie comics. Comics, were actually the reason why I developed interest in reading newspapers. I grew up reading Archie comics and was completely in love with Jughead. However, being a complete Desi, by the time I crossed my teens and started to develop interest in my own local surroundings, I started to feel a need of a comic character, which I could connect to. I wanted a desi humor to laugh about. This huge gap in my life was filled about six months back, when I accidently landed on a page, Kachee Goliyan. It was only a matter of days when Archie and Jughead were replaced by JC and Sufi, and that is what I will always love and remember Kachee Goliyan for- For giving me my own desi comic characters, and to introduce me to our local comic scene and a bunch of great local talent.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

PTA Bans 1500 words for SMS.

The Government of Pakistan has passed yet another epic legislation. PTA has issued a list of about 1500 words from English and Urdu words that are now banned to be used in an SMS. Now I do not know to what extent PTA would be able to achieve this absurd goal successfully but the comprehensively compiled world list that has been issued by the PTA is worth giving a read. So for all who were looking for the list. Here you go. Happy Reading ;)

Monday, October 10, 2011

The wondrous world of ‘badvertising’

You flick through hundreds of channels on the new generation of TV sets. Every program you settle for announces a commercial break and a series of never ending torturous attacks on your nervous system begins. I do not have a count yet about how many things do I exactly hate about those weird TVCs running on the idiot box these days. Until some time back these ad agencies considered it their duty to sell almost everything from cookies to cell phone connections by shaking their bodies to irritating jingles, and they performed this duty with sincere devotion. When the result of these dance-and-sell ads proved only good enough to provide an inspiration for a disastrous Pakistani reality dance show on ARY, these guys finally decided to bring in a change.