How to live-tweet a wedding
Twitter has enabled news to be transmitted within mere seconds. Now, ordinary people are able to take part in the way information travels and even add their opinion to it. Recently, many have started using this platform to describe an event with a constant flow of tweets. This practice is known as “live-tweeting.“ The phenomenon of live-tweeting was popularised during the Arab Spring. Since then, we have seen many an incident being live-tweeted. Whether it is the Osama bin Laden operation, Whitney Houston’s funeral, or even an abortion, live-tweeting is the new fad. So perfected is this practice that there even exist many guidelines on how ...
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Where did that desi wedding magic go?
Pakistani weddings are high on my list of reasons I would like to move back to Pakistan. Unlike some of my other ex-pat friends who went to a wedding when they were four-years-old and don’t remember any of it, thanks to desi family traditions I have gone to a gazillion weddings and enjoyed them to my heart’s content. From dance practices to assigning the least attractive jora (outfit) to the valima I love it all. Thinking back to a wedding I attended a couple weeks ago, however, I found myself yearning for the old-fashioned weddings with all the quaint traditions. And so, ...
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Here come the brides (in 6 inch heels)
Ladies and gentlemen, regal velvet, long trains, glittering mokesh, and breathtaking long lehnga shirts are the new trends for bridal wear this year. The Pantene Bridal Couture Week (BCW) 2011, took my breath away. Held by Style 360 the show featured designs by the biggest names of our fashion industry. It also brought to light a few Indian designers and some newcomers with fabulous talent. All in all, the night was packed with glamour and was couture at its very best. J&S did a wonderful job of decorating the waiting area. The theme was predominantly Grecian with textured velvet draping on the walls ...
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Sunsilk fashion week: Fashion loves drama
The Sunsilk Fashion Week in Lahore was held at the Expo Centre. It was a spacious venue and ideal to promote the professionalism that is meant to accompany Fashion Week. Attendees were a mix of industry professionals, local and foreign media, retail buyers, designers’ clients, families and friends, with appearances by local icons like US Consul General Carmela Conroy—resplendent in an HSY embroidered gown—Samina Peerzada, Tahira Syed and designers Umar Sayeed, Rizwan Beyg et all. Happily, the number of sleazy uncles attending to check out models has reduced considerably from preceding years; perhaps this has something to do with the drive through jam-packed traffic ...
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Smart weddings: From showy to intimate
Military top brass, bureaucrats, businessmen and the Pakistani elite have struck the path to throwing ‘Smart’ weddings for their offspring. They can afford the once trendy lavish dos, yet are opting for ’Smart’ weddings - Stylishly short, Manageable, Authentic and Really Tasteful Outcome: they save their own and the guests’ time by having fewer functions, they redirect resources to the happy couple to start their new lives together and infuse the entire wedding with an intimacy and genuineness. Smart weddings are also managing to do what legislation (one-dish rule) or government/ NGO propaganda (Jahaiz aik lanat/trousseau is a curse) never could. These events are making others question the standard ...
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The drawing room culture: Girls on parade
I am one of the many girls who have been through the archaic and bizarre tradition of the drawing room ‘parade’. It involves carrying a tray of tea and goodies to a roomful of strangers and being put on display. Here is how the drawing room scenario unfolds: You are informed by your mother that guests are coming to “see you”. As unwilling as you may be, you to give in to your mother’s orders, or this cliché line may be thrown at you, “Beta, apni ammi ki baat mano. Mein akeli maa nahin, sab hi maayein karti hain,” or “Listen to me ...
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No dowry, no bride, no wedding
My 21-year-old maid Noor Jahan recently told me about her unwillingness to get married so as to avoid putting her parents through any kind of pressure. The ‘pressure’ she spoke of was the high demand for dowry by her would-be in-laws. Culturally, we are accustomed to hearing about the 10 tolas of gold given to the groom’s family along with a bungalow, car, washing machine, furniture, bed sheets, shower curtains, needles, and so on, to feed the desire of greedy in-laws. Sure, when one can afford it, parents give their daughters these ‘presents’ generously. However, Noor Jahan comes from the working ...
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Wedding bling: For the love of money
It’s that time of the year again. Fathers lament the drain of their pockets, mothers get teary-eyed at every glimpse of their daughters, designers smirk behind their overpriced outfits, tailors get threatening calls from customers, salons get overcrowded, caterers lie their way through fancy menus and it’s probably the only time of the year when choreographers and the “band baaja walas” earn a decent livelihood. It’s the wedding season, where we focus on every little detail but the real wedding itself. From designer clothes to custom-made jewellery, weddings these days are known for more than just a simple event celebrating ...
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Love in a time of rishta aunties
I am strongly resisting the temptation to make sweeping statements, but as a general rule I find nowhere else in the world is individuality and free thinking penalised as it is in the land of the pure. From school when the teacher frowned at your blatant use of ‘imagination’, to the fear inducing lessons with maulvi sahib, to adulthood when society already has your course of life charted out and heaven’s forbid if you should dare to deviate. Yes, I cannot think of a society that has a more perverted notion of life; fervently abiding to religious practise whilst ignoring the ...
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Desi bride or geisha bride?
Why do desi brides so often opt to look like geishas on their big day? From India to Pakistan to desis settled abroad, we can’t seem to shed the belief that a bride needs to be painted beyond recognition. I’ve seen make-up artists cake it on by mixing different coloured liquids on what appears to be a painter’s palette and applying it with a thick brush on the bride-to-be, as if she were a blank canvas and not a woman with unique features. The cost of looking like everyone else I’ve seen brides throw away small fortunes on hiring a make-up artist and ...
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