Not impressed by Pawnay 14 August
With great expectations, I ventured into the Arts Council auditorium to see Anwar Maqsood’s humour come to life for the first time on stage. I had been warned that there would be seating problems, and there were. The production planning was disrupted due to the two days that the city was ablaze, and so people were accommodated well beyond the capacity of the hall. The producer tried to calm everyone’s nerves as more and more people poured into the hall. Honestly though, it was a tinderbox in there, and it seemed like a war of nerves between the people already ...
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Welcome to the hot seat Sherry Rehman
Just when you think the government is on the proverbial ropes, it pulls a rabbit out of its equally proverbial hat. In this case the appointment of PPP’s Sherry Rehman as the ambassador to the US. At one stroke, not only have the speculations that the deep state will force the appointment of someone more pliable been put to rest, but a somewhat sidelined member of the old PPP guard has also been promoted and (presumably) assuaged. Sherry, with her immaculate record and outspoken nature, is the one person who can not only go toe to toe with the notoriously cranky ...
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Do you kill your own goat?
Do you kill your own goat? No Why? It’s gross Hmm… so where do you think your masala ribs come from? An organ donor? How many people do you know that jump on the “qurbani is against animal rights” bandwagon every year around Bakra Eid? How many do you know who blindly accept that children being exposed to acts of slaughter has no deterimental effect on them? Reading the heated debate going on underneath the post “10 things I hate about bakra Eid” inspired me to go out there and shoot some reactions myself. While those against the practice of animal sacrifice presented “gross” and “cruel” as ...
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Why saying ‘Scene On Hai’ is more important than you think
July is here and I know this because my friend N came barging into my room and aimed straight for the fan. “It’s so hot, God you can only wear shalloos.” “Shalloos?” “Shalwars, obvi.” And Kay for kameezes, obvi (That’s obviously shortened). This same friend owns a Jenny (generator), gets picked up by her perpetually late D (driver) and has a severe dislike of “meylas” because, you know, they’re such “shady boiz”. Welcome to Burger-speak. We don’t laugh, we LOL. We take English words in Urdu context, and mix and match as we please. It started out as misspellings on the internet and on ...
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Brighter futures: Kids, and their dream cars
The Dream Car Art Contest is an international event organised by Toyota for children to explore their imagination and design the car of the future. It is the only competition of its type held in Pakistan where children, as well as parents, can learn and realize that cars nowadays are designed by transportation, industrial and automotive designers, rather than engineers. The children, who took part in the 5th Dream Car Art Contest, might have been young, but they were also aware of problems around them. Most entries by Pakistani children revolved around solving their country’s problems. It made me proud ...
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Vacation 101: Plan your trip
Hey folks, it’s that time of the year when the temperatures turn to all time highs, hair turns frizzy, moods decline before 9am and you feel that your face and the inner thoughts you are masking underneath, will be awash with a tidal wave of perspiration. With schools shutting down for the annual break and the office conversation turning to “so where are you headed off this year?” it is time to plan your escape to a brief sojourn in to a land unknown! Sounds exotic and exciting but most of us are guilty of having our holidays on repeat – ...
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Stop attacking our military!
On behalf of the armed forces in Pakistan, I address this article to all the civilians who think the forces are all about privileges and favours. Being a Pakistani, and a patriotic one at that, I assure you all that you people are mistaken. No doubt corruption of different scales does exist in some departments, as it does everywhere else, but only the people who’ve actually been there can understand the amount of hardships the soldiers go through before they even begin to reach the level they actually get privileges. Being a daughter of a naval officer, I’ve seen and ...
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Talking music with Malang Party’s Zeeshan Mansoor
I’ve written countless times about how the music scene in Islamabad needs major rejuvenation. Venues, bands and music fans – everything is scarce. Most fans listen to what is popular and ignore lesser known bands because the majority is the authority (and of course, democracy is Islamabad’s middle name). But Malang Party is one band that has continued to make music despite these challenges. And they are doing a darn good job. Recently I caught up with Zeeshan Mansoor (guitarist and songwriter for Malang Party) and discussed the prospects of music, musical evolution and his approach towards music as a guitar player. 1) ...
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Are you an SMS junkie?
As I look around, I see everyone firing away at the keys of their mobile phones at supersonic speed. It’s unnerving, and sometimes I feel that we really have been invaded by these miniscule hand-held devices. Sure, it’s great technology and life has definitely become easier, convenient and faster in a lot of ways but they say excess of anything is bad. It is quite correct about incessant text messaging as well which, in my opinion, is not only an addictive nuisance but also causes repetitive strain injury. In the past few years, I have almost become allergic to text messaging ...
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Pakistan grows up…I think
For news-junkies like me, the past few weeks have been a feast! With the Park51/Cordoba House/Ground Zero Mosque controversy, the pyromaniac Pastor Terry Jones’ waltz, 9/11’s ninth anniversary and Eid coinciding, the global media was on fire, literally. With the disproportionate coverage these issues and events received individually and collectively on American media, it seemed, one, that there are only two people in the world: the Americans and the Muslims and two, a Muslim lobby is finally hard at work, giving its Jewish counterpart a run for its money. Of course, such explosives can no longer ...
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