Infectious Energy

4.35 pm: ladies prayer area of a popular Mall in Karachi……. My focus was distracted by someone talking loudly. I tried my best to focus on the words of my Salah yet the loud talking did not stop. A lady was upset with someone who consciously or unconsciously (giving every person the benefit of doubt) walked in front of her while she was still in her prayer. She was upset that moving in front of her even though quickly had made her Salah null and void and that she had to do it all over again. She kept on complaining as to how in Shariah it’s not allowed and how people have no manners or respect for shariah law. For a minute I wondered if the women had already left who is she telling all this to. But she kept on complaining how she has to redo her prayer again not realizing that her loud complain was disturbing many in the surrounding who have no part in this. Sadly her complain didn’t stop, a few in the crowd tried to calm her down by asking her to move in front, as in public pr...

Two days back I woke up to see social media upset and demanding PEMRA to ban a play called “M erey paas tum ho ”. The lead actress was trolled for choosing the worst role of her life and much up-roar was made about a “ scandalous pink nighty ” in one of the episodes. Since I had not watched the play I rushed to YouTube to see what the hangaama was about. To my surprise the play had a typical storyline of a middle class government employee Danish (Humanyon Saeed)   with a pretty wife Mehwish (played by Aieza Khan) and a kid, struggling to make ends meet because he is naïve and honest. His wife on the other hand dreams of a better lifestyle with luxuries. A lovable family sets the picture perfect scene of the first episode, till the entry of a rich business man Shahwar played by none other than Adnan Siddiuqi. Shahwar spots Mehwish among common friends and finds her attractive and starts giving her compliments on her beauty, the over possessive husband finds the sitaut...

On Sunday, my OCD kicked in and I decided to clean the house. To make cleaning a bit interesting I selected some old classics of Nayyara Noor. I played my favorite song Kabhi Hum bhie khoobsurat theye … … and held on to the magic mop with dear life. Nayyara’s with her soul searching voice sang the beautiful lyrics written by Ahmed Shamim, I could not help ponder upon the simplicity of emotions and the deep sadness  embedded    in the lyrics of this song. I have listen to it a 100 times before, but somehow with age, the meaning of many things have changed so drastically that even I am surprised myself. The song talks about the beauty of emotions more than the physicality of the beauty itself, it emphasizes on the spirit and the joy found in that jubilant spirit. Somehow beauty and age is such an important thing for women, I am not sure if it is a big issue for men also, as their age or beauty is never discussed. But for women it’s a stark reality, w...

As I was scrolling through social media today, I was petrified while watching a video shared by Shaniera Akram declaring Clifton beach unsafe (we are thankful to her for her efforts).  The video shows, a kilometer of medical waste , including open syringes, vile of blood samples and other extremely hazardous medical waste  dumped by the beach. Uproar in social media and within hour’s pictures of trucks being pulled up near Clifton beach attempting to clean the piles of garbage were shared.   Post and hash tags of appreciation were being shared for Shaniera Akram and the authorities, who took immediate action, claiming the situation is now under control…….   Is the situation really under control? The above scenario was from one of the posh area of Karachi, where in broad day light medical waste was dumped and no one saw anything, showing pure negligence of DHA authorities. DHA has never been held accountable for their poor performance or lack of p...

For the past few days the social media is buzzing with the wedding news of Hamza Ali Abbasi of fame Pyare Afzal. Hamza started his career with TV and after doing a few projects moved to the big screen, he is not only famous for the work he did on screen but his claim to fame is from his extremely vocal socio-political and religious views especially on social media, he is seldom politically correct and gets a lot of bashing for his opinions. This week he was again in the news for posts about his wedding announcement to Naimal Khawaar. His long post about “Platonic Relationships” has been the topic  of the grape wine. His definition of Halal relationship was a bit bizarre and was so not needed in the wedding announcement.   Many bashed him for being self righteous or holier than thou. Some called it a publicity stunt, which often the people in the media are accused off.     On August 25 th  2019, the social media was again highlighting his beau...

In January this year, Sara a transgender in Peshawar, was abducted, abused and murdered by unidentified men. Unfortunately, most transgender in Pakistan meet such tragic ends. Sadly the situation is even worse for those who are alive, they are denied all basic rights as a human being. Hospitals refuse to give them medical care.  In the above case the tortured body of the deceased was refused admission in the morgue. The society has always treated transgender as lesser Humans . The parents and families of transgender abandon them at birth. Leaving them at the mercy of beggars and sex workers. Their  fight  for survival starts at birth and  many struggles that follow throughout their non existent life. With the absence of any social status in the law they have no hope for a better future. Due to the lack of  recognition as human beings and later having no options to earn their livelihood, many turn to prostitution. The transgend...

T ickets booked, popcorn and tea bought as I settled in my seat to watch the much talked about Pakistani commercial movie released on Eid ul Adha called “ Paray hut love” directed by none other than Asim Raza of “Ho maan jahan” and ‘Behudd’ fame with an elaborated star cast. The movie started with “Natasha ki shaadi” , a larger than life set of a Haveli where mehndi was being applied on Fareiha Altaf and the maids were carrying huge thaals of mithai. The ostentatious wedding of the rich and the famous with colorful designer wear and a well choreographed mehndi night where a famous actress must make a guest appearance; a prolific formula for any commercial movie, sets the picture perfect introduction of the film.   The very next scene introduces the male protagonist of the film commonly called the hero Shahryar Munnawar surprisingly called Shahryaar in the movie too. A somewhat fresh comic scene by Hina Dilpazeer who plays the filmi over the top mom of the male protag...