Girls and Cricket...

Gone are the days when the culture of shy and timid young girls was prevalent in our society. Today this culture has not only eroded but vanished! The more the gutsy a girl is the braver she is considered. To some extent that’s true but to some extent only!

Now what we really mean by cultural change is that the thought processes, the outlook towards life, the whole paradigm in which life is understood by the people shifts to a new one. Such is the case of the fashion of cricket among girls. I might sound very orthodox but the reality remains.

Having inclination and interest for something is different and like I said in my article on style that just doing what others do and considering it fashionable is totally a different story itself. A few years back there were cricket fans who were really fond of the game I repeat ‘the game’. Today being a cricket fan has different meanings and for me different interpretations. Like a cricket fan today may like a bowler or a batsman more than the game and as I would interpret the person is not a cricket fan he/she is a cricket ‘player’ fan which gives a totally different meaning.

When such a trend established in which everybody could customize their interests to one recreational activity, the fame of cricket began. Some liked to join the group of ‘we go where fashion goes’, some were interested in players and especially watched the whole match for that idol of theirs. While some actually developed interest for it because as I understand they have nothing better to do with their lives!

But then there is a bright side to it too. Some people watch such games to learn. Some listen to the commentators to improve their language skills etc. i.e. it all depends on how you maneuver and ‘opportunitize’ (as I would like to call) your choices.

This is where the role of girls starts. The cruelest victims of fashion! They are notorious for following everything and anything that’s considered ‘in’ and despising everything that’s ‘Out’. When this gender became aware of this new trend propping up how they can help not noticing it. Noticing seems to do injustice to the interest young pretty girls have shown in cricket within 2-3 years, and I would say the zeal and excitement girls show for cricket is remarkable.

I don’t say that their interest in cricket is totally fake, their hooting and voices are for real!

Mujhse Shaadi Karoge???

A Tasteful Wedding: Today, the ingredients of a fulfilling wedding include:

1. Excellent food
2. Dancing Music
3. Location
4. Know how of songs (which we always tend to forget at the wrong time in the right place!)
5. Fun loving or in most cases hyped up friends!
6. Handsome money
7. And Oh please, don’t forget the bride and the groom!

Now the first step in the method of making a wedding memorable or may be to some extent unforgettable is to accord at least four days for the dholki. This event is the most important and fun filled. If God forbid u don’t level this event well your wedding shall lose its taste. So make sure u do this part well not a bit less and not a bit more. According to your taste balance it well!

Second is good music. By good I mean music, which moves and shakes your body automatically. One should avoid music, which requires brains and emotions, as it’s hard to dance when you don’t know the required steps.

Food as always remains an attraction to all. From kids to oldies everyone can enjoy it. So it’s important you manage and mix this part well to make the wedding extravagant or simple or whichever way you like. From Desi food to American anything can work if you do it well.

Friends and family-a very important ingredient, functions as a backbone. The zealous friends and supporting family can spice up the whole event. Plus if they can dance and sing well what more can you want!

On the fifth position is the location, the place where the wedding is taking place. Of course there is a difference between a wedding in a conservative town and a liberal one. You can show those extra moves in the latter one and make it a bit spicier! Also weather adds to the whole presentation of the wedding.

Lastly please don’t forget those wedding songs, it sometimes becomes detrimental when you stop singing as a result the other party leads, but then it’s too late.

But above all money is the utensil used for preparing these events and later presents it, so be sure you have enough of it! The more you add the tastier it becomes.

For the nice aroma, enjoy and stay bold and beautiful!

Creativity and Commercialisation...

Often people say it’s a cruel world out there and in many cases it’s true. Today the survival of the fittest isn’t enough; it’s now the survival of the fittest and the smartest. Fitness is good for you only, but using that fitness smartly such that others can enjoy it as you do is what we shall call creativity management today. But this is not simple.

Anything that holds value obviously has that unique feature which makes it valuable, that is creativity actually. From shoe making to crowns, the price you pay to own it depends on how much valuable it is, that in turn how much creativity is put. To some extent we can say creativity and value are directly proportional to each other. The creative the thing the more valuable it is. That’s how commercialization jumped in people used innovative creations as commodities and placed a price tag on it realizing its value and potential.

If there is good in this world there is evil alongside to balance the effect and that’s how the world works. Such we can assume the role of creativity and commercialization today. Creativity can only be balanced if there is commercialization. Creativity is the good and commercializing that creativity has this devilish after effect, which undoubtedly eradicates the natural beauty out of it. The creativity becomes a commodity not an art that is acknowledged and appreciated. Evil springs up as soon as the creativity is treated as a commodity. In effect commercialization activates many evils in the society such as plagiarism, which is one of the biggest evil of society existing today.

Now that’s one angle of looking at commercialization and creativity. From a selfish point of view one is being rewarded for his/her own art, and truly that’s how things work today. You give some and you get some. It’s an era of never miss an opportunity and not commercializing your work is foolishness. This is the reason commercialization is very common today. In fact it has become a norm of the society to commercialize everything commercializable, which today fashionably is called marketing and zooming further in, advertising.

We see cities, forests, paintings, crafts and art being commercialized. This trend is here to stay until of course if people lose value for money, which I don’t foresee in the near future!

All I would say is be creative, commercialize and maintain this balance well. As I always say it’s all about MANAGEMENT!

An Unfamiliar Family Affair…

I winked and took a step back; my sense of sight could not adjust and accept to what I was witnessing. I could not make out the best way to manage and express my feelings hence I just smiled, and truly it was more than that, it was a smile I smiled after a long time. I recognized all thirty people sitting in the room welcoming me, looking and yes not to forget smiling back at me! They all I am sure had the same feeling I did.

Some I had met after years and some even after decades while there were faces which I saw on daily basis too. Nevertheless everyone in the room contributed to the happiness, which I initially talked about. One after another I greeted everyone. Ironically for me my feelings were opposite to what we usually feel when we meet people in such large gatherings. For me it was like the more I met, the merrier the whole process became.

I think it’s high time I shall reveal what event and what people I am talking about. I didn’t want to create any suspense but the emotional part of me got the better off and made me talk about my feelings before I can think rationally about it. People who share the same values and feelings for one’s family must have guessed it was a family club. That’s right to some extent but the way I shall put it is a family gathering. As in the word gathering truly captures the essence of it.

The room was stacked with my cousins across the globe (not practically but that’s how you feel when your near and dear ones live far from you.) Some I met for the first time! My excitement was unimaginable. Most of the time I get nervous in such crowds but strange it was, in my excitement I forgot all about being nervous.

It was surely a day to remember, I knew there was a family club but I didn’t know it would turn out to be a family gathering! Good for me! I used to argue there is no such feeling as overjoyed, either its joy or otherwise. Yesterday I understood…

Style...

What's Stylish?

Style is one of the most controversial words existing today in the fashion industry. Whatever we wear, the way we wear, the talk, the walk! You just have to keep it stylish. From your head to toe whatever you wear is representable of what you are so you better be careful of what you wear. One wrong attire and there you go. Not only people misjudge you but also you misjudged yourself when you wore what you wont. Unless of course you have a personality which dominates everything you wear and you are able to carry all very well. This is rare but exists. There exist a number of opinions on what style actually is all about. But... guess what? This article shall concentrate on my selfish views only!

Stylish is the person who is able to manipulate simplicity beautifully, such that the true essence of it remains. Let your style discover you and it should not be you discovering a style for yourself. This gives originality to one's personality. You don’t go around accepting, actually not even accepting sometimes you just do what the doers are doing which today is called being fashionable. You are fashionable only if you ortable with your attire and most importantly if you are comfortable with yourself. One shall never be comfortable if he/she dresses contrary to his/her personality.

Creativity is the buzzword today in every arena of the society. Let it be science or arts it dominates. The same control it has in the fashion and style scene. The best style you wear is your own creatively simple one. Innovate, imagine, create and please don’t follow. If you follow you shall lose your character. Let your character take control over your style.

Today new fashions bubble up and burst out every other day. There is nothing wrong in adopting a style but one has to be very careful whether that particular one shall do justice to one's character. Will that style fit in with your personality? Please don’t change yourself for the style unless of course if you are not happy with whom you are!

True it is, style has become an important part of life so much so that the word lifestyle exists, proving its importance. But sadly the trend of following dominates. There are fewer creators. Hence what appears is that there are few creators called the trendsetters who create fashion and others literally only follow blindly, irrespective of what suits them, which truly is not so stylish.

To be stylish you have got to be imaginative, creative, original, confident and above all comfortable! So my advice is relax and enjoy your style!

A Trip to Remember...

1:15 pm our journey started from Rawalpindi. Insia, Maryam, Zahra, Hussain and myself were all set for our trip to Lahore. Ironic it may sound later, it was truly an unforgettable journey and the five of us made it an experience worth recalling. Our journey began smoothly until our car broke down in the middle of nowhere. Thanking our driver for the joy ride he provided and making sure that our plans don’t fall out of place we decided we had to leave for Lahore there and then anyway anyhow. Hussain put our plan in action when he cheekily with his thumb waved towards the Suzuki signaling him to stop. Since then there was no looking back.

We reached Lahore in about six hours. Being myself, an overly excited and hyper person was very anxious to explore the city. As soon as we actually 'threw' all our bags in the Hotel we hired a rickshaw and made our way to the Old Anarkali Bazaar Food Street. The scene was hilarious. A rickshaw containing six people inside, in a chilly weather is worth imagining and for me recalling. There the whole bazaar was decorated with Anarkalis. It was a sight to see. We had food and one of us actually had a Mc Donald's burger there! Our few Lahori friends then joined us. We all had coffee and one by one everybody retired to sleep.



The next day was challenging. In half a day we wanted to see the whole of Lahore. We started off with the Liberty market, booked our tickets for Rawalpindi and with great zeal decided to start with shopping a bit but to our dismay the shops were closed! On Hussain's advice we went to Pace a mall of Lahore but this time we walked (Zahra, as usual really was pissed off for the walking thingy). We window shopped mostly, bought a few artificial stuff that also thinking as a souvenir of Lahore. All four of us now literally called chappaloholics went to every chappal shop we could. The chappal bought count was 5 then. A twist came in our story when our driver called and told us that he was in Lahore and the car was just fine. Anxious to visit the Minar-e-Pakistan and Badshahi Mosque we told him to take us there. It took us two hours to reach the right place, as it seemed that everybody in Lahore liked having some fun at our expense and guided us wrong! Hungry we all were and while I was hearing my tummy churn with hunger I heard another thing only this time it came from the car, and damn! It stopped again but this time not in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the city where we were abused and horned by about it seemed a million cars. That was that! I stood on a platform in the middle of a city accompanied by my friends and watched as the busy traffic moved waiting for some hope. Hope came but in the form of challiwala (corn guy). All of us had 2 Challis and again our Lahori friend who came to our rescue.

It was already six when we reached the bus stand for our tickets. We booked ourselves for the 9 o clock bus and went to D.H.A. (Defense Housing Authority) where everybody complained for I the biggest addict of chappals again attacked shoe shops and bought two chappals for myself. The total chappals bought figure hence in total was 7! We had food and immediately after, the clock signaled us that time was up. We left for Rawalpindi leaving the car and the driver in Lahore. Our journey ended and we reached Rawalpindi at 1:30 am.

Though we were unable to visit the whole of Lahore... but in the end at least we Chappaloholics did some serious chappal shopping and had a great adventure to tell!

Specs-o-fobia

Chashmatoooooooooo!!! they yelled when I entered the class. It was my second day since I had started wearing chashmas and that was that! my life had turned miserable after that. I was called various names chashmatoo, ainkoo, chaar ankhon wali and all the innovative disgusting names one could think of a person wearing chashma. It was that incident that brought a big revolution in my life and I truly understood the meaning of hatred- hatred for chashmas.

I asked God to forgive my sins and give me back my perfect vision, but in vain. Here I realized another important thing, I had sinned too much!. I had to face the same ruthless world of my class where I would hear those irritating comments which had actually turned into a horror movie for me. I felt like melting those binoculars, which of course some citizens of this cruel world nicknamed chashmas especially for me. Life never had been this cruel to me! I was cursed!

Imagine everywhere and where ever you go the one thing you hate the most is with you all the time and not only with you but on you and the irony of the matter is it relaxed on my nose and made sure it proved its existence to me by being the first thing I see whenever I use my sense of vision! YES POOR ME! But! Every dark cloud has a silver lining. One day I discovered that there is a heavenly creation of mankind done on this planet which was called contact lenses.

I was so excited that excitement is a nothing word to what I felt at that time. It was like coming out of the dead. It was like a feeling of being human again and as I write I about it I can feel the same energy and excitement I had. I had literally not slept for two days before I had my hands on them. My life had again took a u turn. God forgave all my sins. My life was given back to me. The world became a beautiful place.

Cruelty no longer existed. In short the horror movie ended and I lived happily ever after!

Emotional Confusion...

Many times in our lives we encounter situations or as we must say emotions where we feel we are struck in a dilemma of how to react? what to feel? and what should be said which shall seem appropriate. This choice of feelings is what emotional confusion is all about. I am not talking of a dumb or a mentally challenged person here; I am actually referring to every normal human in this planet. From a president to a peon all feels emotional confusion. It happens to every rational person.

Let us start by taking a simple example of a young boy who loves to play cricket and detests learning at school. He has a test on the same day he is to play cricket at school. Unfortunately he falls sick the very day. How would he feel? Should he feel sad that he lost an opportunity to play or happy that he got rid of a test which he was unprepared for? Here is where emotional confusion arises for the boy when he is unable to figure out his own emotion about whether missing school was a happy or a sad event.

Thousands of examples of emotional confusion exist in a teenager's life and especially this breed faces emotional confusion the most. Curious as they are, and short tempered because they are confused whether what their parents tell them is right or what they comprehend or think for themselves? It is the case with the young adults about 21 years and above. They face a new dilemma when their parents want them to get married while they are more interested in studying and having a single, simple life.

Let us now take another good example that a friend of mine pinpointed about the emotional confusion of women just after marriage. I must agree with him that this is the strongest form of emotional confusion felt by any girl, when she is supposed to leave her parents' family to a new family where she shall live the rest of her life. Its a true state of emotional confusion faced by the girl when she realizes that she has to leave the near and dear ones whom she loved and cherished all her life and now live with her new love, her husband. She is unable to decide how to react to this. How to feel about the whole situation? Should she be happy that she found her man of her dreams or sad that she is leaving behind her parents who had loved her and brought her up through all these years? The parents feel the same confusion whether they should be happy for their daughter or sad that she'll leave them. Hence this cycle keeps on maturing with time. New forms of emotions pop up and one good day confuses us! How to deal with them depends on our own attitude. The smarter a person is the more effectively the situation is managed, and that is what life is all about! Good management!

The Indian Drama Madness...

As the clock strikes eight, everybody in the room takes their position, eyes glued to the television such that some one is about to jump out of that idiot box for whom they have waited all their life! Silence- the virtue (which unfortunately is an extinct characteristic today) is maintained by all and God's mercy be on the person who dares to break it! Exaggerated it may sound but this is actually a scene from a typical Pakistani family who with great enthusiasm wait for their favorite Hindi drama to be aired.

The basic ingredients which are totally a must of these Hindi soaps is number one the never ending fights, tears and arguments. This is the basic essence which flavors these dramas. Second is wealth and that also of the caliber which atleast should be matchable with that of Bill Gates. Third, large bags full of foundation and different bases which is so necessary that without them there shall exist no variety in different serials as all would seem horror shows! Fourth a can of glycerine for making those fake tears & yes how can we forget there should always be a 'saas' (mother in law) and a bahu (daughter in law) if not anyone else, with the condition that only IF they play politics against eachother. Last but not the least you need to be an overly imaginative person as it contains heavy duty fiction.

One very confusing fact to me or to any rational citizen is that the tolerance level of the public (It is one other virtue which is at the extinctive stage in our normal lives) incase of Indian dramas has been remarkable. People have painted a perfect example of tolerance and devotion. Be it boring or corny the story is always followed. The same fake looks, always admired. At 7 in the morning they look all set for some extravagant wedding! I say nothing is natural about these dramas apart from those green plants! ( which I also seriously doubt).

On a much serious note, it is sad to discover that we don't consider for a second what negative impact it has on the youth and even ourselves by witnessing such indecency. I see women talking about the drama's twist aired the night before more enthusiastically than talking about their family and life. Worse I have witnessed kids talk about them and actually learn from them. Hindi language today is common to all the viewers of Indian dramas and sadly kids use them somehow in their vocabulary today.

Sad, it is indeed- that it has become a norm in our society to indulge ourselves in such useless activities. Gone are the days when children used to play various games and watch cartoons. Today they wait along their family for the next episode of the never-ending drama where nothing but crises strikes. Why do we watch such obscenity? And appreciate and approve of fashion which is not in our culture? I really don't understand why do we need to watch family politics which then eventually effect our lives. This has become a social issue to ponder. We should as soon as possible eradicate this norm in our society before it leaves us with a handicapped culture.

Chappal-o-holic...

They are flat, airy, casual, trendy and above all, lovely! Gone are the days when chappals were considered as an item of Indian footwear. Today it not only exists in Pakistan but has gained the status of a high profiled foot accessory all over the world. It is worn as an item of fashion, with those beautiful designs on them which make them look trendy as well as casual.

Chappals are unique accessories of the feet which ladies today not only love to buy, but also love to show them off. We all are familiar with the notion that shoes were considered an insignia for defining a person's character but now there is a spin to it, today character is judged no longer by shoes but the chappals we wear, the stylish the chappal the more stylish and enigmatic you are!

This new era of chappal fashion has given rise to separate chappal shops and stores. We can see this new tradition flourishing throughout Pakistan. Every time we go shopping we witness enormous new variety of chappals decorated noticeably. Beads, colors, laces, straps you name it-they'll have it all. However some chappaloholics like myself cant stop buying these beauties and if sometimes incapable of doing so cant definitely stop oogling and drooling over them.

Formerly unrecognized Kolahpuri chappals have also gained its true respect and notice after the dawn of the fashion of chappals. We can witness new variety and beautiful designs being innovated which previously didn't exist. Gone are the days when matching footwear was bought along with the dress. Today thanks to the new fashion of chappals, chappals go first and then the dress to go along with. Chappals give a chic look that no other accessory does. Be it parties, wedding occasions or simply going out chappals are the 'in' thing today. The best thing about these is that they are hand made and made up of pure leather.

Long ago, fancy shoes ruled the fashion scene, today it is ruled by chappals. It is an admittable fact also that the look that chappals give is much prettier and dressy than those which shoes did. Being flat and casual they are much more comfortable, and above all chappals give you an opportunity to dress and show off your beautiful manicured feet! Chappals fortunately are much reasonably and cheaply priced than any other footwear thus its a fashion which can be maintained by all, without any discrimination. Corny it may sound but truly Chappals Rule!