Jeopardy aur Jehazkhori!

To be a meme or not to be a meme, is the question.

“jahezkhori band karo” has gone viral and so has the rebuttal/meme campaign. I came to know of this awareness step, on Ali Rehman Khan’s instagram account. Where he had applied mehndi design, with this inscription in the base of his palms. This has highlighted, the long standing evil of dowry in our culture. It was detestable to see the memes ridiculing such a significant movement in its cradle. But, I have realized that there are two sides to this scenario. Both hinges in its own way on one objective – root out the gangrenous portion associated with marriage from our culture- before it’s too late.
Earlier, I have written about dowry, since it’s a long standing issue, my focus shall be on significance of the hidden message from the memes, for us all.
The aspect of free will in human society has evolved to a conception of preposterous absurdity. That as a view, is my own, with intrinsic limitation of perceptions drawn from culture of my own generation of millennials. The promiscuous, who were once bemoaned in the society, have set as a standard for the up coming Generation Z. For them it’s about being out and about. Its support begins from boredom, which has become mainstream for them, resulting in confusion which is bewildering and ultimately drawing the individual to frustration, which is not only insufferable but also painful. Hence, to curb it at its cradle the individual rejects the societal restrictions and gives into the mortal pleasures where there shall be no repercussion such as responsibility, attachment or financial burden to tolerate. Earlier, it was the gender of men which was more accepting of these traits, linked to the male superiority or the ‘macho-ness’ and was refuted by women. But now it has changed after women empowerment, since, they are equally accepting of the modern age chivalry ways, and explore the sensuality of the promiscuous, as part of this empowerment. Thus, the floodgates are wide open for the free will to run over the preconceived notions of societal norms.
The model seems like a self-evolving, borne out from the globalization not to forget rising unemployment. Where there are so much pressures, the society can give so less to the individual to uphold the values it held so dear. Hence, in this model you have a threat of shaking the status quo in our present society. One won’t need an extensive arrangement of rituals, spent on ceremonies in light of social status etc. So, if you are a young lass or lad, you would rather give up on the idea of settling down with a family of your own but focus more on empowering yourself financially with a job or business, and whenever you need some sensuality, with no strings attached, just served it like some fast food.
In the end, we all wish for the good old family unlike the upcoming generation Z, with its free will and all. If we have to save the system from this jeopardy and make it anymore effective to this time and age: let’s end dowry and surgically remove the gangrene till you find some real compassionate flesh. 

Change aur Chahitay!

Changing to from right to left... literally 

This indeed is truly odd, when I try to sum it up. A cascade of cramped up emotions, that seem to drive out some mist of confusion. Because in real sense it’s all a fancy, I cannot make it sense. It is intuition that I fail to express. It’s a confusion that is generated from all the information I feel that I know about myself. Self-discovery. From the cradle till now. Trying to make lemonade out of the lemons life gave me. Now realizing that too much lemonade is also bad for health. Try mixing it up with a bit of wisdom. That I shall now.

I am for the generation of the 80s and 90s aka millennial and I have often now and then cried about it. But to tell you the truth it feels nothing better than being a millennial in today’s world. I mean I have seen some real transformation of the world in terms of technology, and 'progressed'. From the days when you just used to write up an verse of juvenile poetry on the last pages of your geography classwork copy, to uploading it on a blog and then later on putting it  up as a social media status update, in a span of a couple of decades.

Aray bahi kya hai yeh azadi, kya hai sakoon? Kal ko notice hona chahitay thay aaj notice karwana chahitay hai.

This day and age is a challenge with so much you wish and fantasize about but so little have you trained to cope with it. With new social and economic challenges. So many opportunities so much competition, yani exposure hai bhi aur nahi bhi.

Bas lagay raho….. badaltay raho… kuch samajho na… kiun kay haqiqatay bhi waqt kay saat badal jaye gi….

And thus, I end this blog for today… kiun kay zindagi mein cheezay adhuri chornay ki aadat si hogai hai aur zaroorat bhi ban gayi hai…

Muzaffarabad aur manzar!

Its not always that I fall prey to writing imprompto yet, right now I feel nothing else to do. The inhibitions and negativity within me might have subsided towards the neutral gear. Right now, I am the uncrowned king of ecstasy-land.
The memories of an unplanned, spontaneous and impulse-driven trip to northeastern highlands of the land of pure, have steered me through monotonous life of the machine, away and then back. I was part of a 2 day detour to Muzaffarabad.
Much to my remorse the road trip was anything but fun. The emetic potential of zigzag road to city was actively high and thus, took some heavy mental toughness to keep-in the contents of my stomach within, from gettin without. While the co--passengers were spilling the vomits in plastic bags, I tired to mull over the slave life that Nicholas Taleb says which I tend to live.
Nonetheless I reach the city from the capital in about 4 hours and secured plus hungry stomach. The city was an absolute delight in matter of climate if kept in comparison with Lahore. The people are marvelous and the manzar of the city is a gem!
As I reached at night I got to view the city from top, illustrated as reflective sky on land formed by settled fireflies beaming from everywhere.
Adventure was compassionately accommodated by a hospitable friend, for me and another colleague of mine.
A city where Neelam river flows from one end and Jhelum river flows from another, its just awesome to sea them both converge at Domail Bridge.
The city is tourist delight, with historic places like the Red Fort, the scenic view of a city wrapped around two different colour rivers under the mist of mountains cover with clouds and the river rock floored bazaars to roam around, plus not to forget the snow capped mountain top shrine of Pir Chinasi.
Yet the government was not as efficient as the nature itself, the city was subjected to a routine of loading shedding every hour.
Nonetheless these were wholesome two days with a pinch of Capital's centaurus mall in it on the way back.
Below are some of my shots from the trip:

The view of Muzaffarabad at night from up top

Some wornout wooden chairs at the Red Fort

Chai aur Pakoray, as tea seemed to suit more in the cool weather of the city 

View of the mountains capped with snow clouds in the morning.

Interesting vandalism of public sign boards on road.... speed limit: Jiye Bhutto!

The night stay at Muffarabad View Motel

The night glow of the Motel

The morning reflection of the city evident from the image superimposed of the glass screens

The zigzag roads snaking through the mountains

Redefining DIET at Centaurus mall

The morning view from the Motel's window

The beautiful down alley of the bazaar sprinkled over with dizzle

The ever-lightened-up Metro station of rawalphindi-islamabad

Motel website for Booking, Muzaffarabad View Motel, MVM: http://mvm.com.pk/