Unearthing Clouds.

I cannot emphasize enough that neither of these movies should be missed.





So, I was listening to Atif Aslam's latest songs from the movie "Bol", which then made me wanna listen to some "Bandeya" from Mansoor's other equally successful and critically acclaimed film, "Khuda Kay Liye." In spite of all the emotion and controversies that are embedded into each word of the lyrics in each song, they are just soo soothing to listen to, I can't even begin to tell you how happy they make me even though its been  years since Khuda Kay Liye came out.


Quick Synopsis & Review


Khuda Kay Liye - boldly deals with the story of two brothers who choose to take different approaches to life. While one brother immerses himself in his created world of music and assimilates himself into Western culture beyond recognition, the other takes the opposite end of the spectrum and claims to himself - and others that are surrounding him - that he has become the true slave of the One True God. Both makes various claims to what is right, which brings us to the question of what is right. Are we all slaves of complete extremism and our own desires, or are slaves to our beliefs? This movie asks questions, that left me with more questions than answers.

Bol  - This movie sheds light on story of a family and follows the story of Humaira, the caring and torn elder sister of a hermaphrodite "brother" whom she seems to have given more than her heart. The plot outlines all his struggles, the disdain with which their treat their transgender brother, how their father has more pride ingrained in his mind than sympathy. The film psychoanalyzes society's harsh claims, the innocent who weather the storm whilst the bullies walk away guilt free.What's the crime? Who's the criminal? How can one blame a person who had no hand in their birth? How can a father subject his own children to tyranny? What is unfair? Shoaib Mansoor manages to, again, glue my nose to the television. And the open the window to the real world, real problems and almost seemingly real people. 

Read more »

Tick, Tock.

Alright. I know. This is not the most appropriate time to write. Cause obviously I shouldn't have any time to write. But the thing is, when I'm stressed, sleep-deprived and on the brink of total collapse, there isn't much to live on. Really. And since I've claimed over a thousand times in this journal..within  and beyond the posts, that I love to write, I thought why not? If I'm going to live up to my passions, I may as well just do it when I want to step back and relax.

So you can penalize for not giving you enough attention, dear blog. Or you could also thank me for actually being productive before the midterms come about...so that the time crunch I'm facing right now doesn't feel all that bad since I know - at least I'm pretty confident I think I know - that I'm good to go for the exam. Emphasis on the think. You see, just when confidence scale tips towards over-confidence, that's when the problem hits. So, my goal, for the next half hour is to keep that in balance and hopefully, instead of gearing backwards to my old habits of massively procrastinating and wasting away countless seconds, minutes and hours I'd actually like to convince and perhaps even give you enough faith to have in me.

I was reading my horoscope and although it is by no means a reflection of my character - because obviously I'd like to have more depth than that - it made me feel quite good when they labelled Capricorn women as the women on top. Or when you witness a Capricorn working, they're always aiming for the top and are pretty likely to get there. In my naive highschool days where I naively used to believe that shunning nerdhood was a good thing instead of bad, I would have totally jumped to twitter and leave a horribly scathing message to XSTROLOGY for writing incorrect things about people. But good sense comes to those who wait. Thankfully enough, back then, the only way I could check my horoscope was a get my hands on a copy of metro...and mind you, their horoscopes are kinda crap. So all in all, I've finally managed to embrace nerdhood - or was I always there in the first place? - and all I am feeling right now, is a sense of purpose...a feeling which has been a completely non-existent in the past two years. And this whole thing, took me fifteen minutes. Progress in gearing towards optimizing time & getting somewhere in life? I sure as hell think so. 

Read more »

the reader's rant

I absolutely love Reader's Digest. Always have and always will. It's one of those magazines that've been around for soo long, I can't quite imagine life without it. I remember munching on a bar of Crunch (which also remains to be an unbroken tradition) and reading it outside our family physician's office waaay, waaaaay back in the hey days - which was *gasp* almost 13 years ago! Admittedly I've worn out of the comic section and instead of frantically searching for pictures, I actually sit down - still waiting outside my current physician's office - enjoying and actually reading some of the articles. And of course, it's like the only magazine you can really find in those fancy public toilets. Cause apparently other magazines aren't worthy of bathroom stalls. Not to mention the fact that you can find anything about everything.

The magazine makes me happy in all the right places. Alright, its no Cosmo or Vogue, but RD has an entire column dedicate to sleep. It SPEAKS to me.

8 Secrets to Better Sleep, 5 Ways to Eliminate Fatigue, Eat Well & Sleep Well , How to Get More Sleep, How To Get More Sleep...which I really don't get. I have the opposite issue. They should write an article about how to sleep LESS. Seriously, this whole summer, on average I slept 12 hours a day. And I'm still sleepy. How is that humanly possible?

Anyway, so on a recent visit to the doctor's I came across - yes, yet another copy of Readers Digest  - and read an article stating that reading is the one of the most simulating activity for our brain, only second from the list to sex. Basically, our brain produces the same response whether we fulfill our carnal desires or get "hungry" to read a book. So all this time, whilst going down my path of knowledge, I've also been satisfying my brain's sex drive. Beautiful. (Reader's Digest Canada Issue: May 2010). Reading, of course, to those who can no longer breathe without technology (I'm soon likely to become one of them - the lure of smart phones is too great for me to handle), is a more knowledgeable resource than say, browsing the Internet. I want to agree (because I love reading articles, IET journals, books that have a 1000 pages), but for a girl who Google's - yes, the people of Dictionary.com should really consider adding it as a verb - day in and day out, researching with books and achieving the same speed is a tremendous feat to overcome.

Although, finding detailed information on certain subjects is much more easier to find in books than on the Internet/Google. But that's another topic on its own. I'm just surprised that my brain will react the same if I read a particularly engaging article about super-conducting cables or have a steamy night. The concept is just so bizarre.

Read more »