GOING LOONY FOR LAWN

You  are roaming around the market, you are waiting to spot and find the perfect lawn print of your dreams, you are keen, anxious, eager and what not, to find it suddenly something comes before your eyes, you want to get your hands on it, yes yes it is the lawn print you have been waiting for, you almost run like a predator  to  reach the shop to touch it, ohhh its such a such a oh leave it an unexplainable feeling, you touch the fabric and it makes you sigh with happiness, your adrenaline pumps, you have got to wear it , you have already started to visualize that  dress on you, its design, how well it looks on you, and suddenly reality strikes you when some one around you asks the prize of that lawn suit, which leaves you flabbergasted, its only 1700 or so, then another slab of reality falls over you when you see that the lawn fabric is thin to max. All your hopes and ideas fizzle out. Its summer time and you are bound to get a few lawn suits to wear in summers, but the prizes are talking to the skies, the fabric and price both are not at all hand in glove, prices have soared all time high, and now the brands have also descended the market. The mediocre consumer is in a dilemma they want to buy a branded lawn suit, but there need is to buy a reasonably prized lawn suit, even now the reasonable prize is not at all sober and affordable.

It’s making me crazy, my mind has stopped working after getting to know the prices of normal brand’s normal print suit which turned out to be 1000, if we even think of buying it hemorrhages my brain, expressed Mehmooda Begam a housewife with an anguished frown. The quality is at the worst of all times, even if the print is liked by me, but the quality of the fabric leaves me disgusted, paper thin is a understated word for the quality of the suit, specially the shalwar is paper thin, how are we supposed to walk around with such a shalwar on .In my opinion no one in a sane state of mind will buy such a membranous suit with a high price. 

Nazahat Fatima student of Hamdard University seconds the thought of Mehmooda Begum, that the fabric is indeed thin, according to her Gul ahmed’s fabric is the thinnest of all, but she believes and follows the rule, survival of the prettiest when it comes to lawn, she said that she would always go for the print whether it would cost her a penny or would leave a dent on her pocket, Print is her mantra she is loving the collection of prints of Firdous and Sana Safinaz is her all time favorite brand. Nazahat also complained about the prices which are of the height of Burj ul Arab, a shirt piece in the past would cost her form 300-450, but now the price of a shirt piece starts from 500, which she believes is quite flustering.

Oh believe me, there is hard competition among middle class wives to get the best and the most expensive lawn among her group of peers, and especially on those women who daily pick their kids up from the schools, Mrs. Umaima Ansari stated, where as her husband chimed in that, such husband faces even thousand tone more pressure when their wives lawns expenditure starts up, “some times we just feel like running away and away and keep running away”, he believes that it has become almost impossible to make a variety of clothes, before in the same amount of money summer dresses of his kids and wife were an easy target, but now the finish line of this target seems blurred.

Abdul Rehman, who has been in the cloth business for the past 15 years sorrows over the fact that this summer season till now has been the worst for his business, the number of buyers have declined where the rates of every thing, electricity, gas, labor, entrance of new designer brands and every thing has skyrocketed which is also one of the main reason of in hike of lawn suits prices, ”now our sales are not what they used be in the previous year, the middle class’ hands have been tied by this inflation so tightly that they can not think of buying more than 1 or more than, the tension that erupts on their faces when they get to know the prices is quite hard for them to hide. Where as another retailer disagrees with Abdul Rehman and says that even the middle class is getting as much lawn as they want, its just some don’t buy it and some does not.

These branded lawn suits are only affordable for a certain group of people, hardly any bourgeois can imagine wearing a branded lawn suit, even I believe wearing them in imagination would cost us a bomb, it was much easier for us to buy lawn suits before, but now we have got to choose between our summer dresses or our kids’, explained Arsala Naz. The marketing strategies of the designer brand is so well, they are almost in every corner of the city, every bill board has been taken over by them to lure the mango people, it confuses us what to do what not to do, she also stated that her teenage daughter of 17 years indirectly tries to cajole her parents to buy her at least one branded lawn, only because certain friends of her flaunt their branded lawn.

Shaneela Shah who lives in America, comes down to Pakistan every summer to get lions share of lawn suits, but this year she experienced a vast difference in terms of marketing and the competition that’s started in the lawn business, she believes that lawn itself alone has become a separate and to look out in future business, but she also complains about the price she says that after buying a branded lawn dress of 3000-4000, we have to take out extra money to get it stitched perfectly and accordingly to the latest design and all, but after all the extra hard work and money it will always be called a lawn suit, which can not be worn at a party or something because at last its going to remain lawn.

Syed Ibrahim, who has been a sales man at Gul Ahmed for the past 6 years explained that, the recent rise in inflation of the cause that the price of our fabric has gone up, but he stresses over the point that quality and life of the fabric remains satisfactory and as far as the sheerness of the dress specially the shalwar is concerned, that mainly happens because the price of thread has also gotten out of the reach of big companies a little bit it is 4 times higher than now, we do have to cut down at some place, but before getting it stitched if the fabric is put in water the sheerness disappears to a certain limit. And lawn is worn to beat the heat and if you are going to put lining under that the dress will get thicker and uncomfortable. He also said that this year due to the new bandwagon of brands has given us a rather tight competition, now people have more option to choose from.

Oscar Wilde many years back once said:

‘Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation?  I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.’ 

And lawn has now become such a temptation.

The Temple By The Sea.

 Bucket filled with livers of goat, small balls of dough placed on plastic plates to be sold, teenagers selling offal  for kite feeding, kids holding the ends of their mother’s duppata, afraid of not falling down, you can see all these thing at a side of the famous netty jetty bridge , but there is altogether a different world down the bridge where Hindu believers sittings at a set of long stairs leading them to temple and to the sea ,women  getting their feet damp by entering the water, men trying to give their kids a small dive in the sacred water, this is what happens at the temple situated under the bridge.

When you enter the premises of the Shree Laxmi Narayan Mandir, at first you get hit with the thought of whether I’ll be allowed to go inside the temple or not? But as soon as you see people they smile at you without bothering about you religion, you pass the main gate you descry the blackened sea, devoted people sitting over the stairs are indulged in the rituals. This for some reason leaves you shell shocked to explore the other side of the sea with a total different religious perspective. “This is home away from home as in this our”ganga mayya or choti gangotri” most of the Hindus living in Karachi visit this sea and temple to perform all the religious duties. Our parents and grand parents who were born in Karachi have been paying their visit to the holy sea”, explained Mr. Rama Shankar who had come to visit the Shree Laxmi Narayan Mandir. He further told that every ritual from our ganesh visarjan to the kriyakaram, mundan to navratri is celebrated here with full zeal and zest.

Babli Sanjay was holding a steel platter a.k.a. thaali, creatively decorated with confectionaries known as Prasad, ignited incensed sticks, a half cut colored lemon to ward off the evil eye,  she swirls the thaali before the sacred sea bow her head before the sea, and leaves the thaali to float away, she was performing the  Govardhan Puja for the safety and prosperity of her family, when quizzed about that does not the blackened water disturbs her or the smell erupting, she very calmly and without creating any fuss over religious issues replied that, this water is holy for her, it is the module of purity, “we drink this water and splash it all over around our houses, we drop the remaining ashes of our deceased relatives in the sacred river, this water never gets impure as it is constantly flowing. This water also makes us plain and simple; we believe that by having a swig of this water and by laving in it, this river takes away all our sins from us.”

This temple is 150 years old, it was built during the British raj, informed Arjun Maharaj who has been the head of all ritual activities of this temple for 23 years, he also gravely stated that the numbers of devotees has seen a major set back, “it has decreased by all leaps and bounds”, he blames the new road system that has been sketched out, as the reason why there are less numbers of visitors. He also added that the recent inflation rise has made it impossible for the devotees to visit the temple by the sea, because as the temple is situated at an end of the city, people who live far away have to travel a tremendously long way to reach down here and more over the fares of busses, petrol, rickshaws and taxis also make the visit impossible.

He also proposed the fact that this temple is in dire need of an overhaul, “ some parts of this temple are certainly in shambles, we get no help from officials, we are fed up of writing letters and application to the officialdoms, but no avail at all they turn deaf ear towards our pleas” further he added that almost every channel has come to this temple and made reports on it but it dint serve its turn, people from different walk of life and religions do make donations which is equal to salt in the grains but still they do care about the well being of this ancient temple . Arjun Mahraj believes that it is only the power of God that’s keeping the temple stand still.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah during addressing the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan, in Karachi
on August 11, 1947 said:

“If we want to make this great State of Pakistan happy and prosperous we should wholly and solely concentrate on the well-being of the people, and especially of the masses and the poor... you are free- you are free to go to your temples mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion, caste or creed that has nothing to do with the business of the state... in due course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to Muslims- not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual- but in a political sense as citizens of one state” The father of the nation believed in equality and he also said so in the above lines, but are our recent lot of leaders and politician giving a thought to save the sacred place of the minorities who according to the founder of the country have the equal right as Muslims.

They are as much as human as us, they are a part of our country as we are, they are the part of the economy they are working for the country, than why not we should listen what they have to say. Our leaders should better watch out because if they don’t bother to care for their needs in the future, they won’t be filling their vote banks.

 The Dating Dilemmas

In the beginning of this millennium having a mobile phone was a status symbol, time changed and now days a part of the youth believes that having a girl friend or boy friend, going on dates is a status symbol. Has it really become a social norm, is it really necessary to go on a few dates before you get settled. But if it is so important why is it still done behind the backs of parents. Why such are programs are shown on television which prompts the youth to date, how many dates actually ends up in a marriage settlement, if its done for good than why is it believed to be a taboo?

I even know a girl who has an imaginary boyfriend, just to show off, stated Mahnoor Irfan a college student, and I believe that 50% college girls go on date and its just an infatuation and attraction for the time being, and such relation ships are just a flash in the pan, Mahnoor also believes that in the end it completely depends on the person itself, whether they want to have the experience of going on the date. Mahnoor also blames the media for brain washing the youth.

Having a girlfriend makes your head high among your group mates explained Hannan an MBA student at LUMS, Hannan clearly accepted the fact that going on dates and having a girlfriend is a status symbol he also said that there are still communities  who do not even talk about this but people from there circle are dating. He forwarded the thought that it is the need of society, our society has become so modernized that we can not move forward without our society, Dating culture is spreading vastly but it is still considered a taboo, one side we can not talk to the other gender according to our religion on the other hand you can not merge well in the society until unless you forget the differences between male and female. He accepted that for him as well for girls its just a time pass activity, though he believes that girls are more loyal than boys, where boys are having multiple relationships, girls like to be one man woman.

As if my daughter will take my permission before going on a date, answered when questioned if he would ever let her daughter go on a date, This dating extravaganza is the part of western culture, it was never the tiniest bit part of our society few years back, why should we even bother following this dating culture. It’s ok according to him if a girl working in office, go on dates, given the reason that girls working in offices are mature enough to understand what the future of a relation ship might be, they know every angle of the society well enough rather than teenage girls. He emphasized that parents should keep cordial relationship with their kids, or even siblings should have confidence over each other.

As long as you love your self that’s what really matters, Its not important to have a boyfriend and vice versa, many have lived long without having a boyfriend or girl friend, Have a relation ship with your self, because you know your self well. Still if you don’t want to have a relationship with your self who ever you choose, “Choose Wisely.”