Bursting Becky’s bubble

What happens when 3 novels are merged together to make a movie of 2 ½ hours? Tadaa comes the confessions of a shopaholic directed by P.J.Hogan. So those who have seen the movie and plan to read the book or vice versa, a piece of my mind for you guys is that don’t hold any pre conceived notions.

In the movie the placement of character, the turn of events in Becky’s life (book and movie) is as different as chalk and cheese. The shopping extravagances of Miss Bloomwood are no where to be matched in the book if compared with the novel, the day dream sessions (trust me they seem to be so vivid and real aahh) Becky usually gets into, how she draws in her horns, and her journo (journalist) rules, all these are poles apart when compared between the movie and book life of Rebecca Bloomwood.

But the movie and novel both are worth your time, the author and the director both are cat whiskers for their brilliant work. Especially the author Sophie Kinsella is topnotch.

P.S: A sincere tip from me to all of you, don’t follow Becky’s journalistic approach ;). No no never. You’ll understand when you read the novel. Other wise Happy Reading

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.

A book that leaves you stunned

So as i was hell bored with the Sidney Sheldon, Judith Mcnaught and Stephanie Meyers, i wanted some thing really interesting and gripping to the core then, i found the Donor by Frank M. Robinson  and then i knew that it was all what I need to send a chill down my spine.

The story starts in the room of a clingy down town hospital where Dennis a college kid, finds him self waking up with immense pain and loads of question in his head, all he remembers is having met with an accident along with his friend, but now his friend his not around him any more, No one at the hospital cares to answer his question, with little bit of luck he some how manages to run away from the hospital, again he wakes up in another hospital  where he gets to know that the hospital did not cure him but harvested him but it was not  the first time an organ was taken from him.. Now Dennis has to run for his life who ever is after him certainly knows every move of Dennis.

From there the story gets interesting that it become almost impossible to leave the book, the dark secrets that start unveiling before Dennis, leaves him and left me flabbergasted. Frank M Robinson absolutely creates such scenes in the story which gave me a bag full of goose bumps; the pace of the story keept me turning pages for more and more. The end of the story almost made by jaws touch the floor and shocked how people can be used to save lives. Frank M Robinson carries it off to make the book a collectible item and it left me to go to bat for this book to those who are willing to read some thing spellbinding. and i guess i must have recommended this book to all those i know, A must read. KUDOS FMR

 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.”

My Death Story

This was my first ever try at story writing.

According to me mine was the most unsusual death, any one in my family had.I had been the most frightened person to be around. Even kids ariund me used to believe that horror movies and books were not real mine was an exceptional case. I died while reading a horror fiction titled IT by Stephen King. I had just started to read the book when my mind and heart decided that they could not take my cowardness any more, so they stoped working.
So the next morning when my father woke up, hey hey did i mention that we had a picnic that morning, any ways my dad came to my room to wake me up, kept calling me numerous time, but no response was given by my dead body. BUT I was answering, I was shouting in his ears but this time there was no response from his side , Any how he got suspicious and came by my body saw the novel by my side and sadly went to my mother.
My last rituals were arranged, every one who was getting ready for the picnic was now asked to get dressed for my funeral. Some were shocked and sad, where as some one were so pissed off that they wanted to kill me. As if they could
After some time people started pouring in, some were concerned about the reason mof my death, some fpr my family members, but most of them were concerned about the desert and mouth watering biryani which was to be sevred soon.
As I was totally free and had nothing on my hand at that moment, i decided to wander around as i wanted to know and see who was raelly sad and happy to hear the news. Any ways I went to my room, i saw those lilttle kids who had grown up infront of me. They were playing with my stuff and were talking about, that how I had dragged one of themin the mud pool and how one of them was brutally bitten by me on the bum.
I moved to another room i saw some aunties talking, some were praising each other jwellery, some were crying over split milk on the matter of their daughter in laws, which showed they dint bother to talk about me and the feeilng from my side was mutual.
 OH and then the food oh my god the food was served, and then out of no where a hurricane of people came out, trying to get their hands on the plate and food first as if the one who comes late would had been fined.Unfortunately I was standing the near the food, i was ruthlessly squeezed between those smelly and hungry people,I started to shout and tried to get out of that hurricane, At last i started to beat them to let me go but all in vain, I did not know how i came out all i remember that i might have had jumped and fell out of that not food but man eaters crowd.
 To get my level  of blood pressure down as if i had blood running in my veins, i went inside my house I  saw my father and mother both trying to console each other, both some how wanted to believe that whatever was happening was not true at all, In the next romm my brother, sister and friends, (me having friends had always been a rareity) were talking about me and cringing for me to come back.
And then it was time for me to go, I was being burried by my moist eyed father, I could not take it any more. I closed my eyes waiting to find out where I would go
                     Heaven, Hell or some where between them