Buzz Writing

Time flies. A year has flown right by and here I am, still wondering when to start on the resolutions made at the beginning of last year. Every new year brings excitement for the next year and making resolutions is a ritual many will make —but then, as a friend of mine said — like promises, resolutions are made to be broken.

My friends think I have lost all forms of originality because every time they ask what my new year resolution will be, I list the same things I had said the year before. You can make resolutions for numerous reasons (in celebration of the new year or just for sheer indulgence) but no matter how plausible your resolution, you could, like me, end up gaining nothing by the end of the year. I envy those who make resolutions and actually accomplish them. But then these folks probably find themselves odd in a throng of people who end up breaking their resolutions.
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Given the onslaught of the wedding season that starts from November and goes on till January, Karachiites have much to look forward to because it gives them a reason to dress up and gorge on shaadi food. For others, weddings are important because it is a time to see and be seen, and of course, to gossip at length about everything and anything that goes on in the functions —- from the dresses to the jewellery ,from the food to the décor. Surprised? I’ll say.

Weddings are no longer the simple 300-or-so-people affair with the standard qorma/biryani/kheer menu. If anything they are elaborate and, at times, ostentatious events that more often than not scream of noveau riche. Dull gold, maroon and pink canopies coupled with stages that are decorated with flowers, antique-looking vases, sculptures (yes, sculptures) and lanterns are all the rage at most weddings, costing an arm and a leg at the very least. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s winter time again and woollen sweaters, coats, leather jackets and shawls are out. Shawls have been worn and used as a warm protective garment by kings and queens since times immemorial. Various styles and encouraged weavers to try new motifs, which helped establish a successful shawl industry. The word shawl is derived from Persian word shal, which was the name given to a whole range of fine woollen garments.

Kashmiri shawls have long been treasured for their luxurious materials, splendid designs and brilliant colour combinations. They have become the most well-known and important fashion statement of winters. Not only are they teamed up with shalwar kameez and pants, they are also used as decorative accessories in homes where they are used as wall-hangings and throws for couches.
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The emerging trend of latest internet health news is a crass/cute example of the sort of update health information that has become the stuff of life, a regular source of terror and hope. Newspapers in particular can mesmerise with contradictory reports of particular foodstuffs just found to maybe increase or decrease bodily disaster.

Some people run, barely dressed in the morning, into shops, driven by news that Brussels sprouts fend off lung cancer or that lower factor suntan lotions prevent breast cancer better than higher ones. Men who have taken Omega 3 supplements comprising alphalinolenic acid were recently told that, while favouring their heart, they’d unfavoured their prostate. Read the rest of this entry »

Director Luchino Visconti’s first film Ossessione (1943) is considered an extremely important movie in the history of Italian and world cinema. An adaptation of James M. Cain’s noir-ish crime novel about a young wife of an inn-keeper who cheats on her older husband with a handsome drifter The Postman Always Rings Twice (which was also filmed twice by Hollywood, first in 1946 and then in 1981), the movie carried many elements of the neo-realist cinema that was to emerge out of Italy after the Second World War. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy New year to all  visitors and readers of my blog.

Wish u best of luck.

That venerable actor Charles Laughton directed only one movie, The Night Of The Hunter (1955) but that movie has become a classic and its stature grows every year. Laughton, with the help of his cinematographer Stanley Cortez, crafted a nightmarish modern fairy-tale that married the Brothers Grimm with German Expressionism to create unforgettable images which influence cinema to this day. Laughton’s movie is not realistic at all but it creates its own reality that in turn increases the terror as the movie goes along. Amongst many wonderfully framed compositions watch out in particular for a scene in which one of the main characters sits in a car drowned underwater.
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