Its been a while since my last post. After the partying and great expectations of new year’s eve I was expecting my creative juices to go on a rampage but that did not happen. On the contrary I have gotten increasingly lethargic and have been putting on hold alot inside my head. Its not writers block (not to say that I am some prolific writer ,ahh such modesty!) but I think I have been deliberately avoiding visiting my blog. And I have realized the reason..
Since the past three months I was involved in the grueling task of preparing post-graduate applications for universities in Canada and New Zealand. Graduate applications are very unique, they expect you to demonstrate a level of maturity in all aspects and one has to be meticulous in their preparation. I had planned on completing and mailing my last and the most important application before 31st December so I could heave a sigh of relief and add this to the list of accomplished goals for 2011. It makes the new years eve more joyful you see. But this didn’t happen, the whole process became a drag albeit a very important one, I was not able to complete the damned process until January 18th (stay tuned for a blow by blow account of my journey to grad school in a future blog post)
Now however my mind is at a slight ease; the dossiers have reached their respective colleges so everything from my end is complete. Yippie! and now I can start writing again with a vengeance on things boiling inside me since the past month.
First issue, we will take is of a program on Saama Tv, where the host a middle aged menopausal women along with scarf clad college chicks, other menopausal aunties(Pakistani women in a midlife crisis) and other assorted cronies, going on a wild vigilante hunt with a camera crew for ‘couples’ sitting in parks. I along with my friends and family got mortified when we saw this coverage as I am sure any decent educated person would. I won’t go into the pros and cons and the endless series of arguments that somehow or the other always end up with the pious moslem arguing ‘do you believe in God?’ and the ‘Koran’ and I am not even skimming over gross invasion of privacy. I will talk a bit about ‘Physical and Emotional Attraction Towards the Opposite Sex’. But first lets have a look at the point of contention:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqCRxTkziR0]
Between the age of 20 and 30 our hermones are on a rampage. We are in our prime, healthy, energetic, fresh with ideas, going for our dreams, starting our lives as complete individuals. Many of us get married in this time too so its only natural to have sexual desires, strong ones if I may add. In evolutionary terms it is a good thing because all animals on this planet have evolved to be sexually healthy at the stage of maturity to ensure the procreation of fittest offspring and ultimately survival of the species. Human beings aren’t any different, mentally we are more evolved then animals but in many physical functions, we share much in common. Further more the rigors and requirements of contemporary times, require nuclear families, small households more power to the individual self then the collective betterment which means marriages at an early age are simply impractical.
And all the moslem cleric have to say about this issue to the youth, as is their way of dealing with everything is that we should probably pray and fast more! Get married! and a personal favorite of mine, follow the examples the ‘pious’ prophets who through godly powers somehow managed to stay celebate all their lives. Well ..there is no civilized way of putting it but this is Bullshit as you would recall our last prophet had 10 wives or something (doesn’t matter for whatever reasons, everyone has reasons) as for the rest of our prophets, I would believe these tale of virtue had I seen and met them personally. Period. And even if by some ridiculous-practical-joke-miracle the great prophets (notice how they were always men) were born with no testicles and were celebate all their lives I really don’t wanna lead their example; restraining my natural health to the point of insanity and signing up for suicide bombings for a promise of an afterlife that may or may not be there.
Attraction towards the opposite sex has been their since time immemorial. It does not depend on race, education, social strata, it does not depend whether you live in Karachi or a village in Interior Sindh. It happens to us because we are human beings and there is 
nothing to be ashamed about it. Sexual education for our children is as important as any other. I am singing this petition for blocking this program on Saama Tv. I wish there was a petition to ban reporters like this crazy women from practicing at all. This is a blog I read about Tv anchors in Pakistan written by Wajahat Syed Khan, you might remember him from the series We Are Soldiers maybe it will give you an idea where this type of journalism is coming from.
Perhaps when I talk about these issues I myself project an extremist viewpoint and most of my ideas might seem uncanny, I need to control my emotions but when I see things like these my blood boils and sometimes I even think that it is incidents like these which are polarizing our opinion about social issues.
My advice to the menopausal host at Saama Tv is if you are really concerned about the fellow sisters of our society, please take active participation in the Women Rights Bill in the parliament, the suicide watch, the acid victims of Sariki belt or uncover the stories of the brave women who work daily at your house at peanut wages ten times harder then their husbands.
Not every journalist in the media scene is like this though and all is not lost, you guys have probably heard that Sharmeen-obaid Chinoy has become the first Pakistani to earn an Oscar nomination. She has been nominated under the category of documentaries for her work in Saving Faces a documentary about acid victims of Pakistan. Who knows she might even win the upcoming 2012 Oscars, can’t wait to see this film on March 8th on HBO good luck madam, you’v made us very proud!
As for Saama Tv, I am never switching it on again will in fact block it on my television.
All right so lets end this post with a nice track from an upcoming Taiwanese DJ Shogun, here’s Save Me:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fZoBgtvJds]
