You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January, 2008.
Pakistani movies have always suffered a bollywood hangover of the worst type, churning out movies that would seem typical and stereotyped for even the biggest fan of bollywood’s cheesiest movies.
But just one movie was enough to change my perceptions and drop my prejudices.
I watched Khuda Ke Liye with a little scepticism because I had heard about it, and there were good reviews, but I for some reason thought it would be too preachy or propagandist. It was neither. In fact, it was an eye-opener of sorts, and is a movie that everyone should see, muslim or non-muslim.
Khuda Ke Liye, is the story of two brothers, Mansoor and Sarmad, both pop musicians, new age, well educated, up market Pakistanis who live happily with their family. Trouble begins when Sarmad is slowly drawn away from music into Islam with a fervour that troubles his parents and brother. Sarmad stops playing music, stops singing, grows a beard, and starts wearing shalwar-kurta instead of jeans. At this point, we are also aware of another story line. That of Mary(Maryam) who has been brought up in London. She’s Sarmad and Mansoor’s cousin and her father has brought her from London to Pakistan to secretly marry her off to an eligible muslim before she can go back and marry her Brit boyfriend.
Mansoor heads off to the US, Chicago where he joins the Chicago School of Music. He meets and falls in love with Janie, an American girl there. September 11 comes between them, but they disregard the consequences. They marry and everything seems to be going well for them.
The story of Sarmad and Mary is entwined at this point. Mary’s father forces her to marry Sarmad in Afghanistan, where they have taken her, ostensibly for a trip.
The story of these three characters goes back and forth. Sarmad, caught in radical Islam. Not knowing whether he is right, wrong, and where it matters. Mansoor, caught by CIA under racial profiling, and Mary, caught in a hopeless situation, where she has been reneged her rights.
The story is fast paced, and keeps your attention throughout. Mansoor’s fate is really heart rending, and we realise that all three characters undergo some sort of internal change which changes them on the outside forever.
Among the other characters, notable is the Maulana Tahiri who influences Sarmad. This man is infuriating!! His gentle manner of talking, while at the same time, being charismatic, while he drills into Sarmad everything that he should be doing as a Muslim, and everything he should not be.
And how can I forget Naseeruddin Shah. He plays the role of Maulana Wali, a small but pivotal role, where he essentially changes Sarmad’s ideas and thoughts about who he has become.
This movie is a must-watch for everyone. It not only portrays what we as an ummah are going through, it also pinpoints the dilemmas that a young muslim faces in today’s world. I’m simply overwhelmed by this movie! Please watch it, the very first chance you get!
As an aside: Some radical clerics banned this movie in Pakistan. It was released in July 2007, but still has not seen the light of day in India. Wonder what the Indian maulvis will do when it comes here.
Ok, wait for my next blog if you’re wondering why I’m ranting so much about this movie (Khuda Ke Liye) and the absolutely rocking music! But till then, check out these videos!!!
Here’s the Allah hu video: And the Bandeya video too:
Bandeya
RadioReloaded.com | Download thousands of MP3s
Amazing song. Will blog about this movie very soon. Btw, the name of the movie is Khuda Ke Liye. I just finished watching it and I’m pretty much stunned. Loved it!
I’ve written about Sheru already. I just have some more pics of his which I found on the comp. Gosh, he was such a gorgeous cat! That bushy tail and that furry body of his….I wouldn’t call him adorable by any length. He had too much attitude for that. But what a cat!
I’ve always felt these are priceless photos! Imagine! Laid back Sheru was so busy trying to bat at a cat on the TV! I miss you Sheru!!!
When Saboor was nearly two years old, I often had to take him to the toilet in the middle of the night, and once, he was nodding off sleepily as he sat on the toilet when suddenly he looked alert. A huge cockroach was making its way down the flush pipe. He looked at me, and said ‘Ammi! Kaala Budda!’
I don’t know how that name got into his head, but it was probably because whenever I had tried to scare him to sleep, i’d say, ‘Oooh! Budda coming…he’ll take you and go!’ and to him, since the cockroach was black, he assumed it must be a kaala budda.
Everyone found the name really funny. And for a number of days, I was happily able to coerce him into sleeping by just mentioning the kaala budda. Kaala budda came to mean many things, all of which were scary and which Saboor could escape, only by listening to me!
A trip to Chennai with Zakia aunty’s family happened sometime around that time. Sidra had her toe operated (there was a congenital problem that had to operated), and ammi couldn’t come with me to Chennai to attend this wedding. I wanted to go, so I went with Zakia aunty’s family. Zakia aunty is by the way, my mom’s younger sister. Her kids Azeem and Fathima really love Saboor and they were thrilled to have him with them on this trip.
What happened on that trip was that, in his wacky manner Azeem added more dimensions to kaala budda when he heard the story from me. He nicknamed Kaala Budda as KB. And he just had to growl out ‘KB coming’ and Saboor would scramble under the covers to sleep! (You might wonder why I was intent on scaring poor Saboor to sleep. Well, story for another blog probably, but the long and short is that, he absolutely refused to sleep in the afternoon, or night or any other time. And I had no other option but to scare him to sleep)
From then onwards, I happily stuck to KB whenever I had to make him drink his milk or force him to sleep. Of course, the happy days lasted only for sometime and then he sat up one day and said, ‘There’s no KB. You’re simply fooling me.’ I had to use ingenuity and other tricks to make him believe in KB at that time. My mom and bro, also helped at times. They’d stand outside the bedroom door and make all sorts of noises and Saboor would look at me scared and hug me hard and go to sleep! (Aah! How I miss those days sometimes!!!! Life was so good then!)
Now, he’s nine years old, mashallah, and no KB can scare him into doing anything!
Azhaan on the other hand is the right age for KB. But the funny thing is that he doesn’t yet understand what KB is all about. However, he hates taking a bath. He absolutely hates it. I just have to call out to my MIL(who used to give him a bath until last week), and ask her to fill the bucket with water, or to get his towels ready, and he looks at me, quietly turns right into my lap and promptly falls asleep!!! And taking a bath is the new KB. I know for a fact that this isn’t going to last very long, but until then, I’m going to use it for all its worth!
I wish I had collected them in a diary right from the time he was saying it. It never, ever occurred to me that I might forget some of them! Kids can say the oddest things and without ever meaning to be funny, they can make you laugh and laugh. Saboor used to say a lot of these kind of things, ask these type of questions that i’ve termed Saboor-isms. In fact, I actually started writing this Yahoo 360 blog because Ayesha told me I should write about these funny things that he says in a blog. (I did write some stuff in the early days, but deleted it for some reason)
Anyway, here are some, right from the time he was about four and in kindergarten. I’ve put them down in dialogue form because they sort of lose their punch when I narrate it to someone.
S – Saboor, A- Andy
********************************************************
S: “Ammi, do you know what Sri Hari did in school today?”
A: “No. What?”
S: “She jumped up and pulled…”
A: “Wait a sec…Did you say Sri Hari?”
S: “Yes. She was jumping and pulling….”
A: “But Saboor, Sri Hari is the name of a boy!”
S: “But then….she has long hair….”
A: “Well, some boys wear their hair long….”
S: “Then…shouldn’t he be called Sri Hara?”
(Hope you got the joke….)
***********************************************************
S: “Why do I have to spit the banana?”
A: “Who asked you to spit the banana?”
S: “Then why is it called banana spit?”
***********************************************************
A more recent one…in fact, this one was just last month.
S: “What is this strange looking building?”
A: “Its called Jal Bhavan.”
S: “What does that mean?”
A: “Well, its to do with water…’jal’ means water in hindi, remember?”
S: “Then why is this building so dry?”
**************************************************************
Can you believe it? But I’ve forgotten so many of them and I realised it as I sat down to write those which I remembered. Anyways, if I remember any more, I’ll put them up here. Even if no one else finds it as funny as I do!!! 
Childhood is something to have fond memories about especially since he’s growing so big, so soon, mashallah!!!
I was so scared today. Az had taken a fall this morning from my bed. He cried and cried and vomited all the milk he had drank that morning. I didn’t think much of it. Much later, he had breakfast, took his usual morning nap, got up and I took him out to a shop. There, all of a sudden he started vomiting a lot! I didn’t know what to do. I cleaned up everything as best as I could, although Az’s clothes and my burkha, both were sodden with his vomit.
Got back home, gave him a bath, took a bath myself once again, and gave him some water. He vomited again. By now, I was beginning to get a bit worried. I gave him Domstal and then a little toast and he vomited that also. I was really worried now. I called up the doc and when I explained the situation to her, she said we would have to take a CT Scan of his head to see whether there was any injury. I cannot describe how scared I felt at that moment! Everything in my life seemed to have diminished and only this was there, big and looming in front of me. I took him to Sagar Apollo where in the Emergency room they checked his heart rate and other signs which seemed normal. The duty doc said he looked all right and suggested we consult their in house paedriatrician. The in house doc said that there was no need for a CT Scan because he looked all right and the problem was mostly a gastric infection. By now he had started having really funny looking and awfully smelly motions.
From evening, he’s been much better, mashallah. He’s still having those mucus-y motions, but he’s active and he’s playing, thankfully. Allah, I cannot begin to describe the fear that gripped my heart this afternoon. I pray that all children everywhere are safe and sound and may they all continue to give their parents joy and happiness.
Last Friday, Az was sitting on my tummy and I took a few of his pics. Please ignore the fact that I am without make up and I look like something the cat dragged in….:D
My little rabbit! 
Where’s the cap?? 
Here it is again!! 
Gimme that!! 
Mommy and Babby(as he likes to call himself!)
Yesterday started off with a lot of promise. I got up feeling fresh, despite the fact that Azhaan keeps me awake for most of the night. I felt good about myself, prompting me to write my status entry in Facebook as ‘I’m feeling chipper’.
The feeling lasted till afternoon. After that, things just went downhill. A couple of things happened by evening, and I was feeling very annoyed, very pissed off with myself and the world in general. To TOP it all, I provoked Mansoor into a fight with me. My problem with him is that if I have done something to anger him, he doesnt show it. He keeps quiet and lets it simmer inside him.
He’ll behave like nothing is wrong, but actually, in his mind, a different express train is careening off course. Well, my day ended with me crying and crying. And gosh, I haven’t cried so much in a long, long time. My nose blocked and my throat kind of got stuck with all sorts of pebbles and I got up with a bad headache. The only good thing was that today Saboor doesn’t have school. Whew! But there are times when I don’t know if that is such a good thing or not. He’s lounging around still in his PJ’s and not doing his homework or preparing for his arabic lessons.
Well, the eternal optimist in me is hoping that today will be better.
Saboor seems to be enjoying his skating classes more than he enjoyed his swimming classes. Well, that’s a relief! Here are a couple of pics I took!
The instructors ask the kids to bend down forwards while taking their first steps on skates. I suppose that’s got to do with shifting the centre of gravity or some such….
Well, I hope he enjoys skating as much as I do!
