What to do? What not to do?

First of all, I am god damn slow at reading… so when I start reading the paper after waking up (while I am on the cycle, trying to get rid of some serious flab ) it takes almost 2-3 hours finishing the ordeal. I still haven’t figured out newspaper reading discipline. I end up reading a lot of useless unwanted stuff (and I read 2 different papers) but when I stop reading that useless stuff I realize how incomplete the picture is!! So I keep going back and forth between microscopic reading, and superficial surfing. Still haven’t found balance…

Secondly, reading so much of the paper makes me tired of reading and so I don’t have energy left to read anything else… I have the Black Swan catching dirt on the mantelpiece and also this book on Jurisprudece – I have enrolled for LLB exams, I took Part 1 this August, but I know for sure I will flunk, so I have to prepare again.. and seriously this time!

Thirdly (it’s funny how I delegate this to ‘thirdly’) is my professional work!! And that’s the most spread out thing in my life. This do-it-all-yourself (DIAY) approach is really messed up. I have equipment to maintain: store/restore, clean etc., Music to make, Jam Sessions, Personal Practice, Music to Listen to (it’s just like doing serious reading with your ear – i.e. when you listen seriously), Video Concepts to figure out, Videos to Watch (same as the serious listening situation), and then further research on the net…

By the way, these are all agenda’s – very few of them are actually fulfilled!

And then there is this blog, which I am constantly trying to write ‘purposefully’. I made my mother read some of my posts and she said that ‘what you right is less objective (even tough you think you are being objective) and more of your own instinctive thoughts….’ she’s damn right and it makes me a) lose my confidence altogether and, b) want to discipline myself more and aspire towards maturity… yea right!?!?!

Honestly… I am kind of losing my time-space perspective. I wanna revisit the way I write this blog for starters… I like the Amitabh Bachan approach the best; although I don’t think I can be as regular as daily… but the diary thing seems much more normal for this blogging stuff…  maybe put up a few articles/essays once in a blue moon, when I become more objective and precise with my approach .. yea yea… I know the shappeal some of you will give that I have to practice it to perfect it… but hey.. let me experiment here ok?

Before I go, I will try and ‘hybridize’… let’s see if you understand what I mean:

Two things…

1. We had an amazing show in Karachi, at the Ramada.. for The MUSIK… Not sure when it will air, but it happened amid lots of violence in the near vicinities and the added threat of escalaitng cross border tensions. Net Result: Only 35 people turned up for the show! My dear friend Abid, for the sake of a story (and probably under influence of his editor) had to play around with words to make it sound as if we had a decent audience – in terms of numbers (kudos to him though, for using the aptest expression so as to mislead while not misleading!!!). There were 3 females (hats off to them!) and the rest were guys (guys who we consider more as friends than fans – the core noorifreax group), and there was this gora guest (staying at the hotel) who was into it just like malangs do the dhamaal. For us, the audience was perfect, as we got a chance to f#$k around and have fun ourselves, while of course giving a kick ass performace for television as well as the crowd. Make sure you guys watch it on TV… will update the airing date @ nooriworld. The best part of the show, however, was the sound we got on stage … it was just perfect! There is also the fact that we had a new guitarist with us: Hamza Jafri (Mohammed Ali’s brother and Coven’s axe-man/band leader); he is a virtuoso… quite twisted, but virtuoso nonetheless…
All in all, the concert was brilliant.. and Hotel Ramada is the best hotel in Karachi: highly recommended to all!

…

2. I was just thinking that media and specifically news media is a direct product of political activism. Think Pravda and Izavestia… throughout history, newspapers have always been associated with a certain political agenda/party… what’s all this hoopla about freedom of press then??? In fact, what’s all this hoopla about freedom?? With time passing I am finding us humans to be more and more rigid, biased and unwilling to be self-critical, unwilling to reanalyze ourselves and revisiting our conjectures about life/politics etc., giving the excuse that it will make us inconsistent!! I think we have en caged ourselves in our own egos … The prime example of all this has been the media coverage of the Pak-India standoff… i don’t even want to bother explaining in detail .. it’s quite evident… and applicable to both sides!
At the same time let’s not forget that our politicians, our intelligentsia, our state machinery (our = humans – Americans, Indians etc. etc., and not just Pakistani’s) have been playing the media game since it came into existence (because they are the ones who created it). The experience they have in maneuvering and manipulating this platform is more than that of the platform itself… so even if they have privatized it (just like they privatized politics) they must have privatized it while creating a new space for manipulation along with it… and we, as usual, love making fools of ourselves .. don’t we?

Until Next Time….

p.s. This Love and Revolution stuff is getting on my nerves… it’s too complex and too multifaceted…. i will put up a concluding part.. but don’t expect god!

Ali Noor Bara Chalaak Hai!

He writes this post… and he knows I will reciprocate!!…

I wanna write like a class 5 boy too… but whenever I think about it, it reminds me of so many bad words.. because that’s all I was doing in Class 5 – Learning bad words….

We used to study at Crescent Model School, and my education happened more in the school bathroom than inside class… Inside class I was beaten up because I had terrible hand writing and was totally unpunctual with assignments… (mind you I am the one who came 1st, only once though, and not Noor… but on average I think he did better than me)….

But the Crescent bathrooms were a training ground… especially the pot cubicles… if for some god forsaken reason you had to take a dump in them – well i usually went and sat there to bunk class… as soon as you’d close the door you’d see a whole new world in front of you… graphic cartoon like images of women’s private parts, even men’s private parts (this school was notorious for homosexuality, far more than aitchison), and all the beastiality and S&M stuff.. (I seriously think all this post modern porn business has its roots in pakistani school latrines)..

and then all the nicknames we had made of our teachers – bunta (the headmaster), cobra, kofta, machar, pregnant pastry, kheera (this last one had really sick connotations by the way)…… they were written there…

and then the cuss words .. man i really feel like putting them up here, but they are soooo sick that even i feel ashamed now… but when i was at school, it was as if i had found my personal holy grail of verbosity…. the only language i could speak was … foul!

Noor.. you were much better off than me at school… seriously.. you were the prefect.. i was the one who got a yellow card for breaking a classmate’s nose (he gave me a black eye for calling him ‘agha aloo’) and also for bad performance in art class…

and then the teachers… they loved ali noor… he had the best hand writing, he was a serious inquisitive student… and when i had the same teachers they were nice to me, only because of noor… otherwise they really hated my guts….

Man school was notorious for me, and thanks to Ali Noor every single time… I got my ass saved… he protected me like the best elder brother… and i never reciprocated…

yea i have this one time guilt … noor got in a fight, he was in grade 10 then (C-II it was called) and this boy came and slapped him.. and i was sitting there watching the whole fight… and i dint do jack to protect my brother… fine these guys were bigger than me…. but i think i was a much better fighter (as i was more experienced in that department)…. it’s funny though… how i still carry this guilt…

man this is getting messed up… ok bye!!

Love and Revolution – Part II

So we were talking about noori choosing to move away from the beaten love song track and moving towards message oriented music…

I want to take a look at all this, as an outsider, objectively. I want to look at history, especially in context of where I come from – i.e. Pakistan and its cultural influences.

Let’s talk about ‘Love’ first:

Let me start by mentioning the fact that the word ‘Love/Ishq/Pyaar’ has no meaning whatsoever! It’s the most abstract word you can ever know, and no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to pin point what it exactly is.

And that’s the beauty of it all! You can put it in any context and you’ll still find some relevance. That’s what all drama/literature/movies have been about. The setting can be poverty, epidemic, revolution, war, thriller etc., but at center-stage runs a love story. There are no cultural boundaries to this phenomenon, it pervades everywhere.

The good thing about figuring out the whys and how’s of it all is that it doesn’t take much to find a reasonable answer: it’s ‘emotions’!

The pursuit of any art form, in all eventuality, is to resonate with, or (simply) arouse emotions – first of the artist (while he/she creates art) and then of the audience, through their inclusion into the experience.

When it comes to ‘Love’, you go up to the heights, yet dive into the deepest complexities of emotional experience; because that is exactly what it is about. And I think all us who have fallen in love (if even once in a lifetime) can vouch for that without hesitation. Can’t we?
…

Now let’s consider our (Pakistani/South Asian’s) own heritage – our folk tales, our poets (especially the pre-partition ones). The only theme we can see running consistently throughout the lyrical content (poetry and prose) of these times is ‘Love’. Be it the tales of Heer-Raanjha, Mirza-Saahiba, Sassi-Punnu, Sohni-Mahiwal, or be it the most refined verses of poets like Ghalib and Meer, ‘Ishq’ is always the keyword.

And then consider all the Sufi literature – the Ishq-e-Haqiqi concept. There you see how love is elevated from the human to the divine. A perfect example being Waris Shah’s Heer, which according to literati is an explanation of the verses of the Holy Quran (I have even heard some people say that Ghalib’s Persian verses are explanatory of the Meccan Verses of the Quran).

If I were to give my personal opinion, I would say that if there has been a culture that has mastered the concept of ‘Love’ or ‘Romanticism’, I strongly believe that it is the culture of this region (South Asia, Persia and surrounding areas).

Now, if I were to begin mentioning the reasons behind this, then I will need more than just this space, and much greater attention from the reader, as we’ll be entering an extremely complex discourse on history, geography, psychology (and so on) of this region. Maybe I will delve into some of these factors as we proceed. But for now, just to put it in short, ‘this land is a very spiritual one’, and that ‘Love’ and ‘Romance’ are the essences of the life that nurtures itself here (at least it did).

….

Now let me fast forward (time) and take an air jet to the West:

The Beatles, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and then Bob Marley, and now U2; these guys made love songs, many, but the real stuff they are remembered for is their revolutionary lyrics. Each one of them has attained legendary status, a lot for their musicality, but much more due to their lyrical content – which, in each case talked about change; talked about a better, freer and peaceful humanity; talked against oppression and violence.

This too has a context: It starts from the European Renaissance and then moves on into times of War, Revolution, Nationalism, Capitalism, Communism, and then back to Capitalism…

When we are in really bad times, we are so engrossed that we start forgetting the past and stop thinking about the future. However, if ever given a chance for retrospection, we will realize that us Humans have been in a state of major flux and violent change for over 200 years – ever since the French Revolution started. Compare the number of paradigms coming up in the last 200 years with those over the 2000 years prior to that: the scale has more than quadrupled!

Obviously, artistic expression has been tagging along in the same journey – at least in the West it has. And we also know that the West made sure (for the sake of business, if not anything else) that the phenomenon spreads everywhere else – that’s Imperialism for you.

And so we have it that one fine day, sometime around the Partition of Indo-Pakistan, this young man, bored (yet inspired) by translating Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment into Urdu, decided to write a masterpiece of his own; it’s called Thanda Gosht, and the writer is our very own Saadat Hassan Manto. Oh he’s still talking about two lovers in this story, but the context is ‘partition’ and so is the focus of attention.

And then a decade or so later, another socialist revolutionary, by the name of Faiz Ahmed Faiz writes from his prison cell:

Bujha Jo Rozan-e-Zindan Tau Dil Ne Yeh Samjha
Keh Teri Maang Sitaaron Se Bhar Gayee Ho Gi
…
Chamak Uthay Hain Salaasil Tau Dil Ne Yeh Jaana
Keh Ab Sahar Teray Rukh Peh Char Gayi Ho Gi

Once again, it’s love in context of revolution!

All these guys were icons of their times (legends after demise). Nonetheless they belonged to a tradition that was continuously being imported from our great grandmother – the West.

Now the purely emotional ones will end up taking sides and understand this as an ‘us-versus-them’ thing. The intelligently emotional ones, however, will understand and appreciate in all this the positive side of being human (humanity anyone?), before anything else!

To be continued…

Who Are We Kidding?

A while back David Ignatius wrote an article about a quiet deal taking place between US and Pakistan, regarding the drone attacks in Pakistani administered areas – this was on the 4th of November. Since then, we’ve seen a number of stories springing up about this ‘tacit’ understanding … All the hoopla about Pakistan’s sovereignty is gaining momentum.

As much as I hate to say it, I find it very difficult to believe that we were ever a sovereign state. Yes, maybe for the first few years after partition; but the more I find out about our history (more from people, than books – which sadly have been written with major biases), the more I wonder about the real reasons why this partition took place, and whether we were actually meant to be a sovereign state.
Secondly, given our 60 year long dependency on America, militarily and economically, this cry for sovereignty seems to be nothing but lip service to appease the (assumed) ‘uninformed’ masses of this country, and also to all those who still honestly believe that we are a sovereign state.

Ok, let’s avoid sprinkling salt on our wounds and talk about deliverables.

What’s the objective here? This War on Terror … what do we want out of it? I think we do share a common objective with the Americans/Nato: to get rid of terrorism. It is also quite clear that both, the American drone attacks and the ‘Military-cum-Tribal Lashkar’ operations are pursuing this very same goal.

Let’s consider some facts now:

The Military-cum-Tribal Lashkar operation is taking place mostly in the Bajaur area. The actors in this conflict are a) The Frontier Corps/Military, b) The Tribal Lashkars and c) The Islamist Militants (mainly Taliban). The scale of this conflict is widespread and the pursuit here is to dismantle the infrastructure set up by the Militants.

The fact however remains, that in most cases, whenever the armed forces have succeeded in dismantling the militant posts, they have done so after majority of the militants have already escaped their premises. Let’s also not forget that these are trained guerilla warriors who know how to reinvent and relocate themselves, and hence, if they are not captured/killed, their chances of rejuvenation are still pretty high.

No doubt there are militant casualties, and that they are increasing as the learning curve grows for the state-backed forces, but there is also a casualty count of the armed forces, and then a civilian casualty count also (although these figures usually tend to be underestimated, once again for the sake of lip service), and then finally, when the militants strike back, usually with a single suicide bomber, they kill on average 5-6 people, many of whom are key players/elders/leaders in the conflict. Click here for a recent example.

To summarize, the situation in Bajaur in one of civil war, where damage spreads across 3 different forces involved in the conflict, combined with civilian casualties.

Now consider, in contrast, the US/Nato backed drone attacks. These have taken place mostly around the Waziristan area, which by the way is a much stronger hold of the Militants. There is also a supposed ‘no offensive’ deal between the Pakistani State and the Baitullah Mehsud led Taliban in this region. I guess that explains why the forces (FC and Lashkar) have not been as active here as compared to Bajaur.

In the drone attack zones, the actors are only two: a) the Militants and b) the Drones. And even among these, the latter is the more active player as it usually catches the Militants by surprise. Yes, there is also the fact that in some cases, due to faulty intelligence, the casualties have mostly been innocent civilians, but generally speaking, these attacks have been quite efficient and accurate – not only in dismantling the militant posts, but also in getting rid of them.

My hunch is that the damage caused (in terms of casualties, and in terms of unwanted casualties) is much less in the case of the Drone Attacks as compared to the one taking place in Bajaur. I am calling it a hunch, because I don’t, as yet, have the exact figures to back this argument. But this is, objectively speaking, a very reasonable hunch, and I will soon be verifying it (as an add-on to this write-up) once I get hold of the figures. (If I am wrong, I will delete this post; as simple as that. But I highly doubt that will be the case)

So now I ask, what’s all this drama about? Who are we kidding here? And why are we being so unintelligent about all this?

While the drone operations seem to be far more efficient and less damaging than the State backed operations, we (and that is not just our government, but even the media and its commentators) seem to be far more concerned about a ‘sovereignty’ we have hardly ever had. We so conveniently forget that we are trying to solve a problem here, a problem we do, in all reality, share with the Americans; a problem which is much more ours (now) than it is theirs.

I am not going to get into all the discussion about ‘going the peaceful way’ and that ‘a military solution is not the best solution’. I know (and agree with) all that. I am just comparing two situations and then pin-pointing at our all so common stupidity. In trying to protect an illusion we have about ourselves, we turned the greater evil (in terms of the ‘real’, and not hypothetical, damage caused by it) into the lesser and the lesser evil into the greater.

When will we stop making fools of ourselves?

Cults… in Pakistan…

(Written: October 2007, see note below)

We have been observing a number of ‘cults’ emerging in Pakistan over the last 5 years or so. I would not call them ‘serious movements’ as yet, because I don’t see a long term ‘manifesto’ (or something on those lines) for most of them.

I can spend a whole page talking about how I intend to define the term ‘cult’ in the course of my argument, but I will give myself the leeway and work with the assumption that it starts from one and then more people join that one to make a group; and then many other ‘ones’ spring up and eventually, there are ‘many groups’, doing the same thing.
But the fact that the time-scale for this ‘doing’ is rather short, makes me consider them, at least at this stage of their existence, to be nothing more than ‘cults’.

Of course I am being subjective here!!! But let me try to get some objectivity out of it. I will highlight three such cults:

The first one, I myself have been a part of. In fact I can confidently state that I have been one of the agents for initiating this cult. It’s the 21st century commercial rock music of Pakistan. Today, it has become an identifier of Pakistani popular music, worldwide.

When it started, it was all about young urbanized people looking for an outlet for their frustrations. They were angry for sure, and they didn’t like much of what their life was about – at least sub-consciously. They embraced their lives with hate and suffocation, but also picked up their guitars and found an escape-route. Then they realized that there were too many of them. So they started performing publicly… and then many others followed.

The big companies have been catching up with this trend for the last 5-6 yeas; and today ‘rock music’ is the tag-line for some of the leading product advertisements in Pakistan.

I may sound like the typical critic of commercialism, but I am not. I am very hopeful and I foresee some major developments in Pakistani music. It is on the verge of ‘industrializing’ and, if all goes well, it will be recognized as an industry, just like way back in the 90’s the Indians gave Bollywood official industry status.

As far as musical integrity is concerned, I am afraid that has less to do with commerce and more to do with being human in the broadest of terms. If you are an integrated human being everything else falls into place, otherwise you will never find order!

Now let me talk about another ‘cult’. I am sure, people will be critical of my calling it so, but as I said, I am being subjective here. My conscience is clear from within!

This one has to do with the Earthquake that took place in 2005….

I have been living part-time in Abbottabad since 2004, i.e. just prior to the quake. And I have observed how that city changed drastically within a matter of months.

The city is flourishing now! A lot of traffic though, especially due to trucks delivering supplies to the affected areas, and it takes a good 2 hours (as against 1) to get here from the Hassanabdal entrance.
However, the ‘cult’ I want to mention is not of automobiles, but of NGO’s and philanthropic agencies.

There are about 8-10 big organizations which bring in the money and do the macro monitoring of the reconstruction/rehabilitation process. But when I called in at the office of one of these ‘big-bosses’ to ask for some directions to other offices, the operator said: ‘Sir Yahaan to Laakhon NGO’s hain! Kiss kiss ka pata bataoon?’ (Sir, there are hundreds of thousands of NGO’s here, how many can I direct you to?).

There was this one place, right in the outskirts of Mansehra, called the Ghazikot Township, built specifically after the earthquake to provide land and housing to the displaced. I was guided by the officer to visit this place as it held the bulk of the NGO offices. Right at the entrance I could see at least 50 boards directing all across the Township. The guard at the entrance told me that there are almost 150 offices in this compound. I even went in to check up on a few. More to their dismay and less to mine, I found out, in 4 of the 5 offices I visited, that their funding had exhausted and they were wrapping up their work (and offices), with a faint hope that they might just get another project.

4 out of 5 in a sample, that is an 80% rate of closure – I really hope not. But the reality is that the earthquake rehabilitation process is at a stage where all those 100,000 NGO’s are not required anymore. The big-bosses will stay as they are part of the long-term process. But those who had so enthusiastically set up colorful websites and equipped offices, for them the future seems constrained, at least in terms of financial and logistical survival.

Will they follow on with this philanthropic drive? Will they develop their own avenues instead of banking upon those provided by the big-bosses? Will this ‘cult’ die out?

I don’t really want to answer these questions. But I am, as always, the optimistic type. There are lots of cars in Abbottabad and surrounding regions – big imported 4 wheelers to be specific. There are laptops, Wi-Max, big banks and so on.

This region has woken up with the jolts of October 2005. I don’t see it falling asleep, at least not for the next few decades!

The last ‘cult’, for many is not a cult, but a long-term movement (though I hope not) nurturing itself under the title, ‘clash of civilizations’. Yes, it is militant Islam. It is global and it promises that it will stay until the end – its own or that of its opponent.

A while back I read this news that a new militant organization, by the name of ‘Al-Hizb’ has come up in Darra Adamkhel. It is monitoring the activities of the security agencies in the region. It warns of beheading those tribal leaders who spy for the ISI. It also has an ‘amir’ who will never be identified.

Seems like very familiar modus operandi, and it did make me think about the process of how a cult forms….
Just to make fiction out of facts: In Darra Adam Khel, a bunch of youngsters see a bunch of men set up a group which makes headlines world-wide in a matter of days. These youngsters have a lot of hot blood in them, they too need an outlet, and they have strong sentiments, especially ones which make them feel side-lined….

My optimism is challenged in this scenario. As a student of economics, it makes sense why cults are good for the economy: they give massive returns for a short time span, and they also have the potential to become a full-scale industry.

When I think about the future of this third ‘cult’, it shakes me from my own foundations. Just like the tremors one experiences before (or even after) big Earthquakes!

Personal Note: I must confess that I have failed! I was supposed to put up something else – the sequel to ‘Love and Revolution’. I am not a good writer and it takes me a while to finish something. I thought I would do it quick, but that hardly works when I have to plan what I write, so after struggling all night with Part 2, I gave up.! I had to put something up.. ego badly hurt, so I went through some of my old stuff… I wrote this around a year back, when large scale operations had not started in the FATA regions. In that sense, the last part is a bit outdated. Nonetheless, I find it to be a decent read. Let me know what you think

Lazy Lazy… yes mama!?

Trying to write part 2 for ‘Love and Revolution’…

Caught up in some major work…. although, this too is work… or is it??? Still can’t think straight… hang in there all you stalkers

God keep blessing America…

Love and Revolution – Part I

I remember when noori launched into the mainstream (2002), our tag-line was that we are a clear departure from soppy love songs – that we had consciously decided to stay away from the lovey-dovey track, because all that was coming out in the name of love was total crap, and that, especially in these times, the needful was to bring about change at a different level. To focus on the minds of people (youth in particular) – try to make them think responsibly and to dream purposefully.

I’ll be very honest. This was all Ali Noor’s idea! He’s the one who had always been inspired by revolutionary western rock music and the progressive writers’ movement (a la Manto, Premchand et al).

I must also confess here that the first idea in this direction (again) was provided by me – when I wrote the lyrics for ‘Mein’. But honestly, I was not at all aware about it: Noor had made this melody and he asked me to write words for it; I wrote spontaneously, Noor did all the interpretations and, right there and then, we found a new purpose for noori!

I was in awe, firstly at the fact that he made something I had just written off hand into something really grand (a big ego booster for me), and secondly because this brother of mine has a mind that works at the speed of light – the conversations we had that day (somewhere in 1996) opened a brand new chapter for both of our lives! … Although it still took me another 6 years to assimilate it, he was already at work starting that very day…

Truth is that I have never (and I mean this) on my own initiative written a non-love/message/social-change oriented song. It has always been in collaboration with Ali Noor. Whereas Ali Noor kept writing more and more such songs, all with his own initiative, while I was busy partying at college/university (I rejoined him in the effort once again in 2002, when we had to pen down some remaining songs for SKMHJ).

Ok, I wrote ‘Jo Meray’ on my own – which isn’t much of a love song, but then, that song doesn’t have any lyrics to start with!

And this brings me to point out a major difference between Noor and I: he is a real life person, who works with (and hence comprehends) tangibles mostly – he dreams, but his dreams are practical dreams – like becoming a rock star, changing society etc.

I, on the other hand, am an abstraction freak. I have my own world, full of romanticism and highly impractical agendas. From the age of 3 to 15, I have spent more than half my day, roaming outside in my lawn, talking to myself, telling myself that one day I will be this super hero, with supernatural powers etc.

I still have these ‘unreal’ dreams by the way. But I have learnt how to refine them and make them more in sync with the knowledge fund of our time (and that of the ancients too).
Secondly, I have come out of my ‘love thyself’ syndrome to quite and extent, and have tried to link my dreams with humanity in general. Yes, today I dream of a future human being, with capabilities and potential far beyond what we have today… I love mythology, and I love the supernatural!

My dreams may not be real-life, but they are future-life for sure!

Lastly, in retrospect, when I wrote Mein, I think I wrote it about myself and my elevation from all the issues of reality. But Noor interpreted it as the Story of a Mad Man – even the video (which was never shot) was planned out like that. And look at me, I have never even told Ali Noor that I wrote it with myself in mind!!! I guess he will find out, himself for the first time, with this post.

Gee man… thanks for calling me a psycho!
And I guess that also answers the question that ‘who’s right?’ in all this… right?

No! … this is not a question of who’s right and who’s wrong. In fact, this difference is the very basis of what makes us brothers gel so well.

We are like the yin and yang. Even our stars made us like that!

It will be interesting for the reader to know that Noor and I are equinoxes. Our birth dates (23rd September and 21st March) are those very days of the year (give or take some approximations) when the duration of night and day is the same! And while I mark the beginning of Spring, Noor announces the coming of Autumn (the two most beautiful seasons of the year). …

… Man I am taking this vanity thing beyond limits!!!

I am gonna stop here or I’ll lose total control…

I have something else to say as well… I am not finished yet. But I will give you respite, and give myself a day or so to recollect my thoughts…

As always, I wanted to write something else, and went in another direction altogether

I suffer from vanity for sure!! … Any prescriptions??

Unexpectedly Amazing!

I am quite surprised at the response we got for Do Dil. It was definitely extraordinary!

I guess I have to thank God, first and foremost, for all that he has endowed us with – talent, fans, looks …. aaaah… someone mentioned that I take vanity to another level altogether … Dig this dude!

But still… that doesn’t let go off the fact that I’m awed. And, as always, as I try to understand the whys and how’s of my amazement, I do get some directions for an answer…

I think what stands out the most is that even after all these ups and downs, noori has one hell of a fan base (I am trying to look at noori as an outsider here … and this is not another show of vanity).
Some of these fans are no longer fans for me, they are friends; in fact one of them is a real close friend now. And so when my friends start acting like ‘groupies’ (and I am quoting their own words here), even I get a bit uncomfortable.
Who befriends a fan?????… now I AM being vain …

But, just to put it in short, what makes noori stand out the most is the relationship we have with our fans. I think I can proudly say that we have taken this relationship to another level altogether. And I also believe that, with time, the world will also come to appreciate this; as we will continue to develop it more and more.

What all this does for me (and Noor also) is that it makes me realize that this noori business is much bigger than my own person, and that I am only an agent in a much bigger linkage. I might be the face representing this band (just like Obama is the face representing USA – vanity again!), but the real elements are all those others who are involved – as listeners, as fans, as critics, as channels and so on and so forth. And that each of these elements has some sort of claim on this reality called noori.

The response we got from Do Dil, has clearly shown that! I guess the fact that noori re-emerged after so long was enough to create the response we’re getting.
And I couldn’t be happier!!! … and I also couldn’t feel more a sense of responsibility towards the bigger reality I mentioned above.

So, for all those who have been wondering about the fate of noori, let me assure you that as long as I am there, I will make every god damn effort to make it last and grow further!

Yes there will be ups and downs, as life is a much much bigger reality… but the determination is my own, and nothing (but myself) will stop me from being determined.
….

God bless America! Pakistan Zindabad!

P.S. I think I am finding a really creative (read fraudulent) way of using tags

Self indulgence anyone?

Hamza says… I don’t know what to say anymore!!???!

Seriously!

To start with, Noor and I had a serious argument about how one should run a Blog.

I was being the usual idealist I am, saying that my blog has to be about worthwhile stuff and not just the random happenings of my everyday life. Ali Noor, while not rejecting my idea, suggested that I go and read different blogs on the net. I had done that way before Noor had even considered starting a blog, and knew that, apart from some serious writers, most of the people usually write blogs for sharing self indulgences – read, lack of discipline and lack of purpose… and all that crap!

On reaching the verge of serious conflict, I decided that I am not going to publish any blog until I have thought it through in my head. Meanwhile Ali Noor went on and launched his blog himself, without me launching mine alongside (which was the initial plan).

So don’t think ‘ke chota bhai baray ki copy kar raha hai! ’. As always, I am taking advantage of his mistakes and being the smarter one in following suit

But then, guess what?

I did think it through. And I did get many ideas in my head. For starters I started posting news items which I read, onto my Facebook profile. In fact I went crazy with the posting to the extent that my friends and cousins started looking at me with doubt that ‘what the hell is this guy up to??’

But my intentions were honest … I do believe … and I honestly think that, in these times, a lot needs to be said, responsibly and purposefully …

With that intention I started writing my first piece for the blog … and yesterday when I finished, I realized I had written a 4000 word long pamphlet!!!

Who the hell would read that?? Even I got tired (if not bored) halfway into it.

I have usually been very comfortable with my writing and I felt that this too would be a piece of cake … little did I know that I will have to spend three sleepless nights in my attempt to be purposeful. And by the end of it I wrote something that only some my close friends would read, and that too as a consolation for my effort!

Not that I am bad writer (I am quite vain by the way), but today, as I write this first blog entry, I am humbled with the realization that there is a long long way to go. Secondly, I submit that Noor was right … in fact I love the freedom these blogs give – I can write without feeling accountable towards a third person.

I will be writing the purposeful stuff as well. In fact I will write much more of that than random ramblings, but why limit myself??

This is an open space… so let’s breathe freely!!

Muahs and Coochies,

Hamza