Opinions and Rants. Opinionated Rants.

My friends and I are cheap as heck. We hate spending money mostly because we don’t have money. Yet we love to travel. Or at least we love the idea of traveling, since actually traveling is a problem. The last 3 years at university have been one failed plan after another to go on a university trip to the north.  But the trips came and went. There was always a reason (money, the reason was money) not to go. So when I got to know that Tripkar.com was taking a free trip to Shogran and Naran if you won their contest, I was all in. The trip had a myriad of sponsors, the main one being Stylo. Shout out to our sponsors for helping make this happen.  I submitted an entry to their all Pakistan blogging contest and surprisingly won. While both my friends got selected in the campus drives they held all across universities in Lahore. We were ecstatic, we were getting an AMAZING trip to the north. And the best part? IT WAS FREE. We were due to leave on the night of the 27...

Every single day when I turn on the television to watch the news, all I see is negativity. The amount of negativity that we are fed everyday through various media tends to take a toll on us mentally. In all of this gloom, we need a breath of fresh air. And for me, Sparkistan provided that relief.  Atlas Battery initiated their Sparkistan campaign; a campaign through which they highlighted several unsung heroes of the nation who have been doing great things for the country with little to no recognition. In the midst of all this negativity, Atlas Battery decided to bring us the positivity we so badly needed. Source: Atlas Battery Facebook Take the case of Mr. Fahad Ali, a resident of Karachi. His family fell on financially hard times when he was a child and he had to attend a local government school for a while. Fahad Ali saw firsthand how underfunded government schools are and how children from low socio-economic classes have little to no access to quality educat...

So recently Harvest Tree has gotten somewhat popular in the world of online skin care retailing. A friend recommended it to me and I thought I would give it a try. The page boasted organic, handmade products. Honestly just reading the product names made my skin feel nicer. And oh, they did not pay me to write this, in case you were wondering.  It was Eid-ul-Fitr (July 2016, if you’re having trouble remembering). Anywho, they had a deal going on 4 products in PKR 1000 so it was a STEAL. Considering my sister bought the other two products. I only spent 600 in total for two products. They charge 200 for delivery. I ordered the stuff on the first night of Eid and didn’t hear back until three whole days after. Totally understandable, not everyone is as waila as me to be online all the time specially on Eid. Anyway, I got a response, and was told that I was still eligible for the 4 for 1000 deal. My cheapskate heart skipped a beat. I asked them about what face mask-soap com...

I recently read a status on one of those idiotic university gossip pages saying, ‘ If you cant cover your body well, then dont blame him for staring you   J ’. Now what does covering your body ‘well’ mean? I am perplexed by this question. Because I have worn shalwar kameez and I have worn jeans but I still see men leering at me. And this is not just my observation. Ask any girl and the answer will be the same. All the women in Pakistan could don burkas and still be subjected to the perverted gazes of some men. Which brings me to my main point; it is not women who need to change the way they dress, it is men who need to change their thinking. Blaming women for making you stare at them is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.   I see a plethora of men wearing shorts, tank tops or even roaming around shirtless in the summers (just go to Lahore’s canal on a sunny summer afternoon!) and what I don’t see is women gawping at these men. But how can that be? T...

16/12/2014 Image not owned by me It has been a few days since the Peshawar tragedy but a tragedy this huge will garner attention for years to come. And right now, it is all we can talk about. And with good reason, an event like this deems for a nation to feel pain forevermore. That being said, a source of outlet for most of our grief seems to be social networking sites. Twitter and Facebook to be exact. The users from Pakistan’s profiles on both sites have ‘gone black’. There are a myriad of posts on both about people exclaiming about how the horrific event has affected them and what actions the government should take towards the beasts who committed this crime. And as good as that is, seeing that nation is awake and demanding revenge. There is a downside. Some of stories being shared are getting exaggerated. I don’t know from where the distorted tale originates but it horrifies me that so many people are doing this. So much so that the deceased Principals son made a sta...

We live in Pakistan, so it is safe to assume we have a ton of people poking their unwanted noses in our personal business. Well, let's even forget that, poking their noses in our business is SOMEWHAT tolerable. But the habit that really irks me and has my blood boiling is when they comment on your life.  I kid you not, some relatives actually think this it is their moral obligation to tell you or rather not even tell but make an absolutely useless deducation about something in your life. I have encountered this personally so many times and have heard about this from my friends just as much.  Like when you get in to a university, 'Oh, woh tou achi university nahi hai, meri beti tou LUMS ja rahi he' (That's not really a good university, my daughter is going to LUMS). Um, okay? Good for her but i'm pretty happy and don't need your 'pity'. I am not kidding, they actually pity you and are convinced that you aren't happy.  'Aw, don't be sad, ...