Food love

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”~ James Beard

I make relations with everything that I own, be it living or non-living, human or just a thing: p (I don’t know about you, but I do it). So like I said I would say I have an amazing relationship with FOOD, food is my best friend. In good or bad times, times when I am excited and in times when I’m scared that this wouldn’t work out (my jinxed thesis times). Food just makes me HAPPY , but it has to be good one and my favourite too (see priorities ;P)

Food blogging is something that really excites me, though am not good at writing but I love to read food blogs while planning I might start writing some myself (aaaah one day). A few days back I was talking to this colleague of mine (we share the same love of food blogs) that there should be a platform for our Pakistani cuisine since we have such a rich heritage and now with so many so many cooking-channels and the fact we actually do not have much food-bloggers in Pakistan etc rant on the fact that basically a place which deals with all of the above mentioned things.

So I found out about this very interesting new venture called Food Connection Pakistan (Thank you to these social networking websites everything has become so easy to know) .It was great to see the readers respose to it, people were really appreciating the idea of a website where everything from A to Z is going to be about Khana Peena.

Pakistan’s premier food guide

I mean how really cool is that, you want to know where to dine out this weekend or what new to order at work or to read blogs from our own country. You can just goto http://www.fcpakistan.com/, which right now is in a process of launching and will be launch very soon in a month or so. The really nice thing which I found out about FCP is their interaction on facebook with the readers; I mean these really know how to market the product and how to engage with audience with exciting offers and different contest.

Thumbs up for such an appetizing effort and would love to see for delicious things coming up from FCP .

PS: btw  I ordered 14^th street last night and it sucked BIG TIME, I mean I loved the first time I ordered but it was so bad this time that I might just not order from there anymore , what a waste of money

Tags: 14th street pizza, cooking, eating, FCP, food, food blogging, food connection pakistan, pakistani cooking, pizza

The ‘bad boy of Bollywood’ is back

 

Salman Khan has made his comeback as the lovable, charming Chulbul Pandey in Dabangg.

 

The chic 80’s Ray-Ban sunglasses, the beefed-up muscles and the not-so-cool moustache somehow ended up working for Salman Khan, making him look extremely stylish – Chulbul aka Robin Hood Pandey will rock your world not only in the 150 minutes of his new movie Dabangg, but the after-effects will remain with you even after you have stepped out of the theatre.

After listening to mixed reviews (mostly positive) about the movie, I went into the cinema, already having an opinion based on the 44-year-old star, who despite giving some excellent performances since the past two decades, has been on the verge of a mid-life crisis, which has resulted in some over-acting and weird thumkas and jhatkaas whilst on screen. However, all my preconceived notions about this “super star” vanished once the movie started.

Salman Khan has style, charisma, amazing screen presence and the word “hero” truly depicts him. Khan has made his comeback as the lovable, charming Chulbul Pandey, – a performance that surely will not disappoint his fans. Chulbul Pandey has one side that appears corrupt and accepts bribes, while on the other side we see someone struggling to bring together his family and trying to woo his romantic interest.

Khan’s character has an amazing appeal, you want him to be present on the screen all the time – whether he is delivering a dialogue or doing entertaining dance steps. In his previous interviews, Khan has mentioned that “Dabangg” is dedicated to those people who cannot dance. Still, the hand-on-the-belt move in “udd dabaang dabaang”  and the electric-shock like dance sequence in the sizzling “Munni badnaam howi”  are a show stealer.

The Mise-en-Scene (French word: “placing on stage”) is depicted in the most visual entertainment form – from lighting, visual effects to composition and costumes. Khan has used all of the above mentioned things to his character’s advantage and once again has proven to the audience which may have started doubting it, that he still has it.

So what if some of the action sequences are inspired from the Matrix – some how in this light and entertaining venture, they don’t seem to be out of place. Although there are scenes that are far-fetched and exaggerated, some how all of it seems to gel over here where the plot or the twists aren’t the crucial factors – it’s all about Chulbul Pandey and his antics. Nothing more, nothing less.

All in all, Dabangg is not just a movie for Salman Khan fans only, it is for everyone who wants some exciting entertainment masala in their everyday chaotic life. Khan has completely taken over the movie with his terrific performance that will certainly be appreciated by all. The ‘bad boy of Bollywood’ is back with the Da-BANGG.

 

Tags: actor, bollywood, dabangg, dawn.com, movies, salman khan

unfair advantage…

“No, I don’t cheat. And even I did, I’d never tell you.”~ Tommy Lasorda

i read this somewhere and i just couldn’t gave myself a stop over this, read it again and again and a deep thought process started

This word “cheat” gives me creep, its like a feeling that one got hit by a rock in the face. Can i cheat, have i ever done that?. And it is not about how small or big it is, its about the actions itself – when it is done, the damage is done,  you cannot take it back. The trust is gone, it could be with anyone in any relationship father/daughter, mother/daughter, father/son. mother/son, friend, family, husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend. It’s not about did/why was it done etc etc. I just think it’s the lowest form of human misery.

Tags: cheat, human misery, mistrust, relationships, unfair

sleep SLAP sluppp sleeeeeezzzzpppp

with killer sleeping disorder to unprepared moods, when is this drama getting over???

sleep / thought time check

1:43 am : mad thinking and refreshing facebook

1:44 am: ….

1:45 am: *thinking i should better watch a movie

1:58 am: started the movie, the print was so terrible and i am not in a mood to watch that one. So the mood and the print got together and made me stop the movie. Blaaaah what next

2:03 am: random facebooking…daaaarrrrrrrrrn, i don’t have life i mean can you believe it ufffff

2:10am: things are getting more crazier, random dawn.coming :s not sounding right at all…bleeeekhhhh

2:24 am: aaaah ususal stufff ….lets try to sleeep

super awesome things

this blog is only for ME to save all the cool things around me , super amazing creative links to blogs pages , sites, books and movies <3

http://sweepthesunshine.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yaznotjaz/

My colleague at work sent me these two links, i found them really fun and an interesting stuff to go thru. Creative people and work makes my day happy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/artblog

random art and design stuff here and there. Ive been looking for freelance writers who would regular sent in design blog to dawn.com, so i was talking to my collegue and she said why don’t you do it yourself and that made me realize oh yes why not. Basically i have start penning down my everyday thoughts about design and advertising around and general creativity

http://www.anthropologie.com

ok this link above looks really interesting but i haven’t gone through it completely

book’s whislist

this books sounds really interesting i need to buy this one

CHEF a novel by Jaspreet Singh

and i need to get the copy of Granta Magazine , which is about Pakistan

http://www.marthastewart.com

have to go through in depth with this ultra talanted person with food, crafts , gardening and what not in it–YUMMMMMMMMM

http://www.typecastcreative.co.uk/2010/09/how-to-kern-type-perfectly/

i see type everywhere, it makes me happy to see it being used in an exciting way and its makes me MAD – real mad whn i see it being used in the most stupidest way, which is normally being done in Pakistan. A very informative site about the sciene and the use of type

http://mymilktoof.blogspot.com/

Syaf, my friends from Singapore sent this link to cheer me up. Very cute and and ultimate creative

http://www.diyphotography.net/homestudio/super-simple-light-tent

ive been planning to make this , very cool studio lighting set-up ….inshALLAH this weekend i hope

http://www.letterpress-calendar.com/

 

 

More stuff to follow …

Tags: art, blogs, creativity, dawn.com, design, photography, random, talent

cupcake love

There is relationship between me and chocolate or to be precise, anything made of chocolate i call this pure love. Iam into another world altogether if i find out yummy chocolate desserts especially cupcake, brownies etc. This made me attracted to food blogs and different facebook groups related to chocolate, a couple of months back a saw some amazing talented girls doing cake/cupcake business from home. I Saw some pictures from there facebook group and O Boy what a cake art, that was something extra ordinary. This made me go after them and i decided i will do a feature story on a couple of girls for my work thingie which is DAWN WEBSITE. So i met these young talented ladies and hear there passion, full of fun and laughter stories regarding thr cake business. It was great to meet them and see thr love for the work they do and find out some informative and incredible thing.

Iam not going to go further as my write up is still supposed to published so i leave the rest for that. But but but the best part was trying the cupcakes and all three of them:  mavemade, icandy and cuppykakes were delicious.  So what i was doing  about the taste part was that when  i got the cupcake,  i was taking on one bite and writing about how the taste was after every bite of it ,  but cuppyKakes by Zehra Khan made me not take a break to write, i just couldn’t stop myself from munching onto that the heavenly gift of God. It had this little crunchy biscuits inside the goey chocolate cupcake and every bite took me back to fairy land time ♥

The work these girls are doing is really appreciating  as how precise they are in the decoration as well as the taste of the cake

walk the walk

Two months ago I saw a post on a photo management and sharing application website Flickr’s group: Photo Club of Karachi (PCK). The post stated that there was going to be a ‘photo-walk’ on the July 24, 2010, which got me curious immediately as I started
browsing, looking for what this walk was all about.
The world wide Scot Kelby walk started three years ago and takes place almost everywhere in the world at the same day where a group of enthusiastic photo lovers meet up at some point and start shooting (read clicking) the area out. A discussion on the group followed the post and within a week more than 50 people had registered for the walk, along with many others waiting to register as well.
The excitement was obvious on the discussion board, which I began checking quite often. Finally on July 24, the day for the walk arrived and despite the online enthusiasm, something told me that perhaps not more than 10 people will even show up. Thankfully I was proved wrong as soon as I stepped out of the car and took a look around the venue, the main road of Bagh-e-Ibn Qasim. I saw an army of photographers with their gadgets around their backs and necks swarming on the road and inside the park. And that’s when the excitement of being a part of such a thing really kicked in. I met with numerous different people and heard about their experiences and their passion for photography. The walk started from Shah Ghazi’s Mazaar and ended at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park.
One of the participants of the walk who belongs to Multan and is now working in Karachi said that as much as he loved the idea of the photo-walk, what he enjoyed most was meeting up with new passionate people as it was a pleasure to see the spirits of Karachites. I couldn’t agree more. One of the photographers who had been coming to the walk since the past three years said, “It’s amazing to see the response – it gets bigger every year for the walk.” Later I found out that this walk also takes place in Lahore and Islamabad and the initiative was not exclusive to Karachi alone. It was great to know that photo enthusiasts in different parts of the country have a common platform to unite for.