Motorcycle Girl: An Inspiration to Dream and Travel

I had a chance to see the movie last Sunday in cinema. For those who don’t know, Motorcycle girl is a Pakistani film written and directed by Adnan Sarwar penning the autobiography of Zenith Irfan (Played by Sohai Ali Abro), a young Pakistani girl making a road trip all the way from Lahore to Khunjrab; Pakistan China border to fulfill her deceased father’s dream. Even though my initial thoughts while watching the trailer of the movie was it to be a road trip of this young girl showing landscapes of Pakistan’s northern areas, the movie reviews say it is more towards women empowerment in Pakistan which is true after all. But I have my own perception regarding the movie Motorcycle girl which is “Life is short, follow your dreams”.

 

About the Movie

The movie begins with a clumsy Zenith late for her office and missing her van and getting scolded by her strict boss (played by Sarmad Khoosat). Zenith works at an ad agency saving money for her collage and supporting her family as well. He family consist of her mother (played by Samina Peerzada), younger brother Sultan and her nsupportive grandmother (played by Shamim Hilaly) who constantly urges to get her married and is totally against her working as she believes a woman’s career should solely be in homemaking. Parallel to the story depicting life of Zenith, there is a story in which Zenith is actually on a road trip to Khunjrab riding the bike. While at various rest stops along her journey, she reads comments on her Facebook page condemning her of being a “Kafir” (disbeliever) constantly just because she is a woman and riding a bike (highly uncommon in Pakistan). After series of incidents, she finally learns to ride a bike by the help of Sultan and goes to office watched by everyone all over the road just because they never saw a girl riding a bike.

 

 

Pahiya Song Video | Motorcycle Girl

 

 

After a series of various incidents she gets fired from her job and getting herself engaged arranged by her granny to an investment banker Zafar (played by Ali Kazmi), she finally asks her fiancé to let her fulfill her father’s dream for a biking trip to Khunjrab to which he reluctantly agrees. After the approval, she finally sets off and begins and competes the journey.

 

Urr Chalay Official Song Video | Motorcycle Girl

 

 

Glimpse of Gilgit Baltistan, a hidden gem of Pakistan

Along Zenith’s journey, various landscapes of Gilgit Baltistan, villages and lifestyle of the villagers has also been shown. On Zenith’s stay in Passu, the hospitable and moderate lifestyle and behavior of the region is a great example for the rest of the country despite if being relatively under developed. The way they treated her throughout her stay is a good example of how our behavior should be like treating as well as educating women equally.

 

 

Inspiration to dream and travel

Despite the message given strongly points to the women empowerment by breaking the unnecessary boundaries deployed by the ignorant society, the message also encourages us to follow our dreams irrespective of our gender as we are only given one life. If your dream is to travel and see the world, you must. There is a saying “You have always time for things you put first!” so why not putting our dreams first? This question has been answered quite well and I guess Adnan has done a great job and showed us many aspects of life which we need to follow.

Animal Fries at Burger Lab

I had a chance to eat out at Burger Lab, one of the fast food restaurants I mentioned in my previous blog and try their Animal Fries. I had a glance of their animal fries on the internet; fries loaded with lots of cheese, chicken chunks with green chilies or jalapenos  on the menu which were worth Rs. 380. Initially, I thought of it as a sideline in menu items like regular and curly fries but when these animal fries were served, it was a full meal. The mistake which I made was I took it as a side line and ordered my favorite smokey fusion burger with double patty. I didn’t ordered cold drink with it.

Now I must tell you what happened after I had my meal. I got too full and I couldn’t even finish the fries even though I wasn’t alone. I was too full, i even had to skip my dinner slightly and the next day was labelled as my ‘digestive system disorder’ day.

Overall, fries were good but it shouldn’t be ordered as a side line. Else, you should try them, they have a different and wonderful taste.

Animal Fries

Why Boat Basin is no longer a place to dine in for families?

 

Boat Basin, sometimes called boating basin which is one of the most popular food street in Karachi. Located near Benazir Bhutto Park Clifton, Boat Basin has all kinds of restaurants serving Desi, Fast Food and Chinese Cuisines. Despite the variety of food items available, Boat Basin Karachi is considered absolutely not the place for the families. The reasons are listed below:

 

Congested Parking

 

As the food street is located on the service road, you’ll find it mostly blocked by the restaurant owners by placing the seating arrangements for customers and grills for the barbecue. With the remaining space left, parking is really hard to find. So if you are visiting the place, be prepared for such issues.

 

 

Seating arrangement and cleaning issues

 

A part from parking issues, the seating arrangement and cleanliness is also a major issue. You’ll find trash everywhere while dining thrown by customers. Even though most restaurants have family halls, there are relatively smaller in size. As far as the seating arrangement is concerned, you can see the image below to get my point:

 

 

Customers Themselves

Customers or I must say, the class of customers that usually visit the place aren’t that much literate and often behave in an awful manner. Unless you aren’t familiar with Pakistani culture and customs, it is a very big mistake to bring your family to dine at this place.

Restaurant owners desperate for customers

With family or not, as soon as you enter their “territory” even though you are just passing by and have no intention to eat at all, waiters from the nearby restaurants will swarm at their prospective customers to make them dine at their restaurant each one appearing more desperate than the other. Their behavior will sure irritate you enough to flee the area swearing never to show yourself in this place again.

 

 

Hot and Humid Environment

With most of the restaurants being open air, Karachi usually has a humid climate especially during the months of June, July and August. Moreover, the  seating arrangements are quite close to the grills and coal bins where barbecue is prepared adding more heat. So it is highly recommended NOT to visit this place in this months.

 

 

 

*Please note that all images and GIFs are been taken from google.

How to start a travel blog?

 

Blogging is one of the most popular way to earn money online. However, it isn’t as simple as it sounds. It requires effort and patience especially if you want a high traffic on your blog. Consider it as your travel diary which you have shared online. Assuming you are a frequent traveler, here are a few tips you can use to start a travel blog.

• Before starting your own travel blog, see travel blog of popular bloggers. The one I follow is Nomadic Matt.
• Once you have an idea of the basic layout of a travel blog, you must choose a platform for blogging. WordPress is one of the most popular platforms as it is really easy to use especially if you don’t have a programming background.
• While traveling, please take good pictures and make good videos. Photographs and videos generally inspire people to travel to a particular destination.
• Content is the key. Remember! Travel Blogs with boring content don’t attract readers. Write good but not too long content. Travel itineraries should be to the point.
• Optimize your blog for search engines. If you are using Wordress, use Yoast plugin to optimize your site. Also search for popular tags on google.
• Use social media for marketing your blog. Keep links to your social media for follow ups.
• Also join travel forums and provide your blog links to those forums too.
• Subscribe to google alerts to get email notifications of blogs and websites similar to your blog niche.

 

Feminism in Malaysia and Pakistan

 

Even though, this blogpost has nothing to do with the blog niche I write about but still, the news regarding recent feminism march on women’s day in Pakistan caught my eye. Especially its slogan “Mera Jism, Meri Marzi!” (My body, my rules!). It made me think about my trip to Malaysia. I wanted to write about the women workforce there which certainly caught my eye but couldn’t find the post that with made an impact. This time, I got the right idea of comparing feminism in two different Muslim countries.

 

Feminism in Malaysia

 

The few things that caught my eye during the trip there were the peaceful multi ethnic environment, high literacy rate and of course, the women workforce. According to Wikipedia, 47% of workforce in Malaysia are women working alongside the male workforce. Even while sightseeing, doing grocery and even the ones serving at the restaurants and food stalls, almost all the time while buying or ordering something to eat I encountered were women. All of them spoke English well enough to communicate with foreigners.

 

14 June 2011, Kot Chutta – Facilitator Humma Malik (R) guidng a rural woman working in a vegetable field as part of the Women Open School (WOS) where they gain experiential learning and skill development on pesticide risk reduction, kitchen gardening and small enterprise development (goat and chicken farming, vegetable seed production). FAO Project: GCP /MOZ/099/EC – Boosting Agricultural Production and Market Linkages for Small-holder Farmers to Counter Soaring Food Prices. The overarching impact of the project as a whole is to enhance the food security and livelihood status of 30 000 farmers (150 000 people) in rural poor agricultural communities to buffer the effects of soaring food prices.

Image source: Google Women workforce in Malaysia

 

I am not saying that Malaysian society is ideal or they don’t have any cases related to domestic violence especially regarding women. The fact is the way they deal with it. According to http://factsanddetails.com, an NGO called Sisters in Islam founded in 1988 by Zaniah Anwar has been dealing with issues regarding feminism under the light of Islamic teachings. The details can be seen in the link mentioned.

 

Feminism in Pakistan

Image source: Google ‘Aurat March’ slogans

 

As discussed in the paragraph above, the news of feminism march on women’s day in Pakistan has been circling on social media for several weeks; especially the slogans the women were carrying while marching. Unfortunately, whenever the term ‘working woman’ is mentioned, the image that comes into people’s mind are often of a lady dressed stylish with makeup on along with designer clothes and accessories.

 

Image source: Google Working woman Pakistan stylish

 

By looking the persona of working women like these, we often neglect and forget the ones who are to be called real woman workforce like Flying Officer Marium Mukhtiar, the first combat pilot in the history of Pakistan, several women in rural areas working on farms and let us not forget the maids in urban areas working several in homes six days a week even on labor day.

 

Image source: Google Flying Officer Marium Al Mukhtiar

 

 

Image source: Google Women working in farms

 

But after seeing the news regarding the slogans women were carrying during March, it seems like women are asking to go wild rather than becoming independent. I agree women in Pakistan face issues regarding harassment and domestic abuse but I ask you to name a single country completely free from such issues. Name any country other than Pakistan where women will be completely free from such issues. Issues like these are required to be controlled and dealt with and this is certainly NOT the way to handle such issues. We call Marium Mukhtiar ‘daughter of the soil’ and ‘pride of the nation’ but not willing to follow her footsteps. Instead we seek escape routes like these slogans. These women are needed to be asked if you want a society or to be free from males, consider the following slogan below:

Image source: Twitter Male slogan

 

Conclusion

 

In the end, the comparison above seems conclusive.  The march was conducted certainly for a good cause but handled poorly. Unlike Malaysia where an NGO made decades ago is resolving issues in the light of the Holy Quran, we being a bigger Muslim majority and having the country’s foundation solely based on Islam have failed to handle such issues despite of having several NGOs working for such causes. All we can do is learn now from our fellow Muslim Majority nation before it is too late.

 

Image source: Twitter Hadith

 

 

Felt disappointed after trying the new KFC Kentucky Burger!

Last weekend, I had a chance to eat at KFC. For the past few days, I had been watching their TV commercial in which they introduced their new KFC Kentucky Burger which was a combo of Chicken Zinger fillet, barbecue sauce and halal pepperoni. The burger also had a different kind of bun with both white and black sesame seeds.

 

Image Source: masterchefmagazine.com.pk/heres-need-know-kfcs-new-addition-kentucky-burger/

I was really excited to try their new flavor hoping it to be something different. However, it was a disappointment similar to the one when I tried McDonald’s mutton burger last year. Despite of having multiple ingredients, it was no different than a normal zinger burger. Quantity of pepperoni was very low as compared to the zinger fillet which was few pieces. Plus there was no sign of barbecue sauce anywhere in the burger. I won’t say it was the worst burger I had ever tasted but I must say, it is overrated.

But as they say, “The biggest risk is not taking risk at all…” KFC is a large brand name. They have to take risks no matter it backfires or not.

Try something different to eat

Are you willing to try something new or different to eat? Are you willing to change your taste? Well, there comes a time when you are trying to eat the same thing over and over again. Even when it is your favorite, you can eat it all the time; every day the same dish will even make your favorite dish taste and even look awful. Whenever this happens, you often want to change your taste and try something different. That’s the theme of this blog i.e. to explore and trying something different whether is it a place or something to eat. Anyway, coming back to our topic, there are some places when I found different than the norms defined.

 

Solace Istanbul

 

If you love Turkish food or anything not too spicy and a big fan of barbeque, this place is for you. As the name suggests, it’s a Turkish restaurant. Restaurant began by restaurateur Mehmet Celal Ulutatar, it has been labeled “A treat from Turkey” by Express Tribune, a local newspaper from Pakistan.

 

 

Solace Istanbul Counter

 

I had a chance to eat it food court at Dolmen Mall with family and ordered two platters including Doner Kebab, grilled chicken, bread and rice with two soft drinks. Two platters cost is about Rs. 2400 for four persons. Even the owner of the restaurant was seen at the counter monitoring the staff. As far as the taste is concerned, it wasn’t too spicy retaining the flavors of meat. Overall, the taste was really good, new and something different.

 

Solace Istanbul BBQ platter

 

 

 Naan Sahab

Located in Khayaban e Bukhari Commercial (Bara Bukhari) area in Karachi, I had a chance to visit my friend on weekend and he insisted me to visit this place. It’s a small, open air restaurant serving tea, soft drinks, appetizers like fries, onion rings, garlic bread etc. and their specialty; stuffed Naan (A popular oven-baked flatbread found in the Middle Eastern, Central Asian and South Asian cuisines). We looked at the menu and found a variety of stuffed naans and ordered Chicken Chedder Melt Naan and Tex Mex Naan as we agreed to order a spicy one and a mild one. I must say the taste was awesome. It almost felt like as you are eating a stuffed pizza. I would recommend everyone to visit there and try something different to eat. For the menu and other details, please visit their facebook page.

 

 

Chaiwala

Chai has become an integral part of our culture over the past few decades introduced by the British. Along with chai, we also require few snacks to be served now a days or else, we feel something is missing. I won’t talk about something missing in this blog but I will talk about something different especially if you want to make your tea time special.

Similar to Naan Sahab mentioned earlier, this place is quite similar except that they server stuffed Parathas instead of stuffed Naans. Along with that, their main theme is Chai and they have a lot variety of Chai available from normal tea with milk to Cadbury chai, Elaichi (Cardamom) Chai, Adrak (Ginger Chai) etc. Along with Chai, they also server Kahwa (Green Tea). I had a chance to try one of their Gourmet Parathas and Ginger Tea and I had quite a good time. You can visit their website http://www.chaiwala.pk/ for details.

 

Iysh Cleem

If you have a sweet tooth plus you are an ice cream lover, then I guess you have to visit Iysh Cleem. It is an ice cream parlor and by reading it’s name, you can imagine your two year old kid saying “I want some iysh cleem!”

Iysh Cleem 3 step

The unique thing about this place is they have installed a large screen at the counter where you can see the making of the ice cream live.

 

Iysh Cleem Live

I went there only once with family and tried there Choco nuts, Oreo and Peanut flavor. Choco nuts and Oreo was good but Peanut felt like you get a stash of peanuts in your mouth and you won’t even feel the cream. One more thing, they use Nutella in their chocolate flavors. Well I would rate this for being something different but as I went there only once, I can’t say much about it.

Iysh Cleem served

Port Grand Karachi: Carnival at the Docks

 

I had a chance to visit Port Grand with family, a carnival themed food street located near Native Jetty Bridge connecting Karachi Port Trust (KPT) to Kemari, a neighborhood located near boat harbor. If you are looking for a place containing both entertainment and food and you are with a family, this place might be good for you. Luckily I had a UBL Bank debit Card with allowed me to get three entries for free; I mean almost fee as they charged a rupee for it so I had to buy only once ticket instead of four for PKR 300 only. We missed the sunset at due to traffic issues in the city but still got the dusky view of the site.

 

 

Dusk at Port Grand Karachi

 

As far as entertainment is concerned, you’ll find 6D cinema showing an animated video just under ten minutes along with motion ride you give you a feel that you are part of the movie. We wanted to enjoy it but on the day we visited, it had a technical problem so we had to skip it. A part from 6D cinema, there are various activity stalls also available like karaoke stall, palmist, street market stalls, magic shows, puppet shows, street musicians, face painting and other activities for children.

 

Street musicians playing flute and dholak

 

Food stalls included street food including fries, kabab rolls, gol gappy, chaat and various franchises of restaurants in Pakistan like Mr. Cod, OPTP, Walls ice cream etc. We opted for Afridi Inn restaurant and ordered Koyala Chicken Karhai and Chapli Kababs; a famous dish of KPK Pakistan.

 

Afridi Inn restaurant balcony

 

 

Panorama of Afridi Inn restaurant balcony

 

We had a great refreshing experience. I must say it is a great place to spend time with family and enjoy as it has everything whether you are a child or an adult.

 

 

Video Port Grand

 

Sunday Lunch at Chop Chop Wok

 

 

Today, on 14^th Jan 2018, I went with my brother to have some lunch at Chop Chop Wok restaurant which I had been longing to try. Sorry about writing the blog in style of writing a diary to myself but it’s like, I am quite in the mode. Initially I had a plan to visit Karachi Eat Festival 2018 at Benazir Bhutto Park but the pictures I saw on twitter regarding traffic jam and parking issues kind of freaked me out. Anyway, even though I had a heavy breakfast today , my brother just had a apple and a glass of milk so I thought it won’t be fair to had him starving just because I wasn’t that hungry. Plus my driving skills regarding manual car drive still needs skills since it has been too long and I didn’t got a chance to drive these that frequently. So, at 2 p.m. today, we left for the lunch and got there in couple of minutes.

 

Entrance Chop Chop Wok

 

Restaurant was neat and clean and unlike other restaurants, they had their kitchen right in the middle of the seating area with glass windows so that customers won’t be concerned about the hygiene.

 

Chop Chop Wok Kitchen

 

Menu targeted the cuisine of the Far East including Thai, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Japanese food each mentioning their specific taste in the description. Along with their special dishes, the restaurant introduces an option to ‘design’ your dish using what they call 3 step Wok. Plus I saw the first restaurant in Pakistan especially for introducing paperless environment while taking orders from customers which means their staff was quite educated.

 

Chop Chop Wok menu

 

We both chose the 3 step Wok option and went for Egg noodles, Pan Asian, fish & prawns for me and chicken for my brother as we were in a mode to have something spicy. For drinks, we ordered an orange juice and mint lemonade. The order was served shortly. It was really hot & spicy but was really delicious.

 

 

 

Order Served

 

After the meal, I decided to try their fried ice cream and upon having it, realized it is certainly a bad idea to get something frozen fried by coating with something similar to a protein bar. I really tasted like having a porridge filled with ice cream. Anyhow, the food was great and I must recommend you do try their food.

 

How was the Lunch at Rice Station?

Last week I randomly asked my colleague where I can find the best Singaporean rice. He immediately told me about this restaurant which he heard about another employee in a separate department which he called Rice Factory because he didn’t remember the name very well. Anyhow, I googled it and found the correct name which was Rice Station as well as the location of the restaurant.

 

 

Rice Station Restaurant location map

 

We reached there in few minutes. As we entered, we found the restaurant small but neat and clean. Staff was well mannered as well and even the theme they chose for their restaurant was quite good.

 

Rice Station Restaurant from inside

 

 

Menu was in the form of a notepad clipped on a clipboard and included sections of Chinese, Curry, Pakistani, Fish and Chello.

 

Rice Station Restaurant menu

 

They had focused of a specific cliché of rice dishes only even though they also included an exception for few dishes with which bread can also be ordered with bread. We ordered Singaporean rice because that’s what we wanted to eat. We further decided to order more dishes as the waiter said the items mentioned on the menu are single serving or enough for one person only. So we ordered two more dishes included Tawa fried fish with fries and rice as recommended by the staff and Chello Hara Masala Kebab served with baked vegetables and fries.

 

 

 

 

 

Order Served

 

If we rate our overall experience at the restaurant, I would say it was wonderful. Serving was on time, staff was polite and taste was good as well especially the Tawa fish. However, until and unless you eat a lot, one serving is enough for two persons.  I would definitely recommend this restaurant especially when you are a foodie and looking for a change.

 

Drawback:

The only drawback I found in this restaurant was the odd way of serving. The second time we went there and asked for some plates, what we got was the same tray that can be seen in the picture and we ate in quite hyper hazard way. So I suggest the restaurant should keep this option in mind to provide plates as they do serve bread/roti instead of rice on demand.