The Bisexual & the Baha’i Twin
As an aside I saw an instagram clip of a new show (I’ve removed the name to protect the privacy). It was directed by this budding bisexual young actress. It wasn’t hard to guess that she was Iranian-American (she doesn’t identify as Iranian though just American) but something about the name was ringing in my ear. I thought she might be a Baha’i of Zoroastrian descent.
It turns out I was partially right in that she has a doppelganger of the same exact age, location and ethnicity who happens to be a friend of a friend and more importantly a Baha’i (and a strong one at that). They are probably distantly related (the bisexual almost certainly has a lapsed Baha’i grandparent since some surnames are distinctly Baha’i and there are so many Iranians who have some hidden Babi-Baha’i ancestry) but what is shocking is too see two similar people (with an astonishingly uncommon first name that I have never ever encountered before) lead such different lives.
The two look so similar that I had to ask Vidhi for help in parsing them about; the Bisexual actress simply looked like the Vamped risque version of the Baha’i twin.
Religion certainly has the power the transform culture; the Bisexual actress is a SJW progressive on Twitter fighting for Queer rights while her Baha’i twin is on Instagram steadfast in our Faith.
Why Pakistanis can’t get anything Right
I was rifling through TripAdvisor and came across this restaurant that had extremely high ratings. Vidhi always mocks me that Pakistani restaurants simply do not have the Glam factor that Indian ones do (and in my more patriotic moments I tend to shoot back that the Indian ones are simply presenting our Mughlai cuisine – Dishoom very proudly presents itself as a reinvented Irani cafe – Turan strikes back) .
At any rate I found this one and I excitedly told Vidhi we must try it out. In fact I sent it around to a few friends. Vidhi seemed extremely skeptical and asked me not to jump the gun (as I’m wont to do). On further investigation I realised I knew this restaurant all along for the past decade; it was a shabby dingy little place that I never bothered to visit.. What we realised was that this crappy restaurant had “gamed” TripAdvisor by staging reviews and pictures to make it look on par with the “glamorous Indian competitors.”
This was a moment I was ashamed to be Paki; I don’t understand why there is a compulsive need for them to constantly cheat their way. I hate to stereotype but it’s something embedded in the Pakistani psyche. It’s one thing to spin an illusion like what our illustrious Mughal ancestors did with the Subcontinent (Taj Mahal & all that) but it’s another thing to veer into outright delusions, which I fear is now the Pakistani hallmark.
Karachi, Bride of Cities
Thankfully all is not lost after the jump I’m sharing a short violin piece of a friend of mine; she composed the section in the excitement of reaching Karachi (no surprise her late mother was white British; pukka Pakistanis still don’t grasp High Culture like they should).
I liked the clip and thought it deserved a much wider audience especially as it paid tribute to my favourite city in the world, Karachi. I thought it was called Queen/Paris of the East but it turns out the proper nicknames are: City of the Quaid, Paris of Asia, The City of Lights, Bride of the Cities. One of the greatest blunders Pakistan has done is to focus on Islamahore or perhaps a less controversial portmanteau, Lameabad.
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