Book Review - Pokemon Ki Duniya Is A Captivating Novel

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 A couple of weeks back I purchased an Urdu novel Pokemon Ki Dunya by  Musharraf Alam Zauqi from the Sareer Publications website. My order delivered on time and I started reading my novel.

The theme of the Urdu novel Pokemon ki Duniya is about the new cyber age and its influence upon our young generation. The novel beautifully tells us that how new cyber tools are being used to create a PR, advertisement campaigns, how key opinion leaders influence people, junk food, globalization, and monopolies of big businesses are changing societies throughout the world. 

The real-life humans are living like sketched characters or cartoons. The novel is all about systemic outside interference and hindrances. The story tells us how children’s behavior is affected due to exposure to overly used internet. Online gaming is altering their attitude towards real-life.

Musharraf Alam Zauqi is a well-known Indian novelist, a fiction writer who has also gained popularity in Pakistan. His approach towards new topics is unique. He is highlighting the issues regarding changing traditions, social behavior and the influence of the internet on young generations.

The quality of the book is fine as it has a catchy cover, nice thick pages and perfectly fixed with hardcover.

I would recommend this novel to all of you. 

Place an order from
https://sareerpublications.com
You can DM @sareerpublications.

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Book Review: Ayesha Marfani's In The Light Of Seerah Is All About Strong StoryTelling!

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Parents should encourage their young children to read at an early age. For this purpose, one should fill kids’ room with colorful books so that they will find book more attractive rather than watching TV or playing a video game. The books choice should be as per child’s interest and hobby.

To motivate a kid to start reading, one should become a role model who spends a specific time for reading. We all know that reading and storytelling actually promotes intellect growth and imagination. It also trains kid how to use a language properly as well as gives emotional depth for future life.

Apart from fairy-tales and other books, give your children books about historical and religious role models so that they can take inspiration from such models. Nothing can be a marvelous example of role model than the life of our Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him). You can tell a lot of things about his life to your kids but I have a wonderful solution for telling it to children in a more easy way.

Recently, I have read a book, In the Light of Seerah, written by internationally acclaimed author Ayesha Marfani. This book covers the whole life of Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) in a very simple language that would be perfect for young children to understand. The book comprises of 25 stories with short to the point chapters. Each story has a lesson about problems of daily life, for instance, harassment, mistreatment, tolerance, courage etc. By reading these kind of stories, young kids can understand how Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) always prefer to deal such issues in his life. 

At the end of each story, the incidence of Prophet’s life reveals how one should act with other people, liars, hypocrites, and deals with victimization, grief, and negativity while maintaining the bravery, honesty, patience, peace and true qualities of a leader.

In The Light Of Seerah is a wonderful book for children to learn so much from the life of Holy Prophet (PBUH) and its application in one’s daily routine. The language of the book is simple to understand and the overall content is engaging that will compel children to read it again and again. 

Having a genre about fiction, fantasy, and children's book, Marfani’s storytelling is so powerful that not only children but even adults would love to read the stories for their simplicity and strong moral lessons.

In the Light of Seerah is now available for RS 850. You can order more books by Ayesha Marfani through this link.

Order Your Book

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Book Launch - Basila & The Street Crew

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The launch of  comic book Basila and the Street Crew was held at The Second Floor. The launching ceremony was attended by activist Kami Sid, Actor Adnan Shah Tipu, Journalist  Zarrar Khuhro and Environmentalist Afia Salam. 

Basila & The Street Crew is a story of a an orphaned girl Basila and her aunt, a transgender woman who sets out to make a difference in the community. She fights social ills through the civic participation. She takes challenge to teach homeless aspiring artists to pursue their passion through painting, visual messages of love, peace and interfaith harmony on public walls and open spaces. Streets of Karachi are her classrooms and the city walls are her canvas.

The book also draws attention to a very important theme of social inclusion by introducing a transgender character. Riffat Apa, the aunt of the protagonist, is the leading character. She also shares the same passion for the country and her surroundings like Basila.

“More than anything, the transgender community of Pakistan wants acceptance”, said Anain Shaikh, the co-creator and illustrator of Basila and the Street Crew. “We've aimed to neither glorify nor victimize a transgender person but to rather show them in everyday roles such as a parent, or a mentor", she added.

"Like many comic books, Basila and the Street Crew begins in tragedy. After a vicious attack, our hero is left a vulnerable orphan in a dangerous world. Here, coming to her aid is the transgender community, who raise her with the love and training she needs to survive", said Noman Ansari, the lead writer of the series.

The aspect at large that Basila and the Street Crew aims to highlight though, is active citizenship and civic participation. Through this series, the idea that any citizen regardless of his/her social status, ethnicity, gender, race, or religion, can volunteer to make a difference. Targeted at teens and young adults, the comic book aims to invoke a sense of responsibility within its readers, so the future of this country can collectively work towards its betterment, with the resources they have. 

The book launching event was attended by media persons, students, sponsors and  bloggers.

Photo Credit: Basila and the Street Crew Facebook and Azcorp Comics.

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TV One's Mysterious Series Dhund Is Rolling In on July 15th

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Keeping its tradition of presenting distinctive shows for its viewers, TV One is now ready to impress and entertain the Pakistani drama watchers with a totally different yet interesting concept, a mystery series called Dhund starring Maria Wasti, Mohammad Ahmad and Hassan Ahmed.

The teasers of the new drama series and OST composed by Wajid Saeed, were launched in a recent star studded event held in famous Pi Social Café, Karachi. The unveiling evening was attended by celebrities, media persons and bloggers. 

The décor of the event was done according to the theme of the drama. All the setting with lots of candles and dark atmosphere complimented the feel of a super natural TV play. The evening began with cast and crew meet and greet.

Dhund, is a tense and scary series directed by Faiz, showing eerie encounters with spirits from another world and how a brave woman helps them find peace. Maria Wasti can see dead people. Many of the angry spirits frightens Maria.  

The supporting cast includes Zhalay Sarhadi, Junaid (Juni), Laila Wasti, Asad Siddiqui and many others were also present at the event. The series’ soundtrack complements the mysterious feel of the play.

The writer Mohammad Ahmed said, "I started my writing career as a mystery writer, but I've been doing Rom-Coms for years now and that lost idea of mystery series recovered when Seema Tahir said Yes for Dhund.”

Producer Erum Binte Shahid added, "The concept of the mystery series Dhudh is different which will build a connection. Maria can see dead persons and owns personal tragedy whereas Uzair, (Hasan) plays a young smart and devoted police officer and he is a sincere friend to Maria. Nana Syed (Mohammad Ahmed Sahb) is playing Maria's grandfather who is also her close confidante.”

Watch Dhund, starting from today, every Saturday at 9 pm only on TV One.

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Review - Pujaran Is An Impressive Story Of Greediness

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The star-studded cast and a very engaging story of the drama serial Pujaran caught our attention and compelled us to watch its each and every episode. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that up till now all episodes are so much appealing and likeable that anyone can develop interest in its unique tale.

Directed by Adnan Wai Qureshi, Pujaran is a story of a lower middle class girl, Madiha, and her greediness for wealth and status which disturbs lives of many individuals’. Played by Sarwat Gillani, Madiha who belongs to a poor family, wants to lead a luxurious life and in order to fulfill this goal, she is lying, conspiring, betraying and even cheating people, just to achieve her dark motives.

She is well aware of her beauty and using it to lure anyone. She is deceiving a middle class young man Shahid (Kamran Jelani) who mostly helps her with all kind of financial support. But as soon as he tries to propose her, Madiha crafts unusual lame excuses to stay away from this discussion. 

In reality, she is very much interested in her friend’s rich cousin Aabis (Zahid Ahmed) who wants to marry Madiha’s friend Haniya. The story becomes a little complex as Haniya (Alizey Rasool) formulates a proposal for Madiha to get married to Aabis’ big brother, Ramis (Aijaz Aslam).

Inam Shah and Nooran Makhdoom’s story of Pujaran is pretty impressive. The casting is also perfectly suitable as per the demand of the story. Sarwat Gillani is doing her role with absolute perfection. 

Zahid Ahmed and Aijaz Aslam as educated and loving brothers are also looking great in their roles. All the experienced artists are giving their best performances and that is the reason Pujaran is appreciated by viewers.

To this point, it is an enjoyable drama serial with unique story of a negative as well as positive character. If you want to watch the next episode, mark your calendar as it will be aired on every Wednesday at 8pm only on TV One.  

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Wafa Ka Mausam Is All About The Game Of Love & Ego

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The channel TV One has a history of entertaining its viewers with good drama ideas that has been admired by the audiences. The channel has already produced numerous well known dramas with great subjects and social issues, for example, drama serial Seeta Bagari. It is a story about a powerful Hindu woman who stand up to fight treachery and hate.

TV One productions’ new drama serial Wafa Ka Mausam is another very interesting and exciting story that has been written by famous writer Riffat Siraj and directed by Babar Qayyum. The first episode has already attracted huge viewership. The cast includes well known artist Aijaz Aslam, Neelum Muneer, Nouman Habib and Shafqat Cheema.

At the Wafa Ka Mausam bloggers’ meetup, held at The Patio restaurant, the director Babar Qayyum and the main characters Neelum Muneer and Aijaz Aslam shared views about their roles and the script. Neelum told bloggers that it is her first project with TV One and she is very excited about it. Aijaz talked about the importance of his role and how director superbly handled this project.

It is a deep love story dealing with class system. The triangle love story is about wealthy landlord’s energetic daughter Komal who will fell in love with Dara, a not so rich but self-made man. However, the factor of class difference and social status will give rise to egoistic behaviour and this will leave educated Komal in a difficult and tense situation. 

Nauman Habib as the third main character, Bazil, will play his role to complete the triangular love story. His role is full of life yet it turns the story into a more complex one. 

The first episode showed very beautiful village locations and luxurious houses and their lifestyles in a big city. The script sounds very strong and convincing. The tittle song is also very attractive and melodious, it is composed by Waqar Ali and sung by singer Quratulain.

  

If the story sounds interesting to you, than watch drama Wafa Ka Mausam to find out how Komal will endure the game of egos and is it possible for a true love to prevail in an intense situation.

Timing:

Wafa Ka Mausam can be seen every Wednesday at 8:00 pm on TV One. 

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Pakistan's First Ever Interactive Online Film Oye Kuch Kar Guzar

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The first Pakistani online film ‘Oye Kuch Kar Guzar’ or ‘take the plunge’ will inspire and actuate Pakistani youth into discovering their true potential and self-reliance in order to work their way towards realizing their dreams.

The film is the first of its kind to be crafted and featured solely on YouTube. Besides inspiring youth into self-discovery and self-belief, the maiden online film will go long way in strengthening the digital ecosystem and digital uptake in the country. It will establish and bolster digital media as a convenient and reliable entertainment resource in the country.

‘Oye Kuch Kar Guzar’ is especially designed to appeal to the youth of Pakistan. It will be the first time that a brand will allow viewers to choose their own story by using annotations, cards and end screens. The film aspires to enable youth to overcome their constraints, follow their dreams, confidently express themselves and own up to their individuality.

Picture Credits: Movie Shoovy

The film is a distinct genre to allow the viewer to steer the story flow according to their own taste and preference. The film is split into mini episodes and at the end each episode, the viewer can navigate the story in their chosen direction, besides being able to skip ahead or see related videos throughout.

Speaking on concept of Oye kuch Kar Guzar, Haris Rasheed, the director of the film said, “Coming from a middle class family, this is a story I myself deeply connect with. We all struggle to find our place in this fast paced world, and most of us give into the pressure of settling too soon with what we can achieve rather than what we want to achieve. With passion one can do what they want to do rather than what they have to do. Breaking free of the ‘norms’ of society and finding your own place and your own voice in this world doing what you love is what this story is all about.” 

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Mein Hero Is A Journey Of Finding A Hero Within Oneself

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Mein Hero (I am a hero) is an initiative for the youth of Pakistan. It took 8 months, 3 schools, 750 participants and over 200 plus hours to develop “Hero” storylines by combining narratives, values, problem solutions and story writing skills of students to understand local issues and importance of individual actions.

The selected inspirational stories have been converted into comic books and adapted as theatre plays. These will also broadcast via radio in future. It is also converted in a short documentary.

The initiative is taken by AzCorp Entertainment, a for-profit social enterprise, to celebrate and enable unsung heroes of Pakistan, who represent the true spirit of a hero by making a positive change in their respective communities.

The vision is to relate heroes through thought provoking dialogues, critical thinking, social consciousness and positive approach. It provided meaningful and entertaining storytelling comprising of civics, social justice and gender equality based themes.

The ceremony held at NAPA was a token of appreciation from participants to unsung heroes like Mahnoor Baloch who runs her own driving school and Sohail Khan who runs a school with free education to poor children. It included the launch of small teasers of their journey and role for the benefit of community.

Along with this the ceremony also staged a play, written and performed by the participants from three partnered schools in Liyari, Shireen Jinnah Colony and Malir. The theatre play gave message about inter-faith harmony, multiculturalism, challenges faced by the communities and taking ownership of social problems.

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The Music Launch Of Film Lahore Se Aagey

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ARY Films and Showcase Films hosted an exclusive media event for their joint production "Lahore Se Aagey", starring Saba Qamar and Yasir Hussain, in Karachi, officially kicking off the promotions of the film.

Lahore Se Aagey is an upcoming Pakistani romantic-comedy film directed and produced by Wajahat Rauf. It is the sequel to the 2015 comedy film Karachi Se Lahore and is scheduled to release on 11th November 2016. 

Lahore Se Aagey music album includes five tracks, out of which four have been composed by Shiraz Uppal – while Tere Bina, sung by Aashir Wajahat, is composed by Syed Adeel. The main vocals of the album are by Aima Baig, who has sung, Kalabaz (with Jabar Abbas), Be Fiqriyan and Ehl-e-Dil. Zara Si Laga Lo vocals are by Shiraz Uppal himself.

It was Saba Qamar who stole the show. The TV drama actress was looking beautiful in Natasha Kamal dress. She talked about her experiences of acting in a film. She also admired her director's efforts in dealing with the difficulties during the film shoot. 

Yasir Hussain, who was wearing a traditional dress by designer Amir Adnan, shared his experience and character details with media.

The film penned by Yasir Hussain, and also includes Agha Farhatullah, Mubashir Malik, Rubina Ashraf and Behroze Sabzwari in pivotal roles. 

“The entire team has put their heart and soul in putting together the music album of Lahore Se Aagey and now just hope these songs are imprinted in the hearts of listeners, since music is a very important part of the film and how the story progresses.” Wajahat Rauf, the producer and director of Lahore Se Aagey, commented.

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The Liebster Award

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Recently, a very dear, sweet and talented fellow blogger Vildana Suta, owner of the beautiful and well written blog Living Like V nominated our blog for The Liebster Award. Thank you so much Vildana for this nomination.

Vildana's Living Like V is a wonderful blog where you can find interesting reviews, hauls, DIY and her thoughts on various subjects. You should check out her blog posts and we are sure you will love to read them.

Some Questions For Us:

Let's start answering Vildana's questions before posting our questions and rules for next nominated bloggers.

1. When did you start your blog and what was the reason of starting your blog?

A - Oh Lady Mania was started back in 2012 but due to some reasons we were not able to continue it. In mid 2015 we re-started blogging. The  reason behind our blog was to share good content and events with our readers.

2. Have you ever met someone famous and who was that?

A - Yes, we have met famous cricketers and local artists including film, T.V, musicians, and Fine artists.

3. What do you think was the happiest moment of your life?

A - There are numerous, very difficult to pick only one. However, it was the happiest time of our life when we went for family holidays to hill station.

4. Your favorite childhood memory?

A - Learning cycling is the loveliest childhood memory.

5. The song that explains your mood now? 

A - Connecting mood with a song is not an easy thing, however, Ellie Goulding's Love Me Like You Do is a beautiful song that anyone can enjoy. 

6. Your favorite jewelry piece?

A - Rings, Anklet and chains

7. Nike or Adidas?

A - Nike

8. Are you more like sporty or elegant girl?

A - Let's say elegant :P

9. Do you have any enemies?

A - Not enemies but jealous people are everywhere.   

10. Have you got any haters of your blogs?

A - Radar is still on :D

11. Do you have a name for your blogger readers/ fans?

A - Sweet virtual friends who are the support pillar of our blog. 

For Nominees:

Dear nominees, to accept your Liebster Award you should thank the Liebster blog presenter who nominated you and link back to their blog.

Okay, now we would like to set some rules for the our nominated bloggers. 

Here are the rules you have to follow:

1 - Show your gratitude towards the bog that has nominated you and link back to that blog in your post. 

2 - Answer the 11 questions posted for you by that blog.

3 - Nominate 10 new bloggers in your post.

4 - Ask 10 unique questions to new bloggers.

5 - Inform them by commenting your post link in their comment section. 

Questions For Nominees:

Here are our questions for the nominated bloggers:

1- What is blogging for you? Passion or hobby?

2- What is your most favorite topic for blog post?

3- Tell us two rules that you follow for blogging?

4- Are you happy with the response you are getting from your followers?

5- Is there anything that can stop you from blogging?

6- What is your favorite Ice cream flavor?

7- Tell us your two most favorite hair styles?

8- What are you reading these days?

9- What do you love to do in your pass time?

10- Pick one: Deadpool, The Choice, Batman vs Superman?

11- Define beauty of nature in two words?

Our 11 nominees include:

Savory Warriors
Geri Diaries
Ale's Pink Fairy Tale
My Glam Pond
Say Cintya
Minimalissmo
Sen Yokken Kac Kez Kirmizi Ruj Surdum
Stalia Is Bae
Elegant-e
In Fashion Chains
My Space of Beauty by Giada

Best Wishes from our side for all of you.




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The Caged Bird......

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Maya Angelou. Photo WEB

Today I want to share with all you a poem by an American author, poet, civil rights activist and a super inspirational person for millions of people around the world, I am talking about Maya Angelou.

Angelou is famous for her award-winning books and poetry. She is also the first black woman who entered the dazzling world of Hollywood as director, producer and writer. She even starred in different productions for film, TV and stage.

Photo: WEB

Here is her lovely poem named "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings"

The free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wings

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with fearful trill

of the things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill for the caged bird

sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom.

I hope you enjoyed reading this beautiful poetry =)







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