Cringe songs of Dhinchak Pooja and others

Seeking public attention to such an extent so as to make oneself notorious is a new trend followed by Dhinchak Pooja, a Delhi born girl of 152cms whose songs ‘Swag wali topi’, ‘Daru’ and ‘selfie maine le li aaj’ drove people crazy worldwide. Although her songs are not liked by people yet they are continuously being seen and listened just to mock at her bad singing and tasteless music.  But she is not the first one to do this. There are others too in this race of cringe music, a trending genre. You can have a glimpse of (if you are daring enough, go for the full songs at your own risk) such videos on the YouTube.

Dhinchak Pooja- picture from the internet

The earliest example known to me  is American teen Rebecca Renee Black who got media attention with her 2011 song ‘Friday’. Her song was labelled as ‘the worst song ever’ by her critics and viewers but she continued singing and uploading her videos on YouTube.Her second song ‘Saturday’ got more success than the previous one.

Rebecca Black-picture from the internet

 Another one is a Pakistani singer, song writer and of course a performer (or you can say one of the most maddening music sensation named Taher Shah who is in the limelight for his songs ‘Eye to Eye’ and ‘Angel’( released in April, 2016). These songs of Taher became a trending subject on twitter as they triggered a social-media uproar. ‘Angel’ has more than 1.2 million views since its release. Taher Shah was compelled to leave Pakistan after he got life threats for misusing the arts.

Taher Shah-picture from the internet

These people are aware of the best marketing concepts which are enough to make their videos viral on the social media. One can even watch their songs turned into parodies soon after their release. They are getting titles of the worst YouTubers, worst singers, still they are busy earning money and fame and engaging the viewers in their cringePop songs. 
(c) Fatima Afshan

My mother; an angel

picture from the internet

When I think of where I came from 

Only a word comes to my mind n that is mom

Although I'm grown up yet I often rest in her lap

to get the sweetest and the calmest of naps

She touches my hair with loads of love

And makes the angels smile above 

Her love's warmth cures me of my pain

When I'm with her I only gain and gain

Her grey hair reminds me of what she lost

in rearing and nurturing her tiny tots

Her wrinkles tell me the tales gone by

listening to them I can only sigh 

She prays for me day and night

to make my whole life fulfilling and bright

When I leave the house she bids good bye

she is restless till I'm back, I don't know why?

When I whither in pain she weeps with me

Her eyes tell me, more pain bears she

If someone asks do angels exist?

I say yes, in mothers, they subsist.....

©® Fatima Afshan

A wandering kite

Picture from the internet

An envelope reaches unannounced from abroad

My eyes glitter to kiss the very edges

Having the fragrance of your touch

I hold it with a blush, opening it lovingly

I yearn to ornate my heart

With the gems of some letters pregnant with your love

Alas! My eyes dazzle to see the letters

As black and bleak as the night

I shiver embracing the dusk of our loving life

The letters bear not love

But numerous fragments of my trust

I write a letter for you on a kite

With the ink of my tears

And fly it high in the sky

The kite is soon detached

And lost into oblivion

I cherish the broken string

And an empty envelope with a hope

That you find the kite somewhere

And know that my love was like a string

For the kite of your life

Without me you're just a piece of paper

That cannot reach great heights

Ever again...

© Fatima Afshan

From a cancer patient

Day by day I lose

Picture courtesy internet

The blush of my cheeks

The spark of my eyes

And the glow of my skin

One by one the strands of my hair

Bid goodbye to my scalp

My skeleton peeps from within and

Craves to leave

The frail epithelial confines

I yearn to feel the naked touch

Of precious sunbeams and soothing breeze

This silly tongue drools for a morsel of

Simple homemade meal that I’m forbidden to relish

I feel the melting candle of my life

With each breath I inhale

How I wish I’d felt thankful for the little blessings 

Which I never counted

In the list of bounties I was blessed with

My departing life taught me

How beautiful is the simplicity of life!

How important it is to love

The way you are

 And the things you own…….!

© Fatima Afshan

Elephantine Task

Safely moving "rogue" elephants who have roamed onto farmland is heavy lifting for the Kenya Wildlife Service.(Aljazeera)

Peace in the world

        

           When will we have peace in the world ? People are hell bent to shed blood of others. Libya, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Philippines, Bahrain, USA everywhere in the world  just blood and blood, News channels are screaming with bloody news. Newspapers are fully stained in blood. Human being who is the best creation of God, is killing his own species mercilessly. Animals roam in groups but people can not be united.. People are divided in areas, cities, countries, regions continents and even within the four walls of house also, they just can't live peacefully.

           People fight mostly in the name of religion but none of the religion teaches to kill innocent people. People fight for worldly possessions and leave everything here in this materialistic world and die. People fight for position, ego, hatred and enmity and in the end the heart stops beating and brain stops working and we are no longer able to feel any kind of feeling whatsoever.

          What is that thing which can unite the people of the world ?  what is that thing which can bring the peace in the world ? that can stop blood shedding that can stop carnages, violence, terrorism and sadism ?

          That thing is love and the greatest love is love towards God. Once you start loving God, you realize we all are the creation of God and you love the creation as you love the creator.

          Humans have all the abilities and qualities to realize their potentials which can help them to love God. We are the prototype of God's powers and if we go closer to God those qualities of God will reflect through us .

         Then we can attain the high position which God wants us to attain, There would be no animosity, no enmity, no hatred and no ego. What else we would like to get after getting God ?

But we do not have time to sit and relax and think a bit that why we are doing this ? why we can not spread love instead of hatred and why we can not make friends instead of foes.

         We need to pierce our ego and only then we can realize our true potential and achieve the highest position, which we can never achieve with the feelings of hatred and enmity  towards the creation of God. 

Safety in Ramadan - published by Public Relations Dept MOI, State of Qatar

Ramadan & Fasting - The objective

Ramadan, the most sacred month of the year for the Muslims is going on. All over the world, Muslims are fasting. For different regions Ramadan has different timings for fasting, the people living on the northern tip of Europe as in Finland have to be on fast for 20 hours a day as for them, the sun rises at 3:30 AM at sets around 11:30 PM and since every year Ramadan  goes back in calendar for 11 days,  probably in the coming years when Ramadan will fall in June, the sun will not be willing to set at all for them.

              There is no doubt that this is a very sacred month, a month which Allah likes and a month which is called Kareem. It is "Kareem" in the sense that Allah has opened the door of forgiveness in this month so we can seek astaghfaar (repentance) for our small or big sins and can start afresh for the rest of our life but we need to keep in mind that repentance  is only accepted when it is with the intention that the sin will not be committed again. if we repent to commit sin and commit sins to repent, be assured there is no forgiveness bestowing to us. In Ramadan it is believed that Satan is chained so people are more pious in their behavior and it keeps them away from vices. As a matter of fact Satan is still opened but since we are spiritually elevated because of  fasting and prayers we do not lend our ears to his vicious whispering. but he may manage to misguide the people who either do fasting for name sake or do not fasting at all. 

I have seen many people who get short tempered during Ramadan. the officials, the clerks, if you just ask them to repeat what they have said, they get irritated saying, "why are you troubling me in fasting ?" as if they are doing favour to others if they observe fasting. On the contrary we should be more polite and kind to others during Ramadan. If Ramadan is kareem then it should reflect through the people who observe fasting.. 

The same thing I observe on the roads/streets at the time of Iftar.some  people get desperate to reach home or mosques and honk and shout and fly their vehicles..We need to understand that Ramadan teaches us the culture of pahle Aap (First you).

Most People understand that the Som ( fasting) means to be without food and water from the sunrise till sunset. Of course this is a part of fasting but this is not the fasting all about.. Ramadan has a sublime objective. Ramadan is a month of reflection and fasting is a way to do that.. the purpose of Ramadan is to awaken the human consciousness. Its not only to remain hungry during the day and then as soon as the sun sets, devour a lot of food and become heavy stomach. This month is for seeking closeness to Allah, being conscious of Allah all the time and refrain from all kind of sins. it is to purify the body as well as soul. We are not allowed to think even bad of others. If we are on fast and find our selves irritated,angry ,jealous, frustrated or  negatively charged, its time for reflection, Its time for introspection.

One of the major distraction for human being towards Allah is food. Eating is the necessity of life but over eating is a vice and its the best used tool of Satan since most of the us do not or can not consider that over eating is a sin.. It's not a sin but it is instrumental to commit sins.Satan knows this best and often if he is not able to misguide people to commit other sins, he incites to have more n more food and we take it very legitimate requirement of our body. we may have a feeling of guilt after over eating in terms of our physicality or it may be against the doctor advise, but we seldom think it makes me commit sins. but this is what it is ..once we become stomach heavy, we are vulnerable and it is the time for Satan to attack us and he does.

Allah has given us the gift of Ramadan to show us that when we are light stomach how we can be more spiritual and close to Him. He has made it mandatory to be without food and water so that He can make sure that people are light stomach and they can learn this valuable lesson  for the rest of the year/life. Being hungry is not the objective of Ramadan it's the medium to seek spirituality and seek closeness to Allah. Once we are spiritually elevated we pray to Allah a lot, we ourselves understand the plight of the people who are compelled to remain hungry throughout the year. As we get close to Allah we start loving the people, we start helping the creatures of Allah and we realize the valuable gifts from Him. 

We should try to achieve the real objective behind Ramadan kareem so that it can enlighten our lives forever, keep us refrain from all the vices and material distractions and uplift our souls spiritually towards Allah subahanauta'alla   InshaAllah . 

Salim Husain