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The Mercy of Hashtags

I wish that I lived in a world where hashtags were limited to Instagram bloggers trying to get more likes on their photos so Khadi might eventually sponsor them. You could be the one to post your picture, the quote that makes no sense with it, and finish it off with a #IslamabadFashion or #RichLife - knowing that there’s going to be a mass of people searching for the next person they can objectify. In my world, hashtags have become the last gasps of air that those struggling to find meaning can breathe. When your only reaction is to beg for justice into the void of Twitter. It’s the equivalent of “thoughts and prayers”, but with gritted teeth, balled up fists and bloodshot eyes. Our system and country have turned us into roadside beggars. We’re drawing hashtags on the windows of every newspaper, every police station, every politician to beg for accountability, to beg for justice. The newspapers can’t hear us over their clacking typewriters rushing to the press to talk about how Maryam ...
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Of Funerals and Eulogies

He missed her funeral. Not physically of course. Not even the grim reaper himself could have stopped him from being at that funeral. He just wished he could be there again. It really was a grand old time. She wrote a eulogy for herself, for him to read out. It was his last performance on stage. When you get to an event as morose as a funeral, the last thing you expect is for a little boy to accidentally roll into - what was later found to be - another person’s to-be-grave because of his mother’s overwhelmingly shocked expression. Little children are interesting. He found them abhorrent. She flip flopped between trying to choke one with love and trying to choke one with well... Whatever it is you choke people with. It really was interesting to watch her argue with her husband about the prospect of having children. They seemed to always be on the opposite page about it. Whenever the poor chap wanted a child, she insisted against it, yet when he wanted to put his career first - it was...

The Ice Age Crisis

Today, I decided that I would be a Disney star. Now, to those of you who have the abundant good fortune of knowing me personally it may be coming as a shock that I did not in fact opt for the princess category in the metaphorical Disney application form in my head. I agree, I do have a certain spryness to my step and a certain charm to myself that would advocate being the one declared fairest of them all by every (soon-to-be-broken) mystical mirror on the wall. However, I decided that although my talents – boundless as they are – would be very much suited to the role, another was in store for me. Of course, I can practically hear your disgruntled exclamations from here! “Oh but Mamoon! The major character of a true Disney movie is always a princess! How could someone as astronomically perfect (Authors note: It is considered by some that the word perfect itself is ample adjective to describe flawlessness. I agree. However, when it comes to my doting audience, they understand that...

The Kitten, Part One : Turkish Tea

I'm starting a new project. I'm planning on it being a weekly series of short posts (500-1000 words each) to complete a story idea I had. It'll help me be more regular with posts and also will help me complete a longer story that I need more time to write down. The story isn't meant to be exciting, or particularly interesting. I just want to write it down and I want my style to be the hook. The goal is to have a feeI got the idea from a lovely picture I found online that I'll try to add to the post :   Source : https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/6e/3a/19/6e3a1956228f5969cbc3acb27f9e2ba7.jpg _____________________________________________________________ Part 1 : Turkish Tea I “Lucy, today’s the day! One Turkish tea please!” yelled out a shrill voice from under the cover of an umbrella as the owner haphazardly tried to put her umbrella away without letting her whitened knuckles lose grip of a small rectangular cloth bag. Recognizing the voice, a faint ...

Louixs

I haven't made a post here in a very long time. There is a good reason for that, and I promise, it's not just me being lazy. (It's just me being lazy) And so, I found myself forced to find a competition and in that competition find my drive to write. Needless to say, it's a day before the deadline, and I have four hours in the day left to write about 3,000 words. And I'm sitting here writing this stupid intro for my blog post. I'm not winning this am I? Well, there you have it, and now I leave you to marvel at the amazing prowess of my writing with my jaw-dropping research into the matter in the past few months. I'm magnificent. DISCLAIMER : I wrote a slightly different piece to what I normally do for the purpose of this competition. It involves things that I would perhaps not be comfortable reading myself, and I would recommend that if you have the potential of being triggered by sexual trauma type things then you shouldn't go through this. __...

The Choice

I'm writing this partially since my friend kept pestering me to show him what my writing is like - he refuses to read any of my older works - and partially because of my upcoming English exam so this should be good practice. In any case, I painstakingly filled this short story with over sixty different references for different groups of friends, so please, if you see a reference intended for you don't mention it in the facebook comments or anything. It's intended for you, and you alone. _______________________________________________________ I sat there, pensively staring at my hands ... Shivering. Not shivering out of fear as you night expect, or out of apprehension or any of the vast multitude of negative emotions that could have been the cause - but shivering out of a much simpler reason: the cold. An onlooker would be confused - he would see a boy shivering fervently with a phone in his hands, thumbs poised to furiously start tapping on the touch screen display...

Serisode 3 - A rewrite which I've named "The Alliance"

A few years ago, I failed an English exam for the first time ever due to an essay I wrote then. I'm rewriting it to show to my old teacher who will hopefully deem it good enough for a passing grade this one time! I am not a romanticist and never will be, I just wrote it then since I thought it would have been an easy A (How wrong was I?) _____________________________________________________________ Running over small pebbles and hail, the tires eased; their breaks doing what little they could on an ice ridden road; to a stop. Noses red, their mitten clad hands rubbing together, a stream of boys came tumbling out of the bus door, their breath frosting over as they ran out; shouting and darting their shimmering eyes here and there to survey their haven. One particular such boy ran through the snow, following their guardians as they walked past a clump of enormous trees. Kicking the snow as he walked - pausing only to wipe his nose with his sleeve - letting out a sudden gasp...