Lovely, Awais Lovely

If you head over to Dawn right now, you can feast on what must be my finest hour as a blogger - an interview with the man himself, Awais Lovely.

But before I am drowned in a crescendo of "FAKE" shouts, let me cover my ass. this link below is a mp3 file of the entire interview, but before you click play, some disclaimers.

1. the recording quality is terribly shit. my voice is super loud, his isn't. i've tried and made some changes but there you go.
2. there's also a lot of disturbance because i was recording this outside. don't ask why.
3. the recording was made on my phone, which for some reason records calls in 2.30 minute chunks. so every time i would start a new file, i would lose the conversation in between.
4. it would probably help to read the transcription i've attached below along with the audio, to keep making sense of everything.

Lovely. Awais Lovely.

A=Awais , K=KarachiKhatmal

Meh= ‘in’ Mei=I/me/myself

Voice-0003

K: What makes Mr. Awais lovely?

A: Well, I’ll tell you something that since a long time ago I meet, guys and people are telling me that ‘Awais you are really different and you seems to be a very, very romantic guy so you can do something special in the world yeah’ so I’ve been feeling as well right? So that’s why I started making videos to introduce me like I am a lovely guy you know…And I’ve been so romantic with the girls as well, people telling me in my school in my college as well.

K: So whom do you want to introduce Awais Lovely to?

A: To the world…

K: Puri dunya mei hurr bunda jo hei woh Awais Lovely…They should get to know? But why?

A: Is liey keh mei apnay aap koh aik different larkay ki tarhaan, aik romantic aur achay larkay ki tarhaan introduce karvaana chahta huun. Mei iss liey – uss mei basically sub seh bari baat yeh hai keh mei apnay Pakistan koh – kyun keh I’ve been a lot of countries and I’ve been watching that keh logh jo hein naa woh Pakistan koh aik buri nazr seh daikhtay thay aur Pakistaniyoun koh aur mujhay buhat buraa lugtaa tha…Toh mei neh unko yeh batana chaaha keh hum logh bhee ‘lovely’ ho saktay hein, hum logoun mei bhee pyaar hai, hum logh bhee kisi aur ki izzat kar saktay hein, hum logh bhee romantic hein, humaray paas bhee dil hai, aur hum buhat polite hein. Aur hamaray mei bhee aisi cheezain hein. Iss liey yeh karnay keh liey mei neh apna nick AwaisLovely rakhaa.

K: In ‘romance’ what are the most important things? Three sub seh zyaada important things kya hein ‘romance’ mei?

A: ‘Romance’ mei meray khayaal mei sub seh important thing woh yeh hai keh…meray liey keh aap…How do you treat a girl? If you are really committed/corporative to her, she should understand that that is the guy I really wanted, keh yehi larka hai jo mujhay chaheay tha aur yehi larka who can make me better so ‘romantic’ honay ka mutlub sirf yeh nahi hei: to flirt (with) a girl…right? To give her a protect(ion) to give her a care of being a romantic guy you know? Yeh mei samajhtaa huun keh aap uss ki aankhoun mei aankhain daalein aur who samajhay keh yehi hai mera sacha, mera dost, mera saathi bun sukta hai

Voice-0004

K: Jin boys nei ‘bad name’ diya hua hai…toh woh kya ghalat kar rahay hein and what is special about Awais…What is the best thing about Awais that these other boys don’t have?

A: Doosray larkoun neh jo ‘bad’ diya hua hai? Kya diya hua hai? 

K: Aap keh rahey thay na keh Pakistan ki image ko improve karna chah rahey ho aur like to show the world that we are also ‘lovely.’ Toh jun logoun neh jin Pakistaniyoun ki waja seh bad image hua wa hai toh what are they doing wrong aur aap mei kya best cheez hai jo aap uss ko overcome kar rahey ho?

A: Yaar mei yeh nahi kehta keh ‘I am the best’ but I am trying my best. Mei yeh kehna chahta huun keh mei neh aisay logoun ko dekhaa hai joh keh doosray mulkoun mei jaa keh woh samajhtay hein keh hummay koi nahi daikh raha and you can do anything over here right? They should understand that they are human being as well, that they got (a) mind as well. They think that they speak English and they don’t know what to thinking right? To be a Pakistani, since we are different we can do anything wrong over here and they would understand right? Yeh sub seh bari unn keh dimagh mei ghalat baat hai keh doosra yeh nahi samajhta keh who ghalat kaam bhee kar sakta hai. And girls are the ones, they treat them bad and they touch them on the wrong way and they follow them around…Woh Pakistan ko wahaan peh jaa keh is tarah seh keh wahaan ki larkiyoun mei woh samajhtay hein keh ‘gori’ it means like a bad girl right? ‘Gori’ ka yeh mutlub nahi keh woh larki buri hai…‘gori’ being a ‘gori’ is a Caucasian race right? Toh who logh sochtay hein keh hum Pakistan seh aaey hein aur hum yehaan peh aakeh kuch bhee kareingay toh yeh toh ‘goriyan’ hein yeh toh mind nahi karingay…They wouldn’t mind. But they should understand that they are human beings, they got minds, they got eyes, they can understand right? Iss waja seh Pakistan ka bad image banaa hai unn larkiyoun mei, iss liey mei Awais Lovely keh naam seh, being a Pakistani, unn keh behalf peh prove karna chahta huun keh we are really different and five fingers are not equal.

Voice-0005

K: Awais toh yeh bataiey keh aap ki aik jo normal youtube video hoti hai, toh woh kaisay shurooh hoti hai uss ka idea kaun laata hai, shoot kaun karta hai, edit kaun karta hai?

A: Jee bhaee, iss ko altogether mei karta huun, apnay mind seh. Mujhay bhee nahi samajh mei aata keh yeh aur kisi cheez hai mei baithay baithay soch layta huun keh video how should be. Toh meray dimagh mei baithay baithay, mei kisi seh baat kar raha hota huun na toh mujhay pata chul jaata hai keh iss tarah ki aik video bunn sakti hai. Toh ussi time mei meray bhai mei ?? charh jata hai, mei uss waqt boltna nahi huun, thori dair keh baad mein jub yeh baat karta huun toh uss waqt sirf?? meray paas aik hissa hota hai, thora sa normal sa ?? uss seh aagay mei kuch aur sochta huun toh mujhay naey (new) seh naey idea aajatay hein…Round about ten and fifteen minutes meh mei (I) soch laita huun keh kis tarhaan ki video honi chaheay.

K: Acha aur jo gaana aata hai, meray khayaal mei aap ka bhai cameraman ka kaam karta hai toh aap uss ko instructions daitay ho? Kaisay kartay ho?

A: Jee bhai uss ko instructions mei daita huun, song bhee mei choose karta huun, phir mei video jis traffic?? peh hoti hai uss seh mei usska song choose karta huun, uss koh phir mei apnay bhaiyoun seh format karwa keh, editing karwata huun, keh yaar aap iss ki tayaari?? kar doh kyunkeh iss mei convert kar keh phir who attach kartay hein. Laikin meray bhaiyoun ko mei batata huun keh ‘abay side seh shoot karo phir buhat acha view aaey ga’ MashAllah they are very intelligent like me.

Voice-0006

K: So do your brothers ever feel like keh kabhi hamari bhee video banay?

(recorder: 6:36-6:47)A: No no, (UNCLEAR) One said but I denied that he do it…I am their eldest brother iss liey woh meri izzat kartay hain jub mei unn ko bolta huun keh baita mei jo kar raha huun aap nahi kar saktay…I am taking a lot of responsibility on my shoulders right, so nobody else can do it. Who phir nahi kartay, meri baat maantay hein 

K: Making these videos, being Awais Lovely aap keh rahey ho keh yeh buhat bari zimmaydari hai…Kya zimmaydari hai jo aap ki nazr mei maybe your brothers can do wrong?

A: Because iss liey keh iss world mei….This world is full of ‘haters’ and ‘lovers’ right? Iss dunya mei achay logh bhee hein aur buray logh bhee hein, toh mei nahi chahtaa keh…meray bhaiyoun ko koi ‘hater’… mei chahta huun keh agar mera koi ‘hater’ ho toh woh meray saath hee rahey…mei nahi chahta keh meray bhaiyoun peh kisi qism ki problem…I don’t want to show them to the world back there…its not right kyun keh meray saath buhat buhat (buray) qism keh comments bhee aatay hein, toh mujhay yeh sub kuch absorb/observe karna hota hai…So you need to get the balls  - of steel balls to show yourself like that on the front of camera/film/video.

K: Aap yeh bataein keh aap ki favourite video kaunsi hai aur kyun? Apni joh banai huey hain.

A: Bhai uss mei sub seh meri jo favourite video hai, woh hai:?? Jo uss keh song peh mei neh shoot kiya, Scotland Glasgow mei. Aur aik meh jiss meh mei apni body dikha raha huun, kyun keh I like to do exercise but mei neh chor diya hai…Toh uss meh sub seh meri achi video hai jo mujhay achi lagti hai bayshuk woh itni achi nahi hai laikin mujhay woh…mei neh who jaldi meh shoot ki is liey woh yeh hai keh woh song name??? joh mei neh Glasgow meh shoot ki…Glasgow Scotland meh shoot ki who video – uss meh puri meri life hai. Mei yehaan she jub gaya tha, kyun keh wahaan ja keh mei apni family ko miss kar raha tha, apnay culture ko miss kar raha tha, apnay business ko miss kar raha tha, apnay country, apny logoun ko…I am walking alone in the garden on the lawn way and I am missing all those things happening in Pakistan right now joh ghar meh mei sub miss kar raha tha.

Voice-0007

K: Internet peh aik image hai Awais ki, aur aik real bundaa baitha hai Pakistan meh Awais. Toh internet peh jo AwaisLovely hai aur reality meh jo Awais hai, unn donoun meh kitna farq hai?

A: Yeh ub donoun jo image hein woh meray hee hein ya kisi doosray ka hai?

K: Nahi nahi. Aap jo apnay ‘khud’ ko mehsoor kartay ho aur ‘image’ ko mehsoor kartay ho unn meh kitna farq hai

A: Uss meh zyaada she zyaada dus (10% to 20%) seh bees percent farq toh ho gaa uss seh zyaada nahi. Jo mei youtube videos meh huun I hope keh mei itna achaa reality mein huun. Mujay aisa lagta hai keh jo youtube seh logh mujhay ‘hating’ kartay hein, achaa nahi samajh tay, unn logoun ko mei chahta ho keh mei personally [voice lost] woh mujhay bura samjhtay thay magar jab who mujh say khud mile Glasgow main toh woh mere bahut baray fan ban gaye. 

Voice-0008:

K: Yaani ke youtube main bhi best possible image nahi aati, jo suchayee hoti hai?

A: Woh aisa hai keh woh meri hobby hai. Reality main  jab aap mujh say milo gay I’m a different Awais, Mashallah aap mujh main aur bhi kafi saari cheez dekho gai. Kyun ke youtube per main apne eye contact, apne emotion, apni har cheez feel nahi karwa sakta. Lekin jab aap mere samnay baitho gay, jab personally sub kuch practically dekho gay feel ker rahay ho gay tab aap mujhe achi tarah say jaan sako gay. Lekin mein yeh challenge se keh sakta huun inshallah keh jo larka aap youtube per dekh rahay ho Awais mein reality mein uss se bhi acha ho sakta huun Inshallah. 

K: Inshallah. Acha mujhe yeh bataein Awais keh aap ka ek fan hei jo aap ko sirf youtube video say janta hai, aur jo kuch bhi dekha hai to woh kya agar asli Awais ko mile ga to koi different banday se mil raha hoga, ya almost same banda ho ga ya uss se bhi behtar ho ga?

A: Mujhe jo umeed hai woh yeh hai keh uss se bhi behtar hoga. 

Voice-0009:

K: Awais acha mujhe yeh bataoo keh agar app per koi movie banana chahe Bollywood main, to kiss actor ko aap chahein gay keh woh Awais ke part play keray?

A: Male actors mein se?

K: Haan haan

A: Ji mein chahoon ga – Shahrukh Khan. 

K: Kyun?

A: Kyun keh, I’m one of his big fans, kyun ke main, mujhe aisa lagta hai keh, kuch percent mujhe apni cheezain Shahrukh Khan jaisi lagti hain, main yeh nahi kehta keh mein Shahrukh Khan huun ya mein koi big celebrity huun, lekin, mein, ek hota hai na ke insan kisi ko dekh ke sochta hai keh yaar yeh meri tarah lagta hai. Theek hai. Mein apni side se sochta huun keh Shahrukh Khan mein kuch aisee baatein hain jo meri tarah woh sochta hai keh woh bahut neechay se upar gaya hai, aur us keh ander kafi saari different cheezain hain aur woh bahut practical larka hai, aur bahut uss ne hard working ki hai life mein, naam kamaya hai, aur aaj bahut established star hai dunya mein…

[Awais later messaged me to ask me to change his choice for the star to play him from Shahrukh Khan to Imraan Hashmi]

K: Acha Awais yeh batao keh aap yeh youtube per video bana rahe ho theek hai, aaj se duss saal pehle youtube waghera bilkul nahi tha, theek hai, to kuch log matlab yeh bhi sochte huun gay keh humari generation jo hai, jo internet pay itna hoti hai woh samjhte huun gay keh yeh ghalat ker rehay hain, ya matlab yeh kya cheez hai ke koi ek doosray se banda zaati taur pe mil nahi raha hai, mafar tab bhi uss ke paas itne fan bhi aa rahay hain, haters bhi aa rahe hain, tou matlab agar jaise aap keh walid walidayn poonche, ya koi burra poonche to aap ussay kaisay explain kerain gay?

A: Main uss ko iss ka bahut acha image dekhata huun, mein uss ko yeh batata huun halankeh mujhe apni family mein problem hui hai iss wajah se, lekin families hoti hain na, rishte jo hote hain, woh iss hi liye hotein hai keh woh aap ke saath contact rakhte hain. Aap ke apnay aap ko samajh bhi jaatein hain. Aap un ko ghussay say bhi samjha sakte ho pyaar se bhi kyun ke they are your own right? Doosroon ki baat yeh hai mei un ko yeh misaal deta huun keh yeh jukha hua pair (tree) hai na, pathar bhi uss hi ko maarte hain jo jhuka hua pair hota hai, [voice lost] aur phir mei ne un ko yeh bola keh yaar abhi mere saath kaante hain, jab us par phool ugay ga na – phool ke saath kaante bhi hote hain – lekin ek waqt aaye ga jab mein ek level per pahunch jaaon ga, aur yeh saare haters jo hain jo mujhe like nahi kertay keh yaar yeh kya ker raha hai, jiss din mei phool pe pahunch jaaon ga, yehi log mujhe pasand kerain gay, yaar WOW larke ne kamala ker diya hai. Yaar kahan se start hua tha, kahan pahunch gaya hai woh kyunke every celebrity has this kind of sadful painful story behind it, behind its personal life. 

Voice-0010:

K: Bahut khoob baat. Acha aap ne suna hi hoga keh aap ka twitter pe ek fake account bhi bana tha, theek hai, facebook pay fake accounts thay, aap keh khayal mein log aap ke fake accounts kyun banana chahte hain?

A: Woh mei ne jo aap se thori der pehle baat ki hai last mein, keh ek waqt tha log kehte thay keh yaar yeh pagal hai, videos banata hai, yeh kya hai iss ka? Aaj ek waqt hai ke log mujhe Mashallah agar youtube pay 50 log mujhe dislike kerte hain, toh 150 log mujhe like kerte hain. Mei, mei sochta hu keh ek samandar mein se ek baalti nikal do na, toh samandar ko koi farq nahi parta. Toh woh jo 50 log hain na haters, woh baalti paani ki tarah nikal keh mei ne pekh diyain hain. Jo 100 log hai na un se mein bahut pyaar kerta huun, woh mera samander hai. Toh yeh baat hai keh jo hai na log mujhe copy ker ke, kyun ke mein ub status ho gaya huun, Mashallah kafi dunya mujhe jaanit hai jaise aap mujhe call ker rahain hain, mera interview le rahein hain, saari dunya jaanti hai keh Awais Mashallah ek naam bun gaya hai, toh log mera naam us ker ke larkiyon ko impress kerna chahtay hain, kyunke girls are really attracted to me right now and before when I got noticed on the youtube as well, lekin yeh baat hai keh log mera naam use kerna chahte hain. 

K: Acha tell me why do girls find you so attractive?

A: I don’t know. Lot of people ask me for that but bro I think this is God gifted thing, that’s why I was on the youtube because people used to say me that you are really attractive, so handsome Mashallah, kyunke Allah ka shukar hai mei ne kabhi comment nahi kiya lekin people used to say me you’re a cute, aur mere ander yeh cheez logo se hi paida hui aur mujhe khud bhi lagta tha keh mei kuch ker sakta huun, lekin yeh jo cheez hoti hai na larkiyon waali baat, yeh insaan ke ander hoti hai I was born like that. 

K: Acha yaani keh koi aur issay, is skill ko develop kerna chahe toh woh nahi ker sakta?

A: Nahi ker sakta hai, yeh God gifted hoti hai. Log yeh poochte hain [voice lost] keh apni personality kharab na kero, kyunke agar aap doosron ko copy kerain toh aap ki apni bhi personality kharaab ho sakti hai. Toh mei chahta huun ke be natural, and be practical to the girls, and maybe she’s a, she will get in touch from you. 

K: Very good advice. 

Voice-0011:

K: Acha aap ek Pakistan ke chotay sheher say ho, jo zyada barre mashoor sheher hain Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad – maybe – toh un se matlab usually humari celebrities aati hain, aap ek chotay sheher say aa rahe ho matlab kya aap ke khayal mei aap ki outlook thori different hai, kya chote shehro ka, matlab Pakistan mei naye tareeke se dekhna chahiye?

A: Mei sochta huun ke bhaiyee koi chota barra nahi hota kyunke koyla kahan, diamond kahan milta hai? Koylay mein milta hai. Theek hai, heera aap dhoondne jaate ho to paharoo mei. Mei ek jeweller huun, mei ek sunaar huun, I have a gold jewelry shop I spend my time there, mein Mashallah ek businessman huun aur ek Pakistani jeweller huun mei. Toh mein yeh sochta huun keh heera koi bhi [voice lost] woh aap ko koylay se milta hai. Kyunke koi bhi cheez jo hai na barri choti nahi hoti, koi kaheen se bhi aa keh chaa sakta hai. Cos everybody got talent, everybody got quality aur kuch nahi pata hota yeh sab se barri baat muqaddar ki hoti hai, kaun kahan se aa ker kahaan chala jata hai, ek larki America mei bhaiti hai, aap Pakistan mei bhaite hain, aap dono ka pata nahi hota keh shaadi America mei bhi ho gee lekin achanak se koi aata hai woh bolta hai ek larki hai woh achi hai, woh America mei hai, kya aap un se shaadi kerna chahte hain, aap ke ghar wale chahtay hain woh bolte hain haan theek hai. Ab ek United States of America 20, 30 thousand miles away from here, aap wahan jaa keh shaadi kerte ho [voice lost]

K: Hello? Hello?

A: Jee, aap sun rahe hain na?

K: Acha yeh batao keh Inshallah shaadhi waghera ho jaye uss ke baad bhi aap continue kerna chahe gain apna youtube account?

A: Filhaal mein shaadi abhi nahi ker sakta kyun keh abhi I want to have my bachelor life for a long time, aur Inshallah mei shaadi keh baad bhi sochoon ga – lekin agar shaadi ke baad mein ne videos banayee bhi tou mei kuch achi [voice lost] uss ke bare mei mein ne abhi socha nahi like kyun ke jab meri shaadi hogi phir mein sochoon ga mera mind kaisa hai ab mei kiss mind ka hogaya huun, kyuun ke man change you know, a person changes after marriage or something like that 

K: Fair enough. Awais yeh batao keh abhi Pakistan mei different qissam ke log hain jo bolte hain keh yeh sab video gaana waana yeh sab kissam ki cheezain ghalat hain. Is ski wajah se Pakistan kharaab ho raha hai, girls or boys ki talking ki wajah se kharaab ho raha hai. Iss ke bare mein kya khayal hain aap ke?

Voice 0012:

A: Agar aap kiss bhi ghalat cheez ko sahih cheez mei laa ker uss ko represent ker rahe ho to uss mein ghalat nahi hai. Dekhain ghalat dekhna ho to bahut kuch ghalat hai, phir to hum uthte baithte kitna ghalat kuch kerte hain agar is tarah kuch dekhe toh. Ek cheez ghalat hai toh mei uss ko sahih nahi kehta lekin agar itna sahih hai to phir yeh sab kyun hai? Agar ghalat hi tha, tou phir sab kuch kyun hai, kyun yeh songs barrh rahe hain, kyun yeh gaariyon mei systems hain, kyun yeh cinema systems hain, kyun videos hain, phir toh sab kuch socho na, phir aap kya sochne baitho gay toh yahan samander ban jaye ga soch ka yahan aap ko kuch nahi milay ga jiss ka koi kinara nahi hai.

K: Toh abhi jo log, matlab hamare mulk mei dehshat-gardee waghera hai, log matlab qatl-o-gharat ker rahe hain, just to get their point across, what would you say to them?

A: Brother un ke liye toh yehi hai keh un ko sab se pehle toh Allah se darna chahiye kyun ke that’s why mei kuch different kerne ki koshish ker raha huun, kyuun ke humare Pakistan ka, kyuun ke dekho I was born in Pakistan, right, yeh humari identity hai, Pakistan, agar, kyun keh mei ne pardes mei reh kar mei ne bahut kuch dekha hai aur mujhe apne mulk se pyaar hai this is my home cuntry right, toh mei nahin chahta keh, mein kuch aisa ker ke dekhana chahta tha keh sirf doosre logoon ko foreigners ko, mujhe Pakistan mei kuch show kerne ki zaroorat nahi hai kyun ke yahan pe already sab ek doosre ko jaante hain, lekin mei, I want to show my culture, to the people of the States and out of Pakistan right, dekho hum log bhi apni sarkoon pay drive kerte hain, humari larkiyan bhi drive kerti hain, azaad hain, toh woh log sochte hain keh humari larkiyon ne humein dubaya hua hai, hum log yeh hain, hum log waise hain, gaariyon mei koi shopping kerne nahi jaa sakta bomb blast ho jata hai, mein un ko yeh dikhana chah raha huun keh “dekho I am driving on the road, a lonely, making videos, and you can see the roads, and you can see the development over here and I’m a Paki guy who making videos, I can dance better than yours people like, mei aap keh logo se bhi acha dance ker sakta huun, mein aap ke logo se bhi, I can [voice lost]

Voice 0013:

K: 

K: 

A: Scotland mei ek dafa mein ek disco mei gaya. Waha disco mei mein ne dance kiya tou a lot of girls did like me and they came up to me and they just crowd me and I was in the middle and they were just flashing me and snatching my body… two guys were behind me and they were just getting jealous unho ne ja keh DJ ko bola keh aap song ko change kero hum iss larke ko challenge kerna chahte hain dance mein. Pehlo unho ne aa ke mujhe bola ‘will you accept my challenge’ mein ne bola ‘yeah’ uss ne bola ke hum dance kerain ge, aur dekhte hain kaun jeet-tta hai. There were two guys dancing on the floor and I did alone myself and I just lose them in 50 seconds and all the girls and the guys clapped for me and they all asked me where are you from and I said I am from Pakistan, I am the guy from Pakistan, I challenge you over here and you LOSE from a Pakistani. 

K: Bahut khoob. Un ka kya response tha?

A: They were just looking at me they were just ‘Oh my God’ yeh iss tarah ker ke who chale gaye they were ‘wordless’ wo-h kuch nahi bole unho ne drink pakri aur ja ke apni table per baith gaye. They were just confused, wo-h confused they…

Voice - 0014:

K: Speaking of confused, what do you think about Pakistanis who are elites…Are they confused?

A: Yes mei sochta huun keh they are confused they Paki-born-confused-Americans. Wo-h sochte hein keh hum Pakistani mei peyda hueay hain magar hum Americans hain. Mei chahta huun, mei poonchta huun keh aap Pakistan mei rahe ho, aap apna style rekho american yeh koi baat nahi hai, yeh sochna koi buri baat nahi hai, lekin overacting mat kero. Yeh mat show kero keh yaar, mei jo hai na Pakistan mei paida hua huun magar mei pata nahi kya huun. Mei matlab phutt gaya huun, mei special huun. Yeh nahi kehna chahiye, we love our country, mei ne aap ne dekha ho ga meri video mei keh I’m proud to be a paki and I’m proud to be a desi. Theek hai? Overacting kabhi nahi kerni chahiye jab bhi aap overacting kero ge aap confuse jo jao gay. Phir samne wala [voice lost] wo-h aap ko parh le ga keh yeh overacting ker raha hai, yeh jo nahi hai yeh who dikha raha hai apne aap ko. Tou wahan pe humari youth jo hai no who confuse ho jati hai. [voice lost] aap samajh rahe hai na meri baat ko? 

K: Awais Pakistani cricket team mei kaunsa banda hai jo sab se zyada aap ki tarah hai, jiss se aap identify kerte ho?

A: Mei personally agar kisi ko like kerta huun to wo-h hain Shahid Afridi. 

K: Acha kyun?

A: Kyun ke he’s attractive, he’s like a, mujhe uss mei, he’s a faster, and he’s a fashionable, aur mujhe jo hei na uss tarah kei fast log pasand hain, he’s very fast as well … he looks very cute aur style hai uss ka who jab kisi ko bowled kerta hai uss ka ek stle hai baat kerne ka style hai, he has a big personality as well aur mei personality walay bando ko bahut like kerta huun, aur Mashallah meri ek aadat hai keh jo personality wala [voice lost] lekin mei waisay bata raha huun keh koi acha insane hai, jis ki personality achi hai mei uss ko like kerta huun us say baat kerta huun like kerta huun usse. 

Voice 0015:

K: Acha if you had to give a message to your fans, people who want to be like Awais Lovely, tou aap un ko kya kaho ge un ko kya advice do gey?

A: Yeh tou bahut complicated question hai iss ko mei kya boloun? Mei iss ko sirf iss pey yeh bol sakta huun keh mei apne fans ko, mei chahta huun keh, mei yehi kehna chahta huun apne fans se I’m nothing. I’m a normal guy, keh mei ek normal guy huun, wo-h ek awais ko apne ander dekh sakte hain. Awais jab you tube pe nahi tha, mei un ko yeh batana chahta huun keh jab Awais you tube pe nahi tha, they didn’t know me, wo-h nahi jante they keh Awais kaun hai, iss liye try to do something that you become your personality, and somebody you’d like to see, who’d like to be themselves, tou mei chahta huun keh apne aap ko iss tarah banao keh doosra bhi kehe keh yaar, wo-h bhi ek personality bun jayein aur wo-h bolain keh yaar, kal ko doosra bole keh yaar mei iss ki tarah bunna chahta huun. Awais is a lovely guy and he’s a casual guy aur meri personality is got to me by God, jo ke cheat nahi ho sakti jo by birth mere under aayi hui hai, aur uss ko copy ker ke kabhi bhi apni personality ko kharab mutt kerain. They love me I love them.

A Nation of Ches

so as some of you may know, i have repeatedly professed my distaste for blogging about politics. but the kind of job i have means that i am always involved in reporting on them, and of course i have opinions on that. so i decided to write a political-flavoured post for this blog's sautan, my dawn blog. unfortunately, i decided to make a "statement" by posting an early draft of the post as a tweet, instead of mailing it directly to my long suffering editor. by the time we got around to cleaning it up, it was wednesday. and by then a far more famous and respected columnist who i've been accused of copy-paste-materialing had sent in his piece, which referenced similar themes as mine. and so, in a twist which is rather fitting considering my penchant for introspection, i am left as the che i was railing about. here is that never-to-be-published post.



Last week, I was part of a momentous, historic occassion. I was present at Tahrir Square when Hosni Mubarak announced his resignation. Almost immediately, the crowd went into raptures. People young and old hugged and kissed one another, communists and Islamists began to engage in consensual copulation, women emerged simultaneously adorned in burqas and bikinis reading aloud Germaine Greer's tafsir on the Quran while calorie-free chocolates began to sublimate out of thin air as everyone's bank balances were stuffed with all the money they had dreamed of.

Oh no wait, that was the fantasy I concocted after reading what all of the Pakistani corner of the blogosphere had to say on the events in Egypt. 

Which is surprising, because the more appropriate Pakistani reaction to the events on the Arab street should have been "Been there, Done that."

Yet it seems that all of us are afflicted with the sort of short-term memory loss which only a prolonged usage of opiates can bring upon. 

But in either case, a simple visit to google would have reminded the Sons of Revolution that Pakistan has not only been always "with it" when it comes to global revolution fads, it has actually been ahead of its time in the latest version. After all, its only been three years since a prolonged civil society instigated popular movement upended a decade-long military dictatorship, benevolently enlightened as it was.

And that was only the latest in a long history of "people power" movements in Pakistan. After all, when the entire world from Paris to Prague was whipped up in revolutionary frenzy in 1968, Pakistani students were leading their own marches in the homeland. The decimation of our eastern half, and their subsequent genocide, was also instigated when people power demanded its rights. And Mr Bhutto's decision to lengthen his proverbial beard and ban discos, daroo and 'deviant' sects was also on the back of street protests. And these examples don't even begin to consider the rent-a-rallies every other social/economical/political/veena malikal issue seem to spawn in Pakistan.

And yet, without ever considering these stone-cold events of reality, there are those complaining that Pakistan's revolutions are fake, reactionary, chaotic, and futile. 

Anyone making this claim seems to forget that traditionally, revolutions involve lots of blood shed, lots of chaos and violence. And in the recent past, these have ended up with regimes which rack up the repressiveness. Those that don't bequeath an all-powerful Eternal Leader/Supreme Ayatollah/Venerated Sun God leading an all-draconian Big Brother government end up with a lot of the old faces trying to dance to different tunes. 

But still, we Pakistanis act like the crazed Mom visiting Shaadi.com, convinced that someone better out there exists for their molly-coddled ideals of revolution and freedom.

So the obvious question is - why do we do this?

The answer lies in a t-shirt. 

The one I wore in the prime of my youthful naivety, the one that so many others have also bought in similar moments. You know the t-shirt, the one with the black-and-white picture of a forgotten revolutionary looking really damn hot? You know, this t-shirt. The t-shirt we all bought believing that wearing it would somehow proclaim us as intellectual radicals, a t-shirt which would deliver us from injustices and a t-shirt which would redress inequity while still giving us time to party. The t-shirt which was little different from any other sold at Voo Doo Tees or Zainab Market, the t-shirt which allowed all of us to buy into a culture of heady literature, rousing rock, timeless slogans, and the t-shirt which allowed us to pretend that all revolutions were as simple, rewarding and comforting as the joy of wearing a cotton t-shirt on a warm day. 

The t-shirt which would make us Che.

The irony being of course, that we all succeeded into turning in to Che, just not in the language we had intended to be.

Keeping It Real

This blog was originally published in the Express Tribune Magazine. It was meant to be published in the Dawn blog, but someone there felt it wasn't relevant. My special thanks to a great fan of the blog who had my back, and to @Nadir_Hassan for offering and succeeding at publishing it at ET.

According to this article, bestiality is a rite of passage in parts of Pakistan. Considering that sexual depravity, even in innocuous terms is no stranger to young, virile Pakistani men, I am reluctant to dismiss this claim as another journo out to malign the image of Pakistan.

Rites of passage after all, are essential to human life. 

Take for example the rite of passage involving young bloggers in Pakistan. At some point in their blogging career, all of us write this post.

This post?

You know, the one in which we deride, mock and seek to humiliate the ‘elites’ of Pakistan, their obsession with material goods and facebooks, their cluelessness regarding the local transport network, their obliviousness to the rampant poverty faced by the unclothed majority, their contempt for our local vernacular.

Inevitably, these rants exhort the elites to pacify their ‘liberal extremism,’ to nullify their ‘western-boot-licking’ to pop out of their ‘bubbles.’ Words like ‘reality’ ‘common man’ and ‘masses’ litter these posts like plastic bags in Clifton Beach. 

Let us lay aside the implicit irony of English speaking, computer using bloggerati railing against people who are essentially their own friends and family. 

Let us look instead, at something far more intriguing.

What makes someone a ‘real’ Pakistani? What makes something a ‘real’ Pakistani experience? From what these posts imply, being rich and privileged strips you of the ability to be real.

What a fascinating idea! 

It appears that the venerable Defence Housing Authority is no more than a figment of my imagination, that the Fez nights at Sindh Club are merely a mirage concocted by misfiring neurons in our elitist brains, that those of us going to ‘dance parties’ and ‘social clubs’ are merely computer generated holograms, created to incense the fevered blogger and implode Pakistan from within.

On the flip side, it also implies that the poor are one coagulated mass of noble, wretched, helpless, nameless limbs and faces whose entire destiny depends on whether or not we stop watching ‘Jersey Shore’ and sipping skimmed milk espressos.

What a load of bull.

For starters, while there is no reason to defend the oblivious and corrosive actions of the elites in our country, pointing the fingers at people essentially from the same background as yourself displays stunning self-delusion.

Secondly, holding up the ‘poor’ as some paragons of virtue, as being common or part of an undifferentiated mass, robs them of their individuality, their diversity, and only further intensifies the differences between ‘us’ and ‘them.’

And most importantly, defining some things as ‘real’ and others as not only deludes us from taking responsibility of the fact that every action, every moment, every experience is as real (or not) as any other. Eating out in Burns Road or Anarkali is not more any more ‘real’ than the same activity being done in Zamzama or MM Alam Road. Spurning the advances of nefarious corporations might be healthy for your wallet, but falling to their embraces does not cloak you in a halo of ‘unreality.’

So much like young men allegedly deflowering unsuspecting four-legged mammals, bloggers railing against the elite is one rite of passage we can all do without. 

Copy Pasting Copy Paste

"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research."

I read this quote today on a friend's facebook status. when i started to write this blog, i googled the phrase, and found this:

The quote "If you copy from one author, it's plagiarism. If you copy from two, it's research." has been attributed to playwright, raconteur  and entrepreneur Wilson Mizner. The exact wording to which you allude has been widely attributed to comedian Steven Wright. Did he plagiarize Mizner?

it was an interesting example of fate stepping forward and stealing my punch line.

you see, when i saw the quote, it managed to provide a pithy summary of why i had decided to name my blog "copy paste material." the decision had come a year of being a journalist, and three years before that of being a student at LUMS.

what i had come to see was that in both cases, one needed to essentially plagiarise in order to be credible.

as a student, i often felt that i had read and seen enough to hold certain views. but in order to be taken seriously, i had to present it in light of what others had said or done.

as a journalist, i was starting out as a copywriter on the international desk. so yeah, i covered three wars - i'm a regular robert fisk. anyhows, being on the international desk meant sitting around, reading the wires, and - wait for it - copy pasting them into your story.

in both cases, the mark of quality was demonstrated by, amongst other things, a variety and depth of sources. in fact, an out right copy-paste was inacceptable. but reframing et al the stuff constituted quality.

hence the title - copy paste material.

why do i bring up this now?

i read a blog recently, which ended thus:

"undeniably, and unfortunately, there is a little bit of Zardari in all of us."

which reminded me of this:

"Asif Ali Zardari did what every Pakistani does – he looked at how the game was being played, sought out its soft spots, and then cut it to pieces. Its why he’s here. He does what all of us do. It maybe at a different scale, but it’s the same scene.

You have to admit - we all have a little Zardari within us."

yesterday, i came across this:

Every time I bribed a policeman, ignored the traffic signals, sent gifts to judges, made phone-calls to those in power to seek favors, I kept this in mind. Every time I willfully weakened the justice system for my benefit, I knew what I was doing. I knew exactly what kind of crop I was sowing. Some other people did too, but I don’t want to name any names.

a sort of like this, i wondered:

"Every day, as we break red lights and jostle with vehicular madness, as we consume tainted water and questionable food, as we bribe and barter, we live in existence where the possibility of the consequences of our actions can not hope to be considered, because perhaps we know of no other way."

now if you are getting my flow, i suppose there are two ways i can go with this. i can get all egoistical, and claim that people are copy-pasting my ideas. or i can face up to what i believe myself - that these are signs of people waking up to the massive contradictions that lie within us.

moreover, i could make sense of the 'copy-pasting' being employed in academia and journalism - because in a society overflowing with ideas, their repetitions and their regurgitations, the only way of making sense, the only skill is one of bringing together references that your audience can relate to in order to create a narrative, or an opinion that makes sense.

a part of me wanted to believe that i was being plagiarized, but it would be egoistical folly. surely i was not the first person to realise that pakistanis can often be in denial about themselves, that change lies within us all. moreover, a lot of my own blogs have been basically copy-pastes of my wife's ideas and thoughts. so it would be hypocritical.

but what provides irrefutable evidence of the fact that all these are original works is when you step back and read all of them in their context. the second link for example, works the same motifs i used to examine afridi into a haunting account of the sialkot lynching. i doubt if he/she had ever even come across what i had written. the reason both ideas work is that they allow their readers to make sense of their society using examples of their own experiences - the bribing, the bartering, the wheeling and dealing.

to get a much better example than all of this, take a look at this magnificent video. umar sharif, in about a few minutes, weaves together references from silent-era Hollywood to post-Cold War geopolitics, from one style of qawwali to the next, from one generation of sub-continental romancing styles to an eerily prescient version of another (i am referring to the line about giving out phone numbers.)

(thanks to tazeen for the link)

and it gets even more interesting. there is for example an indian version of this song currently out:



according to twitter user @Mehmal, both songs are versions of an older song, known as "Launda Badnam Hua, Nasiban Tere Liye." an indian website meanwhile says that the song was a "famous Bhojpuri song "Launda badnam hua naseeban tere liye", which was sung by Rani Bala"

Soon enough you come to realise that there might not be anything original in the world. so what?

each idea flows from somewhere, and flows on to somewhere else. attributing your sources is always great, but you can't very well put footonotes in a song or a movie.

the whole point is to make what ever you do your own. you're going to be copy-pasting whether you like it or not, whether you realise it or not. but you do have the choice of making it in your own style, in your own image.

why coke studio matters

no one in pakistan has any convictions, but everyone has an opinion.


the great joy of opinions is that you can change them with the wind. convictions require standing by your faith while others heckle you and throw half empty yogurt packs in your direction. opinions require you to be loud, and have an inflated estimation of your own self.

the kind of opinion pakistanis excel in is the one which finds faults in others. it doesn't matter if the opinion they currently hold completely contradicts everything they said yesterday, or exposes their hypocrisies. as long as it makes someone look bad, everyone's in on it.


all societies create heroes only to rip them apart. i know that. look at the brits and jordan.  but in pakistan, we skip the hero part, and start directly from the ripping apart business.


and i know that coke studio is already facing all this. everyone's got a million fucking gripes with the whole show.


this is where i answer them. because pakistan can't afford to have assholes with opinions destroy everything we have worth believing in .


(i) How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Cola


Before we had the Islamic Republic of Blogistan, desi opinions were voiced at a place called chowk.com. In 2004, someone named asif memon wrote a seminal piece with the same title as above, detailing the exploitation and destruction of pakistan's greatest ever rock band, Junoon. those of us who went along till the horrible ride knew the story well - a band that had defied governments and invented its own genres was eventually reduced to dishing out half-assed 'Best of' albums, and shitting out what was easily their worst album ever - Dewaar; an album which graced a large coke logo on its front.

but if Coke only epitomized the sloth that accompanied the once-glorious junoon, Pepsi's channeling of a bloke named Machiavelli throughout the entirety of the Vital Signs career was an even greater sin.


before he became a paranoid politico harping endlessly about military governments from a generation ago, NFP was the authority on music in pakistan. he had an even greater article, also in chowk.com, which traced the whole history of the Signs, including the role of Pepsi. NFP tells of how Pepsi tried to influence the kind of songs the band made, how they forced them to tour endlessly and release albums faster, of how they tried to leverage their position by siding with a band named Awaz instead, and how they eventually led to the destruction of the legendary band.

those of you too young to have spent broken-hearted summers listening to "Chalay thay Saath Saath" may not realise this, but at their peak, Junoon and Vital Signs represented the last line of the kalima. to fuck with that was a sin far greater than blasphemy, and both the cola giants had blood on their hands.


there will be idealistic numbnuts who will exhale whatever their smoking, clear their throats, and wheeze out that "that's what  you get when you sell out maaaan..." such assholes have no idea what it means to be a musician, or an artist in pakistan. when the people refer to you as kanjars, they plan to treat you like them too. take a look at the last days of mehdi hasan to get a feel of what i mean. 

this is a land without record deals, without agents or record labels, without royalties, without any way of making any living off your work. work which the whole fucking country would love to pieces, listen to and gain inspiration from, and use for their own commercial purposes, without ever bothering to treat you anything better than a kanjar. so if some young kids decide to make some money off the back of releasing a debut song which would win a shady BBC prize as the greatest song EVER, can you blame them? if an aging band decides that they have nothing to show for their years of building up a fucking industry on their own, so they might as well take the money and run, can you blame them? 


any true fan couldn't. they had to accept the demise of both these monoliths. but they all could, and did, begin to despise the cola kings. them they could hate with all their might. capitalism had destroyed art. end of.


but this is pakistan. where the greatest socialists are feudal lords, where the greatest writers are penniless drunkards, where the greatest sportsmen are chinese coaches and tory cheerleaders. where the maulvis sell heroin and the kuffar save lives. pakistan is that point where the past and the future collide, and you're never quite sure which one you're living in. so it makes sense that the most seismic event in this era's music has a cola sugar daddy which has radically changed the whole rules of the game. as we say, only in pakistan.

what coke has done is not what people think it's done. the whole concept, its equipment, its vision, its outlook, its feel, its music had been planned up, conceived by a man who is the Godfather of Pakistani pop - rohail hyatt. 


what coke did was find an (almost definitely temporary) solution to a problem that the industry has faced for a long fucking time now. you see, music, like much else in this country, survives on patronage. people are loath to pay for music, and as such musicians have very few options. in the past, the national TV and radio would prove to be a modest source for most. but post-80s, the problem has exacerbated. during the 90s, amazing bands would put together the money for a video, then hope to get enough support to put out an album. but it would rarely be enough. which is why any act which manages to put out a second album in pakistan with the original line up automatically enters the hall of fame. 


as time passed, the profligacy of piracy and the rampant spread of downloading meant that money had to be made through endorsements (see Strings, Haroon et al) through sub-standard indian film songs (see Atif Aslam, Jal, Strings) through dubious charitable and religious causes (see Strings, Najam et al) or by pimping out your music fame for any and everything you can (see JJ, Nadeem Jafri)


in recent times, a strange 'improvement' has come about. a record label owned by a media house which loves to get down and dirty has taken on piracy, and started giving out proper deals. only, the kinds of bonded labor shit that the artists are being put through under their watch means that signing up with them is probably akin to artistic and financial suicide.


so when coke came up with the brilliant idea of giving out, handing out, fucking rewarding the whole country with awesome fucking music for free - nay, paying them to run it - it marked a radical departure from what the whole country or even the whole world had so far come up with. 


and then coke did something even better. they decided not to fuck with the sound, or make it commercial. they let it be, or even if they did meddle, they didn't do it enough to ruin the music.


capitalism and art in a win-win situation. only in pakistan.

(post script: in case some of you decide the pepsi is still evil, think of this. the current wave of music, of which coke studio either represents the peak of, or the final hurrah of, began when bands like Aaroh, eP, Mekaal Hasan, Messiah, Schehzad Hameed etc suddenly hit the scene. the reason they all came to the forefront at the same time was because of an event known as Pepsi Battle of the Bands.)


(ii) "Man, this year's Coke Studio has been a huge downer compared to last year..."


after the first episode this season, safieh came up with the golden rule of Coke Studio. sure it's nice to watch it, but you really need to listen to it to get it. the first time is like many other first times - a disappointing preview of whats to come. now you may think this is obvious, but she was speaking to a group which thought that the Arif Lohar song they'd just heard was too long, and Meesha was underused and off-beat. the song you now know as the official song of the summer. 


which is the whole point. most people who were excited about the show this year weren't even bothered with last year's season. in fact, most of the people who did watch last season never got past the blockbuster first episode, which had atif and ali zafar, and noori collaborating with some faqeer dude. so when season three rolled around, there was a lot of hype because of a particular breed of pakistani - the bandwagoner.

bandwagoners are a dime a dozen in this land. whenever they realise something is obviously cool, they jump on and pretend they were always there to begin with. in order to hide their pagan pasts, they become over-zealous about their bandwagon, eventually turning everyone else off. at which point they disembark and bitch to their heart's content. those are the people who were so fucking excited about coke studio because they knew it was cool. and those are the people who fill blog spaces and twitter spaces and youtube spaces with lamentations that the episode sucks.


well fuck you.


to begin with, the songs are being produced by a guy whose last band came out while most of you were still sperms and eggs, and still rumors of its comeback mark a frenzy. rohail hyatt KNOWS how to make timeless music. so if you think that you're the prick who's figured out his music a few minutes after hearing it, you deserve to die.


if anything, the whole program has taken on an even riskier route this season, and a far more nuanced one. gone are the superstars of pop. their place has been taken by people on the verge of breaking out, people who are already massive on another musical plane, and a couple of true blue legends. there is more genre hopping, and a lot, lot less virtuosity, especially for vocalists. this season has been about moods and spaces a lot more than the last one. and the music continues to get denser and richer.


this is not stuff you can digest overnight. its the kind of music you can walk away from and forget for a decade, until one day it suddenly comes rushing back through the smell of a biscuit soaked in brandy.


mark my words - as the time passes, this season will follow its predecessor in continuing to rise in people's estimation. and by the next season (if there is one) the same people who were bitching now would be harping on about how season three was the one that changed their lives and prompted them to create greater space for spirituality in their drawing room paint color choices.


(iii) "Abida doesn't sound so good - how could Coke Studio fuck that up?"


i realise that most of this can be answered by the rant above. but since this is abida we're talking about, i also realise that she deserves a whole section to herself. i concede that the two abida parveen songs weren't quite what i had hoped for, and in the case of the first, the situation has so far not improved with time. i realise that this is still too early, but there is another explanation.


you see, abida parveen is far bigger than the whole sum of coke studio - all the artists and people behind the scene and all the buzz and everything. she's been a global legend for some time now, she's worked with everyone, she's been covered in every genre, she's been produced a million different ways. while the level of technical and aesthetic production at CS has been unprecedented for most musicians, AP has already had that and more. that's why her songs have not been obvious so far, rather layered around her. 

moreover, sometimes the greatest things coming together doesn't work. there is a bootlegged mp3 of jim morrison singing while jimi hendrix plays guitar. its pretty shitty. 


(iv) "Why I'm proud to be a Burger"


one of this year's participants, Omer Bilal Akhtar had recently published an op-ed in the  Dr. NewsPaper/Mr Blog Aggregator Express Tribune recently by this name. it was pretty shit, and was absolutely crucified by commenters. the ADP frontman eventually wrote a hilarious and heroic defence of his piece, but it was too little, too late.


he had a point though - if burgers keep feeling ashamed and aloof, they'd keep being called out for living in a bubble. and since its assumed that those living in a bubble can't communicate with their society, they should and would be ridiculed.

but if anyone sits through the behind the scenes clips on the show, they'd see long haired, american accented, weirdly dressed, farangi influenced, clueless burgers talking very intelligently about music. and they'd see those same burgers being accorded tremendous respect and love by musicians from the other side of the bridge, the other side of the divide, from the 'real' part of pakistan. all goes to show that if you embrace your talent AND your identity, being a burger is no impediment, and even an advantage for creating something remarkable. 


and the ADP song had one of the most vintage pakistani freak out leads in recent history. so stop bitching on them.


(v) "Fuck yaar, they're just ripping off the originals..."


i could spend a long time on this, but a few lines should do. 'copying' someone's music and lyrics and calling them your own, ala Anu Malik, is cheating. paying homage to greats while composing something original is not cheating of ripping off.


there were a lot of people who did, and continue to, hate Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. these were qawwali connoisseurs who hated his cheap remixes, and resented the fact this his fame was not anywhere in proportion to his ability or talent when compared to his peers and predecessors. and i'll be the first to say it - there are some truly terrible nusrat remixes out there. but the whole point is, if it wasn't for those dishkum-dishkum songs, an entire  generation would have been alienated from one of their most significant art forms. because without nusrat, there was no one who was able to make the conditions which allowed pop-music and casual listeners into the world of qawwali. who allowed us to discover his influences, and love it so much that we began to listen to the unremixed, unedited versions of his own qawwalis, and those of others. the man, on his own, resuscitated the entire goddam form.


that's what coke studio is doing now. sure, you have these snobby friends who will show you the original version of "Chori Chori" or "Chambey di Booti" and piss all over the covers. but what these music puritans and fundamentalists don't realise is that without these cover songs, this conversation about which Reshma version of Chori Chori is the best would have probably never happened. these songs are allowing us a way back into our own pasts, our own identities and selfs, which we would have otherwise lost in the morass of unseen youtube videos. 


(vi) "Oooohhhh, so they're not ALL reactionary, jaahil, media-obsessed, heads-in-the-sand, clueless, greedy, selfish miserable chootias..."


the greatest thing about coke studio is that it proves that if you do something with the best people, with the best intentions and the best efforts to create something according to an aesthetic ideal, it can be popular and widely accepted in pakistan. 


this is no small thing.


there is such little hope for people trying to not dumb themselves down, trying to avoid being popular for popularity's sake, for people interested in saying something meaningful, for people who lack the energy and bitchiness to find a savage way to the top. 


so when you see something that brings together the best people and works brilliantly, you know that its possible. if we put aside our bullshit, if we lay down our ideologies, if we shed our inhibitions and our insecurities, we can do something that stands the test of time.


and that is why coke studio matters.