Is Cadbury Dairymilk Marvellous Creations giving a different Chocolate Experience?

Don’t start drooling already! Read on. 

So you’ve had chocolate with mint, with nuts, raisins and hazelnuts, with honey and caramel, with grated orange peels, and with many other combos and add-ons. But have you ever tried it with jelly and candy popping sensations with the most heavenly piece slowly melting in your mouth? No? Here are all the reasons why you should try the new Cadbury Dairymilk Marvellous Creations:

• You’re bored with the traditional milk and dark and coconut filled chocolate etc. Even if you aren’t, who doesn’t like a new addiction, or a new ‘oh I’ve tried that also’ to the list.
  
• You like bubble candies popping in your mouth. This also means as a kid, you were addicted to bubble popper, and bubble wrap.
  
• You like chewing on sweet, flavored jellies combined with chocolate. The flavors might just give the tangy sensation with a choclate-y touch.
  
• It comes in a very nice attractive, colorful packaging. Purple with other fun colors is so the enticing factor. Admit it, you also loved the billboards.
  
• The after taste and the feeling aftermath is obviously very different and opens up your eyes, the moment you put that distorted, crooked triangular piece in your mouth.
  
  

Don’t know about the older lot, but kids are surely loving this new variant (for all the reasons above). The brand was a super hit in Australia for quite some time before Mondelez decided to launch it in Pakistan. It is believed that the brand is highly popular with kids for the fun element attached to the chocolate bar, instead of the traditional let-me-melt-in-your-mouth type of chocolate. 

Let’s just hope that Cadbury Dairymilk introduces other new flavors, because well, people get bored very fast. Also let’s hope that Masala TV chefs invent some good recipes out of this new variant in the next few days (it is bound to happen soon enough anyway)! :D  

Anyhow, happy chocolate season. Yeah baby, it is still February! :D

5 Reasons why I think Huawei P8 is the Phone for me

Here’s why I think a social geek like me who’s also the literary type would want to own a Huawei P8:

1. The optional E-book feature:
With this feature, similar to that of the world renowned Kindle of Amazon, a reader doesn’t have to pause reading her favourite book. The 4.3” E-ink screen on the side, allows readability even under direct sunlight.

2. The looks:

With a 6.4” thick body, Huawei P8 is one of the most beautiful and sleek handsets of our times. The range of colors and the slightly rounded edges make it a phone of choice for people who’re into looks. Obviously it is Poo's first choice too. 

Good looks, good looks andddddd good looks!

3. The octa-core Kirin 930 Chip:

With that sort of processor streaming becomes a 1000 times easier. So whether it is the latest episode of Game of Thrones or that AIB Knockout video that you want to stream, Huawei P8 does it for you.

4. The Find-My-Phone Feature:

With the Google powered voice recognition technology, finding your handset became much easier. So I guess now I can stop worrying about where I left it at. Finally :D

Huawei P8's Thin Metallic Body

5. Light-painting Feature:

So every other day I forget to take pictures outside and it occurs to me around bedtime for the most part to click a few selfies. With the light-painting feature, I will be able to take great pictures even in the darkest of environments. Yay! :D

If you've been looking for such features, the wait is over. Let me know what you think about the phone. Cheers! 

On God's unconditional love

Mom: No food for you before you say your prayers.

Me: Mom when God was sending down my meal, did He put that condition? When God doesn't ask anyone before providing food, why do you?

Mom: Does that mean you'll stop saying saying your prayers and take Allah's unconditional love for granted? Surely His wrath is to be feared.

Me: He might send down His anger for He wants us to repent but remember He loves each and everyone of us more than we can imagine. He was providing for me when I was in your womb. And if He were that stringent about His policies, none of us would've been here.

Top 5 Cafes in Karachi

The onset of the 21^st century saw a café culture explosion in the metropolitan that is parallel to the time of 1960s, when the city used to have an amazing night life. The implementation of Hudood Ordinance in 1980s took away the booming cafe culture, which only made its return under the last military regime.

These days, new cafes are popping up around the city nearly every day and are lacking any distinguishing feature, which can make them stand out. Based upon my experience and reviews, here the (current) top 5 cafes in Karachi:

5- Sattar Baksh

Not a personal favorite but according to reviews and hearsay, it is one of the ‘in’ places this season. The ambiance is no doubt great but the food is really overpriced; I mean who will pay Rs.300 (Rupees Three Hundred) for a Bun Kabab? For someone like me, value for money is equally (if not more) important than the ambiance or fancy names of dishes, therefore Sattar Baksh did not make it to my personal favorite place to eat at least.

4- Café Pink Cadillac

Although this café will not win any award on originality of its menu, the ambiance is truly novel and is not comparable to any other café out there. The food is a little overpriced compared to (Roasters or Arizona Grill) but considering the quality & quantity of the food, it is totally worth it. They took their name very seriously therefore the interior is designed based upon the pink theme and an actual Pink Cadillac is mostly parked outside its premise.

3- Euphoria

This cafe has the burgers to die and at a very reasonable price. The ambiance is not extraordinary but is good enough to have a decent outing with friends. If you are short on cash or really hungry, I would definitely recommend you to check this place out.

2- Bella Vita

This café is my favorite whenever I have a craving for something sweet. Bella Vita offers some of the most original flavors in ice-cream and is also in the business of producing their own magnum style bars. If you still have not visited this place, you are missing out on something really exotic.

1- Xanders

Whether you are pizza lover or in the mood of having Boba Tea, this place has it all. The food quality is amazing and the serving size is respectable (compared to other cafes located in the same line like Café Forty4. Majority of the times I have found this place to be jam packed and had to wait for a table. In terms of crowd, it is a ‘maila’ & ‘taru’ free zone. 

What do you think about these places? Did your favorite café made it to this list? 

Urbanism

The rising middle class is a global phenomenon; it is often predicted by 2030, Asia will have two-thirds of world’s middle class. Urbanism is often associated with the middle class due to their numeric superiority. I think Urbanism is essentially the aspirations and values of the middle class, defined by the young generation of a country. Over the past decades, urbanism in Pakistan has gone through many transformations and varies from one city to another.

Since the onset of the last martial law, Karachi (along with other provincial capitals) have experienced a growth in leisure activities, such as an increase in eating out places, bowling explosion, and rise of shopping malls. This has caused a shift in the outing habits of youngsters, who were initially only used to visiting each other places or at most a guy group hangout at dhabas.

Mix gathering outings were always a problem because of lack of places where friends could have gone. Restaurants in the 1990s were mostly either international food franchises or family places like China Town; therefore not a lot of option was available. I still credit Park Towers as the pioneer mall which was somewhat built on international standards and was developed considering the aspiration of individuals belonging to all age groups. I still remember the food court being my favorite place to hang out with friends before other places popped up throughout the city.

The teenagers of 1990s used to rely on PTCL landline for keeping in contact with friends, and had to go through the awkward moments of parents picking up the phone. The whole day used to get spend by sitting in front of computer, chatting with friends on MSN messenger since there was no Whatsapp or Viber. There used to be a restriction and a concept of ‘odd timings’ between even best friends. Thanks to mobile phone revolution, ‘odd timings’ are nearly nonexistent.

We end up  having change of plans due to unpredictability of our daily lives; may be the class ends late (in university life), a plan with friends get extended or there is a late sitting at the office. We have a way of informing our loved ones using mobile phones; imagine what hassle a simple change of plan would have been in 1990s.    

May be the concept of good old days is just a myth that individuals like to tell. The way I see it, we are a lot better off now, with all the facilities and technology, than compared to all the previous eras.

Do you feel nostalgic about 1990s? Write back to me and share your thoughts about my blog.

Vampires - The good guys?

With the likes of Twilight, True Blood, and the famous Vampire Diaries, vampires have gone through a major image transformation from being the bad guy to every teenage girl’s fantasy. The transformation depicts the power of the social media by demonstrating how mythical creatures, always associated with dead, evil, and misfortune are now the ones saving the day. I won’t be surprise if people start sympathizing with the devil in the future.

I still remember reading Dracula (the original version of course) and shivers running down my spine. Vampires were never meant to be idolized or loved; instead they were an inherent force of evil, which the society had to fight for survival. The newer generation has almost shunned this image of vampires and has adopted a more liberal view towards them. Media had started changing the image of vampirism as early as 1970s with the release of Love at First Bite - one of the most horrible movies I have ever seen. The concept at that time did not proof to be popular and took nearly 2 decades to be accepted by the public.

If you were a teenage in late 1990s, you would be aware of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; yes it did all start from there, when our beloved vampire slayer fell in love with a vampire. The spinoff series Angel further established a soft corner for vampires amongst the masses. The image was further consolidated by the Blade Trilogy, which demonstrated that vampires can be good.

Apart from character transformation, vampires have also gained new powers, such as walking in the day light, glowing in the sun (hope no Twilight fans here) and even flying at will; with all these powers and ‘chick magnet’ properties, who would not like to be a vampire?

Vampires are not the only mythical creatures undergone a major transformation, we also have werewolf and witches in the same category. Witches were accepted by the media as good guys long before the others. Sometimes I wonder how the Europeans, alive during the Salem witch trials, would feel about series like Charmed or Bewitched.

The new image of vampires is here to stay, since it proved to be more popular with masses and does not restrict the writers to focus only on how to kill vampires (like all old movies and series early followed the same storyline with the death of the vampire antagonist in the end). The vampire fever is set to rise in temperature with the arrival of new shows (like The Originals) and movies in the near future.

On Women Empowerment

You think I can’t take my decisions? Well I’ll show you I can. You think I’ll give in to women subjugation? I won’t. You believe you can dictate your terms. Guess what? You’re wrong. You think I am a 19^th century girl dependent on you, lacking empowerment? You wish it were the case. You want me to be a conformist? I will show you I am a rebel. I can fight for myself. Vouch for myself. I can support myself.