Pari It Is

Pop/rock band Kashmir never ceases to impress us. Sometimes they do it with their lilting melodies and sometimes with thoughtful content. Their latest offering, Pari, is a nice little song highlighting the issue of depression, an ailment that many in our society don’t take seriously or like to talk about.

Both the video (directed by Ashar Khalid) of the song and its music gel well with its theme, putting the sensitive message across quite beautifully. Well done guys, and keep that Pari happy and full of life.

Caring Mawra

That’s how you do it. We all know that Indian actor Rishi Kapoor is these days in the US recovering from treatment for a lethal disease. Last week, our very own Mawra Hocane, with one of her friends, went to see Rishi K to inquire after his health. This made the Bollywood star super happy and he tweeted about Mawra H and her friend. Now, relations between India and Pakistan are far from being ideal.

It is gestures like these that may perhaps make governments think about how wrong they are to encourage jingoism. Mawra H, well done.

Hack Attack

First it was Amitabh Bachchan’s Twitter account that got mysteriously hacked with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s display picture on it. A few days later, musician and former Pakistani national Adnan Sami Khan’s account was also compromised. Both accounts were later recovered.

Come on, Amitabh B is a big name; sneaking into his handle is understandable. But Adnan SK! Oh, he must’ve pleaded with the hacker, mujh ko bhi tau lift kara de.

OJ on Twitter

‘Oh no’ is the phrase that springs to mind. On June 14, former NFL player and actor O.J. Simpson (yes, the same guy who was tried for the double murder of his wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron 25 years back) joined Twitter.

This transpired only two days after the wife’s death anniversary. Informing the Twitterati about his (chilly) intentions, he wrote: “You’ll get to read my thoughts and opinions on just about everything.” Everything? Including how to fool the justice system, OJ?

Ghosts of Love

This is spooky on a funny level. Courtney Love, who was married to the legendary grunge rock star Kurt Cobain of Nirvana until he committed suicide in 1994, has revealed something pretty unbelievable in an interview.

According to her, in the late’90s, when she was going out with actor Edward Norton, she was visited by the ghost of Kurt C. Back then she had just shifted to Hancock Park from Seattle. She said when she entered the house, she saw the Nirvana frontman sitting in a chair; he said ‘hi’ to her and left. She topped off the story by claiming it was lame. Yep, the way you told the story Courtney L, it certainly is lame.

Not Soon

The reports of Bollywood livewire Varun Dhawan’s allegedly upcoming marriage to his girlfriend, the gorgeous Natasha Dalal — the rumours were it’s likely to happen this year — died down when his father, director David Dhawan, denied it.

The elder Dhawan told the media that while his son can tell him whenever he wants to tie the knot, it’s not happening in 2019. And then, a day later, Varun D himself cleared the air by telling a web portal that his marriage is not taking place “anytime soon.” Well, that was a non-event.

Published in Dawn, ICON, June 23rd, 2019