Sonya Syed

Finally, the Punjab government has realized the health risks and zero nutritional value of trans fat like margarine, and banned Blue-band margarine as it is made with vegetable oil that does not have quality of either butter or something similar to butter. Trans unsaturated fats or trans fats are mainly produced industrially from plant oils for use in margarine, snack foods and packaged baked goods. While saturated fats come mainly from animal products, such as butter, cows' milk, meat, salmon and egg yolks, and some plant products such as chocolate and palm oils. For decades giant businesses heavily advertised the greatness of margarine and degraded the nutritional value of pure butter. Butter, ghee, cheese, rice, whole milk and wheat have been demonized for decades, accompanied by health research and studies informing the consumers that pure butter and ghee are responsible for obesity and weight gain, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol and hypertension. ...

Yesterday for no particular reason, I watched Shahrukh and Mahira’s starrer Raees movie song. It had all the ingredients which a typical Shahrukh songs contain, a beautiful heroine with long flowing dupatta or a sari pullo, and of course Shahrukh himself. Shahrukh Khan and Mahira   I felt that with him, Indian film industry is on the verge of losing its last batch of ‘Heroes’. Let me explain what I mean by this, I grew up at a time when Indian films slowly started to make a big impact on Pakistan’s society, culture and households through their films released on video cassettes. Besides my family, the people I saw every weekend at my family get-togethers were Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, and Shashi Kapoor.     Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor Left to Right: Amitabh, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar & Amjad Khan Till today the images of these heroes/ stars are engraved on my mind and for me the terms ‘good looking and handsome’ are defined by th...

So much has happened since Aey Dil Hai Mushkil, Americans have elected Donald Trump, Pakistan has Panama Leaks, world has refugee crisis and I was a judge at the Law Moot Competition held at a local university. Yeh, I know it sounds crazy, since many strange things are already happening so I also decided to contribute my share. For my non-legal readers moot court competition is replica of a court hearing; participants are given fictional facts which they analyze, extract legal problems, research the law, prepare written submissions and present oral arguments. I must say that we have some real gem of lawyers coming up and I pray that with them enters new soul to the legal system. The talent we have is commendable and if I may not sound too biased then my students were simply amazing- I am extremely proud of them all. Judging the competition was such an enriching and empowering experience that I want to do it again; however, it also tests one’s focus and endurance levels. I hav...

I know that I don’t have to, but being Sonya, I have to. Else I would not be able to contain this in my being. Today I used all of my will power to watch a very much hyped movie called “Aye Dil Hai Mushkil”. Aur sirf yeh mera dil hi janta hai key mujhe iss muskhil ko dekhne kitni shadeed mushkil hoee hai. I am very happy that Fawad Khan was not the entire part of this ‘Ashfaq Ahmed Sahab cum Bano Qudsia cum Haseena Moeen’ type philosophical love story. Karan Johar has used everything one could possibly imagine, from Shah Rukh Khan, Ali Bhatt, PIA logo in the Ashwarya-Ranbir scene, to the glorious voice of Madam Noor Jehan, the enchanting poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, classic Hindi motive songs, cancer idea of Rajesh Khanna’s ‘Anand’ and of course an extremely beautified Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, to illuminate his movie but alas… it was a puff of smoke. Love is the central theme of this film, someone is calling it heroine, someone naming it a cancer. All central cha...

Time flies by so quickly, it seems as if we are travelling with the speed of light. Months have become days and years have changed into months, it was almost one month since I last wrote.  Today I strongly feel to talk about depression. We are inundated these days with articles, surveys, and medical/ scientific updates on depression and anxiety; however, nothing so far has been absolutely successful when it comes to completely eradicating this disease. In fact, the more research and awareness we have the more rapidly depression is increasing. There are very interesting views in our society about depression, some people believe that too much thinking causes depression- so stop thinking or think more positively and your problem will disappear. Some recommend daily exercise, while others suggest praying and seeking spiritual cures and so on. Each of the above treatments are part of the overall depression-cure program, but what we lack in understanding that the thoughts t...

Yesterday evening was really tough as I was down with a bad headache, nothing made sense. I had a strange feeling, so for no particular reason I opened up facebook and then as I was going through the news feed, I saw that Maalik’s official page has shared my post of Day 562. Day before yesterday I wrote an email to Mr. Ashir Azeem where I shared my excitement about his film, congratulated him for his endeavor and shared my blog link. And next day he shared my link on his page. Suddenly the high intensity of headache lessened to lower degrees; and I was very happy.  Thank you  so much Ashir Sir for acknowledging my humble effort.  When I was beginning my law practice I had few weeks of internship with Ms. Naveen Merchant advocate, one day as we were coming out of the Custom House I told Ms. Merchant about my wish to meet Ashir Azeem and with all her motherly affection she got excited and immediately called few people to arrange my meeting at Ashir Sir’s office, but u...

Overwhelmed, saddened but still hopeful are the three words that would naturally come to your experience once you watch Maalik, Pakistan’s latest cinematic adventure. As expected, Ashir Azeem was fabulous and every actor gave their best. I still remember the craze and phenomena of 'Dhooan', it was very the first action-thriller TV play and it took the entire country by storm, we all just loved it. Today there is Maalik, a great achievement for Pakistan's cinema.      What I most admire about Ashir Azeem is the way he portrays women, he brilliantly presents the perfect amalgamation of feminine fragility and strength- the lover and the warrior.  Although the film was released worldwide and received adulation, however, it was banned in Pakistan for offending someone in Government, Ashir had to face a lot of hell after the release of this movie. His job was threatened to the point of terminating him, various investigations and cases have been opene...