When I was a kid and looked like a boy, my dad, my brother and I would all go to this barber shop and get haircuts together. A cute humble barber shop with sweet smiling men who'd cut your hair for just a few riyals, and the kids would get to sit on the seat that looks like a car, with a steering wheel and all. There was a glass floor that had water and real fish inside it, and I would walk over it and follow the fishes and wonder if I should suggest to the the owner to keep sharks or whales in it too but was shy. At the end they had this nice big poofy fluffy brush dipped in powder with which they'd pat the spikey bits of leftover hair off your neck. It felt like a thousand kittens.
Then I looked up at the mirror today and the woman cutting my hair butchered me into a boy and I had to pay 600 rupees for it.
Thursday, 18 April 2013
Fish and snips
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 18:34:00 8 comments
Thursday, 4 April 2013
The Art of Loneliness
You open a book, play the song of the day, watch a movie. Paint. Draw. Write. Jam. Worship. Work out. Study. Judge. Text that old friend. You seek an escape from loneliness and that escape becomes more important, so your books and music and internet and your opinions and your god/s and nicotine all become important. Escape through your family, your friends, your cat, your studies, your very own creativity - an entire culture based on escape. Everything we call civilization. And then they tell you to discover your roots and follow the values of tradition.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 10:28:00 3 comments
peanutbutter
And nothing will threaten you if you've found comedy in your misery.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 08:58:00 3 comments
Thursday, 21 March 2013
The Art of Listening
We are screened with prejudices, whether religious or spiritual, psychological or scientiļ¬c; or with our daily worries, desires and fears. And with these for a screen, we listen. Therefore, we listen really to our own noise, to our own sound, not to what is being said.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 10:15:00 7 comments
Saturday, 23 February 2013
But the earth was made without labels
Afghanistan
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 16:04:00 1 comments
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
Shame Shame
We must not be ashamed to talk about what God was not ashamed to create.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 05:02:00 3 comments
Friday, 21 December 2012
Soul vomit
Hahahahaha. It's no secret fact I suck at blogging now. It's alright. We all know the glory is short lived. Thank you for the gold. For now let's not entertain. Let's just talk.
I watch shit loads of National Geographic and I spend hours video recording the ants crawling across the floor or crows on the balcony or crabs on the beach, to a point where I probably understand animals more than I might understand humans. One thing I've learnt, guys? Nature is a bitch. Hahahahahaha. For real. Yes, it's green, and beautiful, and real, and rich and colourful from the outside. Inside, the system is just as calculated as your ordinary manufactured product. It's a moral paradox. A lioness will brutally kill a baby zebra to feed her hungry cubs, but what about the mother of the baby zebra who got killed? Which side of the two babies do you take? On my 20th birthday I reached home from school to find my cat piercing its teeth through the neck of a squealing baby bird right in front of my eyes and I knew it was the way her instinct was designed but I still uncontrollably smacked her face, intervened into the scene and pulled the bird out of her mouth before it could die. It lived in my room with food and water but died the next day anyway.
Then yesterday, again on National Geographic, I watched two tortoises fight for who gets to mate the chic tortoise. The one who flips the other tortoise over on its shell is the one who wins, and he happily goes hump his fair lady while the toppled over tortoise, if unable to get back on his legs, usually gets cooked by the sun, literally.
This is what scares me. When competition and survival and the inevitable process of ending another life to borrow its energy just so you can have more energy to live on, is so built-in to the system of the very laws of nature, the human experience where our emotions are so much more complex and conscious at the same time, must be a pretty darn hard and cold experience sometimes.
In this cold world, I genuinely hope that all of you find your peace. If you have already found your little beacons of peace, hold on to it as much as you can. The rest will flow. If you still haven't found it, it is not your fault, but don't give in to it. Keep looking for it. All this is just the very essence of what it is to be human. It will sometimes be cold and slap you and slash you and whip you, but you are the only product of nature that can feel it. It's as if nature gave you the honour to feel its pain because you're the only one who could take it. You are as real as nature could get.
Let it say thank you to you, thank you for the glory.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 07:25:00 5 comments
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Funny Money
This month I ventured into some of the most beautiful places the planet has to offer. I dove 20 feet under the sea and swam with all sorts of alien looking marine species with tiger stripes and jelly fins and electric scales and we had a fun bubble party together and I thought I'm living the life I've always wanted to. And yet there was no difference between living it for real, and dreaming it in my sleep. Both are real because they both equally feel real to me. Did I really pay all that shit loads of money for nothing when I was already living the life I wanted to without realizing? Hah! Oh, DeeDee.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 08:11:00 4 comments
Thursday, 15 November 2012
Friday, 21 September 2012
Karachi Excerpts
When sin becomes the system and the wrong way becomes the only way, every day you live without turning into another monster like the rest of them, is just another day that you've accomplished something. And so I don't think I will forget that middle class urban man in a green t-shirt, obliviously feeding seeds to the pigeons in the middle of heavy school traffic in the morning while van drivers fill the air with swear words.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 08:42:00 1 comments
Mediums
"Sup"
"Nun much I have cancer."
"Oh where"
"In my armpit"
"Oh. That's cool."
"Hmm"
"Hmm..."
Me and the closest person I spent 20 years of my life with, don't know how to talk to each other on the phone. At all. It's not the lack of words; there's always something to say. It's just the medium. Mediums can kill everything.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 08:22:00 4 comments
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
I am the smile that was secretly offered
Is there no sense of self apart from your taste in art and music and movies and sports and activities and interests? Is that all you are? Such tricks. Let the heart be naked and speak for itself. Don't be describable.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 22:13:00 2 comments
Saturday, 1 September 2012
I don't have shoes anymore because someone stole them.
The earth is round and space is infinite and once in a while the rotation of the planet will make you upside down in space without you knowing and when you think you're looking up at the heavens you're actually looking at hell and when you're looking down to hell it's really heaven. Haha.
Life's too short to hold grudges. Let's be balloons of our favorite colours and float and entangle and pop.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 07:07:00 4 comments
Thursday, 19 July 2012
My Best Friend's Logic
Once a schoolmate was very depressed about life. My best friend came along and told him not to think about it and randomly slapped him hard on the face and kicked him in the balls. The guy was like "Wtf did you do that for!?" and my best friend says, "Are you sad now?" The guy replies "No I'm in too much fucking pain."
"Exactly," says my best friend.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 08:26:00 5 comments
Sunday, 15 July 2012
Glue
So guys. Tell me a secret today. I feel like bonding.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 13:51:00 14 comments
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Everyone likes to sing even if they suck at it.
There needs to be a song every human being on the planet knows. Speakers in the sky will play the music at unexpected times and every one will stop whatever they were doing and forget what who what and where and we will all just stand up wherever we are around the globe and sing together without any other care in the world. Let's all write a global anthem.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 12:15:00 11 comments
Monday, 25 June 2012
Everything in it's Right Place
I read all of your blogs. I read them and try to study what kind of people you are and what kind of things you go through and what kind of stories you have and what really happened that made you post what you posted. There are some of you who are different from me and find importance in things I do not, and some of you probably think the same of me. There are some who struggle a lot and have channeled it into hardcore wisdom. There are some in love and I hope it makes you more happy than sad. There are some who are alone and have music, movies or books as their best friends which I think that is just perfect. There are the witty ranters and the optimistic oranges and the mysterious people who will mindfuck you by writing a few lines. There are the clowns who make people laugh and the serious story tellers. You are all lovely and I love you. Everything in it's right place.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 08:56:00 15 comments
Thursday, 21 June 2012
Snowflake.
You know that surreal thing, when the adult and the baby child switch roles?
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 08:58:00 2 comments
Monday, 18 June 2012
Nil.
We are all alone and I will forget all the pages of all the books I ever read and all the movies I ever watched and the names of my favorite songs and all the thoughts I ever thought and we all will die alone and nothing will matter.
So what?
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 11:42:00 5 comments
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
What would you like to be today?
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| [The heights are to scale. Yes I'm 5 ft. Shutup.] |
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| I am horse. |
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| I am whale. |
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| I am baby dinosaur. |
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| I am baby elephant. |
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| I am nuclei. |
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| I am planet. |
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| I am tomato. |
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| I am potato. |
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 09:41:00 7 comments
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
I saw a woman today with a full on grown mustache and bushy eyebrows and thought to myself, how awesome. You know what. We poop smelly shit and we fart and burp and we are hairy and we sweat and we stink. Some of you can pretend your poop smells like flowers and you don't pass any kind of wind because you are sophisticated humans and your skin is spotless but it's all lies, lies I tell you. Why are we embarrassed by ourselves, instead of made humble?
My armpits are itching.
So bloody what?
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 17:23:00 7 comments
Saturday, 21 April 2012
Penguin Classics
The moral issues of Zoroaster, the cosmic greatness of Hinduism, the joy in Truth of Buddha, the spiritual victory of Jainism, the simple love of Tao, the wisdom of Confucius, the poetry of Shinto, the glory of the One God of Abraham, the harmony of Sikhs.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 11:01:00 1 comments
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
Transporter III
I didn't bring anything special from Lahore, but I stored her food in my stomach and shat it in Karachi 2 hours later. I think that's more beautiful and less cliche than being at two cities at once.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 12:47:00 5 comments
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Daddy Cool
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 17:41:00 6 comments
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Nothing.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 09:28:00 4 comments
Monday, 20 February 2012
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Mass Production Zone
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 13:35:00 9 comments
Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Vroom vroom.
The real-life process of learning how to drive has taught me more than Need for Speed ever did. My brother can really scream like a girl and occasionally piss in his pants thinking I'm going to whack the car into a bus. Anyway my eardrums are still functional, all's well that end's well, and I can now officially drive through the streets of the 10th largest city in the world. If you can drive here, you can drive anywhere.
Nothing can stop me now.
Except the depletion of petrol or a bunch of emotional protesters burning up the car because it somehow fixes the shit they're going through.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 20:14:00 8 comments
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
You Use the Forces of Nature, the Forces of Nature Use You
I know for some of you finding your true love is an important deal, even worth all the pain and hurt you might give to one another in the process, but quite honestly -
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 13:01:00 22 comments
Sunday, 1 January 2012
Dance to Forget
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 11:06:00 16 comments
Monday, 19 December 2011
Welcome to the Machine
The secret to being selfless, is subtle doses of self-service when no one is watching. A quick humble meal for the stomach, a few thoughts to keep the brain busy and blinking; healthy laughter a few times of the day. Fuel for the magnetic core till it becomes inert and reaches maximum stability. Occasional portrayal of emotions to prevent alienation from rest of the world. Surpassing the traps that distract you from the simplicity of being alive. Nothing's complicated. Have no desire, no goal, no needs, no wants, no obsessions, no love, no hate, no blame, no judgement, no inspiration, no heroes. Synchronize with the simple fabric of space. Conquest of the self. The caffeine and the nicotine and the cold shots are shortcuts. No being sorry for yourself. Be your own reason of what you are. Don't become the machine. Become the master of it. And when you do, step up and ask them,
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 17:02:00 16 comments
Friday, 7 October 2011
Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!
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| Time doesn't really heal. Cake does. |
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| It's not that you're special, it's statistics. There's gotta be someone you can find with mutual interests, out of 7 billion people in the world. |
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| Some ego-inflation should fill that puncture in your heart. |
You will find yourself trying really hard to cheer them up but they will slap your face with miserable bouts of failure.
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| It costed 40 Rupees at the canteen which I could've spent on four Aloo ke Samosay for myself instead. |
Oh well a few hundred calories more into my blood system.
I even make phone calls just to make sure they didn't do anything stupid in my absence, which is a big thing for me anyway because I hate phone calls, mostly because they're full of unnecessary conversation to avoid awkwardness.
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Break ups suck. Not because it makes the couple miserable, but even our lives. Please love each other carefully (don't give me that "I didn't mean to love, it just happened" - crap) and until you heal again, eat lots of cake and buy yourself a puppy becomes there's nothing more reliable of your love, than a puppy. Unless it dies. Now that's sad.
Shit.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 17:58:00 23 comments
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Energy Diversion
Stop it dude. Stop looking into the mirror again and again. In your home, in someone else's home, in the school bathrooms, in the coffee restrooms. Why is your image such a distraction. If you look good, you'll get a few upbeat remarks, feel good about yourself for a few minutes, and that's it. If you don't look good, no one will say anything and you can just move on with more important things.
Stop fidgeting with your freakin' hair. It's hair strongly attached to your head, it won't fall off if you stop touching it. Stop being touchy about it. I will ruffle your hair or give you a nudgie if I want to, however neat your hair is that morning, so deal with it.
Stop spending all your money on face washes. You know they don't work. You know the pimples will go when they want to go and there's nothing you can do about it so just let it go and let it be.
Stop wearing clothes that are completely uncomfortable to wear but you wear them because they look good.
Stop being so self-afflicting and fidgety and chaotic and self-conscious in all the wrong areas. Nobody cares about those insignificant things. Those who do just need to get laid. So calm down. You're pleasant when you're calm.
Give your brain a rest. You must be tired. When you're done, there're way bigger things out there to worry about, worth the energy.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 12:50:00 16 comments
Friday, 2 September 2011
Dancing Dice
Do you ever have a good time with a stranger that you only met once, than you would with the people you see every day of your life?
I still think of this little girl back in Riyadh, sitting at her window, who'd vigorously flail her arms around to say hello to me in a language I wouldn't understand, and I'd wave back in a language she wouldn't understand either. But we randomly waved and smiled and laughed every time we spotted each other as if we had known each other for years. I still think of that old woman who sat next to me on a plane and told me about all her children getting married, leaving her to live alone by herself. I still think of that taxi driver who sang Akon songs in front of my mum for which she called him an ullu ka patha.
Everyone doesn't always have to be in your Facebook list. You don't always have to know their names and phone numbers. Let half the people in your life be strangers that you only see for the first and last time. You will like the world more that way, and for some reason always think of them, even though they had no life-turning impact on your life.
I'm so glad I don't know more than half the people following this blog. Take it as a compliment.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 07:37:00 13 comments
Saturday, 27 August 2011
Orange.
If you went to heaven and found out you were the only one there, would you spend the rest of eternity all by yourself, or join the others in hell?
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 18:43:00 11 comments
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
Silly Things
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 06:25:00 12 comments
Monday, 4 July 2011
Guide to a Badass Galaxy
Hello class. Oh please no need to stand up. Do sit down.
Today we shall be discussing about all those badass things in the world, that have been given a reputation of being sissy and girly, by the television and virtual media that have succeeded in misleading you. Yes peeps. Today is all about unicorns, rainbows, skittles and butterflies. That's right. Badass - unicorns, rainbows, skittles and butterflies.
Let's start with unicorns. This is what they make you think a unicorn is.
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| Lalala I'm a fake unicorn that plays with the cat in Hello Kitty and ponies from My Little Pony. |
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| Ponies love meh but I don't give lift cuz I too badass for fluffy pony. |
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| Damn, ate too much Awesomeness. |
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| Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd / In Rainbows - Radiohead. |
Skittles. Also known as unicorn poop. The only kind of poop you won't hesitate to gulp down. The unicorn today is nice enough to have its poop processed into crispy nitrogen-filled packets for your convenience. But Skittles go way back, before the concept of packaging was invented. These pellets of unicorn poop were discovered in exotic Amazon rainforests and African jungles, by our ancestral tribes. It was these bullets of mysterious doodoos that they used to get high on while dancing around a fire, and thus transition into a trance-like state to communicate with their gods. Side effects included rapid cure from depression, extreme levels of rapture, uncontrollable jumping, and superhuman feelings of nothing-is-impossible which led to remarkable architecture we know today as great Egyptian pyramids and Aztec temples. Skittles is the only drug known today that won't cause trouble if caught in your pocket. ![]() |
| With my colour combination of fire orange and death black, I am a symbol of hell's warning to mankind. |
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 11:08:00 16 comments
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Aawish.
We find it natural to feel sorry for handicapped people, when it should oddly enough, be the other way. The more of the five senses you have, the more disordered you are. A blind man will always have a more colourful thought than the man who only learnt seven colours at school. A deaf man will never hear evil; a dumb man will never speak it. Their world will always be simpler, cleaner, free from the irrelevances that the five senses make our brains absorb.
It is our brain that can only go as far as the eyes can see and the ears can hear. It is us who are the handicapped.
It is us they should be sorry for.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 12:56:00 8 comments
Monday, 6 June 2011
Vanilla Ice
I went to the polar ice caps last week. I won’t brag, but you have not lived completely if you haven’t been there. I tap danced with penguins under aurora disco lights and dipped my feet in icy cold water while baby sea lions nibbled at my toes; went to sleep where a polar bear might’ve hibernated last winter; woke up with crunchy icicles in my hair.
Came back last night. The salt in my sweat from the heat here, tastes like the snow of the cold there. Weird.
You should go too. It’s free anyway. The human brain can be a fun place to be when the physical world disappoints you.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 17:08:00 9 comments
Sunday, 22 May 2011
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Being Nietzsche
Hearing range: 20 - 20000 Hz.
Visible spectrum range: 380 - 740 nm.
There's a huge possibility everything we see and hear is an illusion - it's just the same for all of us.
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 21:19:00 11 comments
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Summer Shalwar
Since I'm still in the oh-my-God-I'm-in-love-with-Karachi phase, today we shall discuss the icon wonders of one of our national clothes - the Shalwar. For those unaware of the Shalwar, it's a pair of fluffy, airy trousers that look as if someone tore down their curtains and pinned the drapes together to make this bigass wearable thing, where 80% of the volume in it consists of air. Behold - my cartoon version wearing a shalwar.
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| Quick Note: I'm not as hot in real life as I look in this picture. Please refrain from falling in love with me. |
There's a building on fire. Theres no way to escape but to jump from the highest story. It's a matter of life and death. If luck is on your side, you'd be wearing a Shalwar.
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| Awesome shalwar transforms into parachute by providing abundant air friction due to its surface area and thus saves lives. |
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| Awesome Shalwar transforms into makeshift sail - with its flexible and environment-friendly material, allows safe arrival of the boat to the desired destination. |
Suddenly, Superman encounters a turmoil.
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| Awesome Shalwar saves Superman's reputation. |
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| Awesome Shalwar acts as flag and prevents further competition between US and Russia. Shalwar deserves Nobel Peace Prize. |
Posted by Rija Yousuf at 11:43:00 28 comments








































