Category: Lifestyle

The lifestyle of millennials is underreported in our mainstream media. The Current’s lifestyle news covers social events and issues that are unique.

  • Fishing boat rescues Faisal Edhi from capsized boat into Karachi’s Malir river

    Fishing boat rescues Faisal Edhi from capsized boat into Karachi’s Malir river

    Social Activist Faisal Edhi, the son of late Abdul Sattar Edhi was rescued by a fisherman after a boat carrying him and five others capsized into deep water during a rescue operation.

    According to reports, Edhi was going to rescue eight missing persons on the request of their families when the boat overturned. Edhi and Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) MPA Raja Azhar were on the same boat.

    All officials were rescued by a nearby fishing boat and Edhi and other vIctims were taken to the Ibrahim Haideri jetty.

    Recounting the experiences, Edhi said: “We were a total of six people and were wearing life jackets that helped us swim towards our boat. We held onto its rope and when we saw a fishing boat pass by, we called the fishermen for help.”

    “They rescued us,” shared the philanthropist.

    https://twitter.com/sheharyaralii/status/1298600014743252998?s=20

    Karachi experienced record torrential rains this year, wreaking havoc on the city’s infrastructure and drainage system. According to the Met Office, Tuesday’s rainfall broke a 90-year record with 345mm of rain recorded at Karachi’s PAF Faisal Base.

    Read more – Sindh Wildlife Department clarifies no crocodiles escaped from Mangho Pir shrine

    Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah has declared an emergency across the province while roof-collapse, electrocution and drowning incidents make headlines.

    In Karachi, Malir, Korangi, Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Saadi Town, Liaquatabad, Federal B Area, North Karachi, Surjani Town and North Nazimabad are some of the areas that are underwater after receiving heavy rainfall since Monday night.

    Power outages are also spelling misery for the people of the country’s largest city.

  • Fact Check: Video showing man jumping into rainwater is fake

    Claim: Viral video showed that in Karachi, a man jumped into accumulated rainwater from the rooftop of his building

    Fact: Video was taken from an Indian Youtube channel and was published two days earlier

    With rain wreaking havoc across Sindh and flooding roads across provincial capital Karachi yet again, a viral video has shown a man jumping into rainwater from a rooftop, which according to The Current’s verification, is not from Karachi.

    As per the details, the video showing a man jumping from the rooftop of a residential building into accumulated rainwater first surfaced on Sunday evening. It wasn’t later that it broke the internet by Monday afternoon as it was widely shared by people claiming it to be a scene from Karachi.

    However, going the extra mile to dig out facts regarding the video, The Current ascertained that it was actually a video from the Indian city of Mumbai, and was uploaded to an Indian YouTube channel two days ago, on August 23.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://twitter.com/ToxicTruths83/status/1298295506569965568

    While the said video is not from Karachi, the port city is still submerged owing to lack of proper monsoon infrastructure there.

    Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Murad Ali Shah has declared an emergency across the province while roof-collapse, electrocution and drowning incidents make headlines.

    In Karachi, Malir, Korangi, Landhi, Shah Faisal Colony, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Saadi Town, Liaquatabad, Federal B Area, North Karachi, Surjani Town and North Nazimabad are some of the areas that are underwater after receiving heavy rainfall since Monday night.

    Power outages are also spelling misery for the people of the country’s largest city.

    VERDICT: FALSE

  • KFC suspends its ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ slogan due to COVID-19

    KFC suspends its ‘Finger Lickin’ Good’ slogan due to COVID-19

    KFC has announced it will be suspending its slogan “It’s Finger Lickin’ Good” due to coronavirus. The food chain has used the slogan for more than six decades but is now skipping it because of the pandemic.

    The fastfood chain, in a statement, on Monday said that it would not be using the slogan for the first time in 64 years because it “doesn’t quite feel right”.

    “We find ourselves in a unique situation – having an iconic slogan that doesn’t quite fit in the current environment,” Catherine Tan-Gillespie, global chief marketing officer at KFC said.

    The menu isn’t changing and the company said the slogan will return when the “time is right.”

    The decision comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised people not to touch their eyes, nose and mouth amid the pandemic.

    In a YouTube video posted on the company’s UK and Ireland account, KFC blurred ‘finger lickin’ on old billboards and buckets of chicken after the announcement.

    “That thing we always say? Ignore it. For now,” the video reads.

  • VIDEO: Female YouTuber who was receiving threats thanks police for support

    VIDEO: Female YouTuber who was receiving threats thanks police for support

    A YouTuber Muktiar Bibi, who makes videos on the daily routine of her life in the village, in a recent video, shared that she is receiving threats from a few people in her area. Muktiar, whose channel ‘Daily Routine’ has over 200,000 subscribers, alleged that people that she considered her close friends are threatening her to give them her channel or the earnings from it.

    According to the Youtuber, these people even threatened her to kidnap her son or involve her in a legal case from which she would never be able to get out.

    “They want us to either handover our channel or give them the money earned from this. I have kept my son Mohammad Abrar in the house for the past six to seven days. I don’t let him go outside because I am scared. I am a mother,” she said in the video. Bibi requested her viewers to support and help her. The video, now made private, was widely shared on social media, after which the Lodhran Police contacted Bibi.

    “I request that you guys help me and tell me what can I do. We live in this small house. What do we know about court matters?”

    I made this small channel and it eventually grew to the point where I could earn enough to feed my children and educate them. I have promoted some 30 channels here but never have I taken money from them. I promoted them so they can succeed and use their channel to earn.

    At the end of the video, Muktiar told her followers that in case anything happens to her in the future, they should know her side of the story.

    After the video went viral, the local police of Lodhran district went to her house and assured the family that they would be safe. She uploaded another video on Sunday in which she thanked the Lodhran Police DPO for offering support. The video showcases Muktiar and her son talking to the police and thanking them.

    “I would like to thank the DPO of Lodhran, Syed Qara Hussain Shah. I pray that he succeeds in his life and stays happy,” she said.

  • Hotels in Naran, Kaghan and Shogran sealed after fresh cases of COVID-19

    The Mansehra district administration has sealed all hotels in Shogran, Naran and Kaghan after fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported among staff working at different hotels.

    According to Dawn, Mansehra Additional Deputy Commissioner Maqbool Hussain said that the district health department had reported 47 cases of coronavirus at private hotels located in these spots. As a result, authorities decided to close down all hotels in the area to curb the spread of the virus. It has not yet been specified when the hotels will reopen but Hussain said that they would only be allowed to operate till the situation is brought under control.

    Hussain further revealed that 48 hotels, including 22 main businesses and their respective branches, had been sealed at all three tourist spots and the infected patients had been quarantined at the hotels. He added that the local health department and officials were in the process of tracing and testing those who had come into contact with the patients.

    Read more – Dr Yasmin Rashid expresses satisfaction over decreasing COVID-19 cases in Punjab

    On the other hand, ARY News reported that only five hotels in Naran and Kaghan have been sealed after some of the hotels’ staff tested positive for COVID-19. The report added that no ban has been placed on tourists wishing to visit the areas as some hotels have been reopened after disinfection.

    Meanwhile, the Kaghan Development Authority (KDA) on Sunday recommended the Mansehra deputy commissioner to impose a ‘smart lockdown’ in Naran.

    “It is proposed that a ‘smart lockdown’ [be imposed] on the hotels/restaurants to avoid the spread of COVID-19,” read the letter addressed to the DC.

    After the government reopened businesses and allowed tourism in the areas, there has been a surge in cases of COVID-19 cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa forcing local authorities to start large-scale random testing of tourists.

    “We have started conducting random testing of both tourists and hotel workers,” Raza Ali Habib, director general of the Galiyat development Authority (GDA) said, adding that 1000 tourists were tested during the last one week out of which only 25 tested positive.

    According to a report by the KP tourism department, approximately 627,000 tourists entered Hazara and Malakand divisions after the government lifted COVID-19 restrictions. The reports further revealed that tourists’ inflow to Abbottabad and Galiyat was high as compared to other areas as more than 356,000 entered the areas in the first 12 days.

    The government has been actively requesting people to take the necessary precautions and follow SOPs strictly to prevent the spread of the disease.

  • BOOK REVIEW: Dare To Be You — Pakistan’s First English Self-Development Book

    BOOK REVIEW: Dare To Be You — Pakistan’s First English Self-Development Book

    When the COVID-19 pandemic began and I started working from home, I bought into the uproar on social media about having more free time. My first, and perhaps only, resolution for this “extra time” was to read more books, and, in line with everyone’s suggestions about learning new skills and working on one’s own self, I thought I’d try and get two birds with one stone.

    As it so happened, I came across this new book on social media: “Dare to Be You — Pakistan’s First English Self-Development Book” by Shahzad Malik. I was very intrigued and immediately went to the website and ordered it. The book arrived a couple of days later and honestly, I was blown away when I took it out of the packaging. It looked better up close than it did in the pictures. The cover design is beautiful — it’s very minimalistic and, quite like the book itself, it’s not in-your-face. It’s powerful in its subtlety.

    It didn’t take me very long to finish the book once I started it. It’s not very long but, more importantly, once I started, I was hooked! I didn’t want to put it down. In fairness, I had not expected this when I bought the book or picked it up. I’m very wary of self-help books generally because they always feel very preachy to me. “You’re living life all wrong, and you must do x, y, and z if you want to be successful.” It almost always leaves a very bittersweet taste in my mouth. But, luckily, “Dare to Be You” isn’t like that at all! It’s very real and very candid. Like the author’s sitting right there talking to you. Like a conversation between friends.

    I mean, of course, it is a self-development book, so of course, it’s going to include certain preferred acts and traits. But when I say the book is very real I mean that the author isn’t minimising what you’re going through. He seems to be well-aware of it. And when he talks to you, it feels like he’s talking to you as someone who has been through the things you’re currently going through, has managed to come out on “the other side”, and is now reaching back trying to pull you there too. I’m not one to take everything at face value, so I was a bit skeptical of whether the author actually “made it” and a few Google searches showed me he really had. And after reading the (deeply personal) incidents he’s narrated in the book and how he navigated through them, I really have a new-found respect for him.

    “Dare to Be You” is built around one central idea that resonates throughout the book; all of us have the potential to be better and to do better, and we owe it to ourselves to try until we get to where we want to be. In certain places, the book definitely adopts a tough-love attitude, where it actively engages with the excuses we sometimes buy into. But the tough love is fair game, and, honestly? It really helps. Because it really makes you face what you’re running away from, while also guiding you to the support and confidence you need to win (think of the coach in any famous boxing movie pumping up the boxer before the big fight).

    The book discusses a number of topics, all the way from overthinking to fear to finding one’s passion. It addresses the idea of mindfulness, of allowing ourselves to listen to our emotions rather than let ourselves be overwhelmed by our thoughts and the discouraging voices in our heads. This idea also flows through the book, and we are reacquainted with it at various points along the way, helping to really ground it in the reader’s mind. And in anxious times such as these, this has been game-changing. The book also lets readers explore how we can change our default way of approaching situations, by allowing for greater awareness of our internal frameworks. For instance, it allows us to explore the fears we carry, that hold us back, and lead to us minimising ourselves. This, in turn, allows us to see them for what they really are and shed them off, taking away their power over us so that we are not perpetually afraid and encumbered.

    One of my key take-aways from the book has to be from the chapter on happiness. To quote from the book:

    “I had become scared of feeling happy because I thought good things didn’t last. Think about it. It seems so simple when I write it down, but it was such a profound realization for me – that I could be afraid of happiness. That I could be afraid of something beautiful, simply because I was afraid I would lose it.

    The book really invites readers to give themselves a real, honest chance at happiness — both in the small everyday joys and as a mindset — that can become the basis for a more content and resilient life. And once you’re no longer afraid of happiness, the journey to discover your passion becomes a lot clearer (the book helps prevent the associated overwhelm by providing a structure to navigate your journey).

    It’s been nearly a fortnight since I finished the book. And over the past two weeks, I’ve found myself thinking back to the book, and even picking it up to re-read certain parts of it. For a relatively light read, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how it has stayed with me (almost on a subconscious level), allowing me to already start changing some of my habits that have just always been there. I find myself taking down my internal barriers one by one, and actively trying to do away with the voice inside my head that’s always more-than-happy to tell me I’m not good enough.

    Granted, I haven’t yet achieved everything I wanted to and I haven’t arrived at the pinnacle of my life’s work. But “Dare to Be You” has certainly allowed me to start walking down the path I’ve been avoiding for a very long time. The path to a self-aware, authentic and meaningful life.

  • Python recovered from house in Lahore

    Python recovered from house in Lahore

    Rescue 1122 team found a python which was almost seven-foot-long from a house in Lahore’s Garhi Shahu area.

    As per reports, the team had received an emergency call from a resident of Siddique Colony who found the python at his home. The rescue authorities managed to recover the python who was six feet and 11 inches long.

    A spokesperson for the Rescue 1122 said it would be too early to say as to how and from where the snake came into the house. He further said that the python had been handed over to the Lahore Zoo administration under an already issued standard operating procedure.

    He said the Rescue 1122 teams had responded to 1,719 emergency calls related to the existence of snakes all over the province since January this year.

  • 76-year-old gets admission in Malakand University to complete his degree

    A 76-year-old man in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is fulfilling his dreams of getting a B.A degree.

    The old man could not complete his studies due to financial crisis. The financial problems might have stopped him from continuing his studies but he did not give up.

    Speaking to Independent Urdu, Muhammad Khan said, “I passed the matriculation examination in 1962 and joined the government school in 1963 as a teacher. I retired as a teacher in 2004 but was interested in education, now I have passed the FA exam in 2020 and now want to do a BA.”

    Khan, who enjoys reading, further shared: “I want to get a Master’s degree after doing a BA.”

    The elderly man added that he has educated his daughters from primary to postgraduate and now wants to continue his own studies.

    After so many years, Khan has now taken admission to appear in the BA Part-I exams. The vice-chancellor of the University of Malakand is supporting Khan financially and any other help that he might need.

  • ‘Chocolate snow’ falls over Swiss town after ventilation defect at Lindt factory

    ‘Chocolate snow’ falls over Swiss town after ventilation defect at Lindt factory

    A chocolate lovers’ dream came true for residents of a small Swiss town when “chocolate snow” started falling from the sky after a ventilation fault at a Lindt factory.

    According to details, the ventilation system of the Lindt and Spruengli company factory broke down and a light dust of cocoa powder spread in the nearby areas due to the winds.

    The company made it known that the particles will not damage people or the environment. The company also confirmed that they will bear all cleaning costs as a car was covered in chocolate powder.

    The problem was quickly addressed by the company and work resumed in the factory.

    People kind of enjoyed the sweet disaster in the year 2020.

    https://twitter.com/navdhad/status/1295721821074067456?s=20

  • Punjab bans recordings of films, dramas at mosques, shrines

    The Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department has banned the shooting of films and dramas in mosques and shrines after the recent controversy surrounding Bilal Saeed and Saba Qamar’s latest song Qubool which was shot at Lahore’s historical Masjid Wazir Khan.

    According to details, a notification dated August 13, 2020, states that if any act is recorded in a mosque or a shrine, the relevant manager and zonal administrator would be responsible.

    The approval to shoot a documentary in these sites will be subject to consultation with the department of religious affairs, it adds.

    The Auqaf department’s notification specified that no shooting featuring a woman in a shrine or mosque will be allowed.

    Approximately 544 shrines and 437 mosques fall under the management of the department, which has been listed in its notification issued last week.

    Read More – Fahad Mustafa, Iqrar ul Hassan extend support to Saba, Bilal after music video backlash

    The decision came after public outcry against the shoot of a music video featuring Bilal Saeed and Saba Qamar at Wazir Khan mosque in Lahore. Though the two artists publicly apologised for hurting public sentiment and removed the sequence from their music video, they received a lot of backlash and cases were also registered over the scene picturized at the mosque.