KLF-London!: The beginning of a new era!

For everyone who knows me, they might be aware of the importance of #KLF in my Life. A little prequel, you can read HERE!. After the successful 8^th Karachi Literature Festival, and it’s sub-festivals in Islamabad, Lahore etc. KLF launched at Southbank Centre in LONDON! YES, LONDON!!!!!

At the 70^th anniversary of the Independence of Pakistan, what better way of celebrating our talent, rich history and culture through a literature festival in the heart of London. The event kick started on the 20^th of May, and was held at the Royal Festival Hall of South Bank Centre, as a part of their annual festival ALCHEMY. KLF in London not only bought writers, artists, scholars from diverse backgrounds, creative traditions and academic disciplines, but also all the readers, art enthusiasts, and culturally woke ex-pats and the foreigners alike! #KLFLondon was organized by Oxford University Press Pakistan in collaborations with the Southbank Centre, Bloomsburry Pakistan, and Rukhsana Ahmed.

The audiences at the KLF were treated to a medley of around 20 parallel sessions encompassing talks, panel discussions, poetry readings, mushaira, and performances. A stellar cast of around 70 leading Pakistani-origin and international writers, scholars, critics, journalists, and artists participated in stimulating sessions covering a broad range of themes, ideas, and subjects pertaining to Pakistan’s literature, arts, and culture. A separate strand for children which included an immersive theatre piece by Jungly Jadoogars; an animated film by the artist Fauzia Minallah; storytelling by the children’s author, Shahbano Bilgrami; and sing-along songs by the veteran Pakistani musician, Khaled Anam, were also a part of the festival.

The KLF London, since being first of its kind, revolved around immediate issues, concreting around the themes like Freedom, Justice and democracy. KLF London also widely celebrated the optimism of the human spirit and the ability of arts to celebrate and change lives through the power of words and expressions. KLF London also brought forward important topics like domestic violence, harassment, marital rape, and other social injustices like internalized misogyny, transphobia, gender/class divide, religious extremism etc.

The evening came to a close by a kathak dance performance by Shayma Saiyid and a music concert by Khumariyaan, a Peshawar-based music band known for their fusion brand of Pashtun folk music. 

KLF London was sponsored by Bestway, Arts Council England, Third World Quarterly magazine, Salt n Pepper restaurant, High Commission of Pakistan in London, South Asia Institute of the University of Texas at Austin, and The Pakistan Society. 

For events like these happening outside Pakistan to promote Pakistani voices and their work, I think it’s such a brilliant and spectacular way of diminishing the social barriers between us and the west. Pakistan REALLY needs to be shown in a positive spotlight and away from the moral shortcomings and all the bad shiz that has been associated with us throughout the years. Events like these are really good not only for our image, but also for opening tremendous opportunities for our budding future writers, artists and scholars.

Working as a part of such an amazing thing as #KLF has truly been an honor, and Till I wait for next year’s KLF and KLF London, this is me, singing off.

Digitally Drowsy,

Wurduh Jaffri

Lay's #SayItWithASmile and WINNN!!

Because Lay’s is always at it with being super productive and bringing the consumers new and exciting campaigns and marketing tactics, Lay’s Pakistan just launched yet another brilliant campaign! Lay’s #SayItWithASmile is an initiative for the consumers to spread smiles and happiness around them! Since little joys of life are sometimes all we need, and a little smile goes a long way to make an impact, Lay’s is spreading smiles all over Pakistan in an utterly adorable way!

Lay’s is not just asking us to smile, but spread some smiles around us whilst saying what we need to! With the very cool new packaging of lay’s with around 25 different smiles of multiple movie characters/genres, we can now choose a specific smile on the lay’s pack according to our mood and convey our mood to others, while cheekily making them laugh with a touch of humor! There are literally numerous scenarios where we can use these Lay’s smile packs to #SayItWithASmile!

The campaign kicked off with an absolutely adorable and exciting TVC, featuring Shahid Khan Afridi, Momal Sheikh and Imran Abbass! Y’all can watch the TVC here!

Lay’s Pakistan also went all out on spreading smiles through showering gifts for Pakistanis!  The brand launched an amazing Lay’s Win It With A Smile promo where we get the chance to win Samsung S7 Edge daily with several Cash prizes of whooping one million rupees every week!

To participate in the lucky draw, Buy a Lay’s Smile Pack, scratch the code at the back, and SMS to 9005 to make your entry! Now your every SMS counts as an entry, which is pretty cool considering I’m about to go to the grocery store and buy myself a carton of Lays to get lotsa codes, and LOTSA LAYSS and maximize my chances of winning! Eeeep! Fingers crossed!

Till I pray to win, spread smiles around me, and #SayItWithASmile, this is me, singing off!

Digitally Smiling,

Wurduh Jaffri

Celebrate Mother's Day with TCS Sentiments! #GiveBack

Motherhood is a very special thing! What can be more special than the beautiful bond between a mother and her aulaad! All the beautiful times when this strong female role model mad your life worth living can truly never be replaced. And we being good children of our lovely mothers’ can never repay all the times she went through hell and beyond to raise us the way we are!

No amount of appreciation can be enough for this special godly figure in our lives, but this mother’s day, TCS sentiments came forward to help us children display those beautiful sentiments to our mothers. Since buying gifts is no new thing, but buying something customized exactly for your mother with all the love and appreciation you have for her might be everything your mother might need to feel a teensy bit special this mother’s day.

TCS Sentiments now has a wide range of products for every event and special occasions, and this mother day, you can order various surprises for your mommy dearest with the utmost ease and discounts (20% off through jazzcash) from the TCS sentiments website, and #GiveBack to your momma!

TCS Sentiments is also currently running a nationwide contest where all you have to do is create a fun little recreation of your mom and your expression when receiving gifts from eachother, and uploading that picture on TCS Sentiment’s facebook page’s wall! Every day till the 13^th, winners will be selected daily from the plethora of enthusiastic participants and will win surprise hampers, which in my opinion is pretty cool!

If we’re talking about me, I ordered lotsa gifts for ammi, Made her a cutesy illustration where we both look hella badasss, took ammi out on a dinner date to sizzlers, Karachi, where she had a lot of fun celebrating her wedding anniversary/mother’s day, and also did a mini cake cutting ceremony (my sister surprised her with a cake mail) with my mother’s mother, which in my opinion is the sweetest thing ever! On mother’s day, I honoured my mom, and my mom honoured her mom! TEARS <3

Do #GiveBack to your mother or any motherly figure you have in your life, and love her and respect her, and shower her with love and hugs and affection, because memories are all we can make in this lifetime.

Till I wait for all the presents I ordered for my momma, this is me, singing out.

Broke, but blessed,

Wurduh Jaffri!