The Cover Story

You guys might be wondering I am bit of a cuckoo changing my cover photos every now and then while I should be focusing more on my life.

Well the thing about my cover photos is that a part of me loves stories. Each of my cover photo tells a story. It can be happy, sad, anxious, excited, and hopeful or even a completely meaning less story. All of my cover photos are carefully picked, edited, sometimes photographed by me and then posted up. Sometimes I write myself the caption and most of the times I borrow beautiful words of different authors.

I see a lot of people taking my cover photos and putting them up. It's not that am mad at them or I own those cover photos but a part of me smiles inside to see people liking the stories that I have to share.

If I could have I would have added music and different scents to my cover photos as well to give you guys a complete experience but alas we don't live in a perfect world.

It's extremely difficult for me to pick my most favourite cover photos as all of them are really close to me but somehow I have picked 5 of my all-time favourites. Cheers! 

 I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well. Our sadness is as much a part of our lives as is our laughter. To share our sadness with one we love is perhaps as great a joy as we can know - unless it be to share our laughter.
We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we love and want to be loved. We want to live in a relationship that will not impede our wandering, nor prevent our search, nor lock us in prison walls; that will take us for what little we have to give. We do not want to prove ourselves to another or compete for love.

There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.

Rasta naap rahi marjaani... Patthi baarish da hai paani...Jab nazdeek jahan de aaani.... Jugni maeli si ho jaani

*insert a beautiful song here*

It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn’t the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things .. 

You guys can check rest of my cover photos here: https://www.facebook.com/bjoyo/media_set?set=a.2844212670712.2125069.1421223164&type=1

Dream of a Gypsy

You want to spread your wings and fly towards a world unknown into the oblivion. You want to dance as if you are floating on calm lake. You want to dance like your body is made of wind and water. You want to catch the shooting stars and watch the fireworks. You want to paint the sky with colours of dusk and dawn. You want the cold raindrops to run down your face. You want to inhale the scent of that beloved fragrance like a drug. And you want to dream a little more. 

The Saucy Mistress: Desserts with a very filmy twist

An overdue review for The Saucy Mistress.

So The Saucy Mistress organized a competition in which we had to tag our friends. My friend won An Affair to remember aka strawberry cheese cake. Since I tagged my friend he was generous enough to offer me the gift. Since I couldn't go and pick the gift up (she didn't deliver the gift) I decided to order Nuts in May aka Snickers pie as well so I can get them delivered.




Now note the fact that I have a crazy sweet tooth and I absolutely love cheesecakes!  When I received the jars I was actually excited for the dessert inside. I love the fact how she has choose glass jars for packaging and the creative names!

A bite from An Affair to remember and I was in cheesecake heaven. Super yummy cream cheese with moist biscuit base and delicious strawberry topping. I ate half of the jar and kept some for the next day. The next day it even tasted better as the cream cheese got slightly tart. 10/10.






Nuts in May was perfect combination of heavy chocolate sauce, cream and biscuit base. Every spoonful was a wonderful experience. It's the kind of a dessert for which you would gladly skip lunch and dinner. I would suggest every chocolate lover to try it out at least once in their lifetime. 10/10 again!









#Karachi #Dessert #Chocolate #Cheesecake #TheSaucyMistress 

The Bored Generation

The other day I was just thinking about unique experiences and specialities of every place and a friend shared a status today taken from a book.

"We were the first human beings who would never see anything for the first time. We stare at the wonders of the world, dull-eyed, underwhelmed. Mona Lisa, the Pyramids, the Empire State Building. Jungle animals on attack, ancient icebergs collapsing, volcanoes erupting. I can't recall a single amazing thing I have seen firsthand that I didn't immediately reference to a movie or TV show. A fucking commercial. You know the awful singsong of the blasé: Seeeen it. I've literally seen it all, and the worst thing, the thing that makes me want to blow my brains out, is: The secondhand experience is always better. The image is crisper, the view is keener, the camera angle and the soundtrack manipulate my emotions in a way reality can't anymore. I don't know that we are actually human at this point, those of us who are like most of us, who grew up with TV and movies and now the Internet. " ― Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

I was thinking that how these days we are living in a world that almost where ever you go everything is the same. From the structures of the houses that we live in to the programs that we watch. We have all kinds of food available. I remember when people used to share their experiences of faraway places. It used to sound so fascinating. And now when anyone shares their experience all I have to do is search the place on Google and order that specific region's special cuisine from a local restaurant online. I really don't know if it's a curse or a blessing.

Anyways it just makes me think that we are a bored generation. We do not value things as our ancestors did. Nothing intrigues us any more. We know it all and we have seen it all. But we as humans are wired to crave for more information and for excitement. Since we have all the information available to us and it no longer excites, that part of our nature i.e. curiosity has now turned into a deep depression which is caused by boredom. 

P.S. I haven't read the book Gone Girl yet and can't wait to get my hands on it!

Karachi to Kashmir

Achar Pakoras at Haripur

At times you plan. You plan for days for a perfect vacation. But despite of all the preparation the trip turns out to be super boring. The trip that you enjoy the most is spontaneous. It’s when you have a strong lust to travel unknown places. It’s exciting when you have like minded people in your group, it’s more fun when you change plans right there and then.

After a couple of hectic months randomly me and my friends decided to go on a trip. We booked tickets to Islamabad and decided to go further up north by first taking a car then an open jeep.  Instead of taking the shorter route we opt for the longer one.

View from the top. Mansehra

Crossing Taxila, Haripur, Abbotabad, Mansehra and finally stopping at Balakot we set out in the jeep for Kashmir.

Majestic views greeted our eyes as soon as we entered Azad Kashmir. Entire Neelum Valley is lush scenery with gigantic mountains, narrow road, and crystal clear blue Neelum River. Temperature started to drop as we climbed further up north and the road got much trickier. Our first stop was Kutton and then night stay over at Athmuqam.

Neelam River

I would let the pictures do justice to the beauty of that place.

Sharda Azad Kashmir

Attmuqam, Azad Kashmir

We found these herds of goats literally EVERY WHERE there.

Night view from my hotel in Azad Kashmir

The only thing that I was not able to capture with my camera was the time of night when I could see millions of stars strewn across the sky. That was magical. Absolutely breathe taking.

Going back to Muzaffarabad

Next Day we went further up north till Sharda and enjoyed near the river. I dipped my feet in freezing cold water of Neelum River.

It was time to go back south and our first stop was at Muzaffarabad. We booked a hotel there and it turned out to be pretty decent. Had food at a restaurant and chai at a local dhabba. In morning saw the famous bridge on Jehlum River. From Muzaffarabad we ditched our open jeep and hired a Suzuki APV.

Waterfall at Khohala

Going to Murree we stopped over at Khohala. We got off near a waterfall and tea there.

Patriyata, Murree

Our first destination in Murree was Patriyata. We took chair lifts and then cable car rides and later at night went to the hotel. Had dinner and cold coffee at Mall Road. Shopping at Mall Road is really good if you want to buy shawls and sweaters.

Next day at Murree we went to Kashmir Road, climbed hills there and took the mock train ride.

Our next stop was in Islamabad where we covered Heritage Museum, Shakar Parriyan, Damn-e-Koh and Monal Resturant. We also checked out Burnout restaurant. In morning we had yummy desi brunch at Peshawar Morr.

All in all the trip was long hours in the jeep, great food and brilliant conversations.

View from my hotel in Murree

View from chair lift in Patriyata, Murree

Kashmir Road, Murree

PIA Park, Murree

Coffee at Heritage Cafe, Islamabad

Heritage Cafe, Islamabad

View from Monal Restaurant, Islamabad

View from Monal Restaurant, Islamabad

Night View from Monal Restaurant, Islamabad