Days of Yore

Salam Ibrahim,

Very well said... Computers and technology are often hailed as the road to progress. To a slight degree, but only slightly. The internet doesn`t offer wisdom, rationality, growth or intellect, it only offers information. That, in and of itself, is never going to change anyone. It can in fact just make people worse. Much as TV in America has probably done more social harm than good.

Now this article comes directly from experience. :) The author seems very lucky to have VCR at home....just imagine renting the VCR along with the VHS tape. ahh..but it was worth it. What is so sad is that first goray people most of us saw wore only shoes..no wonder we consider them loose and all that. Impression in those good old days was that that is all goray people do....

Ibrahim,

You are right to point out there should be some age restriction for kids having access to X-rated movies.

Apart from that I would like to point out another problem in this society which is because of having easy access to sex on movies but not sex itself. This results in frustrations and most of the people get into marriage just for the sake of having sex and later on they realize maybe this is not what they wanted but by that time it is either too late or risky to make decisions in life. Mostly the young lot waste their time thinking about marriage and sex and not having access to it and wasting their peak years just worrying about marriage. I know many wont like what i am pointing out over here but after living with some `goras` what I realized was that they spend a life where at some point in time they go through relationship, sex and then move onto other things and are still free enough to make decisions about life in their peak years or early on in their life.

Ibrahim,

Nice article. I am sure lots of guys can relate to it. I guess every one watches atleast a bit of porn in their lifetime. It was not only the movies but also the magazine. From soft porn like Playboy to some hard core ones like Hustler. I remember we had a nickname for the magazines “Mobile” since it was mobile porn.

Coming to internet and its impact on the children. Well I must confess that un-supervised exposure to internet has its drawbacks and plenty so. But properly supervised exposure is very positive. I have a two and a half year old son. He knows how to switch on the PC, connect to the internet and get on to the Children’s BBC web site where he can play his interactive games. Obviously me and my wife keep a very close eye on him so as to where he wanders into. He is still too young to understand but his interest in the PC and internet is incredible. He evens calls me or my wife whenever the window pops up indicating that someone from my friends or family is online.

When I was two and a half year old I think I didn’t even knew how to switch on a TV forget PC’s (well PC’s weren’t invented then). I think this exposure to internet is one of the most positive developments for my son and I am definitely going to encourage it albeit supervised.

Nevertheless a nice article.

Raheel Khan

Dulla Bhatti: Totally relate to that experience. It sucked though when the tape got stuck in the VCR.

Indeed this article is touching on a very serious issue of pornography having a seriously bad effect on today`s youth. But arent we being hypocritical, I mean I belong to the same VHS times and If I was a kid today I would probably be harmonaly driven to the net for porn. I mean how badly effected are we, didnt we outgrow it eventually. OK, a lot of perplexed faces around, I mean atleast some of us outgrew it. We didnt turn out all bad, I mean Morality is hard force to counter. I mean we Muslim guys are total hypocrites really. I may have been a porn watching teenager in karachi but when I did move abroad for further studies my cultural and religious limitations always won over the physical drives. (well most of the times, I mean she was a Blonde Italian) Anyways The point being that although you can point your fingers at today`s youth, the fact is that they are not that different from us and how we used to be.

Personal Note: From experiance I can relate that when my VHS tape got stuck in the VCR and I coudnt possibly get it out, I literally took it out on the street , gave it to a ragged looking character and told him to run. When my Family returned I informed them that a thief had broken in the house and stolen the VCR. Hard to explain as my mothers jewllery was spread on the dressing table opposite to it. This mystery still haunts my family till this date.

Hello Ibrahim,

Very nice article once again.
The point which you have raised in this article is very important perhaps most important of all.There should be proper checks on the children especially when they are using internet so that they do not get spoiled.Our Government should take some affective step in banning these internet sites.


Hey Ibrahim,your article has reminded me of those old days when you and I used to see that material which you have just mentioned.The precautionary measures which we took and the efforts we made.There were a few times when we got nearly caught but Thanks GOD that we managed to cover it up.

Anyways,congrats on writing such a nice article.
Waiting for another article from you.

Shahram Malik

Shahram, this is Ibrahim.

Buddy dont wash the dirty linen in public.

I still remember the slap vividly which your father gave you the other night when we were watching the Misr Channel around 2 oclock in the night.

And the Mujra you brought over.

Those were good and precarious times.

Take care.

100 years ago a guy could go out with a rifle in his had, and shoot one guy before he was stoped.
now a guy can go out with an Oozi in his hand and kill 2 dozen before he can be stoped.
it isn`t the fault of the gun that it eveolved so that now it could kill more efficiently and quickly. it`s the fault of the psyco using the gun.
same is the problem with porn. it`s not the computer thats evil, it`s not the computers fault that it cannot teach a student. The computer is not underminig the moral structure of our scociety, because most of our youth are given no such base to build upon.
this is the information age, and each age has it`s blessings and it`s evils. technology will keep on advancing it`s the intelligence behind the technology that decides how to use it. it`s that intelligence that should be blamed it`s that intelligence that should be tought the difference between right and wrong.