Eid Shopping Dips As The Netflix Binge Booms:

Look, Eid has never been a prodigious deal for my family. However, until last year, something that was imperative to Eid season for us was loitering around the streets of Karachi, indulging in the good old window-shopping peril.

From Zainab Market to Aashiyana, nothing has been more liberating than gleefully gallivanting store to store, feeling loose fabric like cashmere and silk between our fingers, bargaining from store owners in our true middle-class spirit, and scarfing paratha rolls when the adventure got too tiring.

This year, amongst the COVID 19 debacle, while we belong to a small number of people privileged enough to be quarantining comfortably, I would be lying if I didn’t admit that the static that lurks in the air everyday isn’t making me sick.

But here’s what’s keeping my mental health from fizzling out into destruction: Netflix shows, literature, movies and music.

It is a rhetoric of common understanding that our medical staff is keeping our country from hanging by a thread during this pandemic. However, we often don’t credit artists for keeping culture afloat and for keeping us joyous.

It wouldn’t be too wrong to say that artists of all sorts are the unsung heroes of the pandemic.
Unknowingly, so many of us have turned to art for solace, we’ve been binging entire seasons of Netflix shows in a few hours, we’ve been listening to our favorite singers, watching food and painting videos, waiting all day for our favorite vloggers to post new content and for our favorite Instagram bloggers to go live.
 
Additionally, with the kind of artists that we have in Pakistan, who allow us to donate for COVID relief just by buying their prints with movements like Prints For Pandemic Relief, it’s a lot easier to not feel guilty and unproductive as we consume art. Unpopular opinion: it is refreshing to see  Pakistanis express their own art through TikTok if not Instagram or YouTube.

Author: Sarah Shamim

‘Type To Hype’ Blogging Competition Winner