Bilal Hassan | بلال حسن

Touristically Peshawar is a hidden gem and it deserves to be explored properly over a span of few days. It’s one of those places you instantly fall in love with. I barely spent a few hours in the city, it was one of those fast forward road-trips you take with your friends. We walked around the bazaars, saw the legendary Islamia college, passed by Bab e Khyber and munched on some delicious Kabuli Pulao. Come winter I’ll definitely be heading back for a few days.

Barbenheimer Mubarak 💖🖤

What’s your favourite Miyazaki film? These are my top 3: 1. My neighbour Totoro 2. Spirited Away 3. Princess Mononoke

What’s the one place on your Pakistan travel bucket list that you really really want to check off? For me it’s doing the K2 base camp trek. Other than that I really want to explore South Punjab in depth. It’s such an underrated and beautiful corner of Pakistan

Any foreign language movie fans here? Here are some of my favourites: 1. Oldboy (Korea) 2. A Separation (Iran) 3. About Elly (Iran) 4. Capernaum (Lebanon) 5. Mongol (Kazakhstan) 6. Waltz with Bashir (Israel) 7. Paradise Now (Palestine) 8. In the mood for love (Hong Kong) Send recommendations please. In the mood to watch something new this weekend.

Do you have a Biryani 6th sense? Like I can tell if it’ll be great or not just by looking at it. The colour, the texture and the aroma gives you a solid idea before you go in for a spoonful.

Friday in Karachi is officially Biryani day. You can eat whatever you want all week but it’s an absolute given that Biryani will be on the menu on Friday. As per tradition it’s usually consumed for lunch after Jummah prayers, hence lunch break on Friday is often a mini party within itself. Also word of advice if you want to get any important work done on Friday get it done before lunch time because after that everyone in the city goes into a Biryani coma.

Don’t get me wrong I am very flattered to be on your close friends list, but ya’ll just showing me pictures of cats and coffee. Show me drama, show me chaos, show me something scandalous, show me not halal KFC from abroad that I can’t have 😂

One thing that you should absolutely do while in Karachi is go see some art by Sadequain. Spend a few moments gawking in awe at the Frere Hall ceiling. I’ve seen it innumerable times and I can tell you one thing for certain it never gets old. I am dumbfounded each time. Another great place to view his art is on the first floor of the State Bank Museum. It’s free to enter. Just carry your ID or passport with you.

The Srebrenica genocide happened today exactly 28 years ago. 8372 Muslim men vanished from the face of this Earth. Many still haven’t been found. In Bosnia you don’t need to find someone to tell you about what happened. Here the dead speak, loud and clear, at every corner. It’s the first thing you see while landing into town. Graves. The soil of Bosnia is soaked in blood. Take some time out today to read up on the Bosnian war and while you’re at it say a prayer for the fallen

All the actors who said no to being photographed with them, now play them on film and television 🤡

A few years back I was covering two protests at the Karachi Press Club. One was by the Khwaja Sirah community and the other was by people from the entertainment industry. With stars in their eyes many folks from the Khwaja Sirah community approached members from our entertainment industry for photographs. ALL of them said no. Most were very rude to them. Only Mahirah Khan agreed. She didn’t just take selfies, she even took video calls with their families. It meant the world to them.