How Borhani Stopped Me from Being a Genre Snob

You know that one guy in your middle school who wore a Pantera t-shirt anywhere and everywhere, constantly reminded you that "pop music will be the death of humanity" and reminisced about how good the 80's were? Well, that was me and, I'm quite sure, many of you.

This crazed infatuation with metal and the metalhead culture is quite understandable. I mean on one hand we have this world of bubbly music where we can find Britney Spears lamenting about how she did it again, and on the other we have James Hetfield screaming for fuel and fire and what he desires. Of course, music isn't as simple as that and there is a whole different spectrum of genres between the ones I mentioned, but good luck trying to tell my 16-year old self that. He'd just tell you to go listen to Slayer. 

Now I know you're wondering where the borhani comes in and I'll remind you with an annoying smirk that, "It comes after the kacchi, of course". 

You see, I used to hate borhani with passion, a hatred only paralleled by the one I had for pop music. I still remember the first time I had borhani. It was at a wedding and I resented it right from the moment that smell entered my nostrils. Why they would serve this greenish abomination instead of Coke baffled me. And when I took a little sip of that bizarre liquid it didn't take me long to make up my mind on how I'd rather drink ketchup.

Is borhani actually that bad? Of course not. It's clearly not fair to jump the gun and judge something based on one try. Besides, there are good ones and bad ones. The one I had that night was just one of the latter. 

This epiphany dawned on me some three-four years later when I bravely tried it for the second time and loved it to my own surprise. I realised that I can also write the exact same thing with borhani replaced by pop music and I wouldn't be in the wrong. I hated listening to Timberlake in my friend's car; doesn't mean I'd hate listening to a bit of Lana Del Rey on a rainy day. Just because I'm a Coke person doesn't mean borhani has to be terrible. There is no rule that they can't co-exist beside a sumptuous serving of kacchi.

I can still feel that 16-year old in me shake his head in disappointment seeing how I turned to the dark side. But as much as I still love that old Pantera t-shirt, I don't mind that odd Coldplay song scattered here and there in my playlist either. 

Now if you'll excuse me I have a wedding to attend to and see what life lesson I can gather from the kacchi this time.

 

Nuren Iftekhar is your local basement dweller who dreams of a better world where the concept of elachi is non-existent. Send him obscure memes at n.iftekhar18@gmail.com