Love in the age of smoke and mirrors

 

Title: “Love in the Age of Smoke and Mirrors”
By Faraz Parvez (Pen name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal, Former Faculty, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, KSA)

They told us love would save us.
They told us love would break chains, awaken hearts, transform the monsters we’d become.
But no one told us that love, in its modern form, wears prosthetic skin,
that it scrolls endlessly,
tapping dopamine instead of hearts.

Today, love is filtered—smooth, symmetrical, synthetic.
A collage of convenience, carefully lit,
its depth measured not in ache but in algorithm.
What once cracked open ribs now needs Wi-Fi.
What once defied empires now dies if left on “read.”

Look at us:
We chase digital ghosts who blink blue ticks and vanish,
scripting affections on keyboards,
offering intimacy in 280 characters
but afraid to look into actual eyes.
We fall in love with profiles,
not people.
We fall in love with our idea of being loved,
not the labor of loving.

Love used to demand surrender.
Now it demands a strong signal.

Transformation?
We talk about becoming better,
healing,
finding ourselves.
But most of us are just decorating the walls of our cages.
We trade vulnerability for aesthetics,
truth for trend,
and call it “growth.”
We change, yes—
but not inward.
We accessorize our pain.
We tattoo our trauma for likes.
We write long posts about self-worth
but can't sit alone without panicking.

Love was once messy, hard, full of silence and storms.
Now we ghost when it gets too real.
We swipe left on discomfort,
as if the soul was a catalog,
as if a partner could be summoned like a playlist.

But love is not meant to be easy.
Not always sweet.
Love breaks.
Love bleeds.
Love builds cathedrals inside broken people.
Love takes time—
time we no longer have patience for.

So what’s left?
A generation that confuses chemistry with compatibility.
A world that prefers distance to depth.
We claim we want soulmates—
but flee at the first crack in the mirror.
We want love to feel like magic,
but won’t commit to the ritual.

Here is the truth, bitter and unfiltered:
Love today is on life support.
Transformation has become a performance.
And we are addicted to both—
not as they are,
but as they appear.

So look around.
Ask yourself:
Are you truly loving, or just curating?
Are you truly transforming, or just rebranding?

The age of smoke and mirrors will not last forever.
And when the haze clears—
will there be anyone beside you,
real, breathing, flawed,
still holding your hand?

That
is the question
this era must answer.

farazparvez1.blogspot.com
Read. Reflect. Return. Before love becomes unrecognizable.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The rise and fall of imran Khan niazi... A satirical essay

Image
  The Rise and Fall of Imran Khan Niazi: From The Establishment’s Golden Boy to The Fallen Messiah Written by Faraz Parvez Pen Name of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal Former Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA There are few figures in contemporary politics as paradoxical as Imran Khan Niazi. A man whose political career reads like a tragicomedy, a cricketing hero who tried to bowl out corruption but ended up hitting his own wickets. Once the beloved poster boy of the establishment, now the self-styled revolutionary with a martyr complex—his journey is the stuff of a Shakespearean farce, with generous doses of slapstick and irony. The Saviour Who Needed Saving Once upon a time, Imran Khan was the chosen one . The establishment cradled him like a newborn prince, whispering sweet nothings of ‘Naya Pakistan’ into his ears. He was the hero with an Oxford degree, a World Cup trophy, and a playboy past that magically transformed into Islamic piety overnight. The masses, ...
Read more

The dying whispers of bhera haveli

Image
  Title: “The Dying Whispers of Bhera Haveli” Theme: In a forgotten corner of Punjab, where time stopped and shadows moved without reason, a cursed haveli holds a horrifying secret. What happens when someone hears the whispers that should have stayed buried? By Faraz Parvez Professor Dr. (Retired) Arshad Afzal Retired Faculty Member, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, KSA (Pseudonym of Professor Dr. Arshad Afzal) The Dying Whispers of Bhera Haveli Based on chilling oral tales from the subcontinent's dust-ridden ruins... In the neglected outskirts of Bhera , an ancient town once glorious in its Mughal past, there stands a crumbling haveli, twisted like a half-dead serpent among the eucalyptus and sheesham trees. The villagers call it “Khooni Haveli”—The Mansion of Blood. No one lives there. No one dares to enter. Except Tariq. He was a small-time real estate broker from Faisalabad. He dealt in disputed lands and run-down buildings, flipping ghost stories into desperate...
Read more

The evolution of the modern Urdu novel

Image
  The Evolution of the Modern Urdu Novel: A Literary Renaissance Urdu literature, with its rich poetic heritage and profound storytelling traditions, has continuously evolved to reflect the changing landscapes of South Asia and beyond. While Urdu poetry has long been celebrated for its lyrical beauty, it is the Urdu novel that has captured the essence of social, political, and psychological transformations over the past century. From the didactic realism of Deputy Nazir Ahmed to the avant-garde narratives of Mirza Athar Baig , the Urdu novel has transformed from a medium of moral instruction to an art form that challenges political structures, psychological paradigms, and literary conventions . Today, Urdu novelists are addressing themes of globalization, migration, gender dynamics, and existentialism , making the Urdu novel an indispensable part of world literature. From Classic to Contemporary: A Shifting Paradigm The birth of the Urdu novel can be traced back to the 1...
Read more