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If I can drive in Pakistan...
If I can drive in Pakistan, I sure as hell can drive anywhere in the world.That notion sparked my quest to learn driving in Karachi. But what was supposed to be a journey to unlock more roads of...
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Support clean energy before it’s too late
Something very disturbing happened last month, and it went largely unreported in the world’s mainstream press. On the night of May 2, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere touched 400...
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Political Advertising or Public Feedback
Political advertising campaigns have come a long way across the world. But if we look at their impact in India, we realise that there has not been a single campaign since India achieved independence...
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A license to rape
A series of events in the past few weeks have again highlighted the injustices being committed against women in the name of Islam in Pakistan. Recently, the three accused of raping an 18-year old...
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Labyrinths of power and the fun times in exile
Illustration by Khuda Bux Abro It is the glory of the labyrinths of power that whomsoever has entered this maze has never returned unchanged. It would be a miracle if someone did emerge unaltered. You...
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Cafe Black: The last bastion
A cultural centre near the shrine of Sufi saint, Shah Abdul Lateef in Bhit Shah, Sindh. During the previous PPP-led government, plans were afoot to build the world’s first ever international Sufi...
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Weekly Classics: Oldboy
No country does psychological thrillers like South Korea. With zero sense of remorse, zilch spot of rationality, zot tinge of humanity…With absolutely nothing, Oldboy begins (See trailer here). Oh...
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Age of enlightenment
Illustration by Faraz Aamer Khan“You will never hear me complain about getting old; think of the people denied the privilege” – AnonymousOk, let’s talk about something we never talk about. You know,...
View ArticleIn Search of Fatima: A book review
In Search of Fatima is a beautiful memoir written by Ghada Karmi, the eminent doctor, author and academic of Palestinian origin. The book details the birth of her two wholly separate identities as an...
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Looking at Nawaz Sharif from New Delhi
The oath-taking is over and so is the job of assigning jobs to individual ministers. Beyond Nawaz Sharif becoming Prime Minister for a historic third-term, what strikes me is that the old team is back...
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The story of Toba Tek Singh
For whom the bell tollsThe 16th day of April 1853 is special in the Indian history. The day was a public holiday. At 3:30 pm, as the 21 guns roared together, the first train carrying Lady Falkland,...
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Mian Sahab, put ALL children back in school
Ten percent of the world’s education deprived primary-aged children live in Pakistan. This sad reality persists even after the amended constitution (Article 25A, 18th amendment) declared education free...
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Solar energy is the energy of the future
According to the Center for Science and Environment in Delhi, solar energy has finally “arrived” – it is now causing trade wars between the US, Europe and China, which tells you that this sector is...
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India & Pakistan: Business without borders
A couple of years ago I wrote Media Without Borders on the World Bank blog. In it I talked about the insatiable human appetite to communicate with one another, and how modern technology was assisting...
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Takht Lahore and its sense of deprivation
-Illustration by Khuda Bux Abro Takht Lahore and a sense of deprivation: both seem unconnected at the first glance, but in retrospect, the Takht Lahore – that had possessed all that Pakistan had to...
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Spice it up for Mama
-Illustration by Alia Chughtai/Dawn.com Did you watch the swearing in ceremony of the federal cabinet? That was the event in which the top military brass sat in the audience and the civilian leadership...
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Reverse sweeps: Pakistan’s crazy cricket controversies
Please note: These do NOT include controversies to do with either match-fixing or spot-fixing that have already been written about on numerous occasions. The Kardar eruptionsAbdul Hafeez Kardar was an...
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Weekly Classics: Platoon
When the rich wage war, it's the poor who die.—Jean-Paul SartreNot being funny but as soon as this Oscar winner's opening credits roll in you are more or less drafted into the narrative. The film...
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The surrender of Karachi
Just past the middle of February 1843, Karachi was tense. In Saddar, the market was quiet and the shops were shuttered. The Battle of Miani was being fought elsewhere between the Talpurs and the...
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The falsehood about truth
Nearly universally, “truth” is rated a perfect 10 among the moral values. The scriptures exhort us to always speak the truth, so does the Maulvi from the pulpit, so do our parents, and so do we – when...
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