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Old books in Karachi's happy street
-Photo by Akhtar BalouchOn Sunday, the markets in the Saddar area of Karachi are closed. This is perhaps the only day when the narrow streets of Saddar, that barely allow pedestrians to walk through...
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Identity crisis: The Pakistani Brits & the British Spaniards
At the last count there were just over one million people of Pakistani heritage living in the UK. The reasons for this are often misunderstood – I recently asked non-Pakistani friends why they thought...
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Karachi, the colourful
We all notice the garbage, the pollution and the rundown buildings of Karachi. However, if we pay attention to the facades of some of these nondescript buildings, we will find that a good deal of...
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A continuous partition
An archival image shows a worker sewing Pakistan's flag at the time of partition. -Photo courtesy of The Citizens Archive of Pakistan.In post-colonial South Asia, the ideological home’s spatial outline...
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What matters more: Education or Cricket?
There are more than five million reasons for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Najam Sethi to ignore cricket and focus on the ubiquitous illiteracy in Pakistan.UNESCO’s latest report on Education for All...
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Remembering a real cricket revolution
The Indian, England and Australian cricket boards recently proposed (and won) a structural overhaul of the International Cricket Council (ICC) that would give three boards (the ‘Big Three’) more say...
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Movie Review: 12 Years a Slave
A scene from movie, "12 Years a Slave". - Courtesy PhotoBorn free and yet a slave – the harsh reality of harsh times.About two months and two weeks back, my earlier review for “12 Years a Slave” talked...
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A poetless Pakistan
The oppressions of another age seem distant in the shadow of our current pains. In the echoes of talks and counter-talks of missing activists and roaming drones, of continuing blasts and ongoing...
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Dollars cannot buy eyesight for the blind king
The astrologer told the king that his first wife will give birth to a son who will cause him to lose his sight. The king got upset, as kings always do, and banished his wife to a forest where she gave...
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Movie Review: Falling Leaves
For a debut film, writer and director Ali Jaberansari, remarkably weaves the westernization permeating sections of the Iranian society into his delicately provocative, Falling Leaves. The film is told...
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The legend of Rohi - II
For whom the bell tollsThe 16th day of April in 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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A protagonist of the void
I saw them anchoring a small boat away from the beach. The older fisherman expertly got hold of one of half a dozen plastic bags floating on the sickly green water persistently disturbed by the...
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Movie Review: RoboCop
A scene from movie, "RoboCop". - Courtesy PhotoIn the land of big corporations and rampant street crime, the police beta-test a critically injured, mutilated man in a billion-dollar suitWho would you...
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Food Stories: Sarson ka saag / Makki ki roti
Nothing is more deliciously aromatic than a mother’s love, a close second to it is perhaps the smell of land, more uniquely mera aur tera gaon (our village), the one we all originate from, the one our...
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The continued abuse of the Pashtun woman
They all suffer in silence, but compared to the rest of Pakistan, women in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) suffer domestic violence in greater proportions. While terror-stricken Pakistan is focused on North...
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Lucky ducklings
Asif Ali Zardari (PPP), Altaf Hussain (MQM) and Asfandyar Wali (ANP) must often wonder, what is it that they did and men like Imran Khan (PTI) and Nawaz Sharif (PML-N) don’t (or they don’t and the...
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The Facebook faithful
-Photo by Sebastiaan ter BurgFaith and Facebook are wedded in Pakistan. On any given day, on any given newsfeed, the iterations of the union are widely visible. Your cousin may be posting admonitions...
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Dollars do not always alleviate the pain of love
Taj’s father had warned him that he would need dollars to buy a ticket to the garden where the flower of sight was. Taj did his best but never earned enough to do that.But he was not the only...
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In remembrance of the Indian Venus
When the night shines radiant under the moonlight and the breeze blows ever so gently, there spreads a strange intoxication in the air. It is on nights like these that I can almost feel the longing...
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FPW 2014: The Big Bang
-Photo by Tapu JaveriThe buzz was electric. For novice show-goers and veterans alike, Fashion Pakistan Week (FPW) 2014 began on a high note, with strong attendance, a new fashion council and a line-up...
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