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When the apple falls too far from the tree
-Photo by Adam E. Cole. I’ve suddenly realised that I have absolutely nothing in common with my parents. They are lovely, caring, kind, my mum always gives me great food to take with me when I go to...
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Coalitions: Both art and science
Allow me to start with a digression. One of the best descriptions of India that I have read comes from Shashi Tharoor, currently in Manmohan Singh’s council of ministers, author and former...
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Islam at war – with itself
Rescue workers and security officials collect evidence from the burnt bus. –Photo by Reuters. From Aleppo in Syria to Quetta in Balochistan, Muslims are engaged in the slaughter of other Muslims. The...
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The Jhang of Chander Bhan
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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Recurring stories
Gal samhaj leye te rola ki E ram rahim te maula kiIn our petty attempts to entrench ourselves deeper into a presumed cultural/social/religious identity, we often forget how closely the mythologies,...
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Line to line: Decoding a masterpiece
Taher Shah has become an internet phenomenon. The once completely unknown singer who released a song and video ‘Eye to Eye’ two months ago, recently found himself becoming an overnight sensation. A...
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The grass appears greener to would-be Canadian immigrants
Canada should have gotten it right by now. A 146-year old country of immigrants should know how to integrate new immigrants. The recent census data however suggests that not to be the case.While...
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The month of blessings
-Illustration by Khuda Bux Abro. The month of blessings is just around the corner, while the blessings have already begun to come in. Things of daily use – already inaccessible to the poor – have now...
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Consulting for love
Forgetting gets easier with age as that’s what everyone around you expects of you. But some names stick even with brains that are too fatigued or too feeble to function. Rarely are these names...
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Pakistan’s Afghanistan
“Your eyes aren’t eyes, they’re bees I find no cure for their sting”The above is a “landay,” or a folk couplet, common among the Pashtuns living on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. This...
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Marriage in the guise of a wedding
It would be easier to eliminate racism or end poverty… than it would be to make girls stop wanting to be brides.–Anne Kingston-Photo courtesy Eefa Khalid In Urdu we have the same word for yesterday and...
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Pittho’s World: A book review
Pittho’s World by Murtaza Razvi is a novel with stories of numerous characters, as well as that of the narrator himself. The entire novel spans a period of about two centuries, and is spread out over a...
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Comedy in Pakistan: Who’d have thought?
I am in the US. I arrived at the US immigration and waited patiently in line. I never ever have problems at Immigration because to the Americans I look Mexican and I have an English accent, the...
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A trip to Liberia
In 2011 my Canadian company asked me if I was interested in moving to Liberia to work on a large iron-ore mining project. I knew that Liberia had suffered badly in a civil war that had lasted for over...
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In the hope of justice
Killing innocents in cold blood is not new in our part of the world. But trying to prosecute their killers is definitely new as the Ishrat Jahan case from Gujarat, India, shows. A charge-sheet has...
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The Jhang of Lashkars - 1
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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Karachi: My beloved schizophrenic
Leaving your home city, even if the world sees it as the hub of chaos, is like ripping away a part of your soul – certainly noise is relatively easier to embrace than emptiness. Karachi is like a...
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Attunement
Pyaar nahi hai sur se jisko voh murakh insaan nahiThe fool who does not love music is not a human being.It is what it is. We live in the 21st century of the Anno Domini era, the 15th century according...
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A victory for Pakistani environmentalists
My last week’s blog on Chilas elicited a flurry of emails and several readers pointed out that the article “gave some biased approach of the writer towards Chilas”. But now, there’s some good news from...
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No water, no food
With the power shortage taking the front stage in the media and in the new government’s pronouncements, an even more important issue has been relegated to the back burner. This serious issue is the...
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