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The sole synagogue of Delhi
It is Friday morning and as part of an academic assignment, I am to visit a little known place of worship in New Delhi. On my way to the Judah Hyam Synagogue, I meet Saleem Khan. Saleem, 35, hails from...
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147 dead students in Kenya and our deafening silence
Watching the 8am news is a part of my daily routine now — it helps kickstart my mind as I set out to work, it provides ‘food for thought’ for that part of me that isn’t still numb from working in a...
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What to do when you're being robbed — at gun point
“They came at night by scaling the wall when we were fast asleep, tied us up and robbed us of all our belongings.”“I was driving the car into the house and as I stepped out to close the gate they...
View ArticleIndia should say no to the RSS version of history
Our subcontinent, now divided into parts, shares a common history; there are diverse ways of looking at the same history by groups belonging to different political ideologies. With the change of...
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Slaughterhouse rules: Is halal always humane?
Several weeks ago, a video surfaced on the internet, documenting outrageous animal abuse at a ‘halal’ slaughterhouse in North Yorkshire, England. A single viewing of the video is enough to make the...
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The farce called 'The Clash of Civilisations'
The pictures of three British Muslim schoolgirls who left home to join the IS tell a harrowing tale of estrangement, heartbreak, lost control, indoctrination and abandonment. Shamima Begum, Amira Abase...
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Food Stories: Achar Gosht
Ever so rarely, each of us stumbles into that moment where we are transported into a beautiful time in the past; when nostalgia grips at the heartstrings and we understand the value of the world that...
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Reclaiming our bodies, redefining the 'perfect bahu'
Eleven years old. That was the age at which I first looked down at my hands and felt unhappy about my skin colour. This dissatisfaction soon evolved into full blown insecurity, the first amongst many....
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Volunteerism — letting our youth fix Pakistan
As a college student in the United States, when I was made to volunteer in my locality, I did not easily digest the concept of mandatory community service. My instructor had assigned 10 hours of it in...
View ArticlePakistan’s urban policy: Turning cities into slums
If you have lived in a middle-class neighbourhood in a large city in Pakistan, you probably grew up deprived of what urban living offers elsewhere: quality education, entertainment, hope, and...
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Must Indian women play football in saris?
On March 14, women football players from all over the country assembled for a seven-a-side exhibition football match at Harishchandrapur in West Bengal. However, they were not allowed to play and the...
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Pakistan culture: Evolution, transformation & mutation
Pakistan IdeologyA term first used during the military regime of Field Martial Ayub Khan in 1962. Ayub had taken over power in a military coup in 1958. In 1962 he introduced a new constitution. The...
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'When you come to Yemen, I will be your tour guide'
By Sukainah AbdulqaderI have been hoping to return to my home in Yemen for the last five years. Currently studying in Malaysia, whenever a friend inquires about my country, I am quick to offer my...
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Silencing LUMS, resilencing Balochistan
— Photo from the event's Facebook page“Learn about the history, complications, human rights abuses, and the struggle for justice that has been going on in Balochistan.”That is how the Lahore University...
View ArticleKarachi’s poisons — an ocean of filth
Karachi’s political and terrorist poisons are well known. Every day they exact their unerring costs from the city in corpses. One day there is a bomb blast attributed to the Taliban, on another day...
View ArticleA page from the diary of a job hopper
“Tum tou larkiyo se bhi ziyada nazuk ho, tumhay tou larki paida hona chahiye tha”.These were the soul-crushing, not to mention sexist, remarks that my first cousin expressed upon hearing news of my...
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The curse of being extraordinary in Pakistan
I am no art critic, but had the photo of the regally flawless painting of the Obamas been put up by one of my Art Majors friends on Facebook, I would have hit a perfunctory like and just scrolled on...
View ArticleIs more information making us more wise?
Words were never so worthless; they were never so abundant either. Words said by the greats of human civilisation. Words of scripture, of literature and films, of news; they surround us everywhere, at...
View ArticleWhen the 'King of Multan' turned it around
Sick of being mocked for his burly frame and receding batting form, 'Big Inzi' shed 23 pounds before the 2003 World Cup.So when he walked out onto the field for Pakistan's World Cup opener against...
View ArticleThe invader’s fear of memories
It was a season of storms this time; young blooms of the simbul tree dropping onto the terrace with innocuous thuds, fiery missiles landing on red brick. The garden is resplendent with color and...
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