Clik here to view.
Karachi: Then & now
Khaled al Maeena is sitting in the lobby of Le Méridian in Khobar. He signals towards a Pakistani waiter: “karak chai merey leyeh.” The man is taken aback but hurries to comply. The name Khaled al...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Travel: Jordan by ruins
The first thing that strikes you is the poverty and not just in the shape of the old refugees from Palestine and new ones from Syria. Buildings stand half built. My friend points to a couple of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sun salutes in the sands of Thar
Bundled between tiny tea-stalls and vegetable vendors on the main commercial strip of Mithi, the capital of Tharparkar district, the Prem yoga centre stands out as a complete anomaly in the city’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book review: A manuscript best left in Accra
I often come across poorly composed and rhythmically imbalanced verses on Facebook. They are attributed to famous poets like Ghalib, Iqbal and Faraz. Whenever I see such posts, I make a point of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Green car: The juice on hybrids in Pakistan
If you lived near the Lahore airport and had to drive to Mall road regularly, you’d be open to buying a car whose fuel cost you less. Amir Riaz has that 50km commute, and he’s quite frank about his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The mystery of Pattan Minara
Nearly a century and a half ago, a political agent of the former state of Bahawalpur called Colonel Minchin is said to have set out to explore the ruins of Pattan Minara. This structure is believed to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Copy right: The Last Word
Eve Ensler is lying on top of Coetzee. Roth is cheek by jowl with Rilke. Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K. The students greet each other with comic cries and sodden collapse. Their...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is Lahore ready for the modern world?
This 2013 report explores the attitudes of people in Lahore towards modern technology and its influence on values and culture. One hundred people from Gulberg, DHA, Allama Iqbal and Jauhar towns were...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Movie Review: Twilight meets True Blood
We are not done with Twilight spin-offs. This time the boy is mortal and the girl is facing a coming-of-age dilemma of whether she will be claimed by the dark or good forces as a witch. The inelegant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Student Visas: What you need to know
You’ve finally received the offer from your dream college. You couldn’t stop babbling about it at the dinner table until someone’s threatened to shove roti down your throat. Haters can hate, you’re...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Anti-anxiety pills in Pakistan: Mama’s little helper
Pakistanis are slowly going out of their minds. Going to a psychiatrist is out of the question. And even if we did, we’d probably have to wait weeks for an appointment: We only have 342 in the entire...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Two urban experiences: Mumbai & Karachi
When Princeton history professor, Gyan Prakash, came to Karachi, he saw a lot of Mumbai in it. Both are port cities, and as cities on the sea, both have an “expansive sense about themselves” that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Movie review: One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
If Side Effects played in Pakistani cinemas it would only have the effect of reinforcing our popular dread of anti-depressants. Emily Taylor’s (Rooney Mara) husband (Channing Tatum) is about to be...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Art at its peak: Don't Look Down
Imran Qureshi’s exhibit at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop in New York is almost a classic case of Pakistani artists suffering from vertigo. The condition often results in a balance disorder...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Arm-wrestling gold medalist: ‘I got over my own chauvinism’
In June, Sinthia Rose will sit opposite a 65-kilogramme Uzbek woman and try to wrestle her. The 21-year-old has a firm grip and steady eye. Indeed, she hopes to bring back gold at the Asian...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Be honest. What was your first innermost reaction when you saw images of the Twin Towers falling in a cloud of concrete dust on 9/11? For some people it was instant awe — not wondrous — but...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Book review: Dan Brown's Inferno - to hell with it
Inferno is 461 pages of predictable, formulaic, unbelievable, breathless action that starts with Robert Langdon, our invincible Harris Tweed-clad academic, who sprints injured from a hospital bed in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Killer shoes
If Sarah Jessica Parker can do it, so can we. That is what women tell themselves when it comes to high heels. But Parker quietly shelved her Jimmy Choos and Manolo Blahniks after she developed an...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Graphology: Person behind the pen
Whether you are an employer making an important hiring decision, an interrogator extracting information from a suspect or a lawyer negotiating a settlement, the ability to measure a person’s...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Barbie Dreamhouse nightmare
Barbie, the iconic doll, recently checked into her Pink Villa in Berlin. The launch of her 2,500-square metre life-sized Dreamhouse located in the city centre literally turned into a nightmare for the...
View Article