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Movie review: The Lone Ranger - ‘Never take off the mask’
Go for the horses, don’t mind the plot. Watch The Lone Ranger because you have to, and because it was filmed in over 16 stunning, sweeping desert-to-mountain New Mexico locations. But mind it, your...
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Patriotic accessories: Bag Pak
Swaying under a shimmering disco ball is a young girl dressed in a boho-chic outfit, clutching on to a bottle of our well-loved Pakola. And taking his place beside her, dressed in a gypsy-style...
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Tackling terrorism: An Irish solution for Karachi
Where have all the militants gone? My question elicited a few amused looks and chuckles. But when he saw that it was in earnest, Vincent Kearney, BBC’s Northern Ireland home affairs correspondent,...
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Steve Jobs: Touched by genius
You are either cool, or you are not. You either buy Apple or you don’t. That is how many people see Apple and its products. You either hate it or you love it. By the time Steve Paul Jobs died in 2011,...
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Surma: Can’t you see how bad it is?
The lashings of surma parents apply to their infant’s eyes could lead to anaemia, growth retardation and even kidney problems. Many people think surma or kohl is made of one of antimony’s minerals,...
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Movie review: Pacific Rim - designed to destroy
Pacific Rim plays like a live-action version of a Japanese anime. With epic battles between gigantic, alien monsters and equally imposing mecha operated by humans, director Guillermo del Toro manages...
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Review: Devious maids - the maids of Beverly Hills come clean
“To steal another woman’s husband is rude but to steal her maid is unforgivable” is the rule the women in Beverly Hills live by, at least in Marc Cherry’s new dramedy TV series, Devious Maids....
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Lahore's unofficial tourist guide: The rime of the ancient Qissa Goh
Under the greenwood tree, Who loves to lie with me, And turn his merry note Unto the sweet bird’s throat, Come hither, come hither, come hither: Here shall he see No enemy But winter and rough...
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Chinese whispers in Buddha land
History is hard enough to piece together from shards of pottery. The storyline is further distorted in some European and Chinese museums if they unknowingly acquire smuggled artifacts from...
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Murder, she wrote: A day in the life of a woman who performs autopsies
You can never be ready for the moment they pull the sheet off. The round middle-aged woman with mehndi-orange hair, in a limp pink shalwar kameez, is not the sallow-skinned corpse you dreaded. Eyelids...
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Music review: Outside the Red Hot Chili Peppers
John Frusciante is making some strange sounds in his new EP titled Outsides, which has emerged a far cry from what he produced in his previous day job. Listen to it knowing that this music is coming...
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Astronomy: Cosmic bling
The announcement was short. It lasted only a fraction of second — a blink of an eye. But a spacecraft in Earth’s orbit, keeping an eye on such events, captured it on June 3 this year. The announcement...
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Book review: Tales from a Vending Machine - going somewhere? Not so fast
When taking a flight, the journey begins long before you actually step on a plane. You arrive at the airport, go through immigration, wait in the departure lounge and finally, board. While Hasina...
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Movie review: Percy Jackson and the sea of drowning
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters is the second movie based on the popular series Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan. The first movie The Lightning Thief (2010) received negative reviews...
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Mushrooms: The poor man’s chicken
If Mithi had mozzarella all they would have to do for pizza is add the mushrooms that suddenly sprout after the rains. The fat, white toadstools are nearly as big as oranges when they appear and set...
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Dyslexia help: Read(y) when you are
My first encounter with dyslexia was in my first year of teaching A’ Levels. I had a pupil who had child-like handwriting, weak spellings, was unable to finish written work in prescribed time and...
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Bohra women: Cut from the same cloth
In Cairo’s 1,000-year-old Fatimid mosque, the Jamea ul Anwar, someone asked the spiritual leader Syedna Muhammad Burhanuddin (TUS) about the different ways that their Dawoodi Bohra women dressed when...
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The Bling Ring: Steal the look
In The Bling Ring director Sofia Coppola takes us into the wardrobes of celebrities and the glamorous world of Hollywood. If you are a fashion fiend or a celebrity-worshipper, this movie will leave...
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The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones: Of aliens who alienate
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is adapted from the first of the series of books by Cassandra Clare but hardly does justice to the text. Its makers should have tapped into richer human stories...
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The cuckoo’s calling, and Strike is listening
If this book were written by a real Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym used by JK Rowling, it would have made a great debut. However, it isn’t, and Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, once again takes centre...
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