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Men of masala
Pakistani politics may not always be the most tasteful, but it certainly has enough masala to satisfy the appetite. We’re force fed slogans and platitudes that don’t quite settle the stomach, but so...
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Revo: The revolution that wasn’t
It is 2013. On a summer afternoon, a small car turns into a narrow lane in Orangi Town, one of Karachi’s most impoverished neighbourhoods. Sunlight reflects off the car’s shiny blue bonnet and the...
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The royal treatment
Like many Pakistanis, it’s my routine to drink tea every evening. And during my frequent travels, drinking tea becomes not just a habit but a necessity as it helps me keep up my energy levels and...
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Buckets and brooms
Twenty-four-year-old Gul Hasan is one of the many sanitary workers who clean the streets of Karachi’s upscale Defence Housing Authority every single day. Clad in an orange uniform, he resembles a...
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Keeping it real: How British Muslims responded to the sacrilegious film
It was meant to offend, and offended they were. But, for them, the appropriate response to the amateur anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims was to spread knowledge, not create chaos. “We simply...
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Fire safety 101: Ensuring your home is fire safe
We all looked on in horror as the Baldia factory fire claimed close to 300 lives on September 11 this year. For days, newspapers and TV channels focused on what was Pakistan’s worst industrial...
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Adventure island
A lonesome, ancient fort stands somewhere in the middle of the sea, close to the historical port city of Bhambhore in Sindh, and straddled by a dwindling forest of mangroves. A few years back, our...
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Impressions of a parallel world
That smile will forever live with me. At two years of age, its owner Michael was the youngest student at the Concordia Crèche in the city of George, South Africa. It was lunch time and he had asked me...
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Where there’s a will there’s a Valium
My friend Samra* was a perfectly healthy girl; beautiful, talented and ready to fall in love. Born and bred in New York, she would come to Pakistan to meet her Gujranwala based family every summer....
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The allure of Ayyan
I sat in the movie theatre watching what turned out to be a huge disappointment, the Kareena Kapoor starrer Heroine. It was halfway through the tedious film that my mobile phone started ringing. It...
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Daadi’s diary: Pain pain go away...
A couple of weeks ago my aunt had the misfortune of fracturing her wrist during a fall. My mother has also suffered from severe back pain for the past 25 years. I myself suffered a tailbone injury a...
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Escape from Oblivion - a critical analysis
Ikram Sehgal’s book Escape from Oblivion is a gripping narrative about his experiences during a time of great tribulation that followed the Pakistan Army’s crackdown on the rebellious elements in East...
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Walking with the wakhi
I am proud that I am Wakhi, I was Shepherd, I am Shepherd I am the language of absolute faith, I was Shepherd, I am Shepherd – Nazir Ahmad Bulbul In a far-flung corner of the...
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The road to Swat: What hatred destroyed, humanity has tried to rebuild
In earlier times, when fear had not been etched in deep, incisive wound-like lines on the insides of our eyelids, this was a road where chocolate heroes serenaded caramel heroines. They cavorted...
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Dashing donkeys, magnificent mules
In ancient Rome, chariot races used to take place at the Circus Maximus. In modern-day Karachi, they mostly begin in front of The Forum, the upscale mall located in Clifton. Every alternate Sunday...
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Gone with the wind
When they strapped me up and told me that it was my turn to go, I started reciting the few prayers I know. I had seen the bearded “head of operations” smoking a cigarette earlier, as he pointed me out...
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One stroke at a time
Tashina Nur knew from the start her son was gifted. She always kept an easel with paper and paints in Yakub’s room and when the two-year-old would walk by, he would make some quick strokes with the...
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From home, with love
Driving out to their office, one can see the billboards for Hum Tum Radio — one of Houston’s few Pakistani radio stations — on the main highways of Houston. Broadcasting to over 100,000 Pakistanis in...
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Legends of Lahore
When I take visitors to the Fakir Khana Museum, I tell them that a visit to the abode of the fakirs of Lahore is about more than sharing the family’s collection of artefacts. It’s a lesson in Lahore’s...
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Humor: Riding a donkey to a bright future
I recently read an article by Amina Jilani titled The dead horse syndrome (published in The Express Tribune on September 7) and I completely agree with the author’s graphic statement that “it could be...
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