Dear friends, who insist on organising events conducted mostly in English in Pakistan, have you ever considered that by choosing English as your medium of communication, you are automatically alienating the vast majority of the Pakistani public? I have seen this happening at events that were supposedly targeted at poor and lower-middle-class communities. I have seen it happening even when a middle-class person tries to switch the language by commenting or asking a question in Urdu and only gets a response in English. Are you so out-of-touch that you can’t realise this? Or are you so stubborn that you cannot push yourself slightly out of your comfort zone? And yes, it will be hard for the elite to learn to communicate properly in Urdu, especially those of a certain generation (I know I struggle as someone born and raised in the US), but perhaps it is a good thing for you to be uncomfortable once in a while rather than always expecting others to accommodate you. (And yes, I am very aware this post is in English, so please don’t bother pointing that out.) Published in Daily Times, April 2nd 2018.