The life of Cleopatra on December 16, 2018While a modern visitor to both cities may find this hard to comprehend, back in Cleopatra’s days Rome was a backwater to Alexandria. Unlike Rome, the Egyptian capital was lined with shaded avenues, amazing mosaics, scholarly libraries and book stores. And the Egyptian advances were not just confined to architecture. They also encompassed social development. […]
A memoir of Manila on December 11, 2018About ten years ago, I was having lunch at the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock, Arkansas with some friends when I looked through the glass window and spotted a magnificent building. I was told it was the MacArthur House. I asked after whom was it named. With a smile, one of them said, after […]
Revisiting the tragedy of December 1971 on December 3, 2018A man entered the commanding general’s chamber and handed him a chit: It read, “My Dear Abdullah, we have got you surrounded…Maj.-Gen. Gandharv Nagra.” The commanding general recognised the name. The two had been class mates at the Indian Military Academy. But how had the Indian forces broken through the security perimeter around Dhaka so […]
Imran’s moment has arrived on December 3, 2018While commenting on the creation of a Kartarpur corridor for Sikh pilgrims, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that contrary to public perceptions, Pakistan’s powerful military and intelligence services do want peace with India. He said, “My political party, the rest of our political parties, our army, all our institutions are all on one page. We […]
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar on November 27, 2018There is something timeless about the play that keeps drawing audiences to it. Is it the story? Is it the Shakespearean language? Is it the elaborate staging? Or is it the acting? On a recent visit to Australia, I found that Julius Caesar was being staged at the Sydney Opera House and decided to see […]
Spring in Auckland and Sydney on November 21, 2018When autumn comes to San Francisco, spring comes to New Zealand and Australia. When we boarded the 13-hour flight to Auckland, we knew were heading for a change of seasons. We reached there on a lovely Friday morning. Our room would not be ready until the afternoon. So we decided to stroll past the sailing […]
Saddam Hussain’s legacy on November 14, 2018At the conclusion of the Gulf War in 1991, General Norman Schwarzkopf, who had been the commander-in-chief of US Central Command, observed that Saddam is “neither a strategist nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general.” As the Iraq War approached in 2003, experts speculated […]
A memoir of Chicago on November 10, 2018On a flight from Johannesburg to Cape Town in South Africa many, many Novembers ago I wondered if illegal immigration was one of the challenges facing the country. So I put the question to the person sitting next to me. He said, yes, plenty of people from the north want to migrate to South Africa […]
Will Iran-Pakistan ties improve under Imran Khan? on November 6, 2018The Prime Minister, less than a hundred days in office, has already visited Saudi Arabia, the UAE and China. The visits have secured funding to mitigate the twin financial deficits and strengthened ties with those countries. How about ties with Iran, Pakistan’s western neighbour with a population of some 80 million? The two countries share […]
Saddam Hussain as tactician on October 30, 2018Choosing to fight a conventional war with the US was a bad strategic choice by Saddam. Even then, he could have used appropriate tactics to slow the advancing armies so that diplomatic initiatives could be used to bring about a cease-fire. The Arab countries were in the process of gathering support to implement a UN-sponsored […]