Anatomy of the tongue on August 16, 2014When one’s voice is muted, it helps to be introspective. It helps to wonder if it was silenced by society and the general construct of what is acceptable speech or if you had given up on your beliefs voluntarily, the equivalent of slicing your tongue. If it is the former, you must know that you […]
Stepping into the past on August 2, 2014Step into the future. Here is a chip that you can place at the top of your spine in the base of your head and it will record, and perhaps even publish, your thoughts and your beliefs. The world would self-destruct. Civilisation would only exist if everyone could self-sufficiently live in their own silos. Undoubtedly, […]
On the fast and ongoing slow on July 26, 2014One has to wait for the whole year to pass in order to see utter mayhem and madness on the streets. But one does see it eventually. The month of Ramzan brings with it a combination of general frustration and low blood sugar, ideally set to instill patience and temperance in believers, but it often […]
A graveyard of lessons on July 19, 2014We are all headed towards oblivion — there is a good chance that no one will ever know who we were and, therefore, some may choose to hasten the inevitable end. It makes no sense to do this though if you are 17, a girl and in a profession that has the glamour and spunk […]
Eclipsed by the sword on July 12, 2014Operation Zarb-e-Azb has cost Pakistan at least two billion dollars thus far. This, according to one of Pakistan’s most astute military commentators who is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army, Samson Simon Sharaf. The operation’s effectiveness is now being doubted by military strategists because terrorists seem to have found sanctuary in neighbouring Afghanistan well […]
The misery for which we did not prepare on July 5, 2014Chances are that about 600,000 of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), also known as the internally ‘disowned’ people of North Waziristan, will need more than a few tonnes of wheat, which the army is supplying to them in cookie cutter packages as they flee the war and Operation Zarb-e-Azb. Also chances are that they do […]
Drinking soup with a knife on June 21, 2014Now that the army, backed by the government, albeit hesitatingly, has waged war on the terrorists, one feels like there is some oxygen to fill one’s lungs with. The question is if Operation Zarb-e-Azb is merely a reactionary hit to break down their stronghold in North Waziristan or if it is a long thought out […]
The writing not on the wall on June 14, 2014D-Chowk is the protest spot of Islamabad. It looks like a place where the earth has churned up concrete barriers and barbed wires. On one of the barriers, someone had graffitid: ‘Stop Shia genocide’. A few days later, it was black charcoaled, later it faded and the graffiti was visible again. Then it was white-outed, […]
Holier than thou misogynists on June 7, 2014Acid burned, honour killed and choked, the Pakistani women who make the headlines are literally out of a nightmare. Like Farzana Parveen who recently was murdered by her own family with bricks outside the Lahore High Court, there are many such stories that expose the rot that society now seems to have ingrained. Only a […]
While we persecute you on May 31, 2014Persecution has existed since antiquity. You have to, however, be a special kind of unfortunate to be persecuted by Muslims. There will be no mercy. There will be no hope. No one in power will stand up for you, attempt to protect you or even throw your way two words of consolation. A caravan will […]