I can love my country without having to humiliate yours on July 22, 2018For one of my research projects, I was in contact with a Pakistani student living in the US for his studies. On one occasion when I called him he answered that he couldn’t talk right then as his friend, Abhijeet, was asleep in his studio apartment. The next day, I asked him out of curiosity […]
‘Our differences unite us’ on July 15, 2018One of the results of industrial revolution was the acceleration of the pace of colonisation. The North-South gap became a stark reality of evolution of political and economic world order. The world was divided into the privileged imperialistic and colonized blocks. Though the colonizers did focus on development of infrastructure in their colonies and introduced […]
The “Parisian Mob” at Avenfield on July 14, 2018“W e have the baker, the baker’s wife and the baker’s son. We shall have bread”. This was the song sung by the women of Paris and surrounding areas, to refer to the royal family, during the 1789’s French Revolution, after successfully making the king come to terms with the revolutionaries. There was a famine […]
Monsoon season — a time to celebrate or to curse? on July 8, 2018Asian monsoon is a term which was first coined in British India to refer to the rain season, influenced by strong winds coming from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Setting aside the geographical and environmental aspects, there’s a cultural and literary legacy associated with this weather. After a harsh spell of heat wave […]
Paan for peace — politicisation of a symbol of cultural sophistication on July 1, 2018I serve paans after dinners which I purchase from a famous paan shop in Lahore as I haven’t been ‘saleeqamand’ enough to maintain a paan dan myself. On dholkis, mehndis, weddings, fairs, galas in Lahore, a paan stall is a must A public statement of former Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has stirred a lot […]
The fading decor of ‘Kanas’ (cornice) on June 23, 2018It all started with a simple human need for shelter, providing protection from weather conditions or some possible security threat. It evolved from simplest mud houses or caves to modern architecture which caters to both the needs and desires of human life. Besides being the most rational beings of the animal kingdom, humans are also […]
Cooking — a sub-solution to Indo-Pak conflict on June 10, 2018The experts in the field of conflict resolution and peace building put a lot of emphasis on the academic and practical distinction between ‘negative peace’ and ‘positive peace’. The former is defined in terms of getting to a situation marked as absence of war. A ceasefire takes place between the belligerent parties and one cannot […]
Memories of ‘Charpai’ and ‘Dalaan’ — symbols of the lost cultural traditions on June 3, 2018Once I bought a small model of a charpai from a handicrafts shop, to be sent outside Pakistan as a symbol of Pakistani culture for a cultural exhibition. Interestingly, the children accompanying me, born and bred in urban Pakistan, couldn’t relate to the phenomenon of charpai. One of them could recognise it as something representative […]
Sardar Charanjeet Singh — the martyr of peace on June 1, 2018I have a new case study to teach in my Peace Building class because there recently has been an addition to the long list of martyrs of peace. Sardar Charanjeet Singh, a Sikh community leader in Peshawar, was shot dead by unidentified armed men in his grocery store. It is becoming a tough course to […]
Of Rubab, potluck iftar and cultural integration on May 27, 2018A few months ago, during a personal visit to the US, I had a candid chat with a bunch of Pakistani students residing there. We were invited by a Pakistani Pakhtun student over dinner. He had a nicely-maintained apartment (our boys can manage domestic affairs very well when away from protective and pampering environments). There […]