Film industry at a crossroads on July 24, 2017This year hasn’t exactly been great for Pakistani movies up until now, maybe because of the quid pro quo ban on Indian movies which our cinemas seemingly lurched into without realising the footfall death which would occur or the lacklustre response to the content being churned out. Its also been bad timing in some cases […]
Green dreams on May 11, 2017The summers in Karachi are pretty harsh, with its constant dust and heat waves up to 45oC plus the insane traffic all contribute to a feeling which can be best described as being stuck inside a swamp with the air turned off, sometimes even literally courtesy the ever brilliant KESC. The harshness of this concrete […]
Karachi over chai on May 1, 2017Perched at the vantage point in front of the stock exchange, my days are spent serving tea to stockbrokers, businesspersons and people who have their hands on the pulse of this thriving vibrating monster that is Karachi. When I first came here from Mardan, I felt I had distanced myself from those back home just […]
Karachi over chai on May 1, 2017Perched at the vantage point in front of the stock exchange, my days are spent serving tea to stockbrokers, businesspersons and people who have their hands on the pulse of this thriving vibrating monster that is Karachi. When I first came here from Mardan, I felt I had distanced myself from those back home just […]
Time to invest in teacher training on April 19, 2017Educational institutes represent a conundrum for the Pakistani state. Not that there is a dearth of them, no, not at all. But rather the problem lies in what is being taught and how. It appears that much of the current global chitchat centres on the question of fundamentalism and from where hardline thoughts begin. How […]
Karachi of bridges and divides on April 12, 2017We have all heard the usual spiel. It goes something like this: Karachi is a city of more than 20 million denizens. Karachi is a city that treats everyone the same, no matter wherever you might be, whether by the sea or by a toll plaza. And that it is people who tend to create […]
Fair and lovely obsessions on April 5, 2017 In a country where almost everything is blamed upon the white man, Satan and unseen forces, having fairer skin Is deemed to be a blessing and a birthright for success in life. Isn’t that a great irony? Or perhaps, it’s something embedded in our minds as we grow up in an environment where the colonial mind-set pre-exists as part of our cultural norms. Initially, I thought such things predominantly existed in the whole of […]
Digital lives on March 28, 2017The Millennials are possibly the most examined generation of our time. They are best characterised by their short attention span, which renders them unable to commit to anything long-term. Thus their day-to-day lives are reduced to nothing more than a focus on instant gratification. Consider, how a typical urban hipster twenty-something begins the day. First […]
The circle of violence on March 20, 2017As the census does its job in the megacity that Karachi has become people have pretty mixed reactions to it. For some reason many of my colleagues and coworkers seem to think I have an insight into activities like this and are asking questions like ‘what do I do if my id card is expired’ […]
Making sense of Pakistan on March 13, 2017Few people in this world have had the exposure or understanding to know what it means to live in a place like Pakistan and only those that do can understand what it takes; the almost perverse joy that one feels in its day-to-day existence. I feel that it is necessary as the premise of my […]