Hina Hafeezullah Ishaq

Aging is a serious business. In fact, it is a multi-billion dollar industry that flourishes on our insecurities and eternal quest to cheat time. After a certain age, birthdays are dreaded, every possible anti-wrinkle and anti-age cream is experimented with, and then there is the emphasis on natural remedies and healthy eating. Add to that […]

Mufasa is dead, Scar and the hyenas have taken over the Pride Lands, there is no food and water, the once lush and glorious Savannah has turned into wasteland and the herds have migrated to prosperous climates. Simba, the crown prince, has been forced by Scar to flee, held responsible for Mufasa’s death, and the […]

We live in trying times, in spite of all the progress — from building hotels in space to human cloning. Living in Pakistan, I often reminisce and long for the serenity and innocence of my childhood. I pine for the freedom to walk the streets, to ride my bicycle, to wear what I please without […]

“There was darkness all around; I could feel myself being dragged down, in a whirlpool of heaviness. There was nothing left for me to do…nothing, which I could see. I had lost all the battles and the hope. I had looked for answers but could find none; a persistent voice in my head kept on […]

Myntra.com has placed a number of commercials on television. One shows a man walking into a shop to return a pair of glasses after a week, saying that though he liked them, he wasn’t getting ‘the feeling’! The salesperson promptly responds by saying that if he was not getting ‘the feeling’ then neither would they, […]

Praise be to the Lord for imbibing in us a sense of right and wrong; oh wait, let me rephrase that: praise be to the Lord for imbibing in some of us a sense of right and wrong! Given my extremely delicate emotional balance, I feel if I repeat this as a mantra, over and […]

Anyone who grew up in Pakistan in the 1970s would be familiar, if not besotted, with Uncle Sargam. Uncle Sargam and his team need no introduction. The diversity of characters, the pearls of wisdom and the satire imparted through Massi Museebatay, Haiga, Bonga, Noni, Hadharam and Raula to name a few, left imprints on people […]

“There were 14 of us, seven boys and seven girls. Our father was not interested in providing for us; our mother used to work at the local landlord’s house but there was no money. We were poor, truly poor. I cannot remember a single day when we had three or even two meals; on most […]

She trusted him. There was no reason or so it appeared to her. In retrospect however, maybe there were plenty but she chose not to pay heed; after all, she trusted him. That was what marriage was all about, so she had been told. On their second daughter’s first birthday, he introduced her to ‘that […]

I finally saw it. After months of wondering whether they actually existed or whether it was just a hoax, I finally saw one the other day. As I drove down the canal, past New Muslim Town, Lahore, there it was, in all its glory, shiny, sleek and new: the pink bus! In January this year, […]