Mehr Tarar

Haveli, The Contract Author: Zeenat Mahal Publisher: Indireads   The age of innocence. When life was simple and emotions were presented on a black and white palette, stirring pathos that appeared to be larger than life in tiny lives. It centred on the mundane lives of ordinary mortals who imagined the effect of their sentiments […]

The mixed emotions stirred in Pakistan by Malala Yousafzai coming within kissing distance of the Nobel Prize is reminiscent of the way Sharmeen Chinoy’s Saving Face gave us a high when we saw Pakistan the maligned mentioned in the same breath as the sublime Oscar. The fact that the path to glory was paved with […]

Ah. What should I edit? I try. I shorten. I abbreviate. I write without spaces. The predicament. Of wording that perfect line in 140 characters, admiring it as a service to humanity, and posting it on that spot in infinite cyber space where it lives forever as that five-letter word: tweet. That one social media […]

The backdrop was spectacular. The images were dizzying and the sounds madcap, grabbing one’s attention like the much-heard score of Pink Panther. The colours startled in their irreverent red-pink-orange-green-blue-tawny splendour. The words were mundane yet so droll they were a throwback to a Carrey scene. The actions were clichéd and thus welcomed like an old […]

On Friday, September 13, 2013, a girl was thrown outside the Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore, bleeding, unconscious. The diagnosis of the maimed body revealed her to be the victim of multiple rape. The girl, with her body of a baby, in a pretty, bloodstained frock, had signs of brutalisation, as her wounds bled profusely and […]

“Terrorism emerges from blind hatred of an Other, and that in turn is the product of three factors: fear, rage and incomprehension. Fear of what the Other might do to you, rage at what you believe the Other has done to you, and incomprehension about who or what the Other really is — these three […]

When ancients get their marching orders, it comes with an unexpected makeover. When Rick Riordan dabbles in mythology, it comes with some expected upgrades. The Heroes of Olympus, spin off to Percy Jackson and the Olympians series awakened both Roman and Greek gods for a few rounds of ‘mortal’ combat. Things happened. During the brief […]

Recently, questions have been raised on the definition of the Ideology of Pakistan. A logical follow-up question is what exactly was the nature of the Pakistan movement? The official view of the Pakistan movement presents a linear narration of a history beginning from the formation of the Muslim League in 1906, followed by the vision […]

“…But say all we done is show the world that democracy isn’t chaos. That there is a great, invisible strength in a people’s union. Say we’ve shown that a people can endure awful sacrifice and yet cohere. Mightn’t that save at least the idea of democracy to aspire to? Eventually to become worthy of?” As […]

Book Review: Riot: A Novel Authors: Shashi Tharoor Publisher: Penguin, New Delhi, India; 2001   “The secret of great stories is that they have no secrets. Great stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again…They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. They don’t surprise you with the unforeseen…You know […]