Mehr Tarar

Z A Bhutto hanged. Buried in Naudero. April 4, 1979. One plain headline in the Pakistan Times. A politician executed. And the fate of Pakistan changed forever. There was an overwhelming silence all over; the mourning was numbingly expected, yet people’s tears were of true sorrow, genuine pain. There was also the lowering of eyes, […]

“Vice never sees its own ugliness — if it did, it would be frightened by its own image. Shakespeare’s Iago, who behaves in a way that’s true to his nature, sounds false because he is forced by our dramatic conventions to unmask himself, to himself be the one to lay bare the secrets of his […]

July, July By Tim O’Brien Penguin Group; Pp 306   “We had fed the heart on fantasies, The heart’s grown brutal from the fare” — William Butler Yeats.   The 60s. The golden generation with huge dreams. A group of college students. The kick ass, never-die attitude. The passionate spring of 1969, when all of […]

In Other Rooms, Other Wonders By Daniyal Mueenuddin WW Norton & Company; Pp 256   “Not that the story need be long, But it will take a long while to make it short” — Henry David Thoreau.   Stories are simple yet complex. Not a single story can be narrated as if it has only […]

The God of Small Things By Arundhati Roy Penguin Books; Pp 340   The secret of great stories is that they have no secrets. Great stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again. The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably. They don’t deceive you with thrills and trick endings. […]

A Fine Balance By Rohinton Mistry McClelland and Stewart; Pp 614   “Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself, perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your […]