It started by accident. As most love affairs do. I had arrived home late one evening. And saw them. A young adult cat with a slightly smaller kitten in tow. Both appeared great friends. The elder one was rather timid. But her companion knew just what to do. And how to bring the house down […]
TLP — wanton kittens make sober cats
Immy is having a ball. Not least because he can now officially dance on the PDM’s (Pakistan Democratic Alliance) grave. And no one or their cat can blame him. Though it was a tad miffing that his own government’s social media blackout prevented such frolics from going viral. No matter. For while that rag-tag coalition […]
Immy’s glass slipper
Poor Immy. He almost went to the ball. Indeed, all the stars were aligned just so. The collective opposition had been left on the back-foot. Their one-point agenda to oust the Prime Minister and all his good (wo)men all but forgotten in the name of in-house bickering. If only that pesky caller hadn’t asked Kaptaan […]
All Immy needs for Christmas is a Sat Nav
If only young Immy had thought of it. The very instant those luxury cars had been auctioned was the time to make a canny investment. In the shape of a Sat Nav. Of course, to the untrained eye, this might look a lot like shutting the stable door after the buffalo have already been sold […]
‘East is East’ and other anecdotes
As the lights began to dim, the three of us were still marvelling at how many people had shown up. And paid good money to see this. Of course, it was different for us. For me. This was the story of a family not too dissimilar from my own. That is, one with a Pakistani […]
The un-reluctant fundamentalists
Boris Johnson is on cunning form. Getting off his bike to swoop down like the caring-and-sharing politician that everyone — and their cat — knows him not to be. Beseeching Britain to do the decent thing and offer Aasia Bibi asylum. That’s all it took. For Theresa May and Sajid Javid to almost both fall […]
Of Immy, Asia Bibi and feminism
No sooner had the man formerly known as His Imminence arrived, then did he lose his footing to stumble and fall. Though never once dropping that weighted begging bowl; without which he never dared leave home. What better way for a former sportsman to incorporate a fitness regime in to his new helicopter lifestyle that […]
Human Development Index 2018 is sober reading
The UN Human Development Index (HDI) 2018 has described inequality as the defining challenge of the time. Indeed, it finds that this phenomenon decreases the global HDI by one-fifth. Yet it also inadvertently underscores how it becomes all too easy to overlook its impact when considering purely economic indicators. For if taken at face value, […]
Of Felipe Gonzalez, Spanish bullrings and Brexit
We were mesmerised. Above all by the spectacle of Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez. Nonchalantly lighting up a cigarette. What an absolute rock star. Or so we thought. Perhaps for no other reason than neither of us could picture the decidedly un-suave John Major pulling off such rebel casus belli with just the right dash of […]
Sugar in a plum, plum plum
Sitting cross-legged in a small circle on the playground, we must have been no more than about seven years old. A rare English summer. In as much as the sun had been shining all day long. Which meant that we were all dressed in our PE kit: shorts and aertex top. A brief reprieve from […]