Gulalai pitting women against minorities wont smash the patriarchy on August 26, 2017Ayesha Gulalai should keep quiet. But now that she has misspoken an apology must be forthcoming. No, not for Kaptaan. Once he has decided upon just the right line-up of the usual suspects ready to don the well-worn one-size-fits-all hats of the parliamentary probesters then justice can be done. Provided, of course, it doesn’t turn […]
Death in the apocalypse on August 23, 2017Resolutely sat she, London. Steeling herself for an imminent stoning-and-dethroning as those wanting to be anarchy made their stealthy advance. Un-vanquishable in number they may have appeared. Initially. But these, she knew, were no children of a wiser day preparing to rise like lions after slumber to Liberty unshackle. Death in the apocalypse was not […]
Of wedding dresses and the Tunisian desert on August 20, 2017When I think of that Christmas in Tunisia, it is to think that Enid Blyton might have been proud. For this was a holiday full of pro-active adventure, some of which may absolutely have been worth writing about. It was the year before I moved to Lahore and it all happened quite accidentally. Chantelle and […]
Will the Taliban pen be mightier? on August 19, 2017Poor old Donald Trump. He’s had a busy time of it. The week kicked off with him being denounced as a Nazi sympathiser. Which seems fair enough, actually. Yet what is making political pundits everywhere, and in this region particularly, hold their collective breath is the wait-and-see on whether he will go all the way. […]
Will the Taliban pen be mightier? on August 19, 2017Poor old Donald Trump. He’s had a busy time of it. The week kicked off with him being denounced as a Nazi sympathiser. Which seems fair enough, actually. Yet what is making political pundits everywhere, and in this region particularly, hold their collective breath is the wait-and-see on whether he will go all the way. […]
Of a Pakistani doctor and English nurse on August 13, 2017Before Enid Blyton, there was the story of how my parents met. As my young self recalled it: he had been the eligible young doctor; she, the put upon nurse. I can remember feeling terribly scandalised upon hearing the ‘grown-up’ version for the first time. My dad had been courting her best friend. My mother […]
Bloody Masks of Anarchy on August 13, 2017(Now) The curtain was going up. London was taking a bow. Abandoning her infamous reserve, at last, to replace a stiff upper lip with a puckered pout. The city was preparing to dance her dance step and sing her song. Not bigger than Beijing, of course. Not even in her wildest dreams. Nothing could be. […]
Textgate and the absence of the state on August 5, 2017 Pakistan’s democracy is facing another challenge. This time, too, the issue is one of moral turpitude. A powerful man has been accused. It is the woman who is standing trial. There have been allegations of political opportunism by a vengeful ruling party. There have been counter-allegations decrying the fact that no evidence has been […]
The rape of Lady Liberty most foul on August 2, 2017In Pakistan, Lady Liberty constantly finds herself draped in borrowed robes. Democracy does this to her. Time and again. Keeping forever in mind the male gaze. Today, democracy has stripped her naked. Once more. And all because the men at the top demand it. To avenge democracy for violation by the courts. For the latter, […]
Hawk Roosting by another name on July 19, 2017St Anthony. The patron saint of all things lost and wretched. How fitting, therefore, that we share the same name. For I have staked my legacy on both, time and again. Yet there are those who would rob me of my divine deliverance. Fortunately, I remain a defender of the faith. My own, that is. […]