Shaikhul Islam, hold your cap with both hands on April 25, 2016An avid reader of poetry, I am always baffled at the range of thought of our great poets, some of them equating their poetry to holy verses. Take for example Shah Abdul Lateef Bhitai, who says, “Je to bait bhaainya se aayatoon aaheen, niyo mann laaeen priyaan sande paar de” (What you consider poetry is […]
See the roadblock? on April 24, 2016Is the obstacle in the view a temporary roadblock or is the country fast approaching a cul-de-sac with no way forward? The elections are around the corner, but they do not work for certain quarters. Moreover, the supreme facilitators do not seem to be in a mood to entertain another doctrine of necessity. The prodigal […]
What price honour… on April 20, 2016Remember Howard Hughes, anyone? The notorious, debauched playboy of yesteryears, whose business, aside from designing and flying new airplanes and making third-rate films, was procuring the services of exotic beauties for his amorous escapades in return for money. That debonair millionaire once made an indecent proposal to the young and budding actress Elizabeth Taylor’s mother […]
Betrayals from within on April 19, 2016In the 14th century, Chanesar Soomro, a disgruntled elder brother of the king of Sindh, Dodo Soomro, invited Alauddin Khilji to invade Sindh in order to help him seize the throne from Dodo. The elders, despite Chanesar being older, elected Dodo as the king. The story has it that the elders went to Chanesar first […]
Where has all my money gone? on April 18, 2016While reading an interesting book, An Iraqi Jew in the Mossad: Memoir of an Israeli Intelligence Officer, based on the recollections of a former Israeli spy, Joshua Horesh, I came across an interesting quote by the first Israeli president, Ben Gurion. “In order for Israel to be counted among the nations of the world, it […]
Dharna in Chicago on September 1, 2014The army’s mediation or facilitation — whatever you want to call it — in this inqilab/azaadi (revolution/independence) crisis has created a stir. The army’s unit of analysis, very rightly, is the state of Pakistan. This fact and the unique history of our country where the army has repeatedly played a role in determining civilian conflicts […]
Sang réal or san gréal? on March 13, 2014“And, what grail (a cup, a vessel, or a platter) can be holier than the one that fills a child’s stomach?” The other day, I saw a picture of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, squatting on the ground, listening intently to a poor Thar woman recounting her woes. The drought in Thar has killed around 150 children […]
Are we an irresolute nation? on November 11, 2013We are the only nation on earth that is in love with both good and evil at the same time. The only nation to which the killer as well as the killed both are martyrs, and in Shah Abdul Lateef Bhitai’s words, “Tu’n hee ain azaab/tu’n hee raahata rooha jee” (You are my tormentor/You are […]
Parochialism in the wrong places on September 16, 2013Fear the times when parochialism reaches the places it should have absolutely no place in. While writing Zulfi Bhutto of Pakistan, Stanley Wolpert met Alvin Robert Cornelius, the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. Justice Cornelius was an Urdu-speaking Christian from Agra, a former ICS officer-turned-judge, who opted for Pakistan because “it […]
Manifestations of the future on June 23, 2013To illustrate the situation of Sindh let me borrow a translation of Munir Niazi’s immortal poem from Aatish Taseer, “In part the road was hard/In part, I wore a collar of grief about my neck/In part the people of the town were cruel/And, yes, in part, I, too, knew a taste for death”, which he […]