Our enduring transphobia on February 12, 2019We have rostered our resentment for the outliers, those who lie beyond the admissible fringes of our collective concessions, the outcasts, the freaks, the ungodly and, hence, the unnecessary. In our own adaptation of gender dissonance, we continue suspending sensitivity towards those who need it the most, dogged dossiers telling of more than 470 instances […]
Did he really just say that? on December 1, 2018They say that language is the source code for all human interaction. If even a modicum of this axiom applies, Prime Minister Imran Khan needs a crash course in tact and restraint. He could also make do with that rare breed that cultivates a “passion for anonymity” (Brownlow Committee) – the political speechwriter. If the […]
Fighting for the human soul on October 4, 2018Andre Vltchek is tired. He is tired of the cunning complexities in modern society’s fight for the human soul. In his new book, Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism, he takes on a new revolution: today’s foe — a counter culture of vulgarity, war and brutality where his battlefield isn’t the romance of radical zeal but the […]
Children be damned on August 13, 2015It is telling how Pakistan treats its most vulnerable when what is being labelled “the largest child porn ring” in our country’s history is tripped upon by accident and, with the truth suddenly out there, a cacophony of the who’s who stumble over themselves to dodge important questions, downplay the mammoth scope of the abuse […]
Not one of us on May 12, 2015There is a special place in the bottomless pit for women who demoralise and demerit other women, especially when one of those women belongs to a bubble so far removed that even the bubble comes in bubble wrap; the result is astounding and the indifference that I may have had towards this packaged protagonist has […]
RIP funnyman on August 12, 2014Celebrity deaths are always a bit of a punch to the gut; you see these glossy, larger than life figures every day up on that silver screen going through the free-range motions of a thousand different lives, some exciting, a tad troublesome, fiercely bittersweet but always there in that blitzkrieg known as the performing arts, […]
The business of religion on April 17, 2014There is a distinct rawness to today’s modish brand of Islamic radicalism one just cannot reconcile with the antiquity and supposed perfection of the faith-based cosmos mankind has demonstrated its devotion towards for centuries. Man has not been made for the moment and neither has his history on earth been a rehearsal for some macabre […]
Not in my write mind on January 25, 2014Writer’s block can be a strange commitment towards mental dilution; it can leave you wanting for some spontaneous human assumption when faced with the possibility of meeting a deadline or worse still, a fresh copy for an unknowing new employer. When all you have to your credit are a few written words, even fewer typed […]
Advertising our hate on June 11, 2012The stench of intolerance sits heavy over the cityscapes of Punjab. And it is not just my olfactory sense that stands offended. My rationality, intelligence and the kind of steely grit required to just trudge along day in and day out in a country bereft of essential resources for human necessity have all taken a […]
The forever governor on January 6, 2011“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it” – Martin Luther King, Jr. Salmaan Taseer left the Governor House with both honour and dignity intact. In a country where the megalomaniac pull […]