The Tribal and the Universal in Akbar Ahmed’s Mataloona on August 4, 2021The “matal” or proverb in Mataloona: Pukhtun Proverbs and Mizh: A Frontier Classic (Oxford University Press, 2020) that I find the most delightfully emblematic of the value of a book such as this, is “(don’t be like) the frog that climbed a clod and said he saw Kabul.” The saying not only captures the dynamic […]
‘Journey into Europe’: Reversing the paradigm on February 15, 2018In a silent and quite grainy black and white film clip showing members of the extended British royal family lined up for a photograph, one is struck by the overpowering dazzle and opulence of the jewels worn by the women. The scene is from the early part of the last century and the jewels are […]
Tell everyone on this train I love them on September 6, 2017As I polish, decorate, cook and garnish, the task of readying my Muslim home in California for Eid seems no less than a desperate struggle for creating a semblance of stability, a belaboured celebration of faith and family in a world turning more and more hostile. Before switching on the garden lights, before the embroidered […]
Palace Sherbet on July 16, 2017A recipe written on a clear glass samovar of “Ottoman Sherbet” remains with me long after the trip photos have been downloaded, enjoyed and forgotten; the place is the tree-lined alley in Istanbul’s Sultanahmet district, between the mosque and the Grand Bazaar, at an artisan fair, a “mela” (as in “milieu”) or “coming together” in […]
The spirit in the letter on July 7, 2017 When I was a child, I heard the story of a scholar jinni disguised as a boy, who once extended his arm across the latticed, vine-wrapped nooks and labyrinthine walkways, pearl gardens, concealed windows for spy-archers, through the liquid shadows of jade and jasper archways, 12-door pavilions, over rectilinear pools flanked by sitar-players and […]
That one grief was left unspoken when all was said and everything ended: Identity Narratives and the Passion of the Ghazal on May 5, 2017Dhaka se wapsi per dismantles the moral certitude inherent in nationalism and makes identity narratives look absurd against the bond of common humanity States are quick to form narratives to contain, explain, and even exploit political tensions, and though poetry has been known to validate and bolster national narratives, it has also been known to […]