The postmodern paradox of creativity on July 11, 2018The millennial generation has grown up transitioning from land lines to cell phones, desktops to laptops, curved screens to flat screens, dish antennas to cable networks, Orkut to Facebook, and now Instagram. This technology has not only supplemented the labour of humankind, but has also strengthened the monster of capitalism. Today, capitalism is being reimagined […]
Auliya Council in New York holds conference to celebrate Urs of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti on May 30, 2018Humanitarianism, love and peace today are only found either in the United Nations’ jargons or in the writings referring to the distant times when multiplicity and co-existence prevailed; time that is now lost in political histories; time which is a fascinating object of past preserved in the museum of fiction. Terrorism, target killing, ethnic violence, […]
LLF in New York — a celebration of Pakistan’s artistic richness on May 17, 2018The third edition of the annual Lahore Literary Festival returned to New York this Saturday, at the Asia Society. The festival was a celebration of Pakistan’s cultural, intellectual, and artistic richness that brought together the South Asian community residing in New York. The event was sold out in advance, and the halls of the Asia […]
Being human in the digital era on April 25, 2018Scrolling through Facebook and Instagram every day for a significant amount of time is not a favorite pastime anymore; it has now become an integrated part of our daily life. Media scholars have written volumes analyzing the digital space as an expressive realm for many who cannot do it otherwise. Moreover, living in the age […]
Changing global paradigms; migration past and present on January 19, 2018Migration is central to Pakistan and its creation. 1947 led to one of the largest migrations in human history. India’s independence was a bloody event through which millions of people suffered physical violence, religious hatred and bigoted nationalism. Partition remains a dilemma for those who have experienced migration first hand. It is difficult for those […]
And we all fall down on January 15, 2018Much of the hue and cry over patriarchy in Pakistan comes from the so-called power houses of feminism that insist on painting the picture of gender inequality in this country with a single brushstroke.The latter rally for absolute freedom and independence of the subjugated sex, namely women. Yet they tend to forget that when a […]
Where do I belong now? on January 8, 2018As the year 2017 drew to a close, many of my New York friends who had completed their degrees packed up their bags to go back home. The farewell-until-next-semester conversations of those who would be returning were peppered with transitional angst and uncertainties about the future. And then there was added into the mix an […]
Where is Pakistan headed? on December 4, 2017“Can the moderate Muslims in Pakistan stop complaining about Islamophobia in the western world and focus on calling out these Islamo-fascists for what they are doing in our country? I want to believe that they don’t have popular support from within the Muslim community but we need to demonstrate some strength!” This is one of […]
Moving on to move forward on November 21, 2017A few days back while I was presenting at a migration conference, I was faced with a pleasantly invoking incident. While I was deeply involved in analyzing the tyranny of the Indo-Pak partition in the middle of my presentation I heard some voices which didn’t match the gloomy context of my discussion. Ooohs, aaahs and […]
NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art adding a section on Jahangir-era Lahore, says museum’s Islamic Art curator on November 18, 2017Today, the lived reality of 100 years of British Raj in India is only anticipated through history books and oral accounts. The stories of fortunes and misfortunes of colonisation mostly stay in the realm of imagination that people construct with echoes of the past, having no first-hand experience. A recent festival in New York, “Lahore […]