Superstition rules in Pakistan on February 14, 2020Superstition is generally understood to mean a belief or practice resulting from ignorance or fear of the unknown, that certain things happen without any physical cause. And the happening of such an occurrence is believed to be due to some magic or bad omen, which have no scientific basis. On the subject of superstition, Stuart […]
Who rules the world? on January 29, 2020Recently the Metropolitan publishers of New York released the book of Noam Chomsky, ‘Who Rules the World?” in aPDF form for the convenience of readers who had no earlier access to the book which was actually written at the end of 2016. The book in its ebook format has become handy to Pakistani audience which […]
Nothing succeeds like success on January 23, 2020For many generations, the thought which has most occupied humanity has been to find out some formula by which one could become successful overnight. This is despite the fact that we know that success does not come so handy in life nor it comes too soon. But the people whom we daily see being so […]
The humourist who delighted in the absurd on January 17, 2020For quite some time, I have been writing about serious matters which have made me pretty sombre. This, I fear, may turn into a morbid situation. I have, therefore, chosen to write about a man who took everything in his stride; made fun of situations of all kinds with his scintillating humour and wit, and […]
Governing the un-governable on January 12, 2020There being too much talk of economic deterioration in Pakistanwhich led me to read Dr. Ishrat Hussain’s recent book, “Governing the Un-governable”(a formidable close-print volume of 550 pages!). I always considered Dr. Ishrat Hussain as an economist of substance, having served as a Dean in the Institute of Business Administration, and being a former Governor […]
British anarchy in India on January 6, 2020When we were at school, our text books on ‘British Rule in India‘ described the British colonialists as our saviours, who introduced new reforms in agriculture by bringing large tracts of barren lands into productive fields yielding good crops and vegetables for consumption of local population. The actual activities of the Company were even then […]
India is for Hindus on January 1, 2020The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) was passed by the parliament of India on December 11. 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian religious minorities fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Muslims were not given such eligibility. In […]
Tagore and Iqbal on December 27, 2019Before I touch this subject, I confess my lack of knowledge of Bengali language, which I believe, has been partly compensated by my study of Tagore’s best-known work ‘Gitanjali’ translated into chaste English by Tagore himself. In the case of Iqbal, I have in my view most of his Urdu and Persian works, but more […]
Gender parity in Pakistan on December 22, 2019The Gender Parity Index (GPI) is a socio-economic index usually designed to measure the relative access of females and males to education. This index is released by UNESCO. In its simplest form, it is calculated as the quotient of the number of females enrolled in a given stage of education (primary, secondary, etc.) by the […]
‘Sharper than a serpent’s tooth’ on December 15, 2019Of all the vices in nature, which cause the severest burning of feeling and are most universally felt are ‘Ingratitude’ and ‘unrequited love’. Because both vices arise from non-reciprocity of sentiments, therefore qualitatively speaking I regard them similar in nature to each other, though one is general and the other is peculiarly human more specifically […]