Litfest season
A FEW short years ago, critiques of Pakistani literature festivals (mine included) raised questions of inclusivity, efficacy and quality of debate. These have been valuable signifiers of a literature festival’s…
Heights of intellect
IT was said once that Life magazine was for those who cannot read and Time magazine for those who cannot think. Litfests have been invented for those to whom a…
Pakistani fiction
The Pakistani novel in English occupies a space of contestation and confusion. There are those that believe that it must be a response to global articulations of Pakistan. Others insist…
Art and the elite
The date was Jan 26 and the venue was Jaipur`s Diggi Palace. The occasion was the Jaipur Literature Festival, which since its inception a few years ago has become India`s…
Nonsense and sensibilities
It is disturbing that the Jaipur Literature Festival that should have ended with aplomb this week was allowed to degenerate into a celebration of Salman Rushdie and his hurtful book.…
Nonsense and sensibilities
It is disturbing that the Jaipur Literature Festival that should have ended with aplomb this week was allowed to degenerate into a celebration of Salman Rushdie and his hurtful book.…
Literary blues
Speaking at the Karachi Literary Festival four years ago, Zia Mohyeddin said, “The homes of the rich in Pakistan have expensive crockery, rugs, crystal, hideous paintings … and no books.”…
Grounded, immobile
The sky over the Beach Luxury Hotel in Karachi was a cerulean blue, empty, silent. Crows cawed as they scavenged deserted dining tables for scraps of food. White gulls with…
This ‘culture’
When official and unofficial Talibanisation is eating up every available space for artistic expression, it apparently becomes difficult to summarily dismiss spectacles staged in the name of culture. It becomes…
In Karachi’s mirror
That first SMS I received on Friday morning could well have been a good morning wish. But it brought bad news. The message from friend Kamran Arif just said that…
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