Whose language is it anyway?
Recently, a person from the village that one of the writers of this piece comes from approached him about applying to the Prime Minister’s Youth Skill Development Program (PMYSDP). This…
Promoting mother languages
The Indus Cultural Forum (ICF) has been organizing the Pakistan Mother Languages Literature (PMLL) Festival in Islamabad for the last eight years. It coincides with the International Mother Language Day…
Like the Cheshire cat’s grin
A JOURNALIST friend has written a whole new book to caution that a cultural revolution is underway in India led by Hindutva. Let’s reserve comment and ponder an alternative perspective…
Language puzzles: Part – II
The second half of the programme focused on the plight of native languages and asked if they were dying in Pakistan and what might be done to arrest that. There…
Back to the past
"Religious warfare and economic chaos threaten the newly born nation of 70 million moslems", subtitle of the article on Pakistan in Life Magazine issue of January 5, 1948. The magazine's…
Our language tragedy
There are 69 languages spoken in Pakistan. In addition to Urdu only one language is recognised in each province as the ‘provincial’ language. The non-recognition of the minority languages causes…
Their precious gibberish
The Sindh Provincial Assembly witnessed some unusual scenes of hilarity during the question hour on September 19. An opposition MPA had put some questions to the minister for Zakat and…
HEC, Holi and identity crises
Changing the world for future generations is one of the primary tasks of education, more so of higher education. A recent letter by the executive director (ED) of the Higher…
The ‘modernising’ project
IN 1886, the Colonial and Indian Exhibition was held in London. It lasted for six months, and visitors — there were said to be over five million of them —…
PIA: fab past, grim present, vague future
Ivy league’s business schools are always looking for cases to study in-depth by their students about corporations who after achieving their glorious periods, decline and struggle for their survival. Harvard,…
