Not talking to itself
After the conclusion of the Karachi Literary Festival two weeks ago, a sense of delight over its glory lingered for some time in the city’s social circuit. At one gathering,…
Between two languages
In some ways, I have a lover’s quarrel with the English language. I live with it and I cherish this relationship. But there is often this feeling that in preserving…
India’s new tryst with destiny?
As India turns inwards to its next election, the world watches with a mixture of anxiety and hope. Hope, because India has the capacity to lead South Asia into a…
The right to play
The celebration of the first International Day of Sport for Development and Peace on the coming Sunday (April 6, 2014) will be an appropriate occasion to determine whether the children…
Who rules Pakistan?
A Month or so ago, political economist Akbar Zaidi published a piece in Economic and Political Weekly calling for a revision in our academic understanding of state and society in…
New times, same storyline
These days many leaders and lawmakers of Sindh’s two main political parties – the PPP and the MQM – seem to be overflowing with cordiality, and flashing smiles at one…
Incoherent mind
If personal whims and dogmatic worldview are given institutional support, the ultimate result will be the expansion of dogmatism in self, state and society. This is precisely the case with…
Fear of liberal politics
The offended Moeen Cheema takes exception to my criticism of the scholarship produced by him and his colleagues (22 Mar). Their scholarship objects to Pakistani liberalism as elite and narrow…
Sorrows of Sindh
In the fractured mirror that is Pakistan, each large fragment projects a scary image of disorder. In this flaming montage, Sindh sometimes stands out and diverts our attention from other,…
In the land of big smiles
To be greeted with folded hands is hardly unusual for people like me, born and bred in India, the land of namaste. But the Thai greeting is vastly different from…
