The Real Meena Kumari
The soulfulness of India’s greatest tragedienne was born of an abiding love for reading and writing. Raza Rumi reviews a biography of the alluring…
The search for a new security paradigm
Recently, Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, elaborated on the losses incurred by the country in fighting terrorism, while making a policy statement…
Farewell President Zardari
Analyzing President Zardari’s tenure President Zardari has set a new record of being the only democratically elected President to have completed his term and…
The heart divided
Here’s an excerpt from my book ‘Delhi, by heart’ that was featured in TFT I am not sure how I met Bunty. It was…
State accountability
My piece published in The Friday Times (June 18 issue) Leaving aside the political debate on the results of the recent Transparency International (TI)…
The time traveler’s life
Here’s something I wrote in TFT about Intizar Hussain saheb’s legacy, his life, and his significance. Intizar Hussain’s nomination for the Man Booker International…
A literary landmark
A review of the Islamabad Literature Festival for TFT Literature festival in Islamabad sounds a contradiction in terms. A city better known for politicos,…
The art of short story
A review of Irshad Abdul Kadir’s recently published collection of short stories written for TFT The gentle stories of Irshad Abdul Kadir have recently been…
Farewell, Dear SM
TFT “Death, a necessary end, will come when it will come…” Salma Mahmud, or SM as we called her at TFT, quietly left us…
Book Review – Nobody Can Love You More: Life in Delhi’s Red Light District
There is usually too much romance, tragedy or judgment in books about South Asia’s sex workers Writing about the lives of “fallen women” is…
Books, bombs & mangroves (on the fourth Karachi Literature Festival)
In its fourth year, the Karachi literature festival (KLF) has become a public event that brings together the cosmopolitanism and the fissiparous identities of…
Karachi Literature Festival: The great divide
The third Karachi Literature Festival concluded recently. I am posting a short piece of mine which was published by the News on Sunday. Another…
The dream that was not mine – Harris Khalique’s poetry
khud pe kia taari use woh khwab jo apna na tha (I let the dream take over me/ The dream that was not mine)…
Books in the times of jihad
After a hiatus of nearly a decade, I found myself in the United Arab Emirates, also popularly imagined as ‘Dubai’ in Pakistan. I was…
Book review: An ambitious undertaking
Pankaj Mishra’s new book is an ambitious undertaking. “From the Ruins of Empire: the Intellectuals who Remade Asia” traces the lives and works of…
Redeeming our tryst with destiny
Raza Rumi took a group of Pakistani politicians to India where, amid food fests and conferences and emotionally charged mushairas, the first pages of a…
River Indus: Flow of life – Part II
From ancient Vedic times to stories told by Sufi saints, the Indus continues to play a central role in the legends and folklore associated…
River Indus: Flow of life – Part I
Along its 1,800-mile course, the Indus joins cultures from the steppes of Central Asia to the arid plains of the South Asian subcontinent. It…
Abdullah Hussain on Urdu
Sir. In his letter “Cracks in KK” (TFT, Aug 31-Sep 6), Khalid Hasan objects to KK Aziz’s evaluation of Faiz as having “no subtlely…
Book review: Poetic resistance to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s murder
As a young student I obtained a tattered copy of ‘Khushboo ki Shahadat’ from an old bookstall in Lahore’s Urdu bazaar. This was the…