Remembering Benazir Bhutto
I am reposting my piece that was written a year ago. It seems that not much has changed in these twelve months It was…
1971: the forgotten silence
Published in The NEWS This week marks the 37th anniversary of the tragic events of 1971 that led to the dismemberment of Pakistan and…
Is it just cricket? Indian team should have come to Pakistan
“The tour’s cancellation means that terrorists have won; this is what they wanted to achieve.” I was quoted in a piece published by Hindustan…
Even Tamas is online now
My dear friend Bhupinder alerted me to his post that talks about Tamas, a great novel (and subsequently a gripping TV serial) on the…
Unfullfiled Civic Longing
Written for The Friday Times, Pakistan After Mumbai, I have stopped watching television. I will not participate in the senseless jingoism of the Indo-Pak…
Struggle for the soul
– Ayeda Naqvi While it is tempting to give in to anger, it is more important to take a deep breath and remember that…
Who will win the game?
I have been amazed at the reaction that my little piece, “Policy shifts not war” published on these pages on Dec 4 has generated…
A new book on the Partition saga
Changing mindsets by SYED ALI NAQVI One might cry out, humanity is dead if there was any, in disgust and disbelief after going through…
Policy shifts not war
First published in The NEWS The dastardly attacks in Mumbai have irritated the old wounds and replayed the familiar, jingoistic tunes across the Indo-Pak…
Islamabad: This too shall pass
Bemoaning Islamabad’s fall from grace Not long ago, Delhi and Lahore were vulnerable to hordes of foreign invaders. The Mongol fear was overwhelming and…
The native returns
Unaffected by the prophets of doom, a Lahori decides the city is the place to be Twenty years ago, I left Lahore. Excited by…
The words of others
My piece published in the Friday Times last week For decades, Pakistan’s poets and writers have defied conventions and the almighty establishment. Rooted in…
Pakistan: IMF Programme needs to be debated
Debating the aid plan The not-so-inevitable is about to happen. After weeks of groping in the darkness of global financial mess, the Pakistani government…
Happy Diwali – on light and triumph
Indians and Hindus in Pakistan are celebrating Diwali today – I wish them a very happy Diwali. There will be fireworks and festivities signifying…
Lahore blasts fail to terrorise Lahoris
Having lived two days in Lahore as a ‘resident’, the three low intensity blasts are a rude reminder that there is a war all…
Closing the gap
Delhi based writer Tridivesh Singh Maini sent this piece that was published here The Indo-Pak relationship has been so enmeshed in political issues – mostly disputes –…
Through a screen, darkly
Pakistani cable operators, following the cyclical escalation of imagined hatreds, discontinued the transmission of Indian satellite channels in 2002. The absence of Indian TV…
The Zardari conundrum
By all statistical estimates and anecdotal evidence, Pakistan’s middleclass has grown during the last decade. The visible manifestation of this historically significant trend was…
Utopia for me- Pieces of my heart
My piece published in the News on Sunday yesterday – Karta hun jama phir jigare lakht lakht ko (I seek to gather the scattered…
South Asian Cooperation and the Role of the Punjabs
South Asian Cooperation and the Role of the Punjabs. Tridivesh Singh Maini. New Delhi: Siddharth Publications , 2007 South Asian Cooperation and the Role…