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…
In City of Tolerance…
I was quoted in this NYT article on Lahore Still, Raza Rumi, a writer and blogger who takes great pride in his city, insisted…
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…
Ajoka Theatre and the Caucasian Chalk Circle
Who is entitled to keep the child – one who is a better, nurturing mother, or the one who may be the natural…
Poverty and Inequality – the brewing storm
My op-ed first published here As I sipped the tenderly brewed coffee facing the lush green golf course of a relatively new Lahore Country…
Confronting militancy
The unedited version of my op-ed published in the NEWS today: It is time that the vocabulary introduced by the global imperial projects is…
Ode to Benaras – Ghalib’s grand vision
The cancer of communalism and bigotry in South Asia continues to haunt us. These days, the Muslims are once again a subject of intense,…
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…
The pampered Islamabadites
My piece published by Himal Southasian Islamabad is a very peculiar urban space. Though no longer a town, it is still struggling to become…
Living Lohawarana – a Lahori rambling
My piece for Himal Magazine’s October issue There was a Lahore that I grew up in, and then there is the Lahore that I…
The dilemma of an educated [Indian] Muslim youth
Saif Khalid, a patriotic Indian writes on the predicament of those who want to stay away from the missions, the purges and typecasting of Indian…
Delhi and Islamabad blasts: Deadly tale of two cities
A reader directed me to this lovely post. 13/09/08: A series of bomb blasts ripped through the crowded market places of Delhi claiming a…
Bureaucratics
Bureaucratics – Images by Jan Banning Bureaucratics is a project consisting of a book (ISBN 978-1-59005-232-7) and exhibition containing 50 photographs, the product of…
Do not despair, my soul…
Do not despair, my soul, for hope has manifested itself; the hope of every soul has arrived from the unseen. Do not despair, though…
Revisiting the concept of Jihad in Islam
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (Translated from Urdu by Yoginder Sikand)* The word ‘jihad’ is derived from the root juhd, which means ‘to strive’ or…
Islamabad is burning – down with terrorism
What jihad, what Islam and what kind of Muslims these butchers are – they kill innocent people, the underclass outside a posh hotel in…
This Love — Quatrain from Rumi
This Love is the king, yet a throne cannot be found. It is the essence of the Koran yet a verse cannot be found.…
Fana: When the ego gets annihilated
Source Sufi thought is centred around the two fundamental doctrines of the Transcendent Unity of Being or wahdut al-wujud and the universal or perfect…
No One Is Left Hungry at Ajmer
“No one goes hungry in Ajmer during Ramadan” – NDTV – New Delhi, India By Rajan Mahan, For Muslims of south Asia, the Sufi…