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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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)…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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)…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…