What goes around…No more saviours please
Now that the wheel has turned its back yet again, there is much to ponder. There are many who are saying that this is…
Kabir, Bulleh and Lalon – Petals of a mystic lotus
Also published in the Weekly Friday Times July 24 issue The subcontinent during the 15th century witnessed the coming of age of a process…
A brush with the new – Asim Butt’s Art
What distinguishes Asim Butt from his generation and perhaps the preceding generations of artists is the sheer originality of his vision and an iconoclasm…
The sea, the sea – a holiday at the beach
I wasn’t sure if I had posted this old piece here. Just found it in my records and thought I should share it…. The…
Nahaj ul Balagha – Looking back to Get Ahead
Raza Rumi Fahmida Riaz is Pakistan’s premier female poet. She became a sensation in the early 1970s when her bold, feminist poetry created a…
Amrita Pritam: 1919-2005
Amrita Pritam never woke up on the afternoon of October 31, 2005 and the world is emptier without her musings. She embodied the fullness…
Shoaib Akhtar – a fallen hero
My piece published in The Friday Times last week There have been some avoidable outbursts by both Akhtar and his disciplinarians. Akhtar has a…
Why Jodhaa Akbar is a disappointment?
The challenge of translating a historical era into a cinematic endeavour is daunting, especially when it concerns historically contested subjects such as the fabled…
My Travels to Delhi
Finally, I wrote a piece on Delhi …… Delhi’s present day chaos cannot belittle its grand past, which created a civilisation and shaped the…
Afghan Madhouse (Book Review – No Space for Further Burials)
Decades of imperialism have left Afghanistan and its people devastated. But the fall of the Taliban, and the much touted ‘liberation’Â of Afghanistan, has…
Hazrat Ali’s letter on governance and citizenship
The common stories about Islam or Muslims have to do with the chopping of arms and killing of infidels. We are told that Muslims…
Published in The Friday Times
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi Amrita Pritam Delhi’s able daughter Inhospitable Reception Into the Box or else Letting loose in Luzon Mustafa Zaidi On Delhi On…
On the “death of Pakistani culture”
Khaled Ahmed is the endangered variety of writers. A true man of letters proficient in world languages, histories and cultures, he is a journalist…
Long live Malaysia
Malaysia has entered the fifty first year of its existence. This has been a half-century of determination, progress and keeping a fine balance between…
Qurratulain Hyder -End of an Era
The death of Qurratulain Hyder marks the end of an era of the finest writing in Urdu. Hyder, also known as Ainee Apa, dominated…
Amrita Shergil’s Lahore
Khalid Hasan writing for the Friday Times: “Amrita Sher-Gil is one with the earth of Lahore. Is there no one in this city that…
Insider’s Indonesia
Lush green vistas and the eclectic Javanese culture, the breathtaking Bali coastline and the curiously composite Islamic identity of the country made up my…
The invisible Princess Zebunnisa
A lesser known character from the Mughal Empire is princess Zebunnisa, the eldest daughter of Emperor Aurangzeb. Unlike her puritanical father, Zebunnisa was a…
Bulleh Shah and Rumi
The works of Bulleh Shah and Rumi echo the emotions of a growing global audience We are the mirror as well as the face…
Qasmi – Urdu literature mourns a giant
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi (1916-2006) Ab aik baar to qudrat javaabdeh thehre hazaar baar ham insaan aazmaaye gaye Now Nature must be held accountable at…