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Raza Rumi

Jahane Rumi

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Faculty @cunyedu @cornellbpp
Affln:@tft_ @nayadaurpk @newwaveglobal_ @newwavehistory_
Prev: @parkindymedia @adb_hq @jinnahinstitute
Book:@delhibyheart

Incredible: After the Trump-Mamdani meeting a repo Incredible: After the Trump-Mamdani meeting a reporter asked Mamdani whether he still stands by calling Trump a fascist. Before he could respond, President Trump jumped in: “That’s okay, you can just say yes… It’s easier than explaining it.” 😂🫣
“So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay “So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”
#CentralPark #nyc #fall #autumn #robertfrost
Renowned educationist Dr. Arfa Sayeda Zehra passed Renowned educationist Dr. Arfa Sayeda Zehra passed away in Lahore at the age of 83.

She was deeply affectionate — warm, always generous with her time and wisdom. Her presence lit up every gathering, and her wit left an indelible mark on all who knew her.

Dr. Arfa devoted her life to nurturing a love for Urdu language and literature, and to cultivating a historical consciousness among generations of students. Through her teaching, writings, and public engagements, she inspired countless young minds to think critically about culture, identity, and society.

Hundreds of her students and admirers are mourning her loss today — a loss not just to academia, but to Pakistan’s cultural and educational life.
It’s official: #ZohranMamdani has made history. It’s official: #ZohranMamdani has made history. ✨
New York City has elected its first Muslim mayor — the first of South Asian heritage, and the first born in Africa. A defining moment for the city, and for a new generation of politics. 🗽

#Mamdani, 34, the democratic socialist and state assembly member from Queens secured a clear victory with more than 50% of the vote. Former governor Cuomo, 67, came in second with just over 40%, while Republican Curtis Sliwa trailed with a little above 7%.
It’s official: #ZohranMamdani has made history. It’s official: #ZohranMamdani has made history. ✨
New York City has elected its first Muslim mayor — the first of South Asian heritage, and the first born in Africa. A defining moment for the city, and for a new generation of politics. 🗽

#Mamdani, 34, the democratic socialist and state assembly member from Queens secured a clear victory with more than 50% of the vote. Former governor Cuomo, 67, came in second with just over 40%, while Republican Curtis Sliwa trailed with a little above 7%.
Zohran #Mamdani, the Democratic contender for New Zohran #Mamdani, the Democratic contender for New York City mayor, cast his vote today at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Astoria, Queens — joining fellow New Yorkers at the polls on Election Day. #nyc
Voted early in the #NYC mayoral election. This loc Voted early in the #NYC mayoral election.
This local election has drawn national and even international attention — because it will shape not just the city’s leadership, but its future direction. The choices we make now will define what kind of city New York becomes: inclusive or divided, affordable or exclusive, visionary or complacent.

Local elections rarely get the spotlight they deserve, yet they decide how we live — our transit, housing, schools, and shared spaces.
Democracy begins here, one vote at a time.

#NYCVotes #CivicEngagement #LocalDemocracy #EarlyVoting #NYC2025
This is such a beautiful tribute by @woodyallenoff This is such a beautiful tribute by @woodyallenofficial for late Diane Keaton💔:

“Unlike any other person the planet has known or is likely to know again, her face and her laughter lit up any place she entered.”

“Over time, I made films for a single audience member: Diane Keaton. I never read a single review of my work and only cared what Keaton had to say about it...
A few days ago, the world was a place where Diane Keaton existed.
Now it is a world where she is not. For that reason, it is a sadder world.
Even so, there are her films. And her great laughter still echoes in my head.”
Diane Keaton — the unforgettable icon of Annie H Diane Keaton — the unforgettable icon of Annie Hall and The Godfather — has passed away at 79.
A timeless performer with unmatched wit and warmth, she redefined what it meant to be a leading woman in Hollywood — quirky, vulnerable, fiercely independent.

From her collaborations with Woody Allen to her roles in The First Wives Club and Nancy Meyers’ modern classics, Keaton gave us decades of brilliance, laughter, and style that was entirely her own. 🤍

#DianeKeaton #AnnieHall #TheGodfather #HollywoodLegend #CinemaIcons
I walked into the @themorganlibrary in March and m I walked into the @themorganlibrary in March and met Kafka not as a myth, but as a man—pages and crossings-out, the nervous clarity of a hand that wrote after office hours and before illness closed in. The galleries gathered the manuscripts of The Metamorphosis, drafts of The Castle and Amerika, diaries, postcards to Ottla, even the Hebrew notebooks—evidence of a life that was disciplined, searching, and painfully mortal.

The rooms staged a tension between icon and person. Warhol’s bright portrait drew people in, but the manuscripts held them; the curators seemed to ask us to unlearn the caricature and read the man—his routines, ailments, and small tendernesses. The little tale that became “Kafka and the Doll” reminded me that compassion sat right beside the dark machinery we associate with his name.

I left thinking less of “Kafkaesque” and more of a working writer making do with time, light, noise, and doubt. The exhibit returned him to a desk, a city, a century—and to us, as readers who carry his anxieties into our own uncertain modernity.

#FranzKafka #KafkaAtTheMorgan #TheMorganLibrary #KafkaExhibition #LiteraryLegacy #WritersLife #Modernism #Manuscripts #TheMetamorphosis #TheCastle #Amerika #KafkaAndTheDoll #EuropeanLiterature #LiteraryMuseums #NewYorkMuseums #WritersDesk #ReadingKafka #CzechLiterature
In Konya, even food feels like poetry. The etli ek In Konya, even food feels like poetry.
The etli ekmek arrives warm from the oven — bread, meat, and devotion folded together.
As I took the first bite, I thought of Rumi: “There are many ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
This, too, was a kind of prayer.
(August 2025)
#Konya #Etliekmek #Rumi #Anatolia #CulinarySoul #TravelReflections #TurkeyDiaries
#Kunafa: Originating from the Levant and perfected #Kunafa: Originating from the Levant and perfected across the Ottoman world, Kunafa (or Künefe in Turkish) is one of those desserts that carry centuries of culinary history in each golden strand. Made with fine shredded phyllo dough (kataifi), layered with soft cheese, soaked in light sugar syrup, and often topped with crushed pistachios — it’s a symphony of textures: crisp, creamy, and aromatic.

What makes it unique is the contrast — melted cheese wrapped in crisp pastry, uniting simplicity and indulgence in every bite.

A taste of history — and pure comfort.

#Kunafa #Künefe #TurkishDessert #MiddleEasternCuisine #FoodHeritage #SweetTraditions #TravelTastes #RazaRumiTravels
(This photo was taken during my last visit to Turkey in August 2025)
Every Saturday night in Konya, the Mevlana Cultura Every Saturday night in Konya, the Mevlana Cultural Center fills with the haunting sound of the ney flute and the slow, circular rhythm of devotion. The Whirling Dervishes take the floor—not as performers, but as seekers. Their motion is not dance in the worldly sense; it is meditation, surrender, a spinning prayer to dissolve the self. Watching them, I am reminded of Rumi’s vision—that love is not stillness but motion, a turning toward the divine that never ends.

Each time I return here, I feel as if I’m witnessing the heartbeat of Rumi’s world still alive in our fractured age. The ceremony is centuries old, yet its message feels timeless: to find God, one must first lose oneself in love.

#Konya #Rumi #WhirlingDervishes #SemaCeremony #Sufism #MysticJourney #divinelove
Eighteen years later, I returned to Konya — and Eighteen years later, I returned to Konya — and to myself.
Within the whirling silence of Mevlana’s mausoleum, the same turquoise dome shimmered, the same calligraphy whispered, “Come, whoever you are.”

The Mevlana Museum — once a lodge of the whirling dervishes — still holds Rumi’s resting place, his reed flute, and the manuscripts that carried his love to eternity. The air trembles with verses that refuse to age, reminding me why his poetry has been my compass — through life journeys, faith, and the search for meaning.

Konya is not just a city; it is a return to the heart’s own rhythm.

#Rumi #Konya #MevlanaMuseum #TravelDiaries #Sufism #Turkey #PoeticJourney #RazaRumi
Stepping into Rumi’s tomb in Konya is like enter Stepping into Rumi’s tomb in Konya is like entering a world where silence speaks. The turquoise dome above glimmers with Seljuk artistry — its ceiling painted in deep lapis, gilded stars, and geometric patterns that draw the eyes heavenward. Beneath it, calligraphic verses and intricate mosaics carry centuries of devotion. Once a dervish lodge, today this is the Mevlana Museum — a sanctuary of memory where relics of the Sufi master and his followers are preserved.

Rumi (1207–1273), born in Balkh and resting here in Konya, was not just a poet but a guide whose words became a path. His verses speak of love as the essence of faith, of longing as the soul’s compass, and of union with the Divine as life’s hidden purpose. In the Masnavi and Divan-e Shams, he turned music, whirling, and light into metaphors of truth — reminding us that the heart is always on its journey back to its source.

To stand here, beneath that celestial ceiling that crowns his resting place, is to feel how words became architecture, and how longing was carved into stone. In Konya, he is not just remembered — he is alive in every mosaic, every relic, and in the hearts that still circle his verse: “Come, come, whoever you are…”

#Konya #Rumi #Mevlana #Sufism #Heritage #Turkey #PoetryInStone
On September 30, we celebrate the birth anniversar On September 30, we celebrate the birth anniversary of Jalaluddin Rumi (1207–1273) — the mystic poet whose words continue to heal and inspire across centuries.

Standing at his tomb in Konya during my last visit, I felt the weight of history and the light of his message: that love is the path, and the heart its eternal home.

As Rumi wrote:
“Do not get lost in your pain,
Know that one day your pain will become your cure.”

And again he called to every seeker:
“Come, come, whoever you are…
Ours is not a caravan of despair.”

His resting place in Konya is not just a shrine, but a reminder that his poetry still guides us beyond division, toward compassion and divine union. 🌹✨

#Rumi #Konya #Sufism #Poetry #Heritage
Last Friday at @nyuniversity , I joined Professor Last Friday at @nyuniversity , I joined Professor Muhammad Naeem from Punjab University for a stimulating conversation on his work Space, Places, and Iqbal’s Imagineability. Showcasing scholarship from the global south in a space dominated by Western academia—often with its implicit sense of superiority—felt both necessary and powerful. The gathering of students and Urdu lovers from across New York became more than an academic event; it was a subtle act of subversion, reclaiming space for South Asian voices and perspectives.

Muhammad #Iqbal (1877–1938), widely known as Allama Iqbal, was a poet, philosopher, and political thinker whose verses in #Urdu and #Persian shaped the intellectual and cultural #imagination of South Asia. Celebrated as Pakistan’s national poet, Iqbal combined lyrical beauty with profound reflections on identity, selfhood, faith, and the future of #Muslim societies in the modern world.

Iqbal’s poetry charts a journey from the vivid depictions of nature and local landscapes in Bang-e-Dara to abstract geographies of the global community. Place, for him, was both lived and imagined—mountains, rivers, and cities became metaphors for identity and destiny. In poetry and literature, this sense of place is vital because it anchors imagination, turning memory and experience into meaning. Modernity and colonialism transformed Iqbal’s imagination: travel, science, and Europe’s power pulled him into constant tension with the West, inspiring both admiration and critique. In this process, he moved from celebrating India as homeland to envisioning a transnational community, showing how modernity reshaped his sense of place and belonging.
In my comments I mentioned how Iqbal has been appropriated by Pakistan’s state for its own purposes thereby undermining his #poetry and stature in world literature. Selective verses are used by officialdom and the right wing to suit their narratives. 
Thanks @tahirahussainnaqvi for organizing it. But you were missed at the event.
Spoke at a panel on Saturday night at @kitchenthea Spoke at a panel on Saturday night at @kitchentheatrecompany on censorship, book bans and global decline of free speech with great panelists: Pedro X. Molina, a Nicaraguan artist, Heather Murray, Attorney & Associate Director, First Amendment Clinic @cornell.law.school  and Jennifer Spitzer, Associate Professor and Chair, Literatures in English @ithacacollege 

The panel discussion followed the play Bad Books, recently staged at Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre —a sharp and unsettling look at the politics of book banning and parental control. Sharyn Rothstein’s script crackles with wit while exposing the fear and fragility that drive censorship. Organized by ICOA and @barbara.a.adams.ny
Actor Shabana Azmi’s 75th birthday was celebrate Actor Shabana Azmi’s 75th birthday was celebrated in Bombay with all the glorious stars of Bollywood. So many goddesses here! #bollywood #bollywoodactresses (video via Sanjay Kapoor)
“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the wo “Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet.” -Maya Angelou.
#quotes #quotestoliveby #mayaangelouquotes
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Raza Rumi

Raza Rumi

Writer, editor, multimedia journalist, International development practitioner and an educator. More on razarumi.com

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Wishing Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor a lifetime of love and happiness! 💕💍 Wedding day vibes from October 18th, 2012 💫#SaifKareena #WeddingBlessings #LoveOfTheCentury #BollywoodCouples ... See MoreSee Less

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Hum jo tareek rahon mein maray gae...Remembering Faiz, the once in a lifetime poet. ... See MoreSee Less

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Video
Posted on September 14, 2020February 19, 2023

Pakistan Food Culture, Recipes, Cuisines: Discussion with Niloferr Qazi and Haya Emaan

Connoisseurs of food Niloferr Afridi Qazi and Haya Emaan talk with Raza Rumi about the richness of Pakistani cuisine, its …

02 5075 views
The Friday Times
Posted on October 16, 2015November 19, 2022

Animating Times Square

This October, the electronic billboards at the maddening Times Square in New York City will display the creative prowess of …

03 4469 views
The Friday Times
Posted on October 2, 2009December 29, 2022

Remembering Parveen Shakir (1952-1994)

Parveen Shakir (1952-1994) has defined the sensibilities of several generations and beyond. At the relatively young age of 42 years, …

04 4399 views
The Friday Times
Posted on December 6, 2013February 18, 2023

Enduring Threads

Raza Rumi was fascinated by artist Aasim Akhtar’s unique curation of Pakistani textile heritage at the Rawalpindi NCA – Click …

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