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“Yahan peshaab karnay wala ghada hai”: To pee or not to pee?
The traffic, temperature and the pressure is at its peak, with one hand on his bladder Ritesh Kumar stands between a locked public washroom and a mosque. Karachi: Each no-go area is a safe house for...
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Stranger Things happening on TV and I love it!
There has been a lot of buzz regarding the new show on Netflix called Stranger Things, directed by the Duffer brothers. It seems like every other day a new show comes along and creates hype, but then...
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A love affair with chocolate chip cookies
When I was a kid, relatives visiting from America only meant one thing: Walkers cookies! I can still recall how I used to savour every bite; not too soft or too crunchy. It was just perfect. This was...
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A Series of Unfortunate Events: Will Netflix be able to do justice to the books?
I am ten-years-old, sitting on my pink barbie bed, it is way past my bed-time. The Grim Grotto is the sole object of my fascination. I hold up my tiny book light to the sentences I had waited so long...
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Pakistan, India and Bangladesh have always been much better off without the...
In 1944, Beverley Nichols’ sensational Verdict on India came out with a slap in the face of what we know today as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan — or BIP, to duck a mouthful. Nichols thoughtlessly...
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Can Pakistan really afford Imran Khan’s antics right now?
As someone who voted for Imran Khan directly in the infamous NA 122 in the 2013 General Elections, I am forced to ask: what game is Imran Khan playing? Boycotting the joint session at a time when the...
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The importance of observing Muharram the Islamic way
Having grown up abroad, we were often part of a tiny (Muslim) minority group, no matter where we were based. Thus, we celebrated all religious and cultural occasions together. It happened over two...
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Pakistan’s treatment of its minorities measures its achievement in decency
The conflict between forcible conversions and an Islamic Republic flits on borderline blasphemy or heresy. Although the three Abrahamic religions forbid forcible conversions, their followers do carry a...
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A Kabaddi World Cup without Pakistan is like a football world cup without Brazil
And here we go again. Or not go, to be precise in this particular case. The Kabaddi World Cup was just a couple of days away from kickstarting and yesterday the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF)...
View ArticleAn open palm
“Are you alright?” “Just had the same nightmare.” His wife shook her head. “Why don’t you see a doctor? I’ve told you a hundred times.” This time he slowly shook his head, “A doctor can’t help with...
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Why is it unacceptable for an American seventh grader to learn about Islam?
I can sit at my computer and read the news about what is happening in a remote shipping village in Australia, or find out about the latest political gaffe in Brazil or discover the new ‘Pineapple Pen’...
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When Nehru promised Kashmir freedom, why is India still in denial?
India’s reluctance to any third party mediation in Kashmir is, at best, a juvenile attempt at distortion of history and denial of context. Deliberately ignoring historicity and context, the vast...
View ArticleIs it okay to awaken the dead to settle a score with Adnan Sami Khan?
Last Monday, a young writer by the name of Ahsan Mehmood wrote a hypothetical letter from Adnan Sami Khan’s (ASK) deceased father to his son for a newsblog called The Weekly Pakistan. The letter was...
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Sully: Clint Eastwood can simply do no wrong
Clint Eastwood is no stranger to showing his love for American heroes, or at least people who satisfy his definition of an American hero. And that’s something that’s best reflective of the latter part...
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I am trapped in a cycle of suicidal thoughts
I am travelling back from a long day at work. I have my window pulled down. Its dark outside and the wind is blowing directly in my face. I am exhausted and mentally drained. I have no energy left to...
View ArticleThis is how American Muslims feel about Trump running for president
As a Pakistani growing up in Pakistan, I grew up watching undignified politicians. That was my norm. I trudged along my childhood, wonder years, idealistic teens and 20s, and jaded adulthood, along the...
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Is it time for Wayne Rooney to retire?
I have no qualms in admitting that there have only been two players ever that I have feared facing as an opponent going into a Liverpool match. One of them was the Welsh wizard, Gareth Bale from his...
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Karbala and the importance of women in Islam
It was dusk when the dust finally settled. Desert sand glistened with blood and sweat. In the distance, a small group of women and children huddled together next to the smouldering wreckage of burnt...
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Mourning is not exclusive to our Shia brothers – I am a Sunni and I mourn in...
This article originally appeared here. I am Sunni. My family is Sunni. We love Abu Bakr (ra), Usman (ra), Umar (ra) and Ali (ra). We believe in their rightly guided caliphates. The Commanders of the...
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No Trump, sexual harassment is not “locker-room talk”
So what Donald Trump so casually attributes to as “locker-room talk” and “two men just talking” is a reality for millions of people around the world. There are people who have been subjected to sexual...
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