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What does sugarcane have in common with football? Answer: Mohammad Adil
Swift pace. Check. Speed. Check. Stocky build. Check. No, I am not talking about Carlos Tevez; this is Mohammad Adil, the star winger of the Pakistan national football team and the new signing of the...
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The right to write: Denied!
Journalism – a profession of disseminating news – has attained the status of an endangered profession globally. Incidents of violence and state sponsored prosecution attempts against journalists have...
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Do you know where ‘chai’ came from?
The food we eat today is influenced by several cultures. I learned this after reading the highly informative book called Curry: A tale of Cooks and Conquerors by Lizzie Collingham. The historical...
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Pervez Musharraf: Defending a patriot from cowards and liars
Many people like to ask me questions about why I support former president Pervez Musharraf. As part of the questions, they like to pepper in the misinformation that the Pakistani media has presented to...
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A woman’s perspective: Pakistan must not negotiate!
As a woman, you grow up under the shadow of men. You look up to them to make important decisions for you. Ranging from how you have to eat and address your peers to what you should be studying, who you...
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Lessons from a halaqa in the US: There is more to Islam than we ‘think’
A couple of months ago, I was invited to attend a halaqa (Arabic for group study) at a university in the US where I was a visiting medical student for my elective. The halaqa had been organised by the...
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Metro bus service in Rawalpindi and Islamabad: A blessing or a curse?
The Punjab cabinet approved the extension of the metro bus service to the twin cities of Rawalpindi-Islamabad in its recent meeting. When the PML-N won the elections back in May 2013, I had hoped that...
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Flappy Bird: The next Angry Birds?
Unless one is living under an omnipresent rock these days, any tech-savvy or a casual mobile gaming enthusiast with internet access would have heard about this new mobile game for Android and iOS...
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Down memory lane: Peace talks have never been ‘peaceful’
“The Romans never allowed a trouble spot to remain simply to avoid going to war over it, because they knew that wars don’t just go away, they are only postponed to someone else’s advantage.” These wise...
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Inside Llewyn Davis: A brilliant psychological voyage
After the success of their big budget western True Grit in 2010 and the pseudo-biblical dark comedy A Serious Man in 2009, the Coen Brothers have now released a surprisingly low-key film. In fact, the...
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Ladies, don’t opt for abortions!
Florynce R Kennedy once said, “If men could get pregnant, abortion would have been a sacrament.” My maid refuses to take any birth control measures because her husband considers them to be a ‘yahoodi...
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Saying ‘That’s just the way it is in Pakistan’ is not going to help bring...
Jonathan Lethem is a renowned author and a fellow alumnus of Bennington College. In 2005, he advised the graduating class to ‘abandon Rome, if you think you can’. These words may just be the remedy to...
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A wedding game… a game no more
Fairy lights flicker near her bed and her face is aglow. Hues of green and yellow set the room ablaze but the fire is melancholic. These festivities are not of happiness, they’re the kind you see...
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Four things in Saudi that remind me of Pakistan
Al-Khobar is the most modern city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It is a bustling economic centre and is home to two of the biggest shopping malls in the kingdom. I have been living in Al...
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Books, cooks, schnooks and more at the Karachi Literature Festival ’14
The Karachi Literature Festival inaugurated in 2010 and in five years has become the leading cultural event in Pakistan. A literary spectacle. I throng in with an assortment of school children, aging...
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Maqbool Butt: Kashmir doesn’t want any of it, no Indian rulers and no...
Kashmir is the epicentre of Pakistan’s foreign policy in the region. The state of Pakistan continues to take pride in portraying itself as the most prolific advocator of the freedom for Kashmiri...
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Don’t label me ‘Mohajir’
Being a first generation Mohajir might have felt like stepping into an exciting new territory full of adventures in reassertion of identity, a deeper assimilation into the national fabric and finding a...
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10 ‘argh’ moments with a Pakistani tailor
You’re a Pakistani and you’ve never made a trip to the tailor? I find that hard to believe. Whether it’s a job interview or a high school farewell party, tailors are the ones who can make every little...
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Rahul Gandhi versus Bilawal Bhutto: Who is the better politician?
Bhuttosim and Nehruism-Gandhism share some political traits that have blended the mainstream politics of India and Pakistan for quite a while now. The common one amongst them is, unfortunately, the...
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Umar Akmal: A great player but a bitter citizen?
Umar Akmal became the subject of much debate because of his recent run-in with the police. He violated traffic rules by going through a red light and when stopped by the police, he tried to bully the...
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