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A pandemic on the cards SOME evidence exists that flu pandemics visit our planet every 60 to 70 years. Others suggest they tend to occur two or three times in a century. Regardless of the timescale, however, the emergence...		A foreigner’s dictionary THE following is a guide to key words in the English language, in the unlikely event that you have to go for some work in London and need to stop over...
Jim’s letter to Mom IN the wake of Anthrax threat to the country these days I am working as a voluntary consultant with the Pakistan Postal Services. It is not for the first time that I have taken up a special assignment with the Postal Services. From time to time, over the last many years I have intermittently worked with them....		A beautiful place PLACE: The campus of Cadet College, Petaro, which is situated in Dadu. I felt the need to mention the name of the district because of my Lahore experience. In Lahore, whenever I talked about the College, the people there asked me, “Bhha Jee, Aay...
Discuss anything, but speak in English THE English Speaking Union of Pakistan is no longer content with its popularising conventional role of promoting English in Pakistan or popularising the English literature. Any topic could be discussed there...		An inspired bit of absent-mindedness THE decision of Choudary Mohammad Ali to visit the People’s Republic of China created quite a stir and was widely welcomed. It was almost like declaring independence afresh, so tied had...
The repair mafia ONE of the several events that are harbinger of depression happen when some electrical item or appliance that you own, malfunctions or stops functioning altogether. When that happens, I know it...		Political bias, police and public IN Pakistan, a common person is bound to a system of injustice which revolves around politicians and police. In any emergency, he cannot call in the police personally due to its...
A different ambassador DIPLOMATS posted to Pakistan tend to be exclusive. They are usually tentative, careful if not that, in their interaction with locals. Their relationship with journalists is cordial to warm but rarely...		Cordoba & Granada: pride and humility NARROW and winding streets of Cordoba are lined on both sides with old dwellings, reminding of the period when Muslims rambled through them. They have been preserved as tourists’ attractions. Our...
Thatta: the glory that was THATTA, one of the most famous cities of Sindh, is mentioned as a flourishing city as far back as 1351 A.D. From the fourteenth century onwards it was the chief centre...		We need foreign designers to paint our buses IT appears that in our country, the doodh patti chai industry is a disciplined one. The consistent way they make that tea has been perfected over centuries of philosophically disciplined contemplation,...
Let’s put a stop to the violence A FEW months ago, Karavan Karachi celebrated this city’s historical, architectural, social and economic heritage, and the importance of this legacy to the future of the city. The first heritage...		Awesome jewels! I HAVE seen the treasures of the Turkish Sultans at Topkapi. I have gaped at the British Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. I do not exaggerate when I claim...
Being true to ourselves BUT why BA? I thought you were a brilliant student,” I got interrogated in a typical face-the-nation broadcast at a Valima reception. The person interrogating me had “obtained” (I’m not using the word “earned”) a degree in marketing from a privileged business....		The Bihar carnage of 1946 IN the last week of October and the first week of November, 1946, there erupted horrendous communal riots in Bihar, encompassing primarily the districts of Mongair, Patna, Gaya and Arah....
Bombing of Gujranwala by British warplanes THE year 1919 was a turbulent and blood-spattered year in the history of British colonial rule in India. Inebriated by the victory of the Anglo-French-led coalition against Kaiser’s Germany and the...		A critical study of Sir Syed I HAVE just received a book on Sir Syed Ahmad Khan from Aligarh. I began reading it cursorily to see if it had something new to offer. Soon, I felt that what I was reading was very much relevant to the situation we were faced with at present in Pakistan....
Another ICC failure THE International Cricket Council’s moot which concluded at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on October 19 has failed to ratify the lie detector tests proposed by its chief executive, Malcolm Speed....		Of empty stands and dead pitches REGARDLESS of the quality of the games being played in Sharjah, it is still better to have something than having nothing at all, which was the case prior to the desert outing, at least for the Pakistan...
Relying on a spent force REMAINING out of the top-notch hockey level for almost three years, veteran Shahbaz Ahmed, unquestionably one of the greatest forwards of the world over six years ago, was surprisingly recalled to...		Improving the flow BY the time you would go through these lines, I would be in Holland where I have been invited to act as the International Hockey Federation’s Technical Officer to the Champions...
A Nation Divided Over Afghanistan WALI Khan was furious. “These Afghan deserters will destroy this nation,” he declared and warned Islamabad to abstain from accepting Afghan refugees, “I tell you this is the General’s army, it will be...		Beauty: a celebration MY mother with her kohl-lined eyes, her glowing skin and gentle voice, the rustle of her soft cotton saris when she moved, the jasmine in her hair ... that was my first impression of beauty. My mother who would milk the cows and drive her car with equal facility.....
The royal political mess I AM an apolitical man. Attending political rallies is not for me. In the late fifties, when I first had my common sense spurs, I became wary of all the political and military leaders. Down the road, with the passage of time, I became an eternal grumbler, a nit-picker and a fault-finder....		Braille magazine THIS is with reference to Mehroze Iqbal’s article A magazine for the blind which influenced me to write this letter of admiration....
MOSAIC: Easing teacher shortage? RAY ULLAH has worked as a mechanical fitter, supervisor of a double-glazing workshop, in a car factory, as a service engineer, and as a night-care worker in a residential home for...		Newsmaker COMMANDER Haq was one of the most prominent of the dozens of exiled Afghan tribal leaders and former military commanders who have returned to Pakistan in recent weeks in an effort to organize...