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The widening gap ON that dry, crispy but immensely hot August morning, I decided to walk from Turbat’s Park Hotel to the town centre to buy the newspaper from Maulana Dashti’s news agency near...		Wanted: eccentrics REMEMBER Linda Lovelace? Not that Linda Lovelace — the honest American lady, a friend of Elizabeth Taylor (the modern Cleo), and of Hugh Heffner (the latter-day ‘discovering’ saint of America) —...
What makes a terrorist ON Universal Children’s Day last week, a group of four-plus-five children, nine to be precise, met under a flyover to discuss terrorism. It was their favourite spot to meet and talk...		Be an optimist Are you really an optimist? Think twice before you answer. If you expect something to turn out badly, it probably will. Pessimism is seldom disappointed. But the same principle also works...
Entertaining consul-generals collectively Romania ceased to be a Communist state with its reliance on a collective approach to do things a long time ago, but Ahsan Mukhtar Zubairi, its honorary consul-general in Karachi, cannot...		Basking in the warmth of shared history TECHNICALLY, I can claim that I was there, in China, during the civil war that brought the communists to power. The ship that was carrying me to San Francisco in July,...
Who is she? SHE gets up with the crow of the cock; half asleep half awake, gives fodder to the animals, milks the cow and prepares butter and lassi....		Fast food or slow poison? What a totally different world we would inhabit if food and drink were not the basic necessities of human life....
The scholar and the diplomat Lahore recently played host to two eminent Americans. They cannot be bracketed together or referred to in the same breath except for their country. Otherwise, they have no common denominator. Indeed...		The scenic wonders of Huanglong THE geographical diversity of China attracts tourists from all over the globe. Screen mountains and high-raised plateaus account for 65 per cent of its total land mass. The lofty peaks, lush...
Growing with hydroponics I’ve always had a great interest in growing things, unfortunately, with a lacking ability. So, instead of a green thumb, mine can be described as a little brown one....		Robberies all round Living in Karachi one can never be more thankful than if one is saved the misery of having to put up with robbers and burglars. The image that instantly comes to...
The street dwellers A child stood in front of me, his grimy hand spread out in a gesture to ask for money. I looked at his face — brown, rough skin smeared with...		An old people’s home with a new concept OLD or young, in poor families all members have somewhat similar miseries; and when the affluent build new residences in posh localities, they request the architect to build a room, detached...
Deva: a story of faith IN a remote Indian village of Poona (now Pune) lived the widow Purnima with her only, somewhat mentally-tormented son, Harish, whom she had raised with extreme love and affection. The son,...		A native’s voyage to England Travelogues are now a popular genre in Urdu literature. Noted story writer, Ghulam Abbas, had once remarked that anyone who is capable of writing a letter can also write a story....
Racism, an impediment to progress “With the help of a skillful and continuous application of propaganda, it is possible to make the people conceive even heaven as hell.” This statement by Adolf Hitler can only give...		CHAPTERS FROM HISTORY: Muslim federalism versus Hindu ‘unitarianism’ With the coming of constitutional reforms in 1892, the Indian Muslims initially tried to find and ensure for themselves an honourable place in the future Indian cosmos. They felt that they...
POINT OF VIEW: One country, two travelogues HITHERTO, ghazal writing has been the most popular activity in Urdu. But, thanks to the modern facilities of travelling, travelogue writing, too, has emerged in recent decades as a favourite form...		A lot at stake SACHIN Ramesh Tendulkar is so renowned and revered, he doesn’t need to advertise an appeal to whip up emotions. The teeming millions of India have taken care of that with a...
PIA should retain the greats Legendary Jehangir Khan, the greatest squash player the world has ever seen, eight-time World Open record holder Jansher Khan and Asian Bradman Zaheer Abbas are our national assets, but the way...		Future in focus I AM writing these lines in a bit of haste, as my flight for Brussels is just a few hours away. As I had mentioned in one of my previous...
THROUGH THE COVERS: A sheer feast in the offing PERSONALLY speaking, the last few days have been pretty hectic. It is after quite a while that I have been preoccupied totally with cricket, and inter-acting with the Under-19 string has...		Women and wedlock Girls and their families primarily look for security in marriage. Parents want a prospective son-in-law to secure their daughter’s future and in a patriarchal society, offer her the protection his name...
Birthnight party! CAN you imagine that the ironical style of wedding ceremonies running far late into the night these days would inflict itself pompously on birthday parties? But marriages and births are inter-related....		NEWSMAKER THE American intellectualist, linguist, educationist and political activist Noam Chomsky was in Pakistan recently, drawing people in hordes at his guest lectures...