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Mysteries of the brain Rene Descartes was a 17th century Frenchman, possibly the last of the truly great Renaissance men, who left an indelible mark on the history of ideas. Among other things, he became...		Building concerns Many people in this country are not privileged enough to have an easy access to professional services. If they fall sick, they can seldom afford proper medical service. Instead, they end...
Olfactory test Once I went along with my husband for his hearing test. We were told that that we can have a free olfactory test if we want to. Since I had never...		A Central European consulate closes IT was a festive occasion as that was the National Day celebration of the historically-renowned and culturally-rich Czech Republic. But, for many guests at the party, it was a sad occasion...
The end of an era The next match was against Hampshire, at Bournemouth, and I would be doing the commentary not with John Arlott, but Alan Gibson. He may or may not have been a poet,...		Silencers Some people have to work really hard to put bread and butter on the table, and I am one of them. Getting up early in the morning is how my day...
Thriving maasi culture The word maasi means an aunt or a mother’s sister in Punjab. The word is also used reverentially to address elderly women in some families. But the word maasi has now...		The fight for survival The military government has made a great effort to implement the Supreme Court verdict, hold elections and set up federal and provincial governments. But it dragged its feet till people started...
Discovering Takht-i-Sulaiman Takht-i-Sulaiman, the highest peak of the Sulaiman range is shrouded in myth and mystery. Named after Solomon, the wise Jewish prophet, the peak, on account of its perceived association with the...		Abandoned hopes The huge complex of buildings, 35km from Karachi in Deh Murad, opposite the Hamdard University, looks like a ghost city, which was abandoned by its inhabitants in the face of an...
The Muslim Renaissance It is my view that the learned Muslim individuals, intelligentsia and research-oriented scholars should consider it their moral and socio-cultural responsibility to form a research group to study and evaluate the...		There’s deception to every rule Farzand-i-Rawalpindi is the new Information Minister. Sheikh Rashid Ahmed needs no profiling. The man’s an open book. Loud as a thunderclap, over time, we have heard him holler, abuse, swear and...
Ramazan, Saudi style Ramazan in Saudi Arabia is marked by a mixture of love for God...and food! A week before Ramazan, there is a mad rush of shoppers to buy groceries. Some supermarkets report...		Say no to dieting The media promotes and reflects the current mainstream culture’s standards for body shape, size and importance of beauty. The media reflect images of being ultra thin and relates this image to...
Iqbal, the political thinker While the Round Table Conference was sitting in London with no rays of hope for communal solution, a most significant pronouncement of the position of Muslims vis-a-vis the political situation and...		Pan-Islamism What spawned pan-Islamism in the early 1880s and led to the ascendancy of Jamal al-Din Afghani (1839-96) as its prophet? For the most part, writers attribute it to the sense of...
POINT OF VIEW: Talib Jauhari as a poet ZAKIRS are orators in the tradition of Muharram. They are specialized in the art of devotional oratory, meant to meet the emotional needs of the mourners of the martyred Imam. In...		Beating the odds The Pride of Performance awards for Pakistani pugilists for their medal haul in the recently concluded Asian Games has provided a massive boost for the sport in the country with a...
All the way down SO, the Pakistan Hockey Federation has finally come out with its much-awaited restructuring plan, which has earned its mixed reviews in the media thus far. If you ask me, I will...		THROUGH THE COVERS: Nasser is still the best bet DURING the second Ashes Test, former English players sitting in the commentary box were repeatedly heard saying Nasser Hussain’s captaincy will be under severe scrutiny back home during the series. Though...
A new awakening There have been protests against globalization and the policies of the multilateral financial institutions — the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and others....		NEWSMAKER HUMAN cloning is a subject as controversial as they get. And where Dr Severino Antinori is involved, it is just something that doesn’t wait for a global consensus....