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2002: the mayhem Dear Razia, I WRITE from the world of high-speed electronic gadgetry and insane ideas. No, it is not the United States of America, but the mental bedlam where you off-loaded me in the glum winter of 2001....		Time for resolutions FOR years, we have been acting with little resolve and this weak and wobbly-kneed approach reflects in our bumpy national performance. While many may regard them as childish and others dismiss them as mere superstition, what more...
The driving test I WAS quite proud of my English and my driving abilities before I came to the United States. When I had first come to the United States, my son told me that the first thing I would need here was my driver’s license. He was sure that.....		A tale of courage SHE lives all alone in her small but comfortable house in Cravenly State, Cape Town, South Africa. Each day, she wakes up before dawn with the recitation of Kalma Tayyaba, offers her Fajr prayers, prepares breakfast, leaves for work at 7am (local time), returns home at 4:30pm, gets a quick light supper, and hurries...
Comes as consul-general and goes as ambassador KARACHI is not the capital of Pakistan, which once it was. So diplomats posted here as consuls-general or deputy high commissioners have to play second fiddle to the ambassadors in Islamabad....		Enchanting Ephesus IT was twilight, just an hour before the sun dipped its last golden rays in the sea. I was standing on the upper deck of the ship which was anchored in the Bosphorus Sea. The strait of Bosphorus joins Europe with Asia, and it is also a source...
A case of two sermons IT may be late in the day, but the topic remains relevant and worth a note. Two sermons on a Friday, it is said, weigh heavy on the king or the government. No event in Islamic history authenticates this apprehension. But one...		America this year THAT lucky dog Barney is Bush’s centre of universe. Well, not exactly centre, but pretty “tight” — dare I say like Musharraf? The Scottish terrier scoots around the White House without...
The big tree THE tree looks magnificent from a distance — tall, big, with an immense dome-like canopy — result of decades of luxuriant growth. The big tree covers a wide expanse. Indeed, a...		A juggling act THERE is a revealing passage in Proust’s Swann’s Way, when the elder Swann, shattered and grief-stricken at the death of his wife, is persuaded to take a walk in the park....
Fair elections, foul results THE general elections of December 1970, held by General Yahya Khan, were the second to be held in Pakistan. The first elections were held by Ayub Khan in 1964, 17 years after Pakistan was born. The 1970 elections were undoubtedly fair, but did not lead to the restoration of democracy, rather to the break-up of the country and the....		Origins of the Khilafat Movement WHEN World War I broke out on August 1, 1914, Muslim India was anxious that Turkey should not join the war. Instead, she should concentrate on putting her own house in...
Abbasa and Jafar MEN don’t like prosaic stories. It may be true that the Greeks mobilized all their resources to defeat and burn Troy because the toll levied by it on the Greek ships passing through Dardanelles was choking Greek trade with the Black Sea shores. That is hardly romantic. What gives it colour, indeed puts life into...		Writing to father at 78 DR JAVAID Iqbal has written a long letter to Allama Iqbal. It was at the age of seven when he had, as he tells us, written his first letter to his father, who at the time was on a visit to London. He had requested him to bring a gramophone for him. Now, at the age of 78, he has felt the need to write again to his dear father...
Any hopes for the World Cup? HENRY Kissinger once said that 90 per cent of the politicians give the other 10 per cent a bad name. This seems to apply to the current Pakistani cricket team, though some of their predecessor groups can lay a stronger claim to Kissinger’s dictum....		Drawing up a few scenarios INITIALLY I planned to write about the Indian debacle in New Zealand, but then the PCB’s much-awaited announcement about Waqar’s retention as the national captain made me change my mind in...
New rules to favour us AS was expected, the election of Brigadier Musrratullah to the FIH Executive Board did have a spin-off effect on the elections of the Asian Hockey Federation where the brigadier was elected...		MOSAIC: Celebration of Asian cinema THE first teaching guide has been launched by the British Film Institute in response to growing interest in Asian cinema, to enable schools in the United Kingdom to learn more about...
Newsmaker AS expected, the BJP got through once again in the Indian state of Gujarat even though the hawkish chief minister, Narendra Modi, was roundly blamed on a global scale for the bloodbath in Gujarat. The vote, which followed months of communal violence...		The end of civilization KHURRAM Jamil Butt’s article The end of civilization published on December 15, of was an eye opener. It paints a grim picture of the future of mankind if hatred and greed...