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The brain gain THE United States, a nation of some 280 million, admits a million immigrants every year. Probably another half-a-million enter illegally. These numbers are just the tip of the iceberg, because millions more would move to....		Unexplained mysteries of Pakistan HECTOR BOLITHO, in his book, Jinnah, writes: “On September 10, 1948, Dr Bukhsh had to tell Miss Jinnah that there was little hope of her brother living for more than a few days. Next morning, three aircraft landed nearby, including Quaid’s beautiful...
Can we retain the brain gain? GEOGRAPHICAL boundaries have never restricted cross-border movement in terms of dissemination of information or intellect. Thanks to the Internet, you can apply sitting in one country for a job in another at the other end of the world. The economic...		AIDS in Arabia SAUDI Arabia is a country where you always feel safe and secure out on the streets even in the dead of night ... unless you are suffering from AIDS. Abdul Rahim Mahmoud, a 57-year-old Indonesian expatriate worker found this out when he went to...
Mariam’s special world GULGEE, our prized artist, once said that all artists are mute. Elaborating, he said painters were not writers, speakers or poets. They paint what they feel and see. Thus, if Mariam...		Over the rainbow RURAL Development Policy Institute with its head office in Islamabad and a regional office in Pindi Bhatian, is the brain child of an idealistic young man by the name of Amjad Bhatti...
Pad up! HOCKEY may be the national sport of Pakistan, but cricket is by and large the national passion of the country. And the same holds true for India. So, its no wonder...		I apologize for the rudeness THERE are societies and cultures where during conversation eye-contact is considered to be rude while many others take it as a virtue, and the failure or avoidance of eye-contact while conversing is taken to be a sign of weak personality and lack of confidence....
A walk in the clouds FOR most of us, honeymoon is a once in a lifetime thing. And I for one wanted to make it as memorable as possible (pun not intended). So, when my husband announced Malaysia as our holiday destination, I wasn’t...		A tortured childhood PSYCHOLOGISTS and psychiatrists now agree that depression is as much a reality for some children as it is for adults. Though there aren’t any current figures available to indicate the rate or incidence of depression among children in Pakistan...
Farewell, Medina BABA Faqir emerged from a narrow street of Medina, like a biblical character dressed in white long robes and a staff in his trembling hand with a toothless smile. That smile...		A fickle language OF late, there has been a debate in the scholarly circles here about the ‘Pakistanization’ of the English language. Purists frown at coinage such as flying-coach, eveninger, dak rider....
Thugs of India THE disintegration of the central authority of Mughal power started immediately after the death of the octogenarian emperor, Aurangzeb Alamgir, in 1707. However, signs of weakness had already appeared in the system due to his prolonged campaigns in Deccan against the Muslim states...		Playing the literary sleuth THEFTS are committed in the intellectual world, too. In Urdu, such cases were frequent when works of distinguished Western writers took years to reach us. But even then, such cases did...
Hot Seat FASHION, style, catwalk, modelling and such other words are synonymous with the name of Freiha Altaf. She was there on the fashion scene at a time when people here would raise...		It’s exciting to be in Pakistan: Ganguly FINALLY the Indians have arrived and by the time you would be reading this, Pakistan and India would have fired the first salvo in Karachi, the venue of the first of five One-Day games. The much awaited and much talked about cricket tour is finally on....
It could have been avoided TICKETS to the first One-Day match in the ongoing series between Pakistan and India exposed Pakistan Cricket Board’s incompetence to manage even the basic rights. The feeling of discrimination was already...		The excitement finally begins AS I write these lines, the Indians have already arrived in the country and things seem to be all set for the series to get started. Of course, by the time these lines appear in print, the first One Day contest would have already taken place and the initial frenzy would have...
How Bill bootstrapped the PC CABIN FEVER? No, you can’t call it that. Febrile seizure? Sort of. Electrifying his mind, dynamo Bill is holed up every six months at a location only he knows. No e-mail, no outside contact. His wattage for that one-week is the millions of light bulbs coming on, interjecting...		Unreal estate THIS is a mega project that you will all ‘die’ to invest in. At the time of buoyant investment activity in lands and plots, specially in Defence and sky-rocketing prices of property, chances of your purchasing a piece of...
On getting the goat WITH the passage of time, strange habits take over and you may not even be aware of it, like in R.L. Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Take the buying of...		Land of the Pharaohs WITH reference to the letter of Hussain Ahmad Siddiqui (February 22) in 1953-55 when I was an under-grad, at the American University of Beirut, the head of Middle East Studies was...
MOSAIC: Deadly environmental damage IN Six Modern Plagues and How We Are Causing Them, journalist and veterinarian Mark Jerome Walters contends that disease outbreaks are often triggered by the damage we’ve done to the...		Newsmaker DESPITE having many titles to her credit — talk show host, actress, magazine editor, educator, philanthropist and cultural icon — to be considered one of the world’s Best-Dressed Woman is certainly an achievement for a woman who became almost as well-known...