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The lingo power PIERRE Bourdieu, a French sociologist, has used terms from economics to describe sociological matters, including the use of language in society. One of these terms is ‘capital’. Economists define it as ‘assets which are capable of...		Striking a balance is what we need to do PAKISTAN has always had a love-hate relationship with English. Though politicians have rallied against the language and termed it a legacy of British colonial rule, they have failed — or done very little — to oust English and replace it with Urdu....
A mysterious assassination, indeed THE first Prime Minister of Pakistan, Liaquat Ali Khan, was gunned down in Rawalpindi on October 16, 1951, in front of at least 10,000 people. By then Pakistan, the newly carved out separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent, was four years and two months old. Exactly three years and one...		Play it differently BY the time this piece appears in print, the Indian cricket team will be on Pakistani soil. A gift of the peace process. It is expected, and rightly so, that it will facilitate the improvement of relations between the two neighbouring countries who, for 56 years, have had an adverse relationship. It....
All about excuses IT has just occurred to me that teachers have stopped entertaining excuses, like, for instance: The dog ate my homework. Instead, what they now accept is: I don’t know what happened....		Darkness to light DIR Kohistan, a beautiful yet remote backward upland valley sits pretty on the foothills of the Hindukush bordering Afghanistan. Like many other alpine water shed areas of Pakistan...
There is no art without poetry MANY believe that by not reading poetry, we are denying ourselves something very important. For writing a poetry is the natural creative expression of the human psyche....		The plot thickens FEAR stalks the lanes of Murad Memon Goth. The area’s inhabitants are still in grip of fear following the discovery of decomposing bodies of two of its children, nine-year-old Hajra and...
The Clive of India treasure CLIVE of India, soldier, administrator, businessman, adventurer, was the man whose exploits ensured Britain’s supremacy in India in the mid-18th century. His name conjures up image of how the British...		An issue of public importance THE practice of putting a match to garbage was not a risky proposition in the pre-industrialization era. Subsequently the tradition had been going on for generations. And anyway most household garbage contained only...
The beautiful country ABOUT thirty minutes drive from Islamabad, on the Grand Trunk Road, is the small, serene town of Wah. Lush farms and hillocks with rich vegetation surround the town as many freshwater...		Ijaz Batalavi remembered WITH one’s paternal ancestors having migrated to Lahore in the aftermath of the sepoys’ valiant though unsuccessful rebellion against the Raj in 1857, one had maintained a close link...
The occupation of Bantva & Kutiyana BANTVA and Kutiyana, presently a part of the Indian province of Gujarat, were the hometowns of big business magnates of the Memon community in the subcontinent before Partition. When the Muslim...		A cascade of events THE Indo-Pak Drama Festival, Women’s Day, Saarc Writers Conference, Indo-Pak cricket matches — what a jumbling up of events! But Indo-Pak cricket carried the day, leaving all other events far behind....
Hot Seat FAMED and much respected showbiz personality Naeem Tahir’s infatuation with films started when he was a school-going boy, and since then there has been no going back as he has watched...		Controversial moments in Pakistan-India cricket CRICKET and controversies go hand-in-hand. In it’s 127-year history, international cricket has never been short of it. If we were to number it from the MOST to the LESSER-MOST, the most famous would no doubt be the immortal...
Inzamam was not totally wrong IF the first two matches in the ongoing One Day series are anything to go by, cricket fans around the world would have realized by now what they were missing all these years. The good thing is that while cricket itself has been very tense...		‘Alsi’ to the rescue! INFLAMMATION! What inflammation? Am I a prey? Is it a visitor passing through town, in this case my body? Or by the looks of it, has it already sneaked in to make me its permanent address? A nasty boil ensnarled in puss...
Dotage doubts MY friend, who was on the threshold of retirement, said rather jokingly that he wanted to commit suicide. “How do you intend to go about it?” I asked in the same jocular tone....		Poor America WITH reference to the article Poor America (February 29), it was a great and unique piece in the sense that it unearthed the ‘unthinkable’ that life could be so miserable in...
MOSAIC: Killing that headache MIGRAINE headache is a neurologic disorder associated with significant disability and impaired quality of life, states a recent issue of the Journal of American Medical Association....		Newsmaker OPPONENTS called him inexperienced while others thought he lacked charisma. But Josi Luis Rodrmguez Zapatero is now Spain’s Prime Minister-elect...