Living and teaching in the United States for the last 20 years in departments of languages and cultures, I have... Published Aug 12, 2018 07:47am

Don’t be awed by Urfi because he is from Shiraz Don’t be captivated by Zulali because he is from Khwansar Come... Published Jun 10, 2018 06:53am

Garden imagery can be allegorical, metaphorical or simply romantic. In classical Persian and Urdu ghazal, the garden... Published Apr 08, 2018 06:48am

I like the musical, poetic quality of the name ‘Saqi Farooqi’. Who would choose such an outlandish name for... Published Feb 11, 2018 06:38am

At the Annual Conference on South Asia held at the University of Wisconsin, a highlight for Urduwallahs used to be... Published Nov 26, 2017 06:58am

History is temporal. The historical model tends to build walls between eras, creating boxes of time. Literary texts... Published Sep 10, 2017 07:04am

Some months ago I wrote about Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib’s fascination with silence, discussing a ghazal from his... Updated Jun 29, 2017 01:32pm

Last month I attended a symposium enticingly titled “What is a poem?” The organisers had posed the following... Updated May 07, 2017 10:31am

Mirza Asadullah Khan Ghalib often questions the capacity of words to express thoughts, asking if silence ... Updated Mar 16, 2017 07:30am

On reading Chiragh-i-Shab-i-Afsana — Asif Farrukhi’s tribute to the late, great, Intizar Husain Published Jan 08, 2017 08:58am

On Intizar Husain’s legacy of cultural wisdom and poets who mourned migration in ways similar to his Updated Jan 08, 2017 08:33am

Ali Akbar Natiq’s writings are his attempt to portray life as it is lived, with all its injustice, cruelty, Updated Jan 08, 2017 08:33am

Farooqi recalls holding a mystery manuscript at the Ghalib Institute in New Delhi which appeared to be the 1816 divan Updated Jul 17, 2016 08:42am

A new female voice in Urdu writing, Saima Iram holds her own with stories that are hard-hitting and reflective of Updated Jan 08, 2017 08:32am

Julien Columeau’s works have added to Urdu’s repertoire by introducing new ways of engaging with its cultural rhetoric Published Apr 17, 2016 09:21am

Historical documents and biographies reveal there may be a reason behind differing accounts of the poet’s birthday Updated Mar 06, 2016 08:20am

For me, no writer has approached the Partition the way Intizar Husain did; his connection with the past was organic. Updated Feb 03, 2016 03:21pm

The beauty within Mir Taqi Mir’s ghazals and nazms Updated Nov 30, 2015 04:46pm

Tracing the roots of the gul-o bulbul theme in poetry Updated Oct 12, 2015 11:45am

A reflection on the writer and his work, particularly his favourite novel Bagh Published Aug 23, 2015 06:37am