Babar Azam: The Rising Star

Compiled, written and edited by Qamar Ahmed

Celebrating a talented player who started out as a 13-year-old ball-picker in 2007 and went on to captain Pakistan’s national cricket team, this “Collector’s Edition” also contains commentaries by Shahid Hashmi of ARY and Agence France Presse, former Dawn sports editor Rishad Mahmood, journalist Omair Alavi, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board Ehsan Mani, statistician Mazhar Arshad and cricket writer and novelist Richard Heller.

Mera Doosra Vujood

Muhammad Naseer Zinda

Translating to ‘My Second Existence’, this collection of modern rubaiyaat — verses composed in four lines — explores the exploitation of the spirit in a world wracked with injustice, whether it be social, economic, political or religious. It is a bleak state of affairs where the sublime finds itself trodden upon by the mundane, but Zinda, for one, staunchly refuses to allow this to continue, and is unafraid to call out the transgressions and wrongdoings with his sharp and incisive use of language.

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, January 2nd, 2022